The sour taste in my mouth from BioShock 2 washed away within minutes of booting up BioShock Infinite. Unlike its predecessor, which reeked of cash grab from every pore, Infinite feels like a genuine attempt at artistic expression, while pushing the video game boundaries of storytelling and gameplay. This is the sequel I’ve wanted all along and it’s awesome.
This game tells an all-new tale. With that said, playing at least the first one will definitely make certain events in Infinite hit closer to home. In this adventure, you take on the role of Booker DeWitt, a former soldier and a guy who has made some bad life choices. Having amassed a ton of gambling debt, your only way to repay it is by going to Columbia and bringing a girl named Elizabeth back.
It comes as a surprise to Booker that Columbia is a fantastical city in the sky with a leader who isn’t shy about flaunting his prowess. While it evokes a similar sense of wonder that Rapture did before it, Columbia is a place all its own. It’s early 19oos metropolis is bustling with life and in pristine condition, yet always eerily unnerving. This is a world that’s beautifully realized, and just like Rapture, a joy to be in.
Things start simple enough, though in classic BioShock fashion, there’s more to it than meets the eye. The sky world of Columbia is run by a man who is on a serious power trip, the girl you’re supposed to get has some ‘cool party tricks’, and you’ve been branded as public enemy #1 before you even get there. As the game progresses, these narrative threads brilliantly weave between themselves to form one of the most interesting game stories I’ve ever experienced.
In particular, your interactions with Elizabeth are the narrative highlight of the game. She’s not just an NPC that you have to protect from point-A to point-B. She’s a fully-realized character with a charming personality that you have a number of interesting interactions with throughout. Besides the genuinely engaging conversations, she regularly supports you in battle by throwing you supplies or opening up some really interesting combat opportunities through some spoiler-specific details that I won’t mention here. It reminds me of the dynamic that the Prince and Elika had in the forgotten Prince of Persia reboot, though it’s a lot more dynamic here.
This wouldn’t be a BioShock game without interesting combat, and Infinite delivers in spades. You get a great mix of guns, powers (through Vigors) and Elizabeth’s abilities to aid you in the fight. All of the enemies from the standard soldiers to their larger-than-life cohorts are interesting to fight against due to their offensive abilities and smart AI. I also love how intelligently designed each encounter feels. It’s never shoe-horned into the story, which I felt was always the case in 2. Aside from one particularly difficult skirmish that wasn’t fun at all (you’ll know it when you get there), it’s a joy to partake in battle.
By the time the end credits rolled, my mostly nit-picky criticisms didn’t matter. The feelings that Infinite evoked from me throughout were as deep and thought-provoking as what I felt from playing the original. Except that Infinite didn’t apex in the middle and go downhill from there. This is a gem of a game and one worthy of the BioShock name (sorry BioShock 2). Expect a lot of love for this one when people start talking about game of the year 2013.
In Third Person 