Review - Bioshock Infinite

Talk about a game you can't put down.

Irrational Games returns to the Bioshock universe with Bioshock Infinite, a game which takes place in an alternate-history 1912. You control Booker Dewitt, an ex-Pinkerton agent with a shady past, tasked with recovering a teenaged girl named Elizabeth from a big, tall, tower. Perhaps the greatest strength that the game has over virtually all others on the market is, (as we've come to expect from Irrational), that it leaves convention at the door.

For starters, despite my simplistic plot summary, Elizabeth is anything but your traditional damsel in distress. If anything, she's the opposite: her interaction in combat is vital, and adds much-needed dimension to the game's firefights. What's really notable is how well fleshed-out her character is. Her absence in a few short moments of the game is unmistakably felt, and her impact on the game's story is, well, spoiler spoiler spoiler. Her sense of importance is unmistakable, even when it hasn't fully been explained, and her presence bolstered my curiosity and led me to search for more answers throughout the game.

Just who is Elizabeth, and why does she seem so important?

Booker himself is an interesting character, not least because of the events of the game which cause the player to view him in a totally new light. Going into the experience, I'd heard quite a bit about Elizabeth, which caused me to worry that the reasonably generic-looking Booker might just be a standard video game hero. Thankfully, this was not the case, and the reality led to a far more interesting and multi-layered protagonist, especially as the story progressed and I learned more about him. In addition to this, the chemistry between the two heroes is terrific, and having Elizabeth along serves the narrative terrifically - it felt a lot more intimate, and worked much better for this story than simply conversing over a radio in the original.

A key similarity between Infinite and the original Bioshock is its location: both games focusing on a city left to its own devices. Of course, this is also where a lot of the difference stems from: while the original's city, Rapture, was a decrepit cesspit, morally and physically rotting apart, Columbia seems, at first glance, to be a gorgeous utopia. Talk about game-feel: the city in the sky is easily the most colourful and beautiful location I've ever seen in a first-person shooter. But beneath the surface lies a seedy underbelly: propaganda litters the streets, there's a cultish undertone to the city's unanimous love for Zachary Comstock (aka The Prophet), and, of course, as we learn more about The Prophet's views, we learn that the apparent Main Street USA charm of Columbia is skin-deep. As such, exploring the city is a treat, and the overall impression is a location that's every bit as creepy and fascinating as Rapture.

Gorgeous, colourful visuals with incredible detail - the game looks
unlike any other first-person shooter.

If there is one aspect in which Infinite is not outstanding, it's the gameplay. While its action-heavy FPS sections are exciting, they're certainly not what kept me up all night playing. Many games have used similar combat systems to greater effect, and Infinite's limited weapons and 'vigors' (magical abilities, for lack of a better phrase) meant that I quickly established a favourite combination, which I could use on just about any enemy that crossed my path without too much difficulty. Once I found a system that worked, it was largely rinse and repeat, and in fact, I left many of the vigors virtually untouched at the end of the game, never really finding a good reason to use them.

As an interesting side-note, though: isn't it funny that some of the best games of the last few years (Journey, The Walking Dead, Heavy Rain, hell, even Mass Effect) have totally underplayed an emphasis on gameplay, in favour of story and character? It's definitely a mould that BioShock Infinite sits comfortably within. The gameplay isn't bad, it's just not great. Thankfully, I saw it as a means to an end - the firefights were exciting because I wanted to see what would happen after they ended, and I could put up with the repetition because I knew it wasn't long before I'd be uncovering another recording, unlocking a new vigor or weapon, or running into another twist in the plot.

Infinite's gameplay is enjoyable, but not revolutionary.

It's hard to explain just why the story's so fascinating without spoiling the whole thing completely, but I'll put it this way - the emotional reaction that I got from Journey (a game I called my Game Of The Year), is equal to the amount of intellectual stimulation my brain got playing through Infinite. In a medium so swamped with games that hand you all the answers on a plate (or don't bother asking any questions to begin with), it's immensely refreshing to play a game like this, that provides so much to mull over. Along with the plot, the context and commentary it provides are well-honed, too - it'd be wrong to do it any other way, but Infinite's dystopian 1912 is not without the real early-20th-century struggles of sexism, racism, and nationalism. So many moments will have you thinking long and hard about your own morality, and it's a game that has as much to say about America as it does about Booker and Elizabeth.

The story is told brilliantly, too - as mentioned, nothing is given to you too easily, but the way you learn things by observing the world around you means you'll put together the pieces for yourself. This bolsters the sense of connection to the world, and to the game itself, because you feel involved. It's truly interactive storytelling at its best.

A multi-layered story that twists, turns, and makes you think -
without losing sight of itself in the process.

At its core, BioShock Infinite succeeds in being an absolutely ripping science-fiction story, one whose minutiae and symbolic meaning I can't wait to pick apart with a fine-toothed comb in conversations with friends in the days and weeks to come. With the combination of its layered and interesting characters, world, and plot, it's up there with the best stories that have ever been told in the medium. Backed up by incredible graphics and design, as well as jaw-dropping sound and music, it's an incredible vision that aims high and is almost perfectly realised.

XRN / @xavierrn