Poor gameplay. Why all the love?

Couldn't agree more.

Meh, for most games I personally like it when sensitivity is slowed to a certain amount when ADS'd. I can understand your complaint though, having some sort of option available in the options would have been fantastic as it makes both parties happy. Or other ways of modifying the ADS sensitivity, like in CS where you can modify zoom_sensitivity_ratio in the config/console (actually this command may just apply to all Source games, I'm not sure).

I would imagine that at least at this point in time it's pretty difficult to genuinely nail the story and atmosphere on the level that both Bioshock and Infinite have, yet also craft a perfectly paced and expertly designed game from the "shooter" perspective. Something has to give somewhere. But to me, both Bioshock and Infinite are considerably more interested in telling a story than just making a fun game. And I like it that way. If I want a pure shooter with excellent and pinpoint precision controls, I'll jump on Halo. But if I want a story that rivals and betters many classic films, I'll look to Bioshock.

I agree 100%. Just like they talked about in Dead Space 3, there is no incentive to change up what works so the combat becomes boring. It's funny how they nitpick a game like this less than they do others. They literaly spent 1 hour talking about how Laura's ramp up in killing was too fast. Jeff made one little remark about it in this game. lol

I think the combat's fantastic. The story, too. It's unfortunate you don't feel that way, because it feels awesome.

@fiberpay:

Booker did kill alot before the events in Infinite though, so thats why there really is no point in comparing Tomb Raider and this.

I strongly disagree with this. I recently played Rage and Far Cry 3, and Bioshock Infinite stacks up well compared to those. Far better than it has any business doing infact, considering how insignificant the actual shooting is compared to the rest of the game. I almost forgot to use vigors, because I just felt the carbine was so satisfying to use. I played it as a shooter because the game totally supported that way of playing, unlike Bioshock 1 where the gunplay was numb and second-rate, so I almost always used plasmids and the wrench.

I didn't even start to dabble in most of the vigors, weapons and gear in Infinite, but I had one glorious moment where I stringed together an awesome combination of vigor effects that really made me realize how fucking insane the combat can be. Let's just say it involved a lot of people floating around in the air, while being electrocuted and on fire at the same time. Going to try 1999 mode because the game could probably carry itself for most the time on that difficulty level and you're forced to use more tactics. All in all, I think the gameplay is up there with some of the best, and it does it's own thing which is rare these days.

Almost certain that he was talking about Liz not Booker.

I believe the issue with combat is it doesn't leverage vigors enough. At least on Medium and if you are any good at FPS combat you can get along without using vigors in many fights. Vigors seem to be more of a shortcut than powerful. What would have helped is more enemy types that are vulnerable to status or elemental effects from vigors. Doing that sort of back and forth would have given great feedback in combat because it generates the feeling of empowerment.

I think the combat is great, it's a lot of fun (with mouse and keyboard).

I don't play modern games on their harder difficulties, for whatever reason I started Bioshock Infinite on it's Hard difficulty.

The last thing I'd say about the game was that it's combat was bland, unless of course you're fed up with ALL games... cause all games have you kill things to progress and there's a lot of that in this game too. Within the confines of modern gaming and killing things to move forward though, it's among the best there is. Sure you CAN just shoot dudes if you want, maybe what you're asking for is to be forced into doing only a specific set of combos to kill things? The game allows you to be as creative as you want to be with the combat, there are achievements that pull you towards all the different weapons and beg you to use ALL of the powers in all of their combinations, which each combination offers different variants to those powers (flaming crows, electrified possessions etc).

So if you found this game too easy, or not a challenge (in a bad way) start playing games on their harder difficulties. I did the reverse for most games because being killed in games is basically the biggest turn off for me, and it definitely sucked when it happened often in bioshock but for whatever reason I stuck with it and that made the combat the least of the games problems. The problems with the game that I encountered were the stuttering while the game loads objects and stuff, it got really bad in a lot of areas and stopped me from playing straight through in just a few sittings and instead I had been chipping away at the game every day or so, just finished it a few hours ago etc.

Pretty much every time I saw her she was cowering in fear during combat, unless she was throwing me supplies. I didn't really have a problem with it.

Also, it kinda bugged me when they were saying it was dumb the enemies weren't attacking Elizabeth because it makes perfect sense that they wouldn't storywise.

Its so cool to hate on the latest masterpiece.

ironically, I absolutely agree with you. Just not about bioshock because I think the design and storytelling are first rate. You're right in your criticisms though, and I share them on almost every other AAA release that comes out these days.

"why all the love?"

I guess a majority of us completely disagree with you?

@milkman said:

I'm finding the combat a ton of fun and am generally just absolutely loving the game.

^

@paulwade1984: "Masterpiece" is a bit of a stretch. It's decent. And it's pretty much the same backlash that every critically acclaimed game has gotten.

Love how this thread was bumped for a ^.

I really enjoyed the combat in BioShock Infinite.

Generally speaking, I prefer slow, heavy FPS like BioShock rather a really fast one like TimeSplitters (but that's still a really sweet game). I mostly used the hand cannon, shotgun and sniper rifle. I disagree that there is no "feedback" to the weapons though I do wish there was sniper rifle bob. The shotgun has a pretty great feeling, especially. The Vigors are super cool when you're mixing them all together, jumping on and off the skylines, creating traps for enemies and launching others into the air. Learning the equations of which vigors are especially good in which situations and against which enemies is satisfying and, for me, was vital to survival. All in all I think I had more fun with the gameplay in BioShock, but I just liked the weapons better in that game. The upgrades created a better relationship with your arsenal than in Infinite. That said, the moment I turned the health bars and numbers on my satisfaction with BSI increased dramatically. Much more of an RPG feel and gave way better information about how successful I was in combat.

I liked how the gameplay felt as it didn't 100% feel like every other CoD or FPS game. I really didn't like many of the weapons and mostly stuck with the Carbine and either shotgun or machine gun as my secondary close or range weapon. I was looking forward to the three-burst shot one, but when it had a scope instead of iron sights I never used it after then. I love carbine rifles in FPS games, but all other games always have them so underpowered or have exceptionally small clips. So I was glad when the carbine in this game kicked ass. I just loved the feeling of getting some dudes in my ironsights and going BLAT BLAT BLAT BLAT.

I guess the only part that I didn't care for were the vigor powers. I only used the grenade like one and the water one every so often. All the others seemed pretty useless to me...although I hear the shield one is a necessity in 1999 mode. The optional tear objects were a really neat addition I didn't even know about and enjoyed. As this game isn't a CoD or Battlefield type game, I was glad that the gunplay didn't feel like them at all. That kind of FPS shooting just wouldn't feel right in a story and atmosphere game like this.

I think this guy brings some very valid points about the game (Spoilers o'hoy)

That was an interesting couple of minutes. I agree with most of the nitpicks made but, like he says: Infinite is still a pretty friggin' great game.

Whether or not Irrational's next game is another AAA blockbuster, I'm still looking forward to it because they're still putting interesting things into their games, even if a few of them aren't as good as the rest.

I'm really forcing my way through it. I love the world and style put it's hard not to make a audible groan every time the combat music starts... I guess the whole shooting thing is really getting old for me. I couldn't finish Black Ops 2, I couldn't finish Dead Space 3. Then again I had tons of fun with Far Cry 3 and Tomb Raider. I really don't know what it is.

I can't play more than a 40-60 minutes on one sitting and I'm a guy who often finishes games in one or two sittings. I really remember liking Bioshock 2 too. It's really weird. I wish there was a 90% less enemies mode. That would make the game awesome for me. I have to finish this game because of the characters and the world, but I really don't like playing it.

Edit: I just realized that I played Spec Ops in one sitting and loved the shit out of that... How did I do that and still have so much trouble with Infinite? I'm weird.