Immersive, great story and ending, good gameplay. One of the few games that lives up to the hype.
Bioshock Infinite is truly an impressive work. You can see throughout the game just how much effort and detail was put into making the world come alive. Even more so than Rapture IMO. There are so many little tid-bits and flourishes throughout the game that you will notice that really add to the story and I"m not just talking about the recordings. All the extra time they spent polishing and reworking the game seems to really have paid off.
Since this game is heavily story-driven the narrative is the most important part and it really works well. The story is complex and really keeps you thinking throughout the whole game. The ending IMO is great, so much so that it makes you want to go back and play the game again with your newfound knowledge and put some of the pieces together you may have missed the first time. The main characters are all well designed and well voiced. Elizabeth is especially impressive, she is unquestionably the most complex companion character in gaming history. Her animations and facial expressions, banter, interactions with the world and how she helps to advance the story will make you forget she is not a real person. Which I believe is exactly what Irrational was trying to accomplish. The other major characters like the revolutionary Fitzroi and the robber-baron Fink are also interesting and complex characters.
The combat and action are very enjoyable. Plenty of weapon variety and vigors (the equivalent of plasmids) to play around with. Personally I am a big fan of Murder of Crows, which summons a flock of flesh-eating birds to damage and stun your enemies. Enemy variety is good and with mixed units of enemies across multiple levels (above and below) combat can get very hectic. The skyline mechanic really is a completely unique addition to FPS combat. Once you get used to it you can perform some very impressive maneuvers to even the playing field and get the drop on your foes. I played through on hard for my first run and it was genuinely challenging. Enemy AI is pretty impressive and they know how to flank you and some of the tougher enemies like the handymen will be really tough. A couple of complaint in terms of combat - the gunplay still feels a little sluggish much like the original Bioshock and the respawn mechanic heavily penalizes you for dying (at least on hard) you lose a good chunk of money and respawn with low ammo and half health. This makes it a real uphill battle if you die a couple times and it is often better to just reload the checkpoint if you die more than a couple times in one of the really tough fights.
The visuals are quite impressive for a U3 engine game. This is not a console port, DX11 effects, highdef textures, tons of post processing options and tweaks are all standard. It is no Crysis in terms of detail, but still very good IMO. My machine had some trouble running on Ultra at 1080p and I have fairly modern hardware. On the highest setting the game really looks beautiful especially with the vibrant palette and art style. My one complain here is that the game uses adaptive vsynch, which I hate. It locks the frame rate 30 FPS if it drops below 60 which results in tearing. You can disable this, but it requires going into the config files and changing a variable.
Summary
The Good:
- World is amazingly detailed and immersive, lots of hidden details for the observant.
- Great story telling - keeps you emotionally and mentally invested from start to finish.
- Elizabeth is the most complex companion character in gaming today.
- Enjoyable combat, good variety of weapons and powers, as well as armor that grants specific bonuses.
- Good enemy AI and enemy variety.
- Skyline mechanic is a unique and enjoyable addition to FPS combat.
- Impressive visuals on Ultra and well optimized to run smoothly.
- Stable - zero crashes in ~20 hours and no game-breaking bugs.
- Great ending - makes you want to go back and play again to see everything in a new light.
The Indifferent:
- Length is about 9-11 hours depending on difficulty an dhow many optional side missions you do.
- DX11 DOF effects are impressive but take a heavy hit to framerate (~15FPS).
- Couple areas where you retread your previous path (reasonably explained via the story).
The Bad:
- Two areas are really combat heavy and drawn out. Can feel like a slog at time to get to the next part of the story.
- Engine utilizes adaptive vsynch which is annoying.
- Minor scripting bugs where conversation triggers overwrote each other and dialogue was missed.
- Due to the multiple levels it can be difficult to pinpoint where enemies are firing from, leading to annoying deaths.
Conclusion:
Bioshock Infinite is an amazing game. It surpasses the original Bioshock in every aspect IMO. The world is amazingly detailed, the story and characters are engaging, the visuals are impressive and the ending is very good. All the pieces came together for this game, but it really is more than the sum of it's parts. This will easily be a contender for GotY and I really recommend everyone who enjoys story-driven games to play it. One of if not the best game of this generation.