Bioshock Infinite Mini Review

I was running from college home as quick as I could, called my girlfriend on the way telling her I won’t reply to any messages or calls today from nobody. I get home, thrown the things of me, start my PC, !@%&*$# why does my computer move so slow today! Good, it’s up, I’m on Steam entering the code for the game…damn my palms are sweaty…waiting for validation… why doesn’t it work!?!?!?! @%&*$# I forgot one letter…finally it works and I get to downloading it. I waited for this game for years but now that I know is out I can’t even wait till it installs it on my hard drive so I pace nervously forward and backwards in my room. However in a short time the icon with the little four magic words appear; Play. Hallelujah!

If you search this blog you will notice that there are a couple of articles dedicated to the whole Bioshock franchise. But more on that later, now I need to write about the third installment of my favorite shooter.

Bioshock Infinite tells the story of a former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt who is sent to the floating city of Columbia with a simple task, to rescue a girl named Elizabeth to pay up a debt. Why and what not I won’t enter in more detail because I would have to spoil much of the story. And it would appear on the surface that it is a save the princess from the castle story type but it’s not, it is more complex that even after three days of finishing the game I still talked with my friends about it and we still would make up theories about the plot. And that is a mark of a good story in a game, there are no choices now and some might dislike that but a end that you have to think about is more rewarding in my opinion.

From the atheistic, underwater city of Rapture to the heavenly clouds of Columbia where the society is one of ultra nationalism, ruled by a theocratic government in front of which stays the religious fanatic Prophet, Father Comstock the father of Elizabeth. Under his leadership Columbia became a breeding ground for racist and sexist attitudes with the minority groups persecuted, marginalized, tortured and much much more. From all these things a anarcho-communist faction called the Vox Populi (latin for Voice of the People) emerged to fight the current government. And I think I should stop here and let you discover the rest of the story.

The world looks sublime, at first a contrast to the underwater city of Rapture, Columbia is filled of bright colors, sunny streets, happy people, a heaven in flesh and bones or so it is at a first look because as you dive deeper and deeper you will discover that the colors are not so bright and that the people as always spoil the paradise. The animations look beautiful, Elizabeth looks very natural and realistic.

The gameplay is similar to the other games but know the plasmids are called vigors and the Eve is called Salt. Here I am a little disappointed because they didn’t do anything original (I know it is pretty hard), the vigors are very similar to the other games and the weapons are alright done but you can’t carry more than two unfortunately. Oh and I just remembered this as I am writing, I always like the mini puzzles in the previous games, namely the hacking game and I was sad to see that they took that out from this game. Audio diaries are still here as gramophones, Big Daddy’s are somehow here as Handymans but no more little girls, no more choosing. Fights have become somehow more dynamic, Elizabeth helps you during fights with things like giving you heath packs, ammo, money and not once does she hinder you during the action. Also it is nice that she is valuable so the enemies won’t target her so you won’t need to escort her and watch her so she won’t die. You also can utilize the rail which connects the floating buildings of Columbia at your advantage, hooking yourself to the Skyline and jumping on enemies or forming whatever combos you think best apply.

I thought I was done but forgot to tell about the sounds. Of course the sounds are top notch, not only the soundtracks raging from battle intense scores to religious songs, classical music and much more. The effects are done wonderful and the acting is superb as always, nothing less than I expected from the developer team. Like in Rapture I fell in the atmosphere, it sucked me right in and I felt sad that I had to leave Columbia after only 10 hours.

The game has no multiplayer and from my point of view it doesn’t need too. Like the developer team said if it isn’t something original it doesn’t need to be in; I personally don’t want to play some copy of that awful Call of Duty multiplayer.

Bioshock Infinite is a masterpiece, a beautiful game even if the gameplay is a little stale and the mid part of the game seems stuffed in to make you play more, but what it excels in is telling a good story and making the universe setting believable. Hats of one more time to the team that made the game and let’s hope the next installments of the game are as good as the first three. Amen!

My rating – 9.5/10 – A masterpiece that you must play before you die.

I recorded the end of this game but beware there are huge major spoilers.

Some thoughts on the coming Bioshock franchise

In 2007 we all witnessed a game that came and blew our minds away. That was Bioshock, a game with good graphics, brilliant gameplay and an amazing story. Since then it has become my favorite shooter. I really don’t want to get into praising or explaining the game in here.

That being said in 2010 a sequel, Bioshock 2 came along. When I first heard rumors about a Bioshock follow-up I was rather skeptic. I mean I was thinking „oh no, they found a gold mine and now they will exploit it”. So I got the game and played it. Several changes were made and overall the game was very good. The same setting was there, they couldn’t actually change it but it wasn’t so much of an impact as in the first one. But they nailed it in the storyline department and that was my only motivation to play it.

Bioshock 3 is coming down the pipe in 2011 so they say. I will play it but if I was skeptic at the second one I’m just going out and say that the 3rd one will plainly suck. I hope it won’t, but I really won’t expect much. They started to milk this cow too but in the end it will end with a disease old cow that nobody wants, like in most franchises.

Furthermore they announced that they want to do 3 more sequels. So in total we will have 6 Bioshock games. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am cause I have the usual hunch that each game will suck more than the previous, like the Friday of 13th or Halloween series. Well at least they are sequels so I guess Mr. Ryan(who is one of the best villains of a video game and whom you actually pity and feel sorry for, at least I did) will be pleased that he is dead and won’t see the upcoming storms that will hit his beautiful city.

Before I go I would want to say something about the movie, the Bioshock movie that is set to release in 2011. Well I want very much to go and see it but I am afraid maybe this too will go down to that sewer pipe in Raputre that evacuates the excrements of splices and Big Daddy’s. But I hope for the love of everything that is sacred that they will not shower us with 2 hours of CGI and flat characters. I really hope I will see unique and real indoor settings and some good acting (especially Ryan). So let us hope that it’s gonna be alright. But why do I get the feeling that this is the calm before the storm?