After what seemed like the longest wait EVER (okay, not ever, but still), Bioshock Infinite, the third installment in the Bioshock video game series, finally hit stores everywhere. The game was announced back in August 2010, after the release of Bioshock 2 in February of the same year. A few years and a couple delays later, we finally got this installment.
Now, I’m not a gamer. I wish I was. I LOVE video games. They have great stories, they’re super fun and they come in a million different varieties, just like books. You can play fantasy games and dystopian games, historical games, and children’s games.
But I don’t really play. Not because I dont’ want to but because I just plain SUCK at them. I just don’t have the patience for one thing…and my hand-eye coordination basically doesn’t exist. So while I had a strong urge to finally play this installment of Bioshock, alas, it was not in the cards.
It was however, in the cards, for our guest blogger, my boyfriend, Jonathan. He spent his Spring Break playing this game, and you can read his review below :) It is written VERY similarly to my Book of the Week posts, so it’ll be easy for you all to read!
Enjoy!
Bioshock Infinite: A Review
I do not have much experience writing reviews but I figured why let that stop me! I recently purchased the game Bioshock Infinite and have already beat the game so I think I am now qualified to write a review of said game. This game is of course the follow up to the critically and commerically successful Bioshock which was released in 2007. The original Bioshock is the story of an underwater city, Rapture, in 1960 that turns for the worst. The game is heavily influenced by the works of Ayn Rand. Bioshock Infinite is the story of the floating city Columbia created by the US in 1912. Bioshock Infinite went through several delays and had already won numerous awards at events such as E3 and thus was building a lot of hype for its release. Alright so onto the review!
Genre:
1st person shooter
Part of A Series?:
Yes it is, it is the third installment of the Bioshock series. It may not seem clear how Columbia is connected to Rapture but playing through it it becomes evident there is a connection between the two cities that have fallen.
Plot Summary:
“Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt”, a simple phrase that starts our hero on his journey. Bioshock Infinite is the story of a former pinkerton agent Booker Dewitt who has come into some enormous debt. Someone has offered to take care of his debt but in order to do so he must journey to Columbia, which had seceded from the US and disappeared, and retrieve a girl named Elizabeth who can open up “tears” in reality. Almost as soon as Booker arrives in Columbia he is proclaimed to be the “false shepherd” by the zealous prophet Comstock. The citizens of Columbia are then after Booker because they follow Comstock with religious intensity. Unlike other games where the whole story is the journey to the girl, Bioshock Infinite goes the way where Booker and Elizabeth meet fairly early in the game they then must fight their way to through a rebellion find the truth about Elizabeth’s powers, and a way out of Columbia.
The Bad:
There is some bad in this game because there is no such thing as a perfect game. One of the things I did have a problem with was some things in the battle system. The battle system seemed very similar to the system in the original Bioshock without much being added to it. They strived to tell a good story with this game but the battle system did not feel it always got that attention. Another thing was the vigors system, it seemed added on to be like the battle system in Bioshock but for some reason no one else in Bioshock Infinite uses vigors to fight, ONLY YOU. That part did not make a whole lot of sense to me as I was going through fighting enemies.
The Good:
Oh the good in this game! I will get it out of the way first and say that the story in this game is amazing! The original Bioshock had a good story and so it was expected that this game would follow suit. It starts off simple enough but as the game progresses the story goes to new levels and were those levels exciting! The city becomes embroiled in a revolution but that never becomes the main story, the story always stays with Booker and Elizabeth. I will not give away any spoilers but the ending of this game is definitely worth playing through and will leave you thinking!
Columbia the city is a beautiful city and feels almost as it did actually happen in the past. A floating city in the sky at the height of American exceptionalism there is propaganda that adourns the cities and even statues referring to the founding fathers almost as deities. There are railways that connect the different floating islands with it all centered around the giant statue of Columbia, which is where Elizabeth is held captive. The setting has a steam punk kind of feel, which I am not always a fan of, but it really works well here because of how grounded it is into US history. Since Elizabeth’s powers have to do with tearing open reality there are a lot of musical Easter eggs in the game such as a barbershop quartet singing “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys (as this song would not be written for another 50+ years!). These slight reality warping events add nice little touches in the game to look out for!
Lastly, this game would not have been as great without Elizabeth. A lot of the companions in games end up being huge burdens (Resident Evil 4-Sara, here: I totally agree. Your companion in that game is USELESS! ) but this is not the case in Bioshock Infinite. Never once do you have to worry about protecting Elizabeth, the game immediately tells you she can take care of herself. As I was going through the game I had to rely on her quite a bit as she finds salts, ammo, and health for you if you are running low. During battles she can also open tears that aid in the battle, such as bringing health, weapons, or allies. She is written very well as a character with depth she is determined to go see Paris and longs to be free of the nightmare of Columbia and she knows she has to make difficult decisions to get there. She does not spend time being a reactive character to your actions as she is easily the most powerful character in the game and her actions dictate what Booker does.
The game’s score, voice acting, and graphics were also top notch but in this kind of game those did not seem as important when the other stuff just worked so well.
Rating:
5 out of 5 stars. This might quite possibly be my favorite video game of all time.
Recommended or Not?:
YES! I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants a game with a great story. If you just want to play a shooter there are better shooter out there but if you want something with an amazing story then this is the game for you! The game is currently being sold at places such as Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, etc. I bought this one for my PS3 but it is also available for Xbox 360 and the PC. If you are not familiar with the series the PS3 version of the game comes with the original Bioshock (well mine did) and so you can get an idea how the series is (Bioshock 2 is not necessary to the story).
* * * * *
Hope you enjoyed this review! Let us know in the comments, and let us know how YOU liked Bioshock Infinite!
Check back tomorrow for the Tuesday Top Ten!
* * * *
Related
