I've played it, thought the story was rather crap and really non existent so far, though people have told me they rush it all in at the end, though I have no interest in continuing tbh. They rely on this one character for you to get attached to like Alyx in HL2 only nowhere near as well done, feels more like Clementine in The Walking Dead, just overused and cheesy. It's weird because in the build up to the game I've just seen forum posts of guys with their nerd boner over her, so I guess it works for some people.

The gameplay is the place where obviously where a game counts and I just don't get it, it's still bad as a shooter only it is now worse. You can only carry two weapons, they've put melee to COD style where you press a button and it locks you in and they've tied Vigors and guns to Mouse one and two. I don't get why you'd do that and then have zoom on the keyboard? Why not just have zoom as mouse two, let you switch between multiple weapons with the number keys and have F to change between Vigors and guns and have E to pickup? Why not merge melee with the guns too? Why is it this stupid quick knife thing?

I just found the combat to be really cumbersome, I found the looting still means facing the ground for half the game so you get to miss out on looking around. I mean seriously I'm done with loot in games, it isn't a fun mechanic, you spend half the time just picking shit up. I really have no interest in any items in this game other than guns, health and ammo, nothing has any use.

The other annoying thing is the FOV is still too narrow even though you can change it, I find it doesn't go far enough. I have no idea how console people can play with the standard FOV in this game, it's the worst, our vision in real life isn't 60o or whatever it is lol. They have this annoying aim assists built in too and I can tell they're there but hidden because the gunplay feels real inaccurate and yet you're shooting everything dead on. I can see it snap over the characters very slightly too and I haven't even got anything on. This was only just confirmed to me when looking in the config and seeing aim assists set to true in there, when there is no option in the menu. I mean right there it kills any good feeling using a mouse and keyboard.

I also do not understand why every NPC looks the same? It's like being in Black Mesa all over again, just a weird army of clones. The character design on the whole looks really weird, I dunno if it's done so you don't empathize with these people...... It just looks really wrong.

In the end though I've had 3 mates who have played it and none of them liked the game and usually that's a good indicator to me on what is a good game or not. All the time I see games being reviewed amazingly well and yet no one I know likes them. Take Mass effect for instance, the people I know who have played it, got about 30 mins in to the first one and thought the combat sucked so they quit. That was my experience with that game too, like the combat was just downright bad, so why would I continue playing? If I speak to people I randomly meet and we get talking about games, I have yet to meet anyone who likes them, though Mass Effect has never been a great selling franchise, it does ok, it's no blockbuster though.

I just feel like though that Bioshock Infinite is basically Bioshock but 6 years on with none of the impact the original had. The whole opening to the game felt like a bioshock clone and so it didn't impress me and the gameplay was just bad. I don't think the style of gameplay suited the story though, I'd have been much more excited with something new. We have Portal which told an amazing story and threw in an all new style of gameplay. Mirror's Edge tried something in the first person perspective and even Dear Esther or Amnesia are all doing new things other than shooting and killing. For me Bioshock Infinite was like Tomb Raider and how Lara was a killing machine and it reflected nothing of the actual story. The gameplay doesn't fit the story and I find it hard to empathize with anything, it's like they took the creative easy way out instead of actually trying something new.

I just didn't have any fun, at this point I feel like I'm playing the same games over and over again and have been doing for the past 6 or 7 years with this generation. With the shite Sony showed like Killzone whatever number they're on now, it's like this looks like the same shit as before but now the consoles have PC like graphics.

Man, I'm going to get a lot of leverage out of this picture the next couple weeks.

It still baffles me that people complain about controls in a PC game.

EDIT: And to answer the subject line, no, you seem to be in the minority on this one.

Out of curiosity, what games do you like?

I found Bioshock to be sound mechanically but overall to be a bit middling, I can only see someone really disliking it if they dont enjoy the genre.

On some of your problems.

All the controls are configurable, and you can go in the .ini files to set the fov where you want it. My main issue is that I have a solid 60fps, but every now and then the game just stops. It hangs. For no apparent reason, then i'm back to 60fps again after 2-5 seconds of thinking its crashed. I think i need to up to 8gb's ram from 4.

I don't like the army of clones thing either. Its a console memory issue. Also a modelling issue. It takes ages to make all those faces you know.

I'm quite enjoying it at the minute, but i'm starting to think the looting everything mechanics are grinding on me.

On the story. It's designed so that when the twist happens you look back on everything you've done and experienced and think "holy shit. That all makes sense now. I'm gonna replay this right now."

It just seems like another game that's solid but nowhere near perfect on any front except storyline and presentation; I think a game can receive a slew of perfect scores without having great gameplay; but it can't happen in a traditional FPS that way. If you compare this game to something like Deadly Premonition which undoubtedly actually has a better storyline and characters (but also had poor/mediocre gameplay) and received a 68 on metacritic it becomes a bit ludicrous; I'm not saying either game deserves extensive amounts of praise but they should definitely be nearer to one another.

As far as your question goes there's still people dumb enough to think the original Bioshock is one of the best games of all time so why wouldn't they be dumb enough to think Infinite is. Ocarina of Time is a much better beast to tackle with regards to perfect or near perfect scores; though that game seems like it's more in the 90-93 range instead of 96+ and Bioshock Infinite is probably more like 85-90ish by metacritic standards ignoring massively overrated games (and there's a lot of those of course). Lastly it is a game with a lot of press and power behind it, reviewers are expected to give such games higher scores if they turn out to be even above average; but if you go again to Deadly Premonition it was released as a budget game and had very little press or more-than-niche personalities surrounding it.

Does your mouse have a scroll wheel? Clicking it zoomed my weapon, spinning it changed my weapons. No keyboard fiddling required.

No.

"Overrated" and "Backlash" imply that people's opinions should at all be a reflection of the opinions of others, so no. It's not your job to deconstruct the thoughts and feelings of others.

I'm not going to jump to the idea that this is a troll-post because i'm going to trust that you're not a child, but it does seem like you're just trying to bait people into disagreeing with you. Saying stuff like "it seems like it's the same as Bioshock" is objectively wrong. Also in reference to your "killing machine" point Elizabeth never just kills dudes and a MASSIVE part of Booker's story is that he's a hardened killer who has been both a Pinkerton thug and a soldier. In that sense, the gameplay fits the plot completely.

For the record, have you actually played the game or not? I'm getting confused by your phrasing that the game "was" this or "did" that when you're also saying "so far". If you haven't, it's pretty dumb to write a miniature essay about why you don't like it.

Now that's just an asshole thing to say. I happen to think the original Bioshock is pretty damn good myself, and I'm not dumb.

Some people tend to have trouble recognising that it's possible to overlook glaring flaws if you really like certain aspects of something. At least, if it's not something they're into (Deadly Premonition...).

Bioshock has a horrible ending, a lackluster final section, most of the weapons feel poor, most of the plasmids are useless (three different hypnosis plasmids rather than just one with an upgrade path) and most of the enemies are horribly samey. I still really like it too.

There is a rule on the when a headline or when a topic starts with a question framed in this pattern, the answer is often "No". Make of that what you will.

No. Just because you didn't like it doesn't mean everyone won't. I played it and loved it. Best experience I've had with a game for years.

feels more like Clementine in The Walking Dead, just overused and cheesy

That's where I stopped reading. Goodbye.

Why start this thread and pose a rhetorical question? Obviously from your post, you have already made up your mind in terms of the game (that you think its "overrated") so why not just say"Why i think Bioshock: Infinite is overrated" or something like that? Posing that question in the title and then proceed to explain why you think its "overrated" (whatever the hell that means) makes you post sound a bit childish.

Nope, there were a few issues for me where I kept trying to use iron sights with the left trigger, but that's on me, not the game.

The game is solid, not the best game ever, but i enjoyed it from beginning to end, its been a real long time since i finished a significantly long single player game in one sitting but, i did it with this game yesterday.

The story isn't as amazing as id have liked but it is still better than 99.9% of game stories.

And Elizabeth is way better than Alyx btw.

Mass Effect has never been a great selling franchise? It has just sold okay? It certainly has not sold Call of Duty numbers but I think it has sold pretty respectably.

In regard to everything that you said, it seems to me that you are just trying to bait people. You do have some legitimate complaints but you also seem to have a "holier-than-thou" attitude shining through.

You're a brave guy to post that in the middle of the Infinite love-in/hype. You should have waited a few weeks.

We'll know for sure by next week or so (or longer :P ), but my prediction is that you're going to remain within the strict minority here.

Cause my gut feeling is that this won't be another GTA 4- I don't think Infinite's gonna have a comparable backlash.

There will inevitably be some- as there is with pretty much every AAA title- but odds are it won't be as sweeping as GTA 4's backlash seemed to be.

Overrated? No. That's not a thing outside of people trying to discredit positive reception of something they personally dislike.

Backlash? Of course. It's a video game in 2013. There's a metagame involved in any modern video game, and that's to see who can hate it the hardest and in front of the most people, regardless of the game's actual quality. And since this is a BioShock game, they get a free one-two punch of comparing it to both BioShock 1 and System Shock.

Maybe you should see a doctor. If you literally had no fun with the most positively-received game this year, there's a chance that you've got some sort of chemical imbalance going on preventing you from enjoying anything. We can get through this together, duder.

Internet, never change.

Oh internet

Why do people behave in a polarizing manner on stuff like this? You can play Bioshock Infinite and think "I liked it" but that doesn't mean it is the "BEST. THING. EVAR." Or play it and think "I didn't like it" but that doesn't mean "I'm going to run to the nearest internet forum and rage dump on how this game wronged me and my children!"

Shesh, people act like it is impossible to feel anything but the extremes on things.

How about if people stopped caring about what others like and dislike when it comes to personal entertainment? Crazy idea i know.

@truthtellah: care to elaborate? It seems like you're saying no... But you really mean nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Am I off base here?

@milkman said:

Man, I'm going to get a lot of leverage out of this picture the next couple weeks.

Perfect.

Good for you. I thought it was pretty great.

Why does that make OP "childish"? He made a thread with a question then posted his thoughts.

This board redefines the term "Butthurt"

nope, just cause of the ending this game will receive an excellent rearview

SO GENIUS AND INSANE

@lackingsaint: Hey I never said Deadly Premonition was a 96 or the best game ever or blah blah blah, it's about on par with the original Bioshock and slightly worse than Bioshock Infinite. York is irrefutably one of the best characters in fiction from the modern era (keeping in mind most modern fictional authors are garbage too, shout out to Cormac McCarthy for being one of the only good living authors).

So in other words all of the commentary on racism and other themes in the game just flew right over your head eh?

I certainly expect a lot of "why I think Bioshock Infinite is not the masterpiece that stupid people think it is" articles and forum threads in the coming year, if that's what you mean by backlash.

You can't ignore the actors or the directing. I'll give you that on a script-level Deadly Premonition may be better than Infinite, but take a middle-school performance of Hamlet and a professional theatre company production of literally any other script and tell me which one would be more deserving of praise.

Also the gameplay in Infinite is unremarkable to great, depending on how deep you're willing to go with the Skylines and Vigors. Gameplay in Deadly Premonition ranged from tolerably bad to fucking atrocious. And I loved both games.

I believe Bioshock Infinite is one of those rare games, that got rated as a *thing, that's happening*, and hence by its own standards. Even hardened downright comical cynics like Jim Sterling looked past the myriad of things you could be cynical about, and just let the game speak for itself in the end.

By the regular standard of game criticism - yes - Bioshock Infinite is quite overrated, but - no - not scandalously so. I understand where the praise is coming from, and it's refreshing to see the entire gaming press actually embracing an experience for what it is, despite its many flaws.

Cynism-Be-Gone.

a lot of people are looking for the next half-life 2 in this it seems. i guess they're looking for something to completely destroy expectations across the board and reinvent the wheel or something. that said, i fucking adored the shit out of this game, wish it didn't end, and think it did quite a goddamn few really daring things.

@starvinggamer: The performances by voice actors were superb in Deadly Premonition; now the emoting by the graphical avatars is sort of charmingly bad if that's what you're talking about but apart from a game being a spectacle unto itself (like Crysis) or somehow integrating graphics into emoting at an advanced stage (like LA Noire) I don't think graphics can by themselves cause a 28 point rift from what is considered universal praise and what is considered near universal disdain (a game getting 6/10 from most sites is akin to a movie getting a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes or so). I'll also say I think the art design/direction is strong in Deadly Premonition in spite of the horrible technical graphics; and things like the White Room and Harry's room/mansion in the "other world" point to this.

@fredchuckdave: I'd argue that the only really strong performance in Deadly Premonition came from York. There was a stilted "Acting!" nature to the rest of the cast. But it's not just the graphics or the blocking/emoting. This is a video game, and the actual mechanics of playing Infinite are leaps and bounds better than those in Deadly Premonition. If you're willing to explore the systems, combat in Infinite is incredibly inventive and fun. The combat in Deadly Premonition was something to be tolerated so that you could get to the next story beat. Driving was horrific. The game part of it is what causes that 28 point rift.

Shout outs to Seppli and Fredchuckdave for actually responding to the topic thoughtfully.

The Bioshock series has always hung its hat on being mechanically sound and atmospherically rich. If it isn't broke, don't fix it. But it is a totally fair criticism to say that the trick, for many, has worn thin. And it does seem a bit of a shame now to see all that atmosphere and production value put in service of a shooting gallery.

And as far as the disparity in reviews goes, that is just a way of life in this industry. AAA games have to really, really fuck the pooch to get below an 8. Most reviews are done in the spirit of "should you buy this?" as opposed to offering a more nuanced critique of the game. It generally takes several months to a year after a game's release for a general critical narrative to form. At release it's all backslapping and superlatives.

I think sometimes people underestimate the importance of detail, presentation and polish. The backlash type complaints I've heard about about B:I so far usually revolved around the game play part. No, this game is not revolutionary or even evolutionary in any game play sense, but it's not trying to be. But the game play is completely serviceable and, IMO, pretty fun. I like the different powers to this point, and I honestly don't care how many guns I can carry. I tend to find one gun I really like in games and stick with that anyways.

But I think of it this way, complaining about vanilla FPS combat in Bioshock: Infinite is like complaining about the story in League of Legends. Or think about it another way, it's like complaining about a restaurant that has amazing food because you don't like the decor. Sure, it's PART of the experience, but it isn't the FOCUS.

B:I is trying to deliver a highly polished, detailed experience with a great story, just as they did with Bioshock 1. (And I guess I'm just "dumb" because that's one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had in my 30 years of gaming.) I'll be spoiler-free, but the moment you are walking through the monuments to the story of the "first lady" are unbelievable. Such a fantastic mix of great visuals, story and an amazing use of an amazing piece of classical music (one of my favorites.) Very few games deliver real moments, but this game is one of them.

While in the middle of the game I said that I can't see this game getting more than 4/5 for me because I found the combat to be just as lackluster as it was in the original Bioshock. I've finished Infinite today and the honestly it feels like a 5/5 product for me. I don't want to exaggerate and get peoples hopes up, but the story is on such a higher level than 99% of video game plots to date that I was astonished with how ballsy the ending was. Yes the gameplay might not be the best shooter you'll ever play, but goddamn that was a great story that emotionally resonated with me unlike any other game I've played in the past 2 years.

Bioshock Infinite is over rated, just like the first Bioshock. But it is still a helluva lot better than you seem to feel like it is. Opinions make the world go round though.

But that's exactly why it sounded childish. He made a thread title "Will Bioshock Infinite be another overrated backlash game" but he's actually arging that Bioshock is overrated ( which is highly subjective and not really worth discuss tbh). He's not asking any question or really being open to discussing whether Bioshock is overrated, he's saying that Bioshock is overrated and doesn't understand how anyone could like it. He says in his post that he hasn't met anyone who likes the game despite the fact that these forums have hundreds of posts from people saying that they like it. Hell, some even say its their favorite game this generation. So i find it odd that he's apprently met no one who likes it.

There's also an undertone of righteousness ( maybe that's not the right word. Elitism maybe?) in his post. He's sort of inferring that anyone who would like this game isn't a real gamer of some sort or just has a really low standard for what they think is entertaining. Its pretty childish to pass judgement on what someone else finds entertaining especially if it isn't hurting you or anyone else. If he didn't like the game, that' totally fine, but just say "I'm not liking bioshock" and then state your reasons but don't give a facade of trying to start a discussion about the game and then blatantly undercut it by essentially saying anyone who likes it some sort of simpleton. That's just lame and childish.

I'm so glad someone else did this so I don't have to.

You're doing god's work.

I think Bioshock Infinite is in my top 3 games of this generation and I disliked Bioshock. I enjoyed the combat a ton, the fast pace and verticality the skyhooks provide as well as the combining vigors aspect made this game.

I don't know man, but I sure do expect that it will have a GOTY version with all the DLC.

@warlockengineermoredakka: So far every recent successful game has had a pretty decent level of backlash.

From my (admittedly peanut gallery) prospective Bioshock could at some point be criticized for "cheating" (not attached, some warping) in terms of how Elizabeth is integrated - which has already come up in some places. And it could also get the general "hey this is a shooter" backlash that also seems to be a regular occurrence - though having the protagonist being a steely-eyed man with a questionable past seems to have alleviated that issue.

But at least it is not another Diablo 3 or SimCity type game, where there is disappointed backplash if you ever finish it and reach a static kind of boring place (rather than a 1 and done, where those sort of limitations are the price of having that sort of gameplay experience).

You must hate video games. Is there anything you do like?

To be honest I wanted to stop playing in the first few hours...Im normally not that into shooters and the only reason I played it was because of the hype. That being said I just finished it and OMG its pretty epic in the end...Im a story man myself and even though its a little convoluted it still blew my mind...great game!

I think people like the OP hate when a lot of people like stuff and want to bring them down.