Bioshock Infinite Review
rating: 5
To be honest, Bioshock Infinite is almost, almost, flawless, in every way. The location; Columbia, is a half sci-fi, half retro world that feels like its living and breathing throughout the campaign. The game leaves every corridor shooter in the dust with its expert level design and gameplay. The story not only twists and turns in way you will never, ever expect, but also delivers an emotional punch like little else. There is a cast of characters that are fully fleshed out, most notably a villain that seeps nasty and a monster that is legitimately terrifying. Infinite is not only a worthy sequel to the acclaimed original, but may even outclass it altogether. By the end of the game you will believe that a city can float.
You are Booker DeWitt. A private detective with a murky past, sent to pay off his gambling debts by rescuing a girl from a city in the sky called Columbia. When you reach the city beyond the clouds, after an intro that will really please Bioshock fans, you will realise how alive Columbia really is. Crowds of civilians bustle about the streets. Plant and animal life are abundant, something that is pleasing in a world of mostly brown and grey shooters. Propaganda is draped across every building allowing for Bioshock: Infinite to tell its story in a way that isnt just through cutscenes, youll pick so much up about the universe in your periphery. The key to building a fleshed out world, like Columbia, is truly in its details, and because of the attention to detail here, the place feels genuine.
The story does not hold back either. On top of the rescue of Elizabeth, amongst other things, Infinite doles out issues of race, religion, nationalism and sexism and confronts you with them. The game does not get preachy and judgemental. You will get enwrapped in the 1% vs 99% atmosphere that Bioshock puts you in, but you are left to decide on your feelings yourself, instead of any motives of Irrational Games being shoved down your throat. Both sides reveal themselves to have demons and struggles and are essentially the same, only changing depending on your perspective.
Sat high upon their self proclaimed, ivory thrones, are the local prophet, Father Comstock and the resistance leader, Daisy Fitzroy. While the latter is still great, she doesnt stand up to Comstock. He is the founder of Columbia and apparently, has the ability to predict the future. His hatred fills the air as it drifts out of the citys speaker system. The man is a terrific bad guy, especially for his horrific views on equality and his personal attacks towards the player. Similarly, Booker feels real. He starts as abrasive and mysterious, then through a mix of good and bad deeds and through his honest actions, becomes a likable protagonist whose backstory is filled out to perfection. Before I get to the main thrust of the game, Elizabeth, I cannot help but talk about two characters who the subtitles only refer to as A Gentleman and A Lady, to begin with anyway. Without revealing too much, they add a huge amount of mystery to 75% of the game and in the last quarter really help tie together the threads.
Now Elizabeth. She is the reason why Booker is in Columbia and the reason why the game surpasses that of its ilk. For starters, she is a fantastic character, going through an excellent development through the ten or so hour story. Shell constantly be chatting to Booker and her insight can be helpful and dramatic. Her innocence and beauty drive the player to continue. You always feel like you need to protect her, but, unlike many female characters in games, she never needs looking after. You could be mistaken for thinking the entire game is one huge escort quest, but it isnt Throughout combat, Elizabeth will follow behind you and more often than not; scavenge ammo, health and salts for you. She can even bend time and space to bring in outside elements, like cover, health, ammo and weapon wielding automatons into the heat of battle. Outside of combat, she assists you in finding cash, picking locks and helping to give you context to the rest of the world. As Im sure you have assumed its fair to say that the girl, like Booker, has more than a tablespoon of mystery to her too; yet another motivation for the player to progress forward.
Booker has his own abilities too. As a grizzled war veteran, the man is quite handy with a gun in his hand. And Bioshock: Infinite gives you A LOT to play with. Pistols, machine guns, rifles, sniper rifles, RPGs, grenade launches and variants on those too. As you can only hold two at a time, the game encourages you to not only try out every single one, but force you to become good with everything so you can adapt to the right situation.
Booker also has the Skyhook, a spinning rotor allowing him to, literally, explode peoples heads into a bloody mist. Both gruesome and satisfying at the same time. The Skyhook adds a whole other level to the gameplay and possibly its greatest evolution. Skylines allow the player to be nimble in the truest sense. Think one man magnetised rollercoaster that you hang onto by hand. Youll be speeding across Columbias more open areas, across deep chasms and above the heads of enemies. Going against what you may think, these segments are completely unscripted and under total control of the player at all times. Combine this with Irrationals fantastic level design, array of weapons, the powers of Elizabeth, and you get some of the best and most open ended action sequences in recent video game history. Honestly, nothing else does anything like it. Oh, and those vigors.
Like Bioshock, Infinite has magical power ups that, like the aforementioned, do wonders from separating the game from the pack. With your weapons on the right trigger, Vigors or plasmids sit on the left. They can do anything from assist your weapons in gunplay, to sometimes making them obsolete altogether. My personal favourites are; Bucking Bronco, which floats your targets in mid air before letting you pick them off, Undertow, a water based force push/lasso and Possession, allowing you to turn an enemy robot into an ally. The game also encourages you to put them together. Wrap them in your water lasso then shock them with Shock Jockey. Suspend them in mid air, then send killer crows after them with Murder Of Crows. Or even rush to your target with Charge then finish them off with a brutal swipe from your Skyhook. Without putting too many buzzwords on the table, this is emergent gameplay at its finest.
Now after the end of Bioshock and the whole Would You Kindly thing, you will no doubt be going into Bioshock Infinite expecting a twist ending. To be honest, youd be right. Im not going to spoil it, but its jaw dropping. Will you see it coming? not a million years. Even if the game was pure trash, which it isnt, it would be worth playing just for the last portion. Its a true water cooler moment, that, even as I write this, Im bursting to talk about with others.
What about after finishing the campaign? Well, gladly theres no multiplayer, even though it would have been so easy to throw in. Instead Infinite gives you 1999 mode. Upon completion of the game on any difficulty, 1999 mode ups the challenge immensely by increasing damage done by enemies, decreasing money and removing the ever-so-handy navigation arrow, that pops up upon hitting the up button on the d-pad. Oh, and there are the 80 plot enhancing Voxaphone collectables to find too.
So, Ive been pretty gushing so far. For a man who is known by some to be a perennial downer, surely something must be up. Something has to be wrong with Infinite. Well, yes. Some of the textures are noticeably rough. However that could be a sign of the times, with the game releasing on the twilight year of the console cycle. The games pace is sometimes a little off, with a small amount of padding here and there, but the highs are so high that you end up forgetting about the filler.
Thats really about it. Bioshock: Infinite is one hell of a game. It is a fantastic shooter which sends the genre forward in the right direction with its myriad of combat options, emotional storytelling and a sense of mystery that will have even the most hardcore of LOST fans on the edge of their seats. Oh! And The Beach Boys are in there too. Yep.