Sublime graphic and setting design. But the rest not so much.
Design: a lot of creativity has been put into this game. So much so that not only did I have to bump up my score, I also became more aware of the game's problems. As a painting seen first time, this is a masterpiece, as a game, not so much. If you can get sucked in, you'll have a ton of fun, just don't wake up into the middle of the game to what is basically a poor story and linear shootouts in a wasted gem of a setting.
Combat: not bad... although I hate 2 slot weapons when you have so little ammo around. It's either one or the other Devs... As soon as I understood which weapon to use best with which spell, the game became pretty easy for me, but I suspect some will not find that sweetspot and struggle a bit. The first machine gun is your best friend, while later you can exchange your shotgun for something like an rpg or grenade launcher. Most of the weapons I just passed. The spells are also forgettable one-job stuff, with one major exception, the chain lightning. You might see other people using combinations, but basically there's no need. Enemy AI is nothing to write home about, but does the job. There is a nice flow to combat if you can find it. If you just stay back and play it Sniper style, you'll fall off the rails the Devs expected you to be on. I found Biochock 1's combat to be more satisfying and in-your-face, not just nice in some trailers and "let's play" videos. On the hardest unlockable difficulty this problem becomes much more apparent as you're forced to play it safe. You'll actually do the trailer stuff more on easier settings.
The City: there were times when my jaw dropped. Hall of Heroes is a magical level, as are some others. The city just draws you in and then slams you on static civilians and very little interactivity. While more believable as a living place than Rapture, this ain't no GTA city. The aerial rails you see in the trailers are basically a big fat lie, as you'll only get them in some levels and even there they don't make much sense. If you've hoped for a dynamic city with a fun transportation system, you're out of luck. It's just a succesion of levels with some polygon islands nearby and a bitmap for the farther ones. At times I completely forgot I was in a city in the sky, when stuck in industrial levels. Rapture held that steampunk underwater magic throughout the game. Columbia doesn't. Once all hell brakes loose, the city actually becomes worse, soulless. I guess that trailer sunlight really mattered for the first impression I had of Columbia.
Other game related issues: The save game system. Granted, a quick save would ruin this game in combat, but the autosave points and chapter saves are a poor implementation. Dying means you loose money (WHY?!) which is sorely lacking anyway. An opportunity has been missed with the save game, as they forgot to tie it in with the whole parallel universe idea. The idea is there, but somebody needs to point it out , or you'll be left unaware of it. You can barely upgrade 3-4 items and you'll waste more time scrounging in trash cans than what would be enough to ruin your image of your heroic character. Even the vendors seem strange in this city (as they also did in previous Bioshock titles), as you seem to be the only one to use them. The rifts are so useless that they very fast become a clear "trailer lens flare" gimmick you'll fast forget about. Again an opportunity missed. If you could actually go inside those rifts and make that jump affect combat, now that would've been something. This was probably on the devs drawing board but they decided on something too simple and boring. Since this was Elizabeth main power, she becomes useless too. Which remind me....
Elizabeth: Booker, here's a coin. Booker, catch. By the time you'll see that animation for the 100'th time, you'll cringe. "just put the damn money in my back pocket!". While not a bad concept in combat, elsewhere it's just stupid. Her reaction to killing civilians is entertaining, because there isn't one. Her ability to bring objects into your world is trailer stuff, useless in the game and underpowered. No Lizzie, I don't need a hook on that wall, thanks for asking. It's hard to care about her. I tried, as before the game came out, I couldn't wait to see her. As the main character in the game, she is so bloody weak... maybe I expected too much.
INCIDENTAL SPOILER WARNING!
Story: Ambitious but weak... wait, wait... here's why I think it's weak. First of all, killing civilians doesn't affect anything. Yes, I said this before, but since it's the only thing you can do with civilians, guess what... You're gonna kill civilians... it's good that the game took my guns away when needed, otherwise I would've slaughtered everybody. No effect on the game anyway. If that ain't enough to mess up your virtual motivation and credibility, I don't know what is. But more importantly, the game counts on you forgetting stuff that has just happened. Racism? What racism? Prophet? What Prophet? Parallel universes? Don't you mean time travel? Revolution? What Revolution? Actually let me back up a bit here.
I'm a Star Trek fan. I've seen every major movie with a twisted story and a surprise ending. When talking about parallel universes with dynamic timelines, I'm an unlicensed doctor. It's right up my alley. That's why I couldn't buy Bioshock Infinite's story. It's flawed. Worse, at first it seems to point in the right direction, with the name, the coin toss, the first death loading screens and all. But once you go into the first major rift, that's when it all goes to shit. At the end it does seem to pull itself back together with the lighthouse scene but no... Teleport to Rapture? Yes... link the idea that every lighthouse is another gamer playing the same story (including the original Bioshock) but differently and thus make you believe that YOU could've made very different choices in an otherwise linear setting? Make you believe that other gamers might play a different story? An illusion yes, but how awesome an illusion. It could've been the game of the century. For just one second, that almost seemed in reach. But no.. back to parallel universes we go, and badly. And the ending just doesn't make any sense. I had to play the game again on 1998 difficulty and note very small detail but left disappointed. Knowing the story from start actually made it worse. The Prophet, even though absent most of the times, is as bad a villain as Booker is a hero. Searching on forums I've seen other wise-guys reaching the same problems. We basically had to invent excuses and mechanics for the game to work. Even then, the game felt empty. The devs have no excuse to have missed to put such things in the story and just "leave it for interpretation". So yes, this is what ruined the game for me.
An ambitious story, nonetheless, as it had me play the game twice, discuss it and waste an hour to write this review which will probably be thumbed down for not having a score of >9.5 because of "I pissed myself at the end, wow RAPTURE!!!!! best game ever". But whatever. To the story's credit, I don't recall having such conflicting thoughts after playing CoD. All in all, a weaker (although more ambitious) game than Bioshock 1.