Bioshock Infinite Review

I know Bioshock Infinite has been out a while, but I only recently got the chance to play it and ley me tell you, It was AMAZING. I know rate this game in my top 3 games of all time.The gameplay is so smooth, and to not have to look after Elizabeth is a huge weight off your shoulder when playing. It only really gets hard towards the end but it is still so fun. It has a GREAT ending just like Bioshock1, Although there is not really a final boss the ending scenes make you forget about all that it will have your brain melt. There is not a lot wrong with this game except that it is a bit too easy for most of the game, and the bosses weren't that hard either. The story line has to be one of the best in video games with a floating city and ideas of religion. The first time you see Columbia took my breath away with the music and the stunning visuals of that whole scene. For me this is such a great game i will definitely be playing the Burial at sea DLC.

9.8

WOW !

You must not play games much.

lol

But there is a final boss stage, don't want to spoil anything but there is.

Great world but the game play got a bit boring sometimes

@ ScandinavianQ

Theres no Final Boss Stage because theres no final boss. It was more like a clusterfuck stage.

Bioshock Infinite is a bad game.

Glad you liked the game. You will find a lot of hipsters hating on the game as it's currently deemed "cool" to hate it.

I'm picking it up on PS+ next month and getting burial at sea on the same day.

I for one still love Infinite. It remains in my top 5 games of all time. Amazing characters and a brilliant story from start to finish.

Blog it.

While it is a great game to be sure, it lacks the chaotic, destructive and deteriorated environment of the first two which was essentially a main character of the game(s). Not only did you fight Splicers and Bosses but you fought the environment as well. Columbia was interesting but nowhere near as compelling as Rapture.

@ withe1982

WHAT ! Hipsters ? Nah-uh, Mr. Levine made a promise and did not deliver, I dropped $85 on this bad boy because I was sure we were gona get what we saw in the E3 trailers. Not only is Infinite bad, its a fraud. On a totally unrelated topic, who wants a used copy of Bioshock Infinite?..... For a price ofcourse !

The game lacks "chaotic,destructive and deteriorated environments" because unlike Rapture you are there prior to chaos and utter destruction. Complaining that the environments weren't destroyed like they were in Bioshock is illogical because the timing is different.

Outside of that I am not sure why this game is receiving so much hate. It feels plays very much like Bioshock, just that the scenario and world is different. I am not sure what folks were expecting for a sky equivalent and time offset version of Bioshock.

@ Pedro

No it does not play anything like a Bioshock game, or did not notice the absence of hacking, bots, enemie types, special power varations, oppertunities to use said powers in unique ways, side quests, Ammo typesAmbushes,etc.

Seriously though, what makes you think they play similar ?

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Answer? Nothing.

The environment played a big role in 1 and 2 unlike Infinite. Period.

Another adjective used to describe Rapture would be isolated. That description is not dependent on whether or not the city was being experienced during its hay day or civil war.

You have special powers and some of these powers are either similar or identical. The only thing in your list that is absent is hacking. Also similar is not the same as identical. I have played both games, and they whining about infinite seems rather ridiculous. Reminds me of the same manner of moaning when Bioshock was released and it was not a System Shock 2 clone.

I really enjoyed it too. I thought it was fascinating, maybe not so much from a gameplay perspective as it was more or less very similar to the previous BioShocks but with a few alterations. It was still quite good in that respect though, in my opinion.

Wow, I never really thought of it in that way before, but that is the perfect definition for the final battle.

I enjoyed the game somewhat, but there were disappointing elements. Big Daddies were a such a great challenge in setting up traps and ambush points, and that was lacking in Infinite. The challenges felt more cerebral in Rapture. Perhaps I missed something in Infinite, but I sure seemed to spend a lot of time running around in circles being chased by enemies.

@ Pedro

All 1st person shooters are simular, every single one. Very important to clarify what you mean. And Bioshock not only had more special powers than Infinte, it had more applications per special power than Infinite did. And theres the enemies that I mentioned ealier, Bioshock had 10 types, Infintite only has 7 types, and none of them particularly interesting hell even if they only had 9 it would still be a step backwards. Bioshock and Bioshock 2 were similar, Infinte is just something else. Something broken, did you know the pistol is absolutely useless once you find Liz ?. sky hook was fun though.

@ abaramuchi

No, you milked Infinte for all its worth its time to move on.

One of my favorite games as well. Don't listen to all these morons hating on it. Anything that's popular gets hate, it's the "cool" thing to do.

My GOTY for 2013 for sure.

Nice. I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I loved it as well, found it to be an absolutely fantastic game. I played through the 360 version about 3 times and thanks to PS+ I'll play through the PS3 version another 2 times at least.

I am currently running through Bioshock: Infinite again. While it's certainly different from the original in a number of ways it remains familiar without feeling like a point for point retread of the original. The focus is taken off of Vigors and the Handymen this time around and placed on Elizabeth. I think the issue with many people is that they were expecting it to follow the same route as the original using it as an exact blueprint rather than a simple guideline.

Combat remains central and allows the player to employ a number of mechanics. Between the regenerating Shield and enemies rarely using cover ensures the player is given ample opportunity to utilize the many elements of combat in an offensive fashion. From Vigors, Guns, Sky-Hook, Sky-Rail and Tears. Mixing and matching the many mechanics at play is a blast and setting traps (a core use of Vigors rather than an environmental rarity like with Plasmids) is a blast.

Linearity is something I take very little issue with especially when given enough room to flex my gameplay muscles in combat. But I never felt the linear nature of Infinite to be a negative and instead allowed the developer to focus the experience and ensure that sense of urgency the story called for. It gave me enough room to explore but never so much as to hurt the pacing either.

The story while complex and not as efficiently delivered as the original is no less intriguing. My only issue with this when compared to the original is the fewer memorable characters. But I do find Elizabeth and what she brings to the experience helps alleviate this.

Witnessing and partaking in the fall of Columbia was a treat. When compared to System Shock 2 and Bioshock, it feels unique in this area where we typically come into play after these events have already played out. The opening alone was so familiar yet completely different. Taking your first steps out into the city and watching as pieces of this utopia float around and shift as people go about their day and interact with one another without trying to murder you for once was a nice change.

Probably the thing that impresses me the most this time around is that the game gives you this illusion of choice when in reality it's nothing but a façade. They very early on teach the player that no matter what choice is presented it ultimately means little. The outcome will always be the same. As if everything is predetermined. Even through level design, you are given two stair wells and yet neither offers up a difference. This literally permeates every facet of the game. Such an impressive undercurrent.

A great game and a worthy successor to the original Bioshock. I'd probably give it around a 9.5 out of 10.

That's untrue and a cop-out and you know it.

@ huerito323

Or maybe you think its cool to like stuff other people hate.

See.... It goes both ways.

Now if you wana talk game then cool, you're welcome to to keep being evasive though.

@ contracts420

Nope, Nobody was Expecting a rehash, we were expecting what Mister Levine showed us at E3, you remeber, Elizabeths Powers being used in conjunction with yours on 4 seperate occasions. Traps in Bioshock were far more clever than the ones in Infinite and far more effective to boot, setting a trap had the exact same effect as the primary use for the vigor only difference is you no longer had to be there to use it.

And The Traps in Bioshock were not enviromental rarities, theres was litarely, Water, Oil, and Explosive hazazrds freaking everywhere, compare that to the tiny water and oil puddles that barely came up in the game, or how undertow was useless when you weren't outside

Now for the stuff unique to Infinite measured on their own Merits: The Sky Hook/Rail was fun for traversing the battlefield but trying to get a shot off will riding it was a pain in the ass, and two, it was easily exploitable, you could just jump on it and pounce on an enemy for insta kills without firing a single bullet, the stupidity of this design really shines in the higher difficulties when the baddies become bullet sponges, simply exploit the the Sky Hook. And to make things worse, theres a Gear ( I think it was Winter Shield) that grants you 7 seconds of invulnerability everytime you jump off, yes, everysingle time. Moving on.... Elizabeth's tears, an E3, She formed a rain cloud to create a water hazard which you could use shock Jockey on to waste all the baddies in the water, this seemed Miles better than The water puddles in Bioshock, just standing there.... Like it was somebody.... Oh right, Elizabeth, yeah and then theres that thing She does with the metal, she gathered a bunch of pots and Pans into a big ball and SuperCharged them somehow, then when you threw it with Telekenise (which was later remove) it exploded like a big Pottery Grenade, same with the handy man on the bridge, then in another trailer you could use bucking bronco to lift enemie, if you do this under a Sky Rail then Elizabeth could bring in moving Cargo to mow them down, quick, clever and effective. However, in Infinite, Elizabeths Tears were mostly good for bringing Resources (guns, Salt and Health kits) and the occasional Robot (Patriot, Turret) it was dull and uninspired.

True it was cool to role into A Bioshock Universe to before things turned to shit. However most of it was Illusory, there was not really all that much to do when the civies are going about their day to day lives, you can't talk to them. They just stare at you blankly, like cattle. It was a nice distraction so long as you don't linger to long and notice the poorly scripted NPC's.

infinites Level Design Is Far better than Bioshock's Cramped Spaces, but only in the areas that feature Sky Hooks.

Infinite does not give you the Illusion of Choice, The choices are genuine and they always pan out just Fine, I think people just have unrealistic expectations, I mean honestly, only a moron would expect the type of Necklace Elizabeth wears to change the entire story. But wouldn't be nice if it did.

and Thats Bioshock Infintite in a very big Nutshell.

#@Lulu_Lulu: I think you overstate the use of plasmids within the environment of the original Bioshock while I may have understated their use. But you can use Vigors in conjunction with one another in Infinite by setting fire to a flock of crows and so on. Shock Jockey can be used to layer traps. Bucking Bronco to toss enemies in the air, you can force enemies to commit suicide and so forth. Mixing and matching these throughout each battle along with the use of Tears and the Sky-Rails is a blast and offers up more options than most FPS games of the past generation.

You can literally layer traps at every turn, even multiple times per battle... every battle in Infinite, the same cannot be said for the original.

Getting shots off while riding the Sky-Rails really wasn't that difficult as the player is given control over their speed allowing them to slow down to a crawl in order to squeeze off a precise shot when needed. Using the Rails to pounce on enemies was a treat for those who set up opportunities to do so. However I do think you bring up a fair point about Winter Shield, it's clearly over-powered.

I can understand your criticism when comparing early demos to the final product but to me that is another topic altogether. Many things are cut or changed during the development process due to narrative, budget, hardware limitations and resources. If anything I believe Irrational was overly ambitious with their original showings of Infinite. However I hardly believe the developers intended to disappoint. If anything I believe this to be a problem with developers and publishers showing off their games before they are ready. Anything over 9 months from release is subject to change as the developers are still trying to nail things down. Irrational Games was still in 52 Pick Up mode when putting those initial demos and trailers together.

You are given a number of options through Tears and I hardly feel as if it was dull. Allowing for cover, turrets, Patriots, weapons, health, Salts, flanking positions and more. Mix this with the Sky-Rail and/or Vigors with the use of weapons and the Sky-Hook melee attack and you have a sort of playground within combat.

Choice is nothing but an illusion in Bioshock: Infinite. Right off the bat they teach the player that choice is really not an option. Heads, or Tails? Heads. Remember when you are given the choice at the Raffle to throw the ball? You never get the chance to see your decision pan out. Why give us the choice then? Booker is told "do not pick number 77" and reaching into the basket he picks #77. When picking the bird or the cage your actions have no consequence or meaning. Even the level design often imitates this.

Oh and many of the criticisms thrown at Bioshock: Infinite are based on what the original did. But need I remind you that I said "many people" and not everybody.

Now that is Bioshock: Infinite in a nutshell; a great game that receives far too much hatred. Whether you agree or disagree hardly matters to me, but regardless... it's not by any means a bad game.

I just watched Burial at Sea Episode 1 on youtube. They managed to **** the ending even more.

@ Black_Knight_00

Thats just Wrong Dude. Even if you're right thats not cool. No more tubing.

@ contracts420

No I didn't. The Plasmids where extremely usefull consistantly throughout Rapture, so Usefull they actually spilled over into non combat tasks like Melting Ice and Short Circuting a Switch to open up new paths and free objects, Freeze Electronics to making hacking Easier but longer. In Infinite 4 of the vigors were so damn redundant, once you get Shock Jockey there was no need more Murder Of Crows, Bucking Bronco and up to a Point Devils Kiss. Adding Cluster to Devils Kiss negated Murder Of Crows entirely and Bucking Bronco works along the ground and is useless against enemies across gaps, behind obstacles or on different ledges from you. It only shined when using it in conjunction with the heater and rockect launcher. Also once you get Shock Jockey plus add a Chain effect it completely negates the need for Devils Kiss, Bucking Bronco and Murder Of Crows. shock jockey works on all enemies, stuns more effectively than BB, and with Chaining, makes Makes Murder of Crows redundant. Mind you Those Other Vigors don't Work on Certain Enemies, Shock Jockey is the ideal Vigor, the best one ! There was literaly no reason to have those other 3 once you got it. Also Posession is the only Vigor with a use outside of combat.

As for the traps, Infinte's Vigor Traps were stupid, it was far easier to just use the primary function, because the trap feature literaly has the same result, there was no point in setting Fire, Crow, Possession, Shock Jockey and Bucking Bronco traps because the didn't yield a different effect or magnituted, when an enemy trips your your bucking bronco trap they get lifted into the air, just as they would have if you used it directly, same with the other traps thats just bad and I didn't have to compare it with Bioshock. You know how you set a trap in Rapture ? You light a Splicer on Fire, if theres a water source he'l make dash for it to put out the flames (oh look, Dynamic AI) and thats when you shock his ass with Electricity, thats a real trap and theres many others just like it, you can't line up "dominoes" like that in Infinite, the closest I got was using a Liz to summon a Tesla Coil and then reel baddies into it with Undertow.

Also Elizabeth Summoning turrets was pretty much equal to hacking turrets in rapture plus in Bioshock 2 you could carry Mini Portable Turrets. and the Motorized Patriot Tears were few and Far Apart, infact the game had no more than 5 of them, in Rapture you could trap Security Bots whenever you damn well felt like it and you could have 2 instead of one, and they go where you go until they die or you complete the chapter, In Columbia they literaly won't leave the area.

Plus Infinte uses a Positive feed back loop, if you don't die, you can rack up some serious cash and buy the upgrades you need to keep not dying which leads to more money, then more upgrades and more dominating and so on ...... But if you die too many times (quantity depends on what difficulty you're playing on) then you lose cash, which means you can't buy the upgrades you need to not die which leads to more dying and less money, to less upgrades.... Well you get the point, . That my friend is a bad game when you factor in how ridiculously cheap and lazy the difficulty is, compounded by the weapon redundancy, Exploitable Gear, Lazy AI (they don't even take cover) and weak ass story (Multiverse is not a plot).

As for the Demos and Trailers, you make good point about it not living up to them, but I bet you can't explain why it can't even live up to the original game that they made. Oh yeah, its a Bad game. Very Bad, and I've played Naruto. Thats how bad it is.

@ dvader654

Infinte Sucked Donkey Balls. and the hate is justified. Regardless of its predecessors it still sucks. Don't believe me ? Play it on Hard and see how many of those unique ways are viable against the Bullet Sponges, yes even those pesky grunts without helmets need to magnum shots to the head to die, one if you stun'em 1st.

Your opinion sucks donkey balls. Just accept the fact that there's plenty of people that love the game. Your whining isn't going to change anything.

@ huerito323

I happen to be one of those people, Genius ! However I'm not as disillusioned as everyone else.

Saying Infinite is a bad game is simply wrong, it's not "bad". That said, even the most dedicated fans of it are likely to admit the trumpeting reception it got on release was a bit overblown.

@ dvader654

LOL. I don't hate Infinite, atleast not entirely.

Also I don't hate Everything, clearly you're just saying that because you're too lazy to argue with me. I mean seriously who hates everything ? I'm not SNIPER1234.

Mind you If theres a thread bashing Infinte I defend it, If theres a thread defending Infinte, I bash it. You know why ?

Because so far in both Scenarios people lie to prove their point. I don't (obviously I do but never been caught so far, so same difference.)

Look, I get it, people like what they like. Did I tell you how much I liked President Evil 6 and Beyond: Two Souls ? They got flaws, but you don't see me lying about them. I maybe an Asshole, but I'm a fair Asshole (except when theres no witnesses) ! ;)

Oh yeah I almost forgot about you're lil Vigor Accomplishment. Congradulations ! Still a badly designed game though, not sure what you're lil achievement was suppose to change.

I solved co-op section in Portal 2 on my own with a single set of Portals, sooooooo... You gona congradulate me ?

Actually Explain something to me, in 99 mode, before finding Elizabeth (who can toss salts at you when you're running low), where did you get enough Salt to beat those baddies using only Booker's power's ? Theres only like 4 oppertunities to increase your salt meter and there was no where near enough salt in the enviroment to scavenge especially that section before the Ravens (remember, Firemen, Machineguns, a turrets, all damage sponges).

Not to Mention 99 Mode consists of nothing but pullet sponges.

Perhaps you have a loose definition of "Booker's Powers". So how'd you get the salt without Liz ?

Wait a minute ! It just occured to me, you didn't have to fight many of those Bastards, is that what you mean't ? You avoided certain fights leading up to Monument Island ?

Its the only Explaination.... hell I bet you used Possession to distract them while you made a bee line for the door, they can't cross.

Hold on !

Also how did you beat the 1st fireman only using Vigors ? Mind you the only vigor available at the point was possession, which doesn't cause Firemen to commit suicide and he could easily wipe out that turret at the end of the road. And there weren't enough firework barrels to damage him, which you can't set off in the 1st place without using guns. Explain that professor ! Or are you gona cry "You hate everything" again. Or did you somehow raise enough cash at the fair to get Bucking Bronco, so you could lift the fire man and nudge him off the ledge ? Thats how I would do it. Or did you somehow get more "powers" from playing that flash game, can't remember the name.

Well, whats your secret, mr. Dvader ?

@ Black_Knight_00

Then how does one determine whats good or Bad ? Especially if somebody is gona use the "it makes sense in the context of the game's universe" ? Or stuff some people like and Other people hate. Some people liked the bullet sponges.

I still haven't made it to the end... one day.....one day!

@ Flowerdead

The Beginning and End are the best parts.

Infinite is a fraud.It s*cks in almost every aspects---art and level design,plot,A.I.,gameplay mechanics and so on.

The first 10-minute trailer, the 15-minute E3 demo which had won 85 awards and the final game are three completely different games. Different Columbias, different stories,different Elizabaths.

Note that, in both the 10-min trailer and the 15-min trailer,Elizabeth's two hands are intact, while in the final game Elizabeth has lost her little finger the whole time. This is the evidence that the story of the game had been changed during the development, after the E3 2011 demo to be exact.

According to the credits at the end of the games, Bioshock and Infinite were developed by two different group of people, writers were not the same besides Ken, majority of the artists were not the same,and other developers as well.

The plot s*cks.It says that the Luteces are from two diferent universes, Comstock universe where female Lutece exists and Booker universe where male Lutece exists. These two universes derived from one universe since the baptism. This is wrong! The splitting of the universe could not turn lutece into different s.e.x. If Lutece is male before the baptism, then both Lutece in Comstock universe and Lutece in Booker universe should be male after the baptism, vice versa.

The ending of Infinite s*cks the most.

We've been over this: a game is bad if it tries and fails to meet the industry standards in terms of gameplay and technical performance. Infinite plays "ok", the action is dull and repetitive, so was the mission design, the AI was barebones, but in the end it does nothing very well and nothing very poorly. It runs at a steady frame rate and despite the unimpressive visuals has a really good art direction compensating for them.

The plot you (and I) are complaining about is hardly an objective flaw, it largely goes on personal taste. It's not a bad game, just extremely unimpressive.

@ Black_Knight_00

Hmmmm. I guess I'l settle for that. Unimpressive it is !

sure i'm gonna get a lot of hate for this but i absolutely DESPISED this pos game..

they literally took everything that made the series great and butchered the hell out of it, the entire gameplay system was fubar! i traded it in the day after beating it and the only reason i made myself complete it was for the achievements.. no health kits carried on hand meant i died more times on my playthrough than i did on Dark Souls ffs! "and thats saying something" no eve "vigor" vials carryable pretty much took plasmids out of the game completely, making it more less a strait shooter.. and if that weren't bad enough the entire game was one big babysitting mission! don't get me wrong, i liked Elizebeth but she didn't need to be stuck on your nuts the whole game! and the story omg... where do i even begin, it was sh!t sauce and thats putting it lightly, not gonna go into details but lets just say it dealt with some topics that just don't belong in a video game.

Infinite was by far one of the most disappointing gaming experiences i've had in years and if they ever make another Bioshock game i hope they listen to the few critics instead of the mass fanboy base who claim it was sooooo great, ignoring all the obvious flaws.. the devs of this great series seriously need to take a long step back to the original and realize if it ain't broke don't fix it, the ONLY thing i liked about the game was the fact it didn't shove an online mp mode into our faces like the 2nd installment but even that couldn't save this putrid game.

@ ShangTsung7

Well.... Thats not entirely Accurate, Elizabeth never required baby sitting, hell, she practically faded into the background most od the time, the only thing I found annoying about her was how naive she was.

Also to be honest, Infitte Does have way better gameplay than Bioshock, its much simpler and steamlined controls and much better movement than Bioshock. Infinites problem is not the gameplay, its the over all design. Things just didn't come together properly, its like seperate teams worked on different aspects of the game very well but taped it together very poorly. So Bioshock actually was Broke.

Are you not aware that things change during the developing process? Why is this so shocking to you? Check out some videos that show the developing process of any certain video game, take Oblivion for example. I know they have a video of "The making of Oblivion" on Youtube, and it looks like a totally different game. Developers are always changing things, so I guess every video game is a fraud.

@ dvader654

"it is clearly loved

by the game public."

Just as South Park is loved by many other people. Its Still a terrible show...... That I happen to enjoy. Might wana think about that before you wipout the "Majority = Quality" card.

So your opinion on "quality" should be the one that everyone should take into consideration? It's your opinion, no need to bash other people's opinions just because you think your opinion is a fact. Everyone feels the way you do, but there's the few decent people that actually respect the opinions of others.

@ huerito323

I don't think my oppinion is fact, I'm just using the facts against people's oppinions. Also its possible that my oppinion and facts are one in the same, purely coincidental I assure you.

Oh boy, it's this thread again. Best summary/review I read so far was this one:

"A gruff male with the pleasantly old-timey name of Booker DeWitt travels by rocket chair to Columbia, a flying city where people make 20 second recordings of their deepest secrets and leave them lying around in cupboards. He has been sent to retrieve a woman named Elizabeth, who has the magical ability to summon a box full of first aid kits from an alternate dimension.

Booker wanders around in awe, observing the racist population as they throw machine gun ammunition in the trash and stare silently at nothing. But his sightseeing is cut short when a policeman tries to grab him and he's forced to explode 1000 heads with a giant rotating hook in self-defence.

After exploding enough heads, Booker is taken to an alternate reality where the underclass of Columbia has risen up in rebellion. "These revolutionaries are as bad as their racist oppressors," says the deadliest serial killer in the history of human civilization, "because they are violent." Fortunately, the entire setting is erased from existence and nothing of consequence ever happens. Metacritic rating 95 (94 on Xbox)."

It tries too hard. It fails. It could only wish have a story like Cryostasis.

Yes. About the ammo/health pickups and their locations: why would a soldier ever carry an entire pineapple into a firefight? Why would people regularly throw chocolate cakes in dumpsters and why would Booker regularly eat the rotten fly-covered cakes as he finds them? Why do people throw money into garbage bins and mailboxes? Why would I ever find shotgun shells inside a wrapped present in a toy store?

the gameplay in the original was perfect, i dunno how you came to the insane conclusion that Infinite's system was better, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but thats just nuts.. you couldn't even carry health kits or eve vials ffs! that alone would have at least made it half ass enjoyable, and sure Elizebeth was immune to damage so it wasn't a total babysitting mission but having to rely on her for basically EVERYTHING made it the ULTIMATE babysitting duty! but yea.. broken certainly, hell broken is an understatement.

I thought the graphics were very good and so was roaming around the beautifully made levels. but that is where it ended for me. I didn't like the gameplay so much. Mostly searching for things in desks and drawers constantly throughout the game. Also the combat was pretty bad. the weapons sucked... I give it a 7 out of 10.