Engrossing combat and mechanics and a story line that doesn't truly deliver.
Having just finished Bioshock Infinite I feel as though I am at odds with myself. The part of me that expounds the virtues of gameplay and nothing else vs the side the values story above all else and Infinite has left me at odds due to narrative failures not gameplay ones.
Infinite continues the trend of excellent gunplay, interesting powers, and fun upgrades in a novel setting that in so many words defined the first two. While at the same time offering more customization, further power mechanics (including up-gradable powers), and the ingenious addition of the skyline system brings much needed variety to combat scenarios. All would seem well for Infinite if not for one major stumbling block, story. While the first Bioshock gave us a twist no one saw coming and was plausibly built over the course of hours of play, the twist in Infinite plays off those conceits and blindsides the player with Deus Ex Machina so profoundly out of place as to leave me speechless. Not to say that attempting to pull off something of this caliber isn't recommended only that this was not befitting of the narrative.
Without going into spoiler territory what we're left with is a rather odd beast along the lines of Mass Effect 3 at launch with extremely enjoyable gameplay throughout and a stumbling block at the end that seems to plague so many games, if not series, this generation. While some could call the revelations at the end of Infinite revolutionary or genre defining I'm left wondering what game they played and I missed as even the slightest questioning of the ending brings on more questions than answers along the lines of last years film Looper.
In the end we are left with 2 halves of a game, gameplay and story. While exceeding at one does not necessarily forgive the other in the case of the tried, tested, refined, and in this case perfected gemeplay and mechanics I'm much more willing to forgive a head scratching and honestly rather insane story line for the highs of fighting my way across the flying city of Columbia.
