I'm far too lazy to do a total in depth review, but here are my basic thoughts on the title. Having not played the previous installments in the series, I went into Infinite with a totally unbiased opinion. I knew enough about the universe to grasp the core concepts of what I was doing and how the game played, but beyond that I had no knowledge of the story or of the world, other than the fact that Bioshock 1 and 2 take place in an underwater city known as Rapture. Infinite opens with the a very ominous piece of dialog: Female Voice: Booker... are you afraid of God? Booker: No. But I'm afraid of you. And immediately I knew that at least from a storytelling standpoint that I was going to be entertained. First and foremost, the voice acting in this title is absolutely brilliant. The characters themselves feel alive and are animated fluidly. The world itself is vibrant and colorful, each piece of scenery looking as if it's a living painting rather than a video game. The splashes of color are a stark contrast to the city of Rapture. Infinite takes place in the floating city of Columbia as you follow the narrative of one Booker DeWitt, a man who is in Columbia for one and only purpose. To quote the game's tag line: "Bring us the girl. Wipe away the debt." You can already see where this is going. At the beginning, your combat is pretty basic. You have your melee attack, your gun, and you special psychic abilities known as "Vigors". If you have any familiarity with FPS games, you'll feel right at home. But everything really picks up speed once you meet up with Elizabeth, who has the unique ability to zap things from alternate realities into this one. You can build cover where you need it, warp in automated turrets and robots to fight at your side, and even the handy health item. Now, I normally don't enjoy the presence of AI controlled allies as the AI is usually idiotic at best, but I found that I actually enjoyed Elizabeth's presence, because while she does have a presence in combat, she is not actively fighting. No, her role is completely focused on support. Throughout encounters she'll toss you all manner of helpful items; health, salts (mana), and even the occasional ammo clip. Outside of combat she'll toss you money and point out items you have overlooked. It's refreshing to have an ally who is actually helpful. But if there is one thing I wish Bioshock Infinite had it would be for there to be more reason to switch between my Vigors. Once I found a playstyle that was comfortable for me I almost never changed my powers or weapons because I was never given a reason too. Here I am with all these bad ass abilities but never once did I come across a situation where one was better suited to the situation than another. It was a bit disappointing, really. I don't normally say this, but I adamantly believe that Infinite might have benefited from some puzzle sections to better make use of the Vigor selection. And guys, the story. Oh God, guys. The story. There is a plot twist, and when reach it it will blow your freaking mind. Overall I give Bioshock Infinite a "you need to buy this" out of "why the fuck aren't you in the car yet?".
What exactly is 1999 mode ? I keep asking that question when anyone talks about Bioshock Infinite. I've yet to receive an answer other than "I haven't played 1999 mode yet". The answer is probably the only thing that will convince me to buy it before a Steam sale.
amazing ending..played thru on hard first run. I need a break(another game) before I play 1999. I liked changing up the vigors to use the combos.
Did it remind you of ME3's ending in that it was the exact opposite? Because that ending was masterfully written and tied in the entire plot from the game.
I liked this game a lot but not as much as Bioshock 1. I felt more connected to the story and I felt the gameplay was more unique because it was the first in the series. The third game didn't offer much new besides the skyline riding. I suggest you go play Bioshock 1 if you liked this one.
Finished this game last week in a single sit down playthrough. Overall, I like Bioshock/Bioshock: Infinite for different reasons. Rapture is mysterious, broken-down, and gives the atmosphere of post destruction while everything in Infinite is generally pretty happy/colourful in comparison. SPOILERS Bioshock Infinite story while good becomes fairly convoluted at the end due to the inclusion of parallel dimensions (as with any story), and I would have to say while the ending is good it had even more potential if it stayed grounded in the realm of logical understanding rather than technobabble for multiverses. I played it through on hard, and while I wouldn't consider it that difficult I know the two weapon limit was annoying at best and the lack of interesting upgrades really disappointed me. Bioshock had a much better system for upgrading weapons, or customization options for your character whereas I felt that the optimal route in Infinite was much more straightforward. It gets a little cheesy at the end where soliders start taking several headshots to die. Still the visuals, atmosphere, and characterization still puts it above and beyond other games this year.
I couldn't finish. The gameplay bored me to tears. The story was good but not worth the time. I would have played it if the combat was any deeper than a shoot-em-up. Instead, they copy-pasted the (lackluster) combat system from the previous Bioshock games.
Out of curiosity, if you find this combat system boring (standard FPS setup + plus magic extra). How do you not hate all FPS? Generally speaking FPS haven't exactly made any real strides in improving gameplay since....well quake. PS/PS2/CoD/Counter-Strike/Bioshock/Halo/etc if you have played one, then you have basically played them all when it comes down to combat system. They are all point and click adventure games or point and click multiplayer.
I don't like the combat in Bioshock 3 for the same reason I don't like the combat of the latest Call of Duty. The combat systems of the new CoD games were copy/pasted from CoD4. Very lazy of the developers and it's just milking the series for money.