The first Bioshock may have been the greatest game ever made (it was, at least, the highest rated video game in history). I cannot sing the praises of it enough. Bioshock 2, I thought, wa decent. What of Bioshock Infinite, you say? No. It falls epically ... in my humble opinion.To be clear, I'm not criticizing anyone who enjoyed the game. Nay, I envy those people. This is simply a dead honest explanation of why I didn't find the game worth my time.
(I'll mention spoilers, but I'll warn you when I do.)
First of all, what did I like? The scenery was awesome. A floating city in the sky ... who could complain? The setup seemed very promising and even admirably highbrow for a video game. There was promising critique of "American Exceptionalism" ... how Americans have worshipped the founding fathers and treated foreigners (Blacks, Native Americans, and Irish) like sub-humans. It was also admirable how the main opposing party (the Vox Populi) were portrayed as being an being another violent, unreasonable extreme. It makes the game ultimately critique both right-wingers and left-wingers, suggesting that the truth may reside somewhere in the middle of those extremes. That's something I can boldly raise my glass to.
But as the game progresses, those edgy themes quickly disappear, and it turns into a bad Star Trek episode. There's just a lot of time-travelling, alternate dimensions, and soiling of the fabric of the space-time continuum that in the end, the story was so convoluted and unrealistic that it was impossible to relate to.
I was hoping to explore the mysterious, wondrous floating city of Columbia, but in the end, there were far too many impenetrable barricades and un-pickable locked doors that I felt very short-changed. You can get hints about the history of the city from scattered "nickelodeons," but they're all annoying, tedious, and worthless. There are the traditional audio diaries too, but they weren't very compelling either.
In many ways, the game's storyline (I'm very sorry to say) had a striking similarity to that of Bioshock 2. Both games focus around saving a girl who possesses special powers and who happens to be the offspring of the chief villain and ruler of a steampunk dystopia. With the help of said supergirl's powers, you and she aim to escape a chaotic city, cutting your way through legions of crazed religious fundamentalists who follow the villain in blind faith and who regard the super girl as having spiritual significance (Elizabeth is called the "The Lamb of Columbia" whereas Eleanor, in Bioshock 2, is called "The Daughter of the Lamb" ... suspiciously similar, dare I say).
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(SPOILER: In both games, you are the father of the said super girl ... though, yes, in Bioshock 2, you're more of an "adopted" father)
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WEAPONS:
I was more inclined to use a variety of weaponry in the older Bioshock games when you could hold on to them all at once. But in Infinite, where you can only hold two (and always find enough ammo), which plunges this game in the sea of other current FPS's. I naturally held on to my two favorites, i.e. the shotgun and the sniper rifle.
Furthermore, the look of the weapons were run-of-the-mill. The weapons of the first and second Bioshock games had character. They were sexy. Not so much anymore.
In Bioshock 1&2, each weapon had 3 different kinds of ammunition. Not anymore in Infinite. One kind of ammunition for each weapon. Less Bioshock, more like everything else.
Instead of the original Bioshock tonics (passive superpowers, like automatically releasing a burst of fire when an enemy strikes you), you have "gears" (which are "clothing'). However, you can only wear four at a time, as opposed to several dozen in the first games. I barely ever switched them (being satisfied with the first ones I found), and generally felt they were inconsequential (which was unlike my experience with the tonics).
Relatedy, there was a plethora of vending machines at every corner, oftentimes even bunched up together. Not very challenging. While there was a twisted logic in Rapture that vending machines sell ammunition, it was never quite clear why the ones in Columbia did also did so.
POWERS:
The game did not live up to its trailers, as some of the epic battles depicted in the previews did not exist at all in the game. Furthermore, some trailers depicted telekinesis. Sorry. No telekinesis anymore in Bioshock. Very disappointing.
I never had the feeling of desperate survival as I had in the original Bioshock. Maybe the programmers of 2K had become way too comfortable, resting on their laurels, feeling that the portrayal of real risk was unappealing to them. Maybe they were trying to pander to extra-sensitive focus groups. Heck, I don't know. All I'm saying is that is that it was way too "safe."
The only two "Vigors" (i.e. the superpowers that were called "Plasmids" in the original Bioshock games) I used was Possession and Devil's Kiss. There was no pressing reason to try and use other ones. All of them seemed overpowered and yet worthless too. Again, another thing that made the game less exciting. And yet, I hardly used Vigors for most of game (until the end, I guess), since I was doing just fine with the guns.
ENEMIES:
The game seemed incredibly easy compared to the previous installments ... though toward the end it grew more challenging but in a more annoying than fun way. Similarly, the game was too short. I was looking forward to getting more "bonuses" ... but before long, I had beat the game. Now, of course there is the "1999 mode" which makes the game much more difficult (i.e. if you die once, you lose the game). Yeah, I suppose that would solve everything. However, I will say the last battle is somewhat disproportionately tough, and the thought of dying there and having to start all over somehow isn't exactly appealing to me. Furthermore, the idea of playing this game again at all is far from alluring. So 1999 isn't the magic solution to my problem, methinks.
Speaking of 1999, the enemy A.I. seems like it was programmed that long ago. Enemies acted very generically and rather brainlessly, contrary to the advertisements. In the other Bioshock games, enemies seemed very unpredictable and thus scarier. In Infinite, they generally had the standard "run up to the player and shoot him" strategy. I hardly ever saw the enemies ever run for cover. Also, enemies were decapitated way too easily, either from melee or bullets. It was kind of ridiculous.
2K's efforts to find a spiritual successors for the Big Daddies was a outright failure. The Handyman just seemed like a tougher, cyborg-version of the Brute Splicers from Bioshock 2. The motorized patriots just had more "hit points" then rest of the bad guys. And the Boys of Silence were just the equivalent to security cameras from the first games (and easy as sin to get past). The Songbird, the big looming monster that keeps coming after you, was another let-down. I didn't find him very scary in the least.
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MINOR SPOILER: Furthermore ... you never fight Songbird!!! He's not the main boss or anything. Nay, he's an ally in the end. Sounds cool? Meh. I found the way you could use him in battle was very "scripted" and repetitive.
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In Bioshock 1&2, it makes sense why the people around you are acting all crazy, namely their constant use of plasmids poisoning their minds, plus the radical individualist, dog-eat-dog principles in Andrew Ryan's Objectivist society. In Infinite, it's never quite clear why people are that so indescribably out of their minds. There isn't a chemical element to it this time ... just ideological reasons, and it's not quite believable. Furthermore, they never explain "Vigors" (equivalent to the original Bioshock "Plasmids"), and it was unexplained why the enemies hardly ever used them, despite how Vigors seemed very accessible to the general Columbian populace (whereas, in Rapture, there was a greater sense of scarcity of Plasmids due to the economic condition, so only those strong enough could get them).
The "Crows" were the new Houdini Splicers, but they weren't that scary, since you could see where they would teleport to. Very lame.
This game was all about big waves of enemies. Been there done that. I need something more at this point ... at least from 2K who hyped up this game for the past few years.
NOT HORRORIFYING:
Where was that good old Bioshock HORROR? Yes, Bioshock 2 fell short in this category too. But I think Infinite was far more of a let-down.
Granted that a lot of the game took place in the open air, as opposed to the dark, musty corridors in a submarine city, but 2K was insisting that they had still managed to make this frightening. So, I was open-minded and looked forward to how they would accomplish a horrifying game given this innovative context. Alas. They did not accomplish it at all.
You could at least expect that they could create a sense of acrophobia, given the landscape. Nope. It was incredibly hard to fall. And if you did, you are immediately "beamed back" onto a ledge for some cosmically anomalous reason. You didn't get to enjoy the sight of a long, hair-raising descent. Personally, I was really disappointed at that.
I generally liked the Skylines, though I think they could have done more with them. Also, jumping onto a skyline was often graphically quirky. Often, it seemed that Booker would magically pass through the rails of a Skyline in order to get in the right place to hook onto them It just added a few more grains of salt onto the wound which was my experience of this game. (there were many times when the graphics were underwhelming at least, and I've heard this a lot from other people).
I was also open to 2K's efforts to make the player's character a talkative one. I initially thought it would make the game less mysterious and thus less frightening, but I was willing to be disproven. Alas, I was not. Our character, Booker Dewitt, seems to know a lot more about Columbia than the player does. In the first Bioshock game, you have no idea what heck is going on (and neither does your character), or where you are, and it scares you out of your mind (something Bioshock 2 understandably fell short of as well). Booker, in my opinion, though rattled and schooled often, exudes too much confidence in his dialogue and consequently dissipates the fear and confusion that the player would otherwise have. Leaves nothing to the imagination. That's what I honestly felt at least.
There was also the issue that you can't save your game at any point, but rely on periodic checkpoints. I was more frightened in the first Bioschock games where you COULD save at any point. But in Infinite, where you have to rely on checkpoints, I wasn't afraid at all. Somewhat ironic. I like saving when I want to. There is apparently no dramatic benefit to depriving the player of this. In fact, when you take it away, it gets annoying. And that's one of the keywords of this games: freaking annoying.
Also, there was always a "music cue" in the soundtrack to tell you when all the enemies in the area are dead. In the previous game, your often are constantly in a state of glorious paranoia that a bad guy may still be behind a corner after a bone-chilling confrontation with multiple murderous psychopaths. Not at anymore. Alas.
In general, the space-time manipulation garbage was another thing that made things less scary. In the first Bioshock games, there was more a definite sense of limitation and, I guess, mortality. In Infinite, you are in a universe(s) where anything is possible ... it's infinite, baby! Mortality isn't a factor ... or something. Yeah. There's alternate universes. If you're dead in one, you still could be alive in another. Whatever. I don't really understand it ... and quickly ceased caring either way because all realism had been thrown out the window.
And of course, there is another thing that makes the game less scary than the previous games. Something that deserves another whole section or its own. One I feared might have (and did) ruin the game for me ... that thing called Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH:
I can appreciate the efforts of first-person shooters adding a female companion, as Half-Life 2 beautifully did with Alyx Vance. But I did not "fall in love" with Elizabeth as 2K was apparently tried to do. She was just kind of "there." She was neither really useful nor particularly alluring (unlike Alyx Vance). What she did accomplish was further ruining the game for me. She certainly made the game less scary (because when you're not alone, things are naturally less scary ... although somehow Half Life 2 still did a good job at this).
First of all, the game tried portraying Elizabeth as ... I don't know ... innocent and sheltered, which can be attractive. However, they weren't consistent on this. There was one of those "how could you kill those people" moments when she first sees you in action ... but after that, she's fine. It was just an excuse for her NEVER to pick up a gun and shoot back. Yes, if she shot back, then ... THEN ... she could have been useful (like Alyx Vance). But no, she didn't. So, she was just extraneous. Broke my heart.
Wait, you say, was she really extraneous? Well, let me put it this way: the designers were desperate trying to convince you that Elizabeth wasn't extraneous.
Her ability to throw you money and ammunition made things really easy. It felt like the programmers were saying, "See? Elizabeth is useful! She's totally not extraneous!" Yeah. I was convinced. Derp.
Elizabeth's Lockpicking skills seemed like another desperate ploy to make her feel useful to the player. Booker Dewitt is a former Pinkerton agent. You'd think he'd know how to pick a lock. Granted that Booker still needs to be the one to find more lock picks for the task. But, the sheltered, corset-wearing teenage girl does the actual lock picking in the end. Derp.
Whenever you died, Elizabeth would simply resuscitate you with a syringe of a mysterious wonder drug. During that time, you apparently lose some money and the remaining villains get healed. But really, it felt incredibly cheap. This was another thing that made the game less exciting.
Elizabeth would often run in front of my bullets and not be damaged. It was another effort on the part of the programmers to let the player know that she wasn't in the way.
I didn't like "Tears" ... they were also extraneous. It would have felt better if those things were just there in the first place, rather than be there in second after you tell it to. It ruined the 1912 Steampunk feel seeing these glowing halos of alternate universes cluttering the decks of gigantic urbanized zeppelins. My opinion, of course.
Are the bad guys never trying to kill her? Just ignoring her? Yes, perhaps they have orders from Comstock not to kill her. That sort of makes sense. But shouldn't they at least try to "recapture her" or something? Obviously not. Elizabeth has enough time to resuscitate Booker when he dies while the bad guys are just standing around taking some kind of desperately needed lunch break. While it was kind of nice not having to protect Elizabeth in battle, I couldn't help but feel that the player could've felt more emotionally invested if she was more ... I don't know ... vulnerable. They needed to find a happy medium between an implausibly invincible Elizabeth and an annoyingly vulnerable one. They chose the former extreme. Once again, she was just kind of ... "there."
Right after the last shot of an intense gunfight sounds, Elizabeth often launched right into an intense heart-to-heart conversation with Booker. It ruins the suspense and realism, as it makes you think, "Elizabeth is calm, that means we're safe." Ugh. You can do better, 2K, can't you?
I thought the style of the dialogue in the previous Bioshock games fit n their eras pretty well. Not so much in Infinite. Booker and Elizabeth sounded too modern, thus hurting the whole 1912 steampunk immersion experience. But, heck, who cares about that? Alas, I kind of do. Woe is me.
Also, Elizabeth's head was way too big. She was a ridiculous cartoon of a woman. Am I the only one who thinks this? Whatever. A matter of CGI taste, I guess.
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(SPOILER: Also, it turns out that she is, in fact, your daughter. So, you're not even suppose to be attracted to her. Right? Derp. Whatever.)
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ENDING:
(MINOR SPOILER: The last big battle was annoying and highly uncreative. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the last battle in Bioshock 2. Just waves and waves of bad guys. Totally mind-blowing.)
I was looking forward to a new dramatic moral set of dilemmas that Bioshock is famous for. There were two, maybe three, which weren't particularly interesting. Alas, they didn't seem to have any particularly significant impact on the storyline.
Without giving spoilers, I will just say the ending was so fantastically underwhelming I wanted to cry. They say that the game has a confusing ending. But no, it's completely clear to me. It's clear that it's a stupid ending.
Yes, the ending was stupid ... but even worse, it was LONG ... mixed with imponderable, quasi-spiritual, sci-fi riddles about which one cannot help but roll their eyes and have a series of traumatic flashbacks of the Matrix Revolutions. Ouch. Sad but totally true. That's all I'm going to say about that. (hey, it's just my opinion fortunately.)
CONCLUSION:
You could say all this "character development" and "storyline" stuff doesn't matter because it's a "just first person shooter." But the thing is, 2K was really trying to make it more than that (and I commend them for trying) ... certainly the first Bioshock game was more than an FPS, making great strides into higher artistic and narrative dimensions. But I was unsure how to treat Bioshock Infinite. It was obviously trying to have a compelling story, and so given that, it should be judged on higher grounds. And since it, in my opinion, failed to live up to such higher standards, I was quite accordingly disappointed. I just hope you have a different experience. I honestly do, my friends.
Let me remind you, that I think that first Bioshock game is the best game ever made thus far in our human history. I love the genius of Ken Levine and the other 2K game designers. But this ... this garbage that they have given us ... is not up to snuff to put it lightly. They have played it safe. And they have played it lame. They have played it perplexingly mediocre. It may dazzle the common rabble for a time, perhaps. But in the end, its forefather will outshine it. It will be forgotten. At least, I hope so.
But this is just my opinion. Now it's your turn to destroy me. And I hope you are successful. Because I hope, somehow, that I am wrong, and people can enjoy and benefit from playing this game. Why on earth would hope otherwise?
I wish you well, my friends. I love you all.
Games Review by : Krshwunk
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