Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite (PC, X360, PS3)

Story, its Presentation, and the Setting in general:
Story(10/10)
"Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt"
Booker Dewitt, a private investigator. set to the flying city of Columbia to do exactly that.
I won't say any more except that the character background is interesting, and the plot twist in the end is just great.

Presentation(2/10):
oh boy.
Infinite did way, way, way to much mistakes in this regard.
85% of depth of the plot is presented in the said plot twist.. 15 minutes before the end of the game.
no matter how good the story really is, if you spent literally the whole game thinking it suck... well...

I actually started writing the review before i finished the game because i thought there were no more surprises left.
good news? they surprised me. bad news? that review represented my view of the first 95% of the game and it got 4/10.

now lets talk about those 15% story that was spread across 95% of the game.
fact one. i already "spoiled" 5% out of them in that quote up there. straight from the intro.
fact two. the presentation of the remaining 10% still sucks. just in a different way.

As fair representative of the new trend in gaming that hates cutscenes, Infinite tell its story "on the fly".
what do i mean by that?
the story is presented mainly by dialogues. either between you and Elizabeth or by overhearing enemy conversations.
"so what do you complain about darkie?"
well.. the timing!
excuse me if i can't concentrate enough on the dialogues of the enemies while they trying (really hard) to friggin kill me!
strangely enough, it isn't easier to do while simply exploring.
when you just walking on the street and Elizabeth starts to talk about her sad childhood, its fine.
but when you all focused on examining the surroundings looking for loot or traps, a half sentence she throws to describe her standing on the current situation will pass straight from one ear to another.
in the half second your brain switches from loot mode and realizes she's talking to you, you miss half of the meaning.
it might sound like some kind of ADHD problem.. but it's something i experience for the first time in this game.

another thing that pisses me off is that  your actions - as player - have absolute zero effect on the story. even not a tiny good/evil system like in bioshock 1/2.

and the last thing that annoyed me:

Setting: (4/10) polarization +3 (if you're from the US)
At first, Columbia looks like a utopian version of the US right after the world war. how it would possible be if it had the technology and resources to make flying cities just for kicks.
as you dig deeper you discover it not nearly as utopian as it makes itself sound. (surprise, surprise)
it is filled by all kinds of blights. from extreme racism to complete corruption. it just sugar coats itself very well on the top.
people from the US will enjoy the twisted mirror image filled with rich details. both cultural and historical.

And that is where i have a problem with it.
it was cleared made by americans, to americans. filled with private jokes, sarcastic self-humor and those "little details".
details that make the average american to be amazed by the witty contrast, drop a little tear and say "I'm proud to be american".
details that make the less average american do that sarcastic smile you're thinking of, right about now.
those details that make absolutely no friggn sense to anyone, anywhere else in the world!


Elizabeth: (10/10)
"Elizabeth" you ask? yup. she's getting her own category.
if is more of a prof of concept really. Infinite really done it.
they made a realistic detailed NPC companion with a deep character, interesting backstory smart AI <b>AND</b> in-game usefulness.
in way to many games you get those useless companion that both paper thin and useless. how many times you thought to yourself "Oh, just stay here you useless prick. i'll do that!"
Elizabeth is important both story and gameplay-wise. and in those short moments where she won't be with you.. you'd really feel that she's missing.
aside from the commentary at inappropriate times we discussed earlier, her help is invaluable.
she points you to hidden objects. finds money, items and ammo for you. opens rifts to bring objects like cover into your world and can lockpick and locked door you come across.
no sane man will tell this chick to stay in the kitchen. :P


Gameplay: (7/10)
pretty standard bioshock experience. few steps forward, few steps back. leaving it more or less at the same place as Bioshock 1. arguably a step back from bioshock 2.
if that doesn't say anything to you, think of a FPS with RPG elements.
lets list a few changes.
first, there is Elizabeth. but we're already talked about her.
to make each playthrough more unique they vastly limited your cash. this way you can upgrade only limited set of equipment. also you can carry only two guns for the same reason.
but increasing between-playthrough-variety by limiting your in-playthrough-variety feels kinda lazy to me.
also unlike before you acquire your vigors (think, magic) in a very linear order without actual ability to choose one over others.

as for the exploration Infinite is <b>very</b> linear. "out-of-the-way goodies" almost always lie in dead ends after a short turn or in obviously locked rooms.
they added the skyline system. sky-railroads that you can glide on. nice way to travel between places and escape enemies only to come back and surprise them.
sadly those didn't show up nearly to enough in the game. there wasn't even a serious gun fight on one of those. what a waste.

nothing as cool as being kick*** big daddy in Bioshock 2.

talking about the big daddies. the semi-bosses here kinda suck as well. the regular gun fights lack a bit variety as well.

also the death system. unlike in Bioshock 1/2, you need to pay money to be revived. it was probably made to balance that system for a bit. but because money is scarce, you'll just end up reloading your saved game. making it even more unbalanced and taking away that fun system at the same time.

hmm.. now that i list all this, it might be a step back from Bioshock 1 after all.


Graphic: 5/5
absolutely gorgeous.


Sound and VA: 2/5
as mentioned above. the developers decided to put almost all the talking scenes INTO the action scenes.
you'd have hard time listening to characters (and giving them the attention they deserve) while you fight hordes of enemies and everything goes KA-BOOM!
well.. at least i had that problem. maybe you're really good at multitasking.


Replayability: 0/2
multiple difficulties. one ending. and despite it being good, they kinda chewed it for you. no hidden clues to look for or anything.
you probably won't play twice.


Legacy: ...
oh leave me alone. i needed some title where i compare all the Bioshock games.

Bioshock 1 had the most amazing story ever, and a good gameplay.
Bioshock 2 had much much inferior story (without even a twist in the end!!) but had improved gameplay. <b>IT was fun</b> wreaking everyone and everything as a bad*** big daddy.
95% of Infinite has acceptable story. better than 2 but not nearly on the same level as 1. it also has 5% of really good story. but you won't be aware of that while playing.
finally a gameplay more or less on par with the first.
both Infinite and 2 had some "gimmicks" added to the gameplay. whatever you like those gimmicks or not will single handedly decide which would you like more.
Two had the Big daddy, Infinite has Elizabeth. pick your poison, but the first still outclasses them both.

final score: (7/10) +1 to americans.
a decent game. for another company it would be great achievement. but i expected more from those guys.
:(