BIOSHOCK INFINITE REVIEW
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
Since the beginning,
the Bioshock games have risen above the typical Halo/Call of Duty first-person
shooter game to be something special, something extraordinary. In addition, the
original Bioshock had an insane twist. “Would you Kindly” was the most
surprising twist in any game I’d ever played. This game has a twist that rivals
that to the extreme. Infinite takes you out of the underwater, claustrophobic
city of Rapture, to the boundless, skyward, floating Colombia. Bioshock’s are
known for having incredible stories, addictive gameplay, and great graphics.
Bioshock Infinite rises above all expectations to become one of the most
beautiful, fun, and breathtaking games of this generation—with an ending that
will leave you thinking for hours, maybe days afterward.
Bioshock Infinite’s
graphics are, technically, nothing special. Textures get blurry, things far
away are cloudy (although that could be because of the clouds), and characters
other than Elizabeth don’t move all too fluidly. This barely matters though.
The game is beautiful, has the most amazing architecture, and the enemies are
extremely creative looking (especially the Boys of Silence.) The graphics,
while not the most technically superior, are some of the best I’ve seen in a
long time.
The gameplay in
Infinite is the same as in Bioshock and Bioshock 2, but Plasmids, Eve and Adam,
etc., have been replaced. You’ll understand why when you finish the game.
Plasmids are now called Vigors. Eve is now Salts. Money pretty much doubles as
Adam now. Return to Sender and Murder of Crows are new Vigors that are insanely
awesome, but boring Vigors such as Undertow and Charge make me think of
omissions such as Insect Swarm and Winter Blast that should have been included.
Big Daddies have physically been replaced with Handymen, but spiritually live
on in the Songbird. All of this reasoning will be explained soon. Elizabeth’s
powers open tears, which at first glance, I thought were stupidly used in
combat, but after playing through several battles utilizing them, I realized
that they are actually genius. There are static items littered all over
battlefields, ranging from everything from cover to health packs to freight
hooks for your skyhook. The catch, though, is that no two things can exist at
once. While you may see a shadow of a weapon, you cannot access it without
signaling to Elizabeth first, who will open up a tear, making the things
accessible, but simultaneously taking away whatever is available at the time.
Weapons though, will not leave your hands, and health will not be re-lost, but
things like freight hooks and cover will disappear. Elizabeth will also toss
you health, salts, or ammo in the middle of battle, and will also toss you
coins at random times. For points in the game when Elizabeth leaves you (she is
kidnapped by Songbird multiple times, and also runs away often), the game felt
like it lost depth, and you don’t have her help, or her company. The skyhook is
a great melee weapon, and has more uses than the wrench or drill did. The
skyline is very fluid, and not clunky at all. The gameplay is overall similar
to Bioshock 1 and 2, if you take away Elizabeth, but that is NO problem. I’d
rather have a game that plays like Bioshock than Call of Duty.
The story, at first,
is very straightforward. Find the girl, bring her to New York, repay your debt,
game over. It gets much more complicated. You’re just about to leave for New
York, when Elizabeth realizes where you’re taking her, and she knocks you out
with a wrench. You wake up and the Vox Populi (a cult that is quickly established
against the main villain, Comstock), have taken your airship. They agree to
give it back when you bring them guns. When you go to get the guns, the man who
will give them to you is gone, and you go to get him, but he’s dead, and this
is when it gets confusing. Robert and Rosalind, the same people who said,
“Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt,” arrive. They say that he is only
dead from one perspective, and this is when you go through portals to different
Colombias. This includes a Colombia where one family worships Comstock instead
of Buddha, a Colombia where Booker died for the Vox Populi—all different
worlds. OK, fast forward to the end now. Booker and Elizabeth meet up with
Comstock. Comstock tells Booker to tell Elizabeth about what happened to her
finger. Booker doesn’t know, and is fed up with this man who lies, locks up his
daughter for 20 years, and everyone else is too blind to see it. Booker doesn’t
understand how this man can be considered a god and be such a villain at the
same time, so he bashes Comstock’s head into a fountain, and holds his head
under the water, drowning him. They continue on, to find the Vox Populi
destroying the generator that keeps the airship afloat. On top of all that,
Songbird arrives, ready to take Elizabeth back. She convinces him to help them
just this once, and he agrees. The Vox are killed, and Elizabeth realizes that
the only way to understand her true powers is to destroy the machine holding
her back. Songbird does it, then tries to attack Booker. At the last second,
Elizabeth transports the three of them to Rapture’s Welcome Center. Except, the
Songbird is outside in the ocean. He is killed because of the pressure. It is
then revealed that Elizabeth can see every reality that ever was, or could be.
For every choice made, one more reality is created. For example; if you decided
to stay home, the reality would keep going as it was, but a new reality would
ALSO be created where you did go to work, and those two realities would exist
at the same time, eventually creating billions of realities for every person,
all of which are accessed via lighthouses. There is always a man (Booker/Jack),
a lighthouse (the one with the rocket and the one that leads to the Welcome
Center), and a city (Rapture/Columbia).
The ending and the
multiple realities confused the heck out of me, so forgive me if this isn’t too
clear. Also, Elizabeth was born as Anna, Booker’s child. Lutece took the child,
in exchange for Booker’s debt, because Comstock wanted a child, but was infertile.
Booker has a change of heart at the last moment, when Anna is being taken
through the closing portal, and tries to take her back, resulting in Anna’s
finger being chopped off by the closing portal. And, get ready for this, Booker
is Comstock in a different reality where he accepted a baptism that was given
after the battle of Wounded Knee. Comstock builds Columbia, and wants a child.
Anna has never been born, as this is an alternate reality, so he sends Lutece
to get her. Booker realizes that the only way to kill Comstock completely, so
he’d be dead in all realities, is to kill him before he’s born, at which point,
he accepts the baptism, and is drowned, by Elizabeths from all realities.
Booker dies, killing Comstock, meaning Anna was never kidnapped from the other
reality, meaning she never became Elizabeth. So basically, Booker, Elizabeth,
Songbird, and Comstock all die in the end.
This story, is
genius. It is the greatest story to ever exist in any video game. Everything
ties in together at the end, still leaving, INFINITE, (yes I did) questions
left unanswered. In every world, there is an equal to every character, as the
Big Daddies are replaced by Songbird and Little Sisters are replaced by
Elizabeth. I could go on forever, but I have to wrap this up. My only complaint
is that the Vox riots have a lot of missed potential. They don’t just feel as
epic as the tower escape with Elizabeth, and they just didn’t have as much
tension as the scene where you are fired up to Columbia in a rocket in the beginning.
But, well, too bad. I don’t care, and that is a small price to pay for one of
the best games ever made. The soundtrack, also is phenomenal.
Bioshock Infinite is,
hands down, the greatest game ever made. Period. 5/5. 10/10. 100000/100000.
∞/ ∞. Stop reading this and go play this game. Buy the soundtrack too.
This game is well worth it.
–B
