Bioshock Infinite - Ken Levine and Irrational Games bring us the third game in the highly lauded Bioshock series (having sold around 9 million copies). How much you will appreciate this game will undoubtedly depend on how you choose to review it> as a SEQUAL to two (great) games, or as a fresh experience in its own right.
As far as first impressions go, Infinite manages to set the mood just right: the game seems fresh and new, with just the right amount of familiar elements from the older games. This goes for the whole game which managed to strike this balance consistently. Rather than dragging you underwater, Infinite tells it story high up in the city of Columbia. The year is 1912, and you, Booker DeWitt, must enter this city to "get the girl". Little is revealed about your motives for doing so, and you will discover the over-religious Columbia and its spiritual leader Comstock as the story progresses. Just like its predecessors, Infinite does a great job at alternating between action and quiet moments where you just wander about, take in the scenery and eavesdrop on random peoples conversation.
The graphics are beautiful and the sound design is excellent. The story is very thought provoking and meaningful, albeit sort of confusing at times. Overall, I highly enjoyed this game. Needles to say it is great fun to plow through enemies using all manner of weapons and special powers (plasmids).
However, despite its consistent high level of quality, this game is *less great* than the first Bioshock game. Why? first, although you can use both conventional weapons (pistols, shotguns, rifles etc.) and special powers (plasmids) in Infinite, I never felt that my choice of which ones to use was very significant. Whereas you constantly had pools of oil or water were you could light foes on fire or electrocute them, this mechanism is so rare in Infinite that I barely remember having had the option to do so. The same goes for the ability to "hack" (in Infinite: posses) enemies: yes, you can posses both robotic foes (turrets) and people, but the effect is so short that its barely a strategic advantage. Sure, humans will commit suicide upon having fired at their fellow soldiers, but when you posses a turret, it barely lasts a minute. This greatly diminishes the sheer disbelief you could have in Bioshock when you had turrets, flying bots, possessed humans etc. fighting it out between each other. Second, Infinite introduced new mechanics which, for the most part, are welcome. You can use a grabble hook (attached to your left arm) to grab onto railings and skate around the city. This lets you attain new areas and strike foes from above. At later stages in the game this makes for some truly spectacular sequences where you will be using the rails to escape from foes, shoot them while riding etc. In a nice touch, this hook can also be used to execute enemies up front, creating some nice blood and gore. Appreciated.
Another thing which annoyed me was the auto-save system. I finished this on "1999 mode" so the game was tough as balls and I died ALOT. This often meant backtracking 2-3 minutes of gameplay, often involving (UNSKIPPABLE) dialogue sequences. This was just annoying as hell.
All in all, this is a great game with manages to be a great sequel, and a great game in its own right. It is more of a regular shooter than the other games, due to the lack of true freedom in how you approach combat (using turrets, charming enemies, using oil spills etc.) and it suffers as a result. Yet, the story and atmosphere are great, and the new mechanics manages to create new combat situations which are excellent in their own right.
Definitely recommended for any Bioshock/System Shock fan.