Bioshock Infinite review

[saturn-gamer]

I felt they didn't do enough with Rapture. Look, the opening of Bioshock is one of the best ever and I thought I was witnessing a HL beater. I loved the steampunk kind of setting of Rapture, reminded me of Midgar also. The demo had this, and lots of great water effects... I bought it because of the demo, thinking it would be massive.

But in game it came down to simple corridors, broken up by cheap submarine loading screens. I didn't feel I was immersed in some sort of dystopia, at all. I hoped its exploration would be more like Deus Ex in that regard. If it was that I could forgive the sub par FPS gameplay as DE actually has that too. But since it was corridor and waves of 90's AI Splicers... you had to play it like a classic FPS. And the shooting et al felt below par.

[importaku]

Why all the bioshock hate? It's the one true great game is generation had, and everything pales in comparison, possibly only to be beaten by infinite.

I kind of feel the same way, in general i hate fps games they are usually very dull affairs of recreating pretend wars with WW2 soildiers/spacemen/zombies something that for me it presses none of my gaming buttons. Then when i got my 360 years after eveyone else i started to get to play games that never appeared on Nintendo consoles, i came across bioshock and rapture intrigued me it was mysterious & beautiful in equal amounts. After trying the demo i was hooked, i never expected to love a fps game but there i was totally drawn in & loving it. Felt like playing an adventure more than a fps, exploring & finding recordings & taking in the sights was enough. Lost count how many hours i spent walking around just looking at the scenery & reading everything like i was a tourist lol.

And now infinite is here, im hoping i get the same feeling all over again. Watched a few first play vids of the first hour & it looks stunning, even though it wasn't me playing there are parts that made my jaw drop especially the first moment after arriving in Columbia. I swear if my supposed preorder from game doesnt turn up by thursday im going out into town & picking up another copy, theres no way im going through easter weekend without it.

Nice to see it getting great scores from everywhere, it certainly sounds like it's living upto it's hype so far from wjat i have heard from on here & various reviews.

[dataDave]

What is this? Attack Of The Clones? The first area had around six dudes all with the same face and hair. Also, there aren't nearly enough handlebar mustaches going around.

The possession mechanic seems alright, it is making stuff even easier than it already is at the minute. You can also use it on the vending machines in the Hall of Whores to get infinite cash...

The fps mechanics seem very vanilla. I know that isn't the be all and end all to the 'Shocks so I'll stick with it, it's not like I have a ****ing choice as there is no pre-owned thing here.

[Synthesthesia]

I finished it last night. Loved the ending,

->Open Spoiler<-

quite a good twist that I honestly wasn't expecting at all

[Golgo]

Solid set of reviews there Kirov/ETC, gonna have to get it bought. BTW, is there MP in this or did they finally stick with idea of getting rid of it?

[Synthesthesia]

No MP in this.

[fuse]

I finished it last night.

Spoiler tag the rest of that please! Too late for me, but others might not have seen...

[Synthesthesia]

Spoiler tag the rest of that please! Too late for me, but others might not have seen...

Okay just done it. Not really sure what was spoiler-y about it though. Wasn't necessarily alluding to just the ending! Plus...

->Open Spoiler<-

you knew there was something to it

(that's not very spoilery either but if you're sensitive to that kind of thing...)

Regarding the ending... Obviously MASSIVE spoilers so don't read unless you've finished.

->Open Spoiler<-

When Elizabeth takes you to Rapture amazing moment. Then at the end when you realise that Booker is Comstock, and with the multiple realities thing...potentially Booker could also be Andrew Ryan. With all the realities being similar but different, (city under the sea, city in the sky, plasmids, vigors). Even things like the Big Daddy's have their counterparts in the handymen (both are warped humans)/ probably more appropriate but singular in the Songbird as they are the protectors of the little sisters in Bioshock, and the Songbird is the protector of Elizabeth in Infinite. The consequences of that ending are insane.

Bioshock Infinite indeed! Quite an apt name

[fuse]

It doesn't need to be explicit or tell-all; it's something that would reasonably alter someone's way of approaching the story and as such it's a spoiler. You may think I'm being overly sensitive but I know I'm not the only one who'd see it the same way. Thanks for putting the tags there.

[dataDave]

I'm still not really getting into this. It just seems like a bog-standard scenario driven FPS with some magic thrown in.

[Golgo]

A fraction prissy, Fuse, if I might say so? The suggestion that there might be a

->Open Spoiler<-

dramatic/unexpected ending

to an achingly melodramatic game does not in my view require spoiler tagging.

[capcom_suicide]

I am only an hour in, but I am (Excuse the pun) HOOKED!

It feels special, the narative is compelling and the story is AAA.

My start in this new adventure is going as well as I hoped. Loving it!

[BIG EDD]

Just picked it up for 360 will give it a good play test tonight but I had a parcel waiting for me when I got home yes it's luigis mansion what a brucie bonus

[huxley]

Sorry I just don't understand why this has got so many rave reviews.
The look of the game is a step backwards in the series. All I seem to be doing is going into an area, scarfing down food and salts, getting battered and then repeat. And what's with the continual threat dialogue from characters I can't seem to find.

[Pikate]

Regarding the ending... Obviously MASSIVE spoilers so don't read unless you've finished.

->Open Spoiler<-

When Elizabeth takes you to Rapture amazing moment. Then at the end when you realise that Booker is Comstock, and with the multiple realities thing...potentially Booker could also be Andrew Ryan. With all the realities being similar but different, (city under the sea, city in the sky, plasmids, vigors). Even things like the Big Daddy's have their counterparts in the handymen (both are warped humans)/ probably more appropriate but singular in the Songbird as they are the protectors of the little sisters in Bioshock, and the Songbird is the protector of Elizabeth in Infinite. The consequences of that ending are insane.

Bioshock Infinite indeed! Quite an apt name

->Open Spoiler<-

The Rapture moment was great. I was gutted the Songbird had to die though, cared much more about him than Booker DeWitt. The fact Comstock was Booker messes up a lot of the logic/motivation earlier in the game for me though. And to have all those lighthouses didn't make sense as I'm assuming the ending was about time-travel and other-dimensions rather than Booker cloning himself and making all these worlds intentionally and needing doorways.

Makes me excited about what the DLC is going to be given they're saying it's new characters and areas? And they really need to make "Songbird" soft toys like the ones in the game happen!

In terms of reviewing it I'm in two minds. First seeing the world and the concepts was great. I loved Elizabeth and Songbird and the ending/cutscenes were brilliant. As were the shooting parts and the Skyrail bits but at the same time it was a very boring game. I love BioShock and maybe in retrospect that was guilty of the same but I just felt like I was going through the motions all the time, the areas just funnelled me towards the objective and even the few game mechanics that encourage exploration (audio diaries, telescopes, those newsreel things) are easily missed (I feel like scoured the whole game and I still missed 5 diaries and 1 telescope or newsreel).

It's an odd one, I feel like it's one of the greatest games ever made and I'm itching to go back in 1999 mode over Easter for a challenge and to 100% the achievements but at the same time even the 12-15 hours it took me to complete it were a bit of a grind/bore which was never true in say Portal 2 or even GTA IV (which I'm sure took me nearer, if not over, 80!). So yeah, to me it's a case of cutting edge concepts in terms of storytelling and character/environment design hampered by linear, boring game mechanics.