Review: Bioshock Infinite

Recently, I decided to finally get around to playing Bioshock Infinite to its completion (or at least the main game). For full disclosure, I have not completed the prior two Bioshock games or any of the DLC for Infinite. So, my review is purely based on Infinite as a stand-alone Bioshock game. I will be doing my best to reduce spoilers in this review as Bioshock can be a very plot-intense game. However, for the sake of discussing some elements of the game, spoiler territory needs to be lightly trodden. Thus, here is your official SPOILER WARNING. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

To review this game, I will be using the same P.A.G Model from my Shadow of Mordor Review. This stands for Plot, Aesthetic and Gameplay.

Plot

The plot of any Bioshock game is its strong suit. Because of this, Infinite’s plot does not disappoint. The story begins with a man and a lighthouse. Mr. Booker DeWitt was told to bring them the girl and his debt will be wiped. Mr. DeWitt, I mean Booker, discovers a city in the sky, named Columbia. There, he meets a very special girl named Elizabeth, all the while being tailed by a mysterious duo. Aaaaaand that is all I can say about the plot of Infinite without giving too much away. Or perhaps I did. No, I didn’t.

The setting of Infinite is the floating city of Columbia. The year is 1912. So, you can expect a lot of racial and religious tension. Columbia is a very “white-power” and delves into some really hardcore Christian extremism (with some weird idol worship to boot). The subplots that are running behind the scenes as you progress through the game are due to these tensions. I can’t really say much but it is a fascinating dive into the era. In terms of Columbia’s religious tone, it is amazing how off-putting they made it feel. Everything just felt questionable and uncomfortable. Once again, for obvious reasons, I can’t say anything more without accidentally spilling something about the mysteries of this game.

Aesthetic

Based on my limited playthroughs of the previous Bioshock games, I can at the very least say that Infinite is the brightest and most colourful entry to the trilogy. This is due to Columbia being in the sky instead of being set in the gloomy murky depths of the ocean. The contrast in the setting is very interesting as both worlds juxtapose against each other insanely well. The Rapture below is named after a religious concept but engages in purely capitalistic ideology. Meanwhile, the Columbia above is named after the female personification of America, a more capitalistic concept, while engaging in religious extremism.

If you are fond of early 1900s aesthetic, you will love Bioshock Infinite. Despite having steampunk elements, the design of the world and characters are still very fitting with the times. As surreal as it may be sometimes.

I played the game on the Ultra setting. So, everything looked gorgeous. Dynamic shadows and lighting choices definitely made each scene of the game beautiful and increased the ‘terrifying scale’ on one part.

Yeah, Bioshock Infinite is still a horror-game to a certain extent. Both thematically and plot-wise. For example, there is this one scene where you wander through a place and there is this creature that has a light looking for you. If he sees you, he will set off a ghoulish scream and all these presidential-mask-wearing goons will run after you. It is some really traumatizing stuff. Unless your very specific fetish is into that…

Gameplay

I decided to play the game on Medium difficulty because I knew that the Bioshock franchise was never meant to be challenging. This is because I would rather be coming along for the ride than trudging through the game, getting tilted and stopping every few minutes.

There are two main means of combat. Firstly, you can use a large array of weapons (including your melee weapon). Next, you would have the Vigors.

My personal favourite weapon is the Hand Cannon. It is insanely powerful as it can deal a high amount of damage at a low but steady fire rate. There is very little bullet drop-off, making the hand cannon a very high-accuracy choice. However, its limitation is the lack of ammo. My favourite sidearm would most likely be the Carbine. This gun has all the benefits of the Hand Cannon while having more ammo but the damage is lower.

The Vigor mechanic is something that you’ve seen in previous Bioshock games. Supernatural powers in a bottle. My favourite Vigors were Murder of Crows and Possession. However, there were times where Shock Jockey proved to be fun to use. What do these Vigors do? Well, that is for you to find out in the game. I am not going to give away anything else aside from the name. However, I am sure it is pretty obvious what happens when you use these Vigors anyway.
The Skyline is a means of transportation for Booker and his companion. The feeling of riding a Skyline is exhilarating as you can feel the wind blowing right past you as you pick up in speed. The sound design and animation are all amazing. While on a Skyline, you are less likely to be hit by bullets as you are flying at high speeds. Furthermore, you can even jump from Skylines onto enemies. It is really cool!

The last mechanic I would like to share is the Companion mechanic. Partway through the game, you get a companion following you around. However, unlike a certain President’s daughter, she is not completely useless. She doesn’t take damage from combat so you don’t have to save her ass half the time. She also hands you supplies when you need them. The Companion is also very well written and animated. So, she isn’t the least bit annoying. Hopefully, this will be precedent for future Companions in games.

Now, my main gripe with the gameplay is that there are many ‘choices’ in the game. However, they overall don’t matter due to the completely linear nature of the game. Sure, there may be some extra dialogue referencing your actions but your actions don’t actually contribute to the plot in a meaningful way. It would have been better if they didn’t make a break in the narrative to give you an illusion of choice only for it to not matter.

Conclusion

Now that you are reading, have read or will read this review, let's wrap up shall we? Bioshock Infinite is a great game and I would recommend anyone to play the game, even if you haven’t played the prior games. It is definitely less scary than the previous games so don’t let the horror aspects reduce your interests in playing this amazing game. The plot is a wild ride from start to finish, the art and sound design are all exquisite, and the gameplay is fun and exhilarating! I would give this an 8.5/10. (The linear nature of the game gives it minimal replayability hence why the 1.5 point loss).

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Would you kindly check out my other game review, Shadow of Mordor?

Or perhaps you could learn how to play the Elder Dragon Highlander format of Magic: The Gathering?