Ultimately Bioshock Infinite failed to deliver on both the hype and previous articles about its goals and aspirations.
Cons: Just about everything else...
To start off, my back ground in both design and cg art. I make game assets as both a hobby and for profit. So when first loaded up Bioshock Infinite, despite its great art direction I was totally slapped in the face by sloppy and low par game assets.
Meshes were so basic that they could have belonged in Super Mario 64, and they often shared UV space, which means the textures were mirrored to cut down on the memory usage. This is fine, but is it needed for a next gen title? Based on what I saw in BI, there was nothing to really force that kind of limitation.
Lets assume there was however... mirrored texture work is fine when its not creating odd repeated patterns all over the place. A good artist knows how to remove this or hide it. It was clear, from an artist point of view that they did not even try to do even that.
Then there are the character models. They made a huge mistake in making nearly everyone a clone. There was such a lack of character models, that it becomes immediately obvious that the same person is everywhere. It ruins immersion.
So aside from the art direction (over all look and feel), the actual mesh and texture work was bad. I would give it a 5 out of ten.
Gameplay was another issue. You as the player were presented wonderfully to the world of Columbia. There was good pacing in which you fought, then had time to relax and look around, then discover, then fight some more. But this pacing goes to crap once you hit a certain mid point in the game where its just a junky shooter conflicting with the original pacing and tone set up previously.
Weapons were bad. Simply bad. Let me explain why.
There are only 2-3 weapons in the game that are good, and the rest are just watered down weaker versions of the same. Upgrades didnt offer any unique differences in gameplay. The two best weapons you get in the game you get early on, which is the carbine and shotgun (or hand cannon depending on preference). There is no reason to pick up much less be interested in upgrading any other weapon. There was a serious lack of diversity going on.
For the most part the game involving head shotting enemies and using the few stun based vigors you could find. You also get the best 2 vigors early in the game, no need for any other.
Unlike other Bioshock games, you didnt hack or think of alternative strategies to accomplish a feat. It was simply run and gun while scavenging for ammo and money. While all the gore, blood and bullets are flying around...
You have elizabeth who is a skipping, teleporting happy go lucky girl. This creates a contrast that does nothing but pull you OUT of the game and say "Wtf'. Its odd, creepy, not natural. Distracting 90% of the time.
Then you have Booker, the main character...who starts off ok but just ends up sounding angry and mean 90% of the time...often not reflecting the actions chosen by the player.
Song Bird. When I bought the most expensive version of the game, I was given a large statue of songbird. Previous adverts and articles all feature songbird...its clear there was a major role this character played...
Yet when you actually play the game...song bird is gone from 90% of the entire game and it practically has NO impact on anything other than running away from it ONCE. Then it helps you once and then Liz kills it. All within a matter of minutes combined.
IF you have been following the development of the game, you would know at this point that the character was supposed to change you through the entire game itself, that it was an integral part of every facet of the game and it played a huge role.
The fact it doesnt shows that they could not deliver at all on what they planned on doing...and it shows. The title was rushed out the door and bandaided together before shipping.
Perhaps this is why the whole experience was jarring.
The initial political tone was great and started off strong, but they didnt know how to continue it as its lost and forgotten pretty fast. Apparently by helping one weapon maker live, every Vox member in the world become armed to the teeth and every political statement is forgotten.
The story is weak. It was trying to be complex for the sake of complexity, while managing to tell you that everything you did is really for moot. They fall into the same flawed garbage trap that every other book and movie does when dealing with time paradox's and different planes in the same place. Its a cheap cop out and honestly one of the weakest endings in a game I have ever seen.
I'll give them credit because they tried, but ultimately failed at executing such a story.
I feel I am being generous at giving the game a 7 out of 10, but the art direction was its only saving grace.
Please remember to be a critical thinker when analyzing games, just because its got the hype doesnt make it good. Bioshock is just another example of this.