Bioshock Infinite
Even though Irrational Games has only developed two Bioshock titles thus far, there is already a certain expectation that one has going in to a new entry in the series. There is an attention to detail in these games aesthetically, thematically, and stylistically that is largely unmatched by any other developer, and it’s a breath of fresh air to see the worlds of Rapture, and now Columbia, come to life in front of you.
Bioshock Infinite does not fail to deliver on these expectations in any way, shape, or form.
In Infinite, you play as Booker DeWitt. Let’s just say he’s an “independent contractor” from New York that is sent out to save a young girl from a crazed lunatic by people he is indebted to. Although Booker doesn’t know it’s a rescue mission when he starts. From there, as you would imagine, things don’t go exactly as planned, and the people of Columbia – a massive floating city high above the clouds – brand Booker as a false shepherd. Just in case you were wondering, they’re quite hostile towards false shepherds.
Whereas my memories of the original Bioshock were largely about the atmosphere of Rapture, Infinite is much more about the action. I hesitate to use the phrase monster closets, as the environments in Infinite are much larger and more realized than one would think; but there is definitely a sense of “Yes, I am going to be fighting about twenty to thirty guys in this room very shortly.” It’s disappointing in only the slightest sense that encounters with enemies never come in small doses. There is always a small platoon of them waiting for you in these large rooms.
To Infinite’s credit, the combat is actually quite fun. Vigors are now used in the place of the Plasmids of old. There are definitely some creative uses for each of the eight skills that you receive throughout the course of the game, and it seems as though a lot of thought went in to how they can be used in battle – both in terms of the enemies you are facing, and the environment that you face them in. The guns also seem to work well, but I wish there was more of a draw to use different weapons. I think used the first carbine rifle that I came across in the game, only switching to another weapon when I ran out of ammo.
However, running out of supplies is not as fear-inducing as it once was. While there are thousands of different things you can search in the environment for anything from safety deposit box bullets to trash can sandwiches, the game also gives you someone that can search the environment for items as you need them during combat.
It’s difficult to talk about a lot of the plot elements without going in to spoiler territories, but I can tell you that once again this game seems to build its mythology from the inside out. Everything feels so well thought out and realized that it’s hard to really poke holes in anything that happens. The characters are fleshed out in some really interesting ways, and the game itself has a few wrenches it throws at you to play with what you really think is going on – as well as using these as a way to go deeper in to the world of Columbia.
There really is a lot going on in Bioshock Infinite, almost right from the outset. The game even starts with what I took as a visual nod to the original Bioshock, but as soon as it goes in a different direction (up instead of down) it doesn’t really look back. The topics this game chooses to touch upon to show parallels in human thinking and how it correlates to past and present is just astounding. It’s truly the highest praise I can think of in terms of storytelling and world building to say that this game highlights a period in history and shows us how little we’ve changed since then in some ways, and how far we’ve come.
There is just so much to the world created by this game, whether it is the myriad of incidental dialogue that you hear as you are exploring the streets of Columbia, or the many, many exchanges between Elizabeth and Booker as the game goes on. The environments look gorgeous. The effects are fantastic. And above all else, the game is fun.
There`s nothing I would love to do more than talk about how this game ends. Not even just the end of the plot, but the whole final sequence of this game is masterful, and almost brought tears to my eyes. Ken Levine certainly has set the bar high for storytelling in video games. If anything, I can`t wait to see what he comes up with next.
