BioShock Infinite.

Been a long while since I've put a review out but I just finished the sequel to my all time favourite game and I just have to talk about it no matter how late I am.

So basically starting as about pretentious as BioShock and then becoming more so until by the end it's completely lost its head up its arse and ended up in another dimension, Infinite is the story of Booker Dewitt who ends up in a city in the clouds that is a lot like what I assume Holy Land USA would have been like when it was open as he attempts to rescue a princess from her tower who is guarded by a great dragon...or giant killer steampunk bird robot....thing who is one of the many odd concepts in Infinite that is clumsily brushed under the carpet when it comes to explanations.

Although Columbia is no Rapture, what I will say I do like is that you aren't late to the party. If I was to have any frustrations with BioShock it's that I didn't get enough of Rapture, I only saw it leaking and ruined and as it was such a rich and interesting world I wanted so badly to see how it all worked for myself, not just live in it through the surrogate of the audio diaries. And although it isn't for long, you still get just enough time in Columbia to get a sense of how this city was before you wreck the place and honestly they were some of my favourite moments of the game.

In many senses though this may be to the games detriment, I actually wanted to know about Rapture and what the fuck had happened there because we were in this interesting location come hellhole but because I got what I wanted and I got to see Columbia functioning I had less interest in hunting audio diaries. While playing BioShock I would literally go hours out of my way to find a single poster because every inch of the game was a clue and window to what this great city must have once been like, Columbia never really gave me the incentive to have such drive because I already know it's a twisted, racist, extremist theme park. They do add a lot of mysteries to the game to try and keep you engaged but I never felt any of it was quite as intriguing and engaging as the mystery of Rapture itself.

Perhaps the bigger problem then is that Comstock is no Ryan, the retreading is very deliberate as the ending makes clear but Ryan was undeniably nuts of course but he was also oddly charming and devilishly witty and intelligent, maybe I couldn't quite see his point but my God did he sell it. Comstock on the other hand is just a complete nutter, with absolutely none of Ryan's charm or intellect and considering how important his role is in everything I found that a little disappointing. Honestly none of the characters are really quite as memorable as those you meet along your journey into Rapture, no matter how hard they try to replicate them, I just felt a lot more invested in BioShock's world and story because it was populated with truly great and memorable characters.

The one outstanding character is the extremely easy on the eyes Elizabeth. Honestly Elizabeth may well be one of the most useful NPC characters ever, which I guess makes up for the weakness in characters in other areas. Rather than running in front of bullets, shouting the obvious and constantly needing to be revived like other shit stains who are 'supporting' you in other games, Elizabeth is crucial to your survival in Columbia. While you concentrate on the enemies and how to kill them, she concentrates on you and how to help you, she brings you back from near dead and uses her powers to open doorways to other worlds to help you in basically every way she physically can. I'm gonna miss having her kind of support in other games, it really took a lot of weight off my mind when the action sequences would get very frantic. She is useful out of combat as well, as she can pick locks for you (so no more shitty mini-games), direct you to the next objective and just in general add to your immersion by commenting and showing interest in the world around her much in the same way you probably are in your gaming chair.

Sadly this does somewhat contradict perhaps the most crucial emotional crux of the story. Your role as Booker eventually grows into that of a sort of protective brother, seeing Elizabeth as constantly on the left foot and needed to be saved by you. Now minus the suggested political message here about women's rights and the way they are seen through the male gaze Booker could not be any more wrong. She is helping you through the game, she is holding your hand, saving your life. You are the nuisance. Once again this may very well be a politically charged statement and I'm glad to have her help out rather than get in the way but it does cause certain disconnects with the narrative at times, when the game is resting our emotional involvement on having the same opinion of Elizabeth as Booker despite going out of its way to prove how wrong he is.  

Another problem is I'm not sure how much I 'got it'. Infinite is in many senses one long and very pretentious critique of the American dream but as I'm not American and care very little for the concept of the American dream I really was very unsure how I was supposed to respond to a lot of this. If I was a proud American, or perhaps deeply religious I probably would have had a much stronger, much more emotional response to this than I perhaps did and it's disappointing to think this may not have been made for me, specifically, considering how much I adored the original BioShock which I felt tackled issues which were much more universal.

What is certainly a massive improvement on BioShock is the combat, let's be perfectly honest as both an RPG and an FPS BioShock was pretty rubbish and although Infinite waters down the RPG aspects even further it drastically improves combat. It can get a little hectic at times with the inclusion of the skylines but overall it's a joy to fight your way through Columbia and the game knows how to make you feel absolutely badass almost effortlessly.

I actually think I liked the Vigors more than the Plasmids as well, visually they were a lot more impressive but in many senses they were a lot more useful as well and not in nearly as much of a routine fashion as the plasmids were. They were just a lot more fun to play with a lot more rewarding for it as well.  

If I was to have any complaints with the powers, I kind of missed the tonics and weapon upgrades. They are still there in different forms but I really felt like Jack was growing into a powerhouse over the course of BioShock here Booker was largely a badass all the way through and as much as I loved that, I would have liked perhaps a bit more of a curve to my abilities.

Honestly the dramatically improved combat actually corrects one of my biggest problems with the original BioShock. You see one of my biggest problems with BioShock is the FPSRPG elements felt unnecessary, they felt tacked on in post production. BioShock would have honestly worked a lot better as a survival horror title if it must really stick to a genre, largely built around exploring the environments with combat  largely self contained and crucial to story progression. Especially on replays of BioShock I found myself often rolling my eyes and forcing myself through each combat section with a yawn to get to the next bit of story or next location to explore. However as combat is actually enjoyable to play in Infinite I didn't really mind how much the game has been padded with what are largely unnecessary action sequences. I can tell you don't want to comply to specific gaming trends, BioShock, but that doesn't mean you have to take it out on us, the paying consumer, and I'm glad in Infinite you grew up a little.

It isn't all good though, some of the maps are really poorly designed. With Infinite substituting challenge with huge empty spaces where enemies just pummel you from all sides, forcing you to just soak up cheap damage and hope you survive the pummelling as you move from target to target. I played the game on hard the majority of the way through and rarely struggled until these sections where I would just be swarmed to death and I'd have to turn the difficulty down to get past them. No one likes to lose but if I must, I like to feel like I was outclassed, outsmarted and outplayed not just overwhelmed.

So do I recommend it? I'm not a big fan of video gaming in general but BioShock won my heart by having an incredible game universe to explore and an ending that still wows me today, Infinite delivers on both of those fronts leaving me blown away by the end in a way only a BioShock game can. You just don't get games quite like BioShock and Infinite (I'm ignoring you number two) and they really are truly special. And are experiences you need to live through and share with all your friends.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'BioShock Infinite'?