BioShock Infinite

Irrational are one of the most highly respected developers in the industry, thanks in large part to taking their time and putting out high quality games when they are ready to be released. The first Bioshock game in 2007 was one of the most refreshing and interesting games of the entire generation, with a fantastic story and a powerful sense of identity and vision. Irrational have not released another internal project since then, but Bioshock Infinite ends the drought from one of the most talented development teams out there, and from the mind of Ken Levine. I had very high expectations for Bioshock Infinite from the start, as Bioshock is one of my favourite games of all time. The great news is that Bioshock Infinite largely lives up to my expectations, and the stature of Irrational, and is one of the most captivating games of this year so far.

Bioshock Infinite is the third game to bear the Bioshock name, but unlike Bioshock 2 it takes place completely separately to the original Bioshock story arc. Gone is the underwater setting of Rapture, Bioshock Infinite takes players to the sky bound city of Columbia. Unlike Rapture, Columbia is a fully functioning and glittering place filled with life. However, in common with Rapture, Columbia is ruled by a man with a rigid damaging political view and is facing an armed conflict between differing factions.

Bioshock Infinite deals with some heavy themes: American exceptionalism, racism and ethnic based discrimination, state religion and political struggle between class groups. Despite these themes and their impact, the game is not actually about them; rather it takes place in a context shaped by them. What Bioshock Infinite is really about is the journey of a woman named Elizabeth and the quest of a man Named Booker Dewitt to get her out of Columbia.

The protagonist is Booker Dewitt, a man who has accumulated a vast debt from his gambling. In order to clear the debt he is tasked to get the mysterious woman named Elizabeth out of the city of Columbia and bring her to his benefactors. Unlike the mute Jack from the original Bioshock, Booker is a character with an established personality and past. He clearly has seen and done dark things, but over the game Booker is characterised and developed in a really nice way that has more depth than it would initially appear. However, the true star of the game is Elizabeth. She is a somewhat naïve young woman, but completely charming. Having been kept in effective solitary confinement for most of her life, Elizabeth lacks real world experience, but she is well read and educated, and it is great to follow her story arc throughout the adventure.

The villain of the game is the ruler of Columbia, a theocratic prophet named Comstock, who has kept non-white and poor people marginalised in his “paradise” city. Comstock serves as a good antagonist, self-righteous yet intimidating thanks to his conviction and sense of purpose. He doesn’t quite reach the brilliance of Andrew Ryan, but he certainly rises over most game villains. There are other characters and adversaries throughout Infinite, and the cast is a strong one. Much of the stories crucial points are communicated through voice logs left lying around the world, in this case voxophones. If you do not collect these you will miss a huge amount of context regarding the world and the characters, but if you explore areas and collect them you will be rewarded with a far stronger experience in Infinite.

Bioshock Infinite presents a wonderfully colourful world filled with variety and brightness. The entire game is stylised in a way that merges really nicely with the time setting and themes of the world. Columbia looks like a utopia, suspended in the clouds with the finest architecture in the style of the late 1800’s U.S. The strength of the art style is fantastic, and is maintained throughout in a unified way that looks impressive from start to finish. From the bath house that welcomes you to Columbia, Infinite’s style reminded me of Dishonored and the original Bioshock, although it is a much more varied visual range than either. The lighting is also outstanding, with beams of sunshine coming through windows and highlighting the dust within indoor areas, and beaming through the clouds when outdoors. It really helps to bring a sense of place to the setting, and enriches the experience as a result.

Unfortunately the technical aspects of the visuals are not as strong as the artistic. Despite its aesthetic splendour, Infinite suffers from its fair share of poor texture quality. Character models are a bit stiff, animations are smooth but limited and overall the game has a slightly dated feel to its looks. This does not prevent Bioshock Infinite from being a great looking game, but it is certainly not up to the standards of this year’s DMC: Devil May Cry or Tomb Raider for sheer fidelity and visual impact.

Despite the overwhelming positive critical reception to Bioshock Infinite, it certainly has issues, and these are nearly all to do with the core gameplay. Infinite is still grounded in the shooting mechanics of the first Bioshock, but it has made no significant advances over its illustrious predecessor despite the 6 year gap. Plasmids are now vigours but serve the same purpose, you are limited to carrying 2 guns which adds little tactical benefit to the player and overall it plays extremely similarly to Bioshock.

There are situational combat changes which do a good deal to make things more exciting, namely the sky-lines that serve as a kind of transportation service in Columbia. Players can literally leap onto these and shoot, slash and harass enemies from above at great speed. This is a great addition to the game, but beyond this I just felt throughout my playthrough that the core combat is just plain mediocre. There is also a lot of it, with near constant enemy encounters permeating the games story, and this can be annoying when what is easily the games strongest point is the story and narrative direction.

There are a decent amount of enemies that you will actually be fighting in Columbia, forcing a mix of weapons and vigour combinations to get through most areas. However, later areas of the game seem to introduce extremely tough foes that serve as bullet sponges and take a lot of resources to finally take down. The normal foes at this stage die in almost a single attack from Booker thanks to having upgraded weapons and powers by the late stage, but the bigger newer foes just eat up damage. This rise in the difficulty curve is a bit jarring, and only added to my annoyance with the relatively stale combat mechanics. However, beyond this the combat is still serviceable and it does keep the game going. Changes in the areas that Booker and Elizabeth travel through keeps the locations fresh and gives proceedings a decent sense of pace, and overall things flow nicely.

Infinite is a gorgeously produced game with fantastic presentation and style. The period setting is powerful in its sense of place, and when you add in the fantastical elements and narrative twists the game develops a sense of urgency that compelled me to see the end in the shortest number of sittings possible. There is no multiplayer element in Infinite, though there are plenty of difficulties to keep you busy in the single player and there is a definite replayability quality to Infinite.

Beyond texture issues I experienced no major problems on the technical side when playing Infinite. I do think that the checkpoint system is a bit of a mess but I never fell foul of it myself so I won’t utterly condemn it. Loading times are reasonable and overall I had a great experience with this game on my 360. Then there is the matter of Elizabeth, who besides being a central character in Infinite is also an AI companion for almost the entire experience. This decision could have ruined Infinite by making it a 12 hour escourt mission, but this was thankfully avoided. Instead, Elizabeth follows the player and actually helps by throwing ammo, money, health and staying out of the way. She cannot be killed by normal enemies, so the player need only worry about themselves, and overall she represents a rather novel way of approaching computer controlled companions in games of this nature. The negative of this it seems to me is that Infinite is a tediously linear game when compared to the original Bioshock, and even Bioshock 2. There is relatively little exploration, with it almost always being very clear where you need to go. While you will find voxophones and items for exploration of every corner room, the environments just simply lack the depth and complexity of the original game, and I assume that this is due to the presence of an AI companion. It is not a deal-breaker, but for the jewel in Irrationals crown this may be my single biggest disappointment with the entire game.

Without spoiling anything I have to mention the ending of the game, which is one of the finest in recent years and is one that I found extremely satisfying. Infinite knows what most of its strengths are and the ending absolutely plays to them, which is the right way to release the players who invested time into the experience you crafted as a developer.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience with Bioshock Infinite. It is one of the most stylish and well presented settings in any game I have played, with wonderful characters, a thrilling narrative and pace to the story and some wonderful music and voice acting. The combat is average but competent, and the whole thing is artistically wonderful. Infinite is very much a triumph for Irrational and Ken Levine, being one of the most significant games of the generation in many ways. Having said that, if we are going to do the inevitable comparison then I do feel that the original Bioshock is the superior game. In terms of focus, impact and the amount of enjoyment I got out of it, Infinite does not beat the 2007 masterpiece that is Bioshock, but it doesn’t have to. Bioshock Infinite is able to not only stand on its own, but to tower over the vast majority of its rivals. Perhaps most importantly, Bioshock Infinite is a game that achieves for its own narrative a perfect beginning and a perfect ending, and that is something exceptionally rare in video games.

Pros:

• Lovely art style and setting
• Captivating storyline with deep and woven narrative
• Great characters and a powerful ending
• Deals with some heavy and uncomfortable themes

Cons:

• Mediocre combat mechanics
• Linear level design
• Poor checkpoint system

Wtf:

• Wouldn't it be really cold so high in the sky

Score:

• 8/10 - Great