Fun at times, but not all its cracked up to be
Now before I get into the things I didnt like, I will start off with some of the good things about the game. For starters, the graphics and presentation of the game are fantastic. The steampunk cloud city was captured almost flawlessly, really pushing the limits of this generations consoles(I played it on the PS3). Most of the traditional Bioshock features were included in this game such as the ability to upgrade weapons, use of vigors(plasmids essentially), and engrossing combat with multiple enemies. I can personally say that I was impressed by the way everything was presented to me. With all that aside, you can dress up anything these days and make it look good.
While the game looks great visually, the rest of Bioshock Infinite falls flat on its face, especially when being compared to the first 2 titles. I wont get too into actually telling the story of the game, but you play as private investigator Booker DeWitt, sent to this sky city to find the game's main female character, Elizabeth. I was originally given the impression that those two characters would be spending the majority of the game together, developing a relationship as the game progressed. Maybe I was too stupid to really understand it, but I never felt that as I played. Both characters are rather bland and boring. The dialogue between them seemed to be on a cyclic repeat, truly reminding me that shes just AI. I never felt any connection develop between these two characters and thats one thing that was hyped before the game was released.
Another issue I have with Infinite is its seemingly dumbed down gameplay. I understand that its meant to be more realistic and to make the player consider strategy, but realism is essentially thrown out the window where any Bioshock game is concerned. The player is limited to 2 fire arms, your vigors, and the melee skyhook, all of which are no where near as fun as they should be. For one, I dont like being limited to 2 firearms and being forced to constantly scour areas for different weapons depending on the situation. There are a wide variety of firearms in the game but I never get to use half of them because one, I can only carry 2, and secondly, most of the weapons have a scant supply of ammo. For example, the shotgun carries maybe 20 shells at maximum so after one big fire fight, all my ammo is spent and im forced to find a new weapon. I just dont see how thats any fun, also keeping in mind that you upgrade weapons, which I found a lot of times, I would upgrade a weapon just to find myself picking up something different moments later making me feel like the upgrade I used was a waste. The vigor system isnt much better. While you can use certain abilities in combination with one another such as flaming crows, I never really found a useful application for the majority of the vigors in the game. I think I only used the crows and the fire most of the game. Another aspect of the game that was over hyped was the use of the skyhook. Once again, the moments when its combative application was presented to me, it felt forced and not at all useful. I could see where they were going with it, but it felt as if they couldnt quite get there with it.
The last BIG problem I had with this game was the story...SHOCKER! I wont give away any of it here, but lets just say it tries way too hard to provide shock and awe for the player. Of course being a Bioshock title, it will constantly throw curve balls at you making you say "wow what..." but being the third title, all of that is expected. The story is so over the top and its not developed well at all as the game progresses. When I got to the end, the game takes the last half hour to cram everything down your throat all at once giving you that feeling of "wow this is complicated stuff making it hard for me to understand...it must be good" Sadly, the majority of the people get sucked into that and actually believe it. After I beat the game, I didnt have any sense of accomplishment, considering how convoluted the story was. When it comes down to Father Comstock and Andrew Ryan, Ryan's extreme capitalist attitude beats out the racist religious zealot Comstock any day of the week.
My final verdict, Its worth a try but I wouldnt recommend paying full price for this game. If this game happens to be the first Bioshock game you intend to play, please don't, and consider trying the first game. Infinite had its moments, but overall it was a disappointment.