Bioshock Infinite is a worthy addition to the highly acclaimed Bioshock series
Story
Bioshock Infinite presents a grand story, obscured in every single act or event, occurring throughout the journey. Our character, Booker Dewitt, is sent out on a "deliver and pay back" mission to bring a certain girl to his debtors. The premise of the game builds up our expectations for the quest ahead and the city we are about to witness, while the premise of Bioshock as a series makes the gamer more sensible towards the possibility of plot details, leading to twists and climaxes. Irrational does a brilliant job in dropping the player into a wonderful and memorable setting – the floating city of Columbia, which happens to be an exact representation of 1912 USA. Typical for those ages, the struggle of the African-American communities (as well as the Irish) is well presented as the Vox Populi play an integral part of Infinite's storyline. Elizabeth, the girl Booker is supposed to bring to his debtors, has an ability to open portals to other, parallel realities called "tears". The story of Bioshock Infinite is very engaging, with an excellent twist in the end, while revolving around the ideas of religion, multiverse and multiple, parallel realities. 10/10
Graphics
I played Infinite on Xbox 360 and the game looks fantastic. It is a proven fact that PC gamers would enjoy the best graphics, but for a console port Infinite is certainly an eye candy. The lavish sky vistas and the mixture of steampunk elements with the authentic 1912 representation of US, give the gamer a strong visual experience. 9/10
Sound/Voice Acting
The soundtrack of Bioshock Infinite is great. The song selection (without a doubt) is very appropriate and even startling – you can even encounter or hear licensed songs from the last 20 or so years of current times. This is all possible because of the "tear" mechanics - when a portal/tear to another reality is opened, we can encounter everything that is relevant to that era. Bioshock Infinite provides us with an outstanding voice acting (no surprise here to be honest). To get a better feel for the world, Irrational, again, incorporates voice recordings (voxophones), scattered throughout Columbia. One of the major benefit of looking out for those is the perfect voice acting they are engaging us in. 9/10
Gameplay
Bioshock Infinite follows up on the gameplay introduced in Bioshock 2 – dual wielding (a power and a weapon). Instead of Plasmids, Columbia is famous for Vigors. Instead of "Eve", we now have "Salts". They all serve the same purpose though. As for the weapon arsenal, Booker has only two slots to equip weapons of choice. All vigors and weapons are upgradable, just like before. One new introduction in Infinite is the usage of sky hooks. The way Booker moves around Columbia is through sky hooks, connecting two or more separate areas. While engaging in a hook slide, Booker can perform execution moves or shoot towards enemies, surrounding the areas. It provides a little more excitement and diverse firefights, but it does seem that this feature is a little underused – there aren't many areas in the game where sky hook slides are navigated. The second gameplay mechanic that was somewhat exciting was Elizabeth. The AI behind her character is quite advanced, so she constantly tells Booker when she sees an interesting object to pick up, use or interact with. She also helps in battles by providing ammo, Salts or health. This engaging support role is quite helpful at times. 8/10
Overall
Bioshock Infinite is a worthy successor to the first Bioshock game. The story, along with its many reveals, twists and climaxes is outstanding and quite touchy. The gameplay is definitely better than the first one, as the dual wield of a vigor and a weapon leads to larger flexibility. The gorgeous vistas of the floating city of Columbia and the outstanding characters and voice acting make this entry of Bioshock a true masterpiece. 9.5/10
EvilSelf