VG Review - Bioshock: Infinite

I know I never did a full review of "Dishonored" or "Borderlands 2" which I will as soon as I finish the latter (it's a LONG game) and maybe next week I will do the "Dishonored" one. For now, though, you'll have to "settle" for "Bioshock: Infinite" which I just finished last night.

Bioshock: Infinite (360)

Let me preface this review by stating that if you don't know it already, I love "Bioshock" so my review may be a little skewed. The fact of the matter is, though, that I can often get myself so psyched for something that I get disappointed in the result no matter how good it is. This happens to me with movies more than anything, so I usually try and stay away from news articles and stuff that might pump me up too much. "Infinite" was a little hard to do that with since through their marketing blitz the last couple of months the game has been everywhere. That being said, I was beyond excited for this title and started to get disappointed about 30 minutes in. Then the world I thought I was entering did a 180 on me and all hell broke loose.

When you enter Columbia you'll see how wonderfully beautiful and detailed it is. I played on the 360 so it might not have been quite as detailed as others may have experienced, but I digress. The textures are wonderful, the movements (for the most part) are natural and fluid, smoke and flags billow in a realistic manner...you immediately feel immersed. It initially feels like you're in the total opposite world of Rapture and then, through the plot, you realize something else, but more on that later.

Gameplay is very similar to the original "Bioshock", but more fluid and polished. Plasmids are replaced by Vigors and honestly, they're more useful. I relied upon only 1 or 2 Plasmids through the course of "Bioshock" after trying each of them out. Unless an environmental need arose, I didn't veer from my mainstays. Here, I used them all pretty evenly. Some are more useful than others given a situation, but there's more balance and usefulness of each of them in battle. The Gene Tonics are replaced with Gear which are just different clothing items that give you bonuses. What's great about these is you can actually change them at any time since some of them are pretty specific to certain tasks. The biggest changes are the Skyhook that allows you to ride the cargo rails between floating buildings (Skylines) and Elizabeth your companion through most of the narrative.

The Skyline system is fun and really amazingly done. You whip around like you're on a hanging coaster shooting baddies and leaping off to do melee attacks to them. It's a blast. Where it comes most in handy is to leap out of a tight spot to allow your shield to recharge which you'll need to do often since there's no health/"mana" potions you carry with you. All the health and "salts" (this game's Eve) have to be found in the environment.

Elizabeth is just one of the great video game characters, yes, she's the damsel in distress, but she's just so damn helpful. Anyone worried about having an escort mission throughout the game can put your mind at ease. She finds cover so you don't have to worry about her safety and actually helps by tossing stuff at you mid-battle and creating "opportunities" that I won't spoil. Her biggest role though, is in the narrative, where "Infinite" shines more than any game in recent memory.

So what about this narrative? Well, I don't want to give anything away, but there is social commentary on race, politics, and religion that pulls absolutely no punches. Seriously. That 180 that I was speaking of will shock you in it's frankness on race relations at the time. That's not what it's all about though. Like I said before, you realize that this idyllic world is rotting underneath, just like Rapture, just not as overt (at first). What is striking, though, is the relationship between Booker (you) and Elizabeth and how these characters change, come to terms with what is thrown at them, and figure out all the mysteries in Columbia. The ending will shock, amaze, and make you want to start the game over again immediately much like when "Donnie Darko" ended you wanted to start it again because of the questions swirling in your head. It is one of those stories that will be discussed and dissected over and over because it purposefully doesn't give you straight answers on many things. Like any work of art (that's right, art), it wants you to interpret it how you see it to invite controversy and discussion.

This game more than most shows what an art form gaming can be. Sure there's crap games just like there are crap paintings and sculptures, but then along comes a Mona Lisa or Starry Night that shows just how wonderful art can be. This is that type of game. Sure there are imperfections like glitches where I couldn't pick up a coin here or there and I would've like to have seen more of certain "Heavy Hitters" (mini-bosses like Big Daddies, but different), but that isn't the point of this experience. The narrative is.

Honestly, I could talk about this game for a long time. I think I will do a series on it a few months from now and give people time to play it. That way I can explore themes, connections and parallels to "Bioshock", and the ending in a detailed and spoiler filled manner. So go play it. Even if you aren't a first-person shooter fan, it's one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had, if not the greatest.