TL;DR: one of the best first person shooters ever.
Synopsis: a man travels to a world in the sky to find a girl, and finds himself in the middle of a struggle between a White supremacist Theocratic Fascist regime and a bunch of Global Nigger Communists.
Everybody loved Bioshock, and for good reason — it had good gameplay and a memorable setting/story. The same goes for Bioshock 2, though it was really just a clone of the 1st with a different story and a few superficial changes. Bioshock infinite, however, is very different. They changed the setting so that it takes place in a city above ground called Columbia, added more human characters, and made the story more ambitious. Did it work? Yes, according to the critics, though the community had a much more polarized response.
The “elites” and the “critics” appreciating a release but not the community is usually a red flag. In this case, it was a false alarm — Bioshock Infinite is the real deal.
The story is full of holes, but was an ambitious project in its own right: such is the nature of most alternative world stories. The story and game is fairly unremarkable… Until you get to Elizabeth, that is. You are supposed to take her to a man in New York to wipe away debts; in the meantime she assists you in the journey by giving you health/ammo during fights and opening up doors to other worlds. Many who play the game report getting attached to Elizabeth; I believe this to be a consequence of the fighting mechanics, her character, and the fact that she’s just incredibly hot. Apparently people wanted porn of this character so badly that several breakthroughs in 3D animation were made.
Afterwards, some things go south, and you arrive at the City where you meet commies, which is when the game starts to become much more interesting. The Communists are a rebel group called ‘the Vox’ that plans to kill Comstock, who is the White Nationalist Fascist who runs this city. Now, you need to help the Vox in exchange for an airship to fly to Paris, after a change of plans occurred. Unfortunately, you and Elizabeth need to change worlds several times to help the Vox, which results in things getting more complicated.
After a few world changes, you land in a world where the Vox leader Fitzroy betrayed you and started a revolution. Upon arriving to the world, the Vox forces align with you as they are unaware you were betrayed, at least, until Elizabeth kills Fitzroy for trying to murder a child.
Now that shit has hit the fan so badly, both of you agree to kill Comstock. After 3-5 hours (couldn’t this part have been made shorter?), you finally arrive to Comstock’s ship and face him. Facing this man at the end is the best part of the game. He tries being kind to Elizabeth at first by washing her hands with a sponge (awkward?), but his true colours start to show with time, and he starts fighting with her and raving about her missing pinky. You then break up the fight, and then bash his head against a fountain and drown him, while Elizabeth calls at you to stop him.
This scene is incredible for several reasons - Comstock dies quickly, so it comes as a shock to you. Even though Elizabeth was egging you on to kill him only an hour earlier or so, you can’t feel like she’s betraying you by being cold to you after the fact. After all, you did brutally murder him in a fit of rage, partially because he was hinting at a secret that he was hiding from both of you.
After, you travel to the tower you found Elizabeth in to destroy it. This is the last combat scene in the game, and by far the most disappointing one. I couldn’t buy ammo, so I had to run around the ship like an idiot to scavenge. Boring as hell.
Now, the game becomes a movie.
It turns out that there are infinite numbers of worldlines, and when they tried to find Comstock, they only found Booker getting baptized and rejecting it — hinting that Booker and Comstock are the same person, but neither Elizabeth or you want to acknowledge that. Instead, Elizabeth brings us back to our old detective agency, where we find out that we actually gave up Elizabeth when she was a baby for the debts, and that we don’t remember because… I don’t know. It doesn’t really make sense.
After this, we return to the lake at which Booker got baptized, Elizabeths from other worlds then join us… Only for them to drown you, killing you to make it so Comstock never exists.
A fantastic ending. Kino.
II.
The game is not based, but it’s also not cringe: the third worldist Fitzroy turned out to be a lunatic who destroyed the sky paradise for a stupid race communist revolution. Not exactly a bold statement, but still better than Bioshock’s massive retcon of freedom, where they allow you to become a free man, but force you to become a monster.
The gameplay is great — it’s like old Bioshock but the enemies no longer scale as annoyingly and the tedious hacking is gone. Some people thought this made the gameplay stale, and to an extent this is true, but if you like the gameplay that’s not going to bother you.
Scoring:
Design (18/20):
Atmosphere: (4/5) - good, but not as good as the original
Graphics: (5/5) - runs well, good visuals
UI: (2/2)
Bugs: (2/2) - none?
Sound: (2/2)
OST: (1/2) - mid
Character designs: (2/2)
Script (20/25):
Character Investment: (5/5) - still invested as an “adult”
Character Realism: (2/2)
Character Complexity: (2/3)
Consistency: (6/10) - well…
Ending: (5/5)
Gameplay (25/30):
Skill expression: (8/10) - as high as the original
RNG: (5/5) - very little RNG
Satisfaction: (8/10) - no more gay hacking, enemies are less spongy. The boss fights suck, though.
Optionality: (2/3) - last level is missing vending machines
Novelty: (2/2)
Value (12/15):
Skill: (5/5)
Originality: (4/5)
Thematic elements: (3/5) - fine, I guess? anti-ideology anti-political anti-racist anti-communist milquetoast centrism is much better than the garbage in most games these days.
Enjoyment (10/10):
Did I like it: (10/10)