In 2007 Irrational games released Bioshock, an FPS that provided us with a unique setting, amazing storyline, great gameplay mechanics and a striking steam punk vibe. Now 5 years later Bioshock Infinite, the third game in the series, sets its aims skyward in more ways than one. But the question is with a game that has its ambitions set so high can it even reach these mind numbing heights or will it tumble back down to earth with an almighty thud?
The year is 1912 and you are Booker DeWitt, a man tasked with finding a girl named Elizabeth on the flying city of Columbia and bringing her back to New York to pay off a debt. On arrival it is clear that things aren’t quite what they seem in Columbia, that though on the surface the place may seem like a nice, family friendly place to live but underneath all the polish and sheen lies a dark, dirty and twisted secret involving religion, racial purity, blood ties and a whole lot of quantum mechanics. Here is a warning to all of you who are considering playing this game, bring migraine tablets and a quantum physicist along for the ride, Bioshock Infinite makes you work as hard as films like Inception to understand what is really going on between Booker, Columbia and the supporting cast. A lot of speculation was whether Bioshock infinite could pull off the mystery and intrigue of the first game, because this time you knew there would be a plot twist, one that would shock you to the core. But without spoiling anything, when the shocks come, your jaw will hit the floor faster than it ever has before.
Bioshock Infinite also plays like a Bioshock game, well sort of anyway. The gameplay in Infinite is a lot faster paced with larger gunfights and more focus on the shooting this time round. Guns are extremely satisfying to use with an array of machine guns, rocket launchers, shotguns and sniper rifles, there is always something to kill with. All of the guns also handle very nicely with often very little need for use of the iron-sights, though iron-sighting is always an option you never feel like you need it with hip firing being just as, if not more accurate and more satisfying. Plasmids also make a return in the form of Vigour's, they are Plasmids in everything but name with many old favourites returning on one way or another such as shock, fire and telekinesis. However whoever decided that only allowing you to carry two guns at a time was a good idea deserves to be shot and anybody who didn’t suggest to put a vending machine to swap out weapons as and when you want to deserves to be nuked. This means you must pick up weapons off bodies of dead enemies, ammo also seems in short supply which is odd due to the sheer military force Columbia has meaning you will frequently run out of ammo in the middle of a gunfight meaning you have to rely on Vigour's and picking up the weapon that your enemy just dropped.
The skyhook also plays a large part in Infinite. Skyrails populate the air of Columbia and the skyhook gives you the ability to traverse these with ease allowing for tactical advantages and even a nice melee weapon.
Upgrades for weapons can be bought however I noticed that these upgrades never really help, a fully upgraded machine gun still took the same amount of bullets to kill someone as a non-upgraded one and your Salt (What allows you to use Vigour's) will decrease rapidly in a fire-fight no matter how much of it you have. Luckily Elizabeth will scout around the battlefield and throw you ammo, money, health and Salt when you need them, but this doesn’t happen often enough. Health and shield can also be upgraded alongside Salt by collecting special upgrade drinks, but there aren’t enough of these in the game to give you a fighting chance meaning you will have to apply them all in 1 area (Health or Shield makes more sense) rather than spread them across all three categories.
Bioshock Infinite has the potential to be one of the best FPS's on the market however is hampered by these little details that seriously affect the overall quality.
The presentation to the game is of a very high standard but it has its major problems on console versions. Its no shock that the Xbox360 & PS3 are getting on a bit now but Bioshock Infinite really makes them show their age compared the the PC version of the game. Textures are low quality and muddy, the frame rate is shockingly bad at times and environment detailing is minimal on console versions. However the PC version will delight you with one of the most beautiful games this generation. Rich vibrant colours saturate the games first half, character models are excellent and textures are pure awesome. One complaint that applies to all platforms however is when the game shifts into night, the colour drains and the environments don’t fit the darkness well in terms of aesthetics. Now this is only a minor gripe but had nothing but eh finale of the game taken place in darkness then it would have been a much better visual experience.
The sound design is equally as good with some top notch voice acting, ear pleasing orchestral pieces, recognisable songs from the early 1900's up to the mid 90's (Don’t worry, its explained in the story) as well as guns sounding like they could actually do some damage.
On a whole Bioshock Infinite may not be the gift from God people have hyped it up to be, but it is certainly one of the best games this console generation and one that should not be missed, even if you don’t like shooters. Bioshock Infinite, though the third in the franchise is technically a prequel and judging by the ending a great way to set up a big franchise of games bearing the Bioshock name just like Assassins Creed has been able to do for itself. The games only problems are a few niggles in the gameplay and graphical department and one or two plotholes that were either lazily filled or still need to be filled in (however this is forgiveable for the sheer balls Infinite has in its story department). Infinite isn’t perfect, but it is truly amazing and with a lifespan of around 13 hours for a playthrough on Normal, that only sweetens the package.
Bioshock infinite: 9/10
+Ambitious Story
+Long length
-Some Poor Gameplay Choices
-Noticably Inferior Console Version
