So, I've finally given Bioshock Infinite a chance.

I've been playing Bioshock Infinite for about 5-7 hours now (can't really tell precisely) and so far I'm not enjoying it as much as I would've liked to. Henceforth I have a few questions for you, mixed with a write-up about my impressions of the game so far. I'd be really glad if you could answer them, mantaining it as spoiler-free as possible.

Currently I'm at the beginning of the Comstock House, right after the Vox Populi revolution and deaths of both Fink and Fitzroy. However, I don't really feel like I'm engaged into the story at all - the game just goes on, events happen, and here I am, asking myself constantly: "Why should I even care?". That's right, I don't care about any character I've met so far, Elizabeth included, or any of the story events occuring. Does it get better over time and there's a moment where you genuinely start to get involved, or is it one of those situations, where I should care because the game tells me to do so and if I happen not to, the whole experience's ruined for me? I'm asking because I don't really enjoy the gameplay (shootouts are bland as hell and the shooting mechanics are incredibly underwhelming) and the story is basically the only reason I keep playing, but I don't know if it's worth it.

It's probably just not your kind of game. It happens. I love the game personally, but I'm not so deluded as to think it's flawless and that people"don't get it." If you don't like it, then just say you don't like it.

The problem is, I don't know if I like it or not yet, so to speak. I don't know if I'm far into the game and don't know if it's the story that's just simply boring or is it me giving up too soon.

I like the game too, but the story gets very crazy towards the end. If you don't care about the characters now you wont at the end.

Goodluck!

What type of crazy? Awesome crazy or what-is-this-I-don't-even crazy?

@xxninja666xx: uhhh.....quantum physics. That's all I'll say. Besides, it's a game where you have to pay attention to everything that's going on. It's a little difficult to do when you have the first-person perspective all the time, but that's the only thing I can recommend. I love the characters though.

@xxninja666xx: Blow your mind crazy, but its character involvment.

So it's not really going to blow mine, is it?

@xxninja666xx: stick till the end and find out. It might change your perspective on some previous events. But if it's been this long without getting interested, it might not be that way.

@xxninja666xx: I am not very optimistic. Finish it if you are this far. You got like a hour or two left.

Thanks for the answers. Well, I guess since I'm really that far, I'm gonna get to the end just for the sake of it. I'm not really getting my hopes up, though, and seems like for a good reason. The whole thing is kinda disappointing, though, since I really wanted to like this game, but it didn't let me.

@xxninja666xx: it happens. Same thing happened to me with Half-Life 2. Tried it, thought it was merely good, not god-like as the internet would have you believe.

I've had it sitting in my Steam library since the Steam Winter Sale 2013 and have yet to install it. The amount and type of negative comments I've seen about the game have me at precisely zero interest in playing it.

I played it when the hype train was at its peak and was hugely disapointed. I expected some mind blowing story thing and it was kind of meh. Shooting is really easy and not really engaging they tried to mind f*** us but it is basic Scifi stuff. People that they're mind blown probably only played shooters and it was the first time they had story elements. Just like people over hype The Last Of Us and Uncharted for the story went it is very meh.

to me if you want a good story just play a JRPG ( not a WRPG as they never have a story trying so hard to be huge and lack direction ) they are very good at caracter developpement, good story with plot twist and an epic ending.

The only thing that still confuses me about the plot is how did Rosalind and Robert Lutece eventually end up working for Agent Coulson as Fitz and Simmons on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD?

-Byshop

Oh boy. A topic about the story of a Bioshock game. Well, I think the plot is somewhat too complicated and gets in the way of the characters, which is what the game is really about. The game is about Booker and if you pay attention to him, you'll be fine. It also helps to maybe play the game again from the beginning, which I consider to be a major flaw, because you shouldn't have to play it again to understand everything. The dialogue, enormous amounts of information about the characters and terrific voice acting have me willing to overlook that slightly.

I can name at least several areas of storytelling that Half-Life 2 does far better than Infinite, but that is a topic for another day.

I also expected it to be something mind blowing. The saddest thing about it, though, is that it genuinely has potential. The moment I'm at seems more like a beginning of a story that's about to unfold into something awesome. Turns out I'm at the very end and what I've seen so far is the whole thing. Really disappointing.

Too bad I only have a PC. Only the shittiest ones of the genre go there and the best ones stay on consoles.

Personally is one of my all-time favorites, but honestly if you aren't interested in the characters/story by this point you won't be by the end.

Its not worth.....might aswell dive back into your backlog, I'm sure you'll find a much better game there.

A question - why should I even be? The game doesn't give you any significant backstory for any of the characters and there isn't any sort of motor present, creating a player's emotional attachment towards them.

@xxninja666xx: No, you're right, the game gives you absolutely no reason to care for the characters...which is a bit of a problem, since their motivations/backstory are the only part of the story that get any sort of resolution.

I'm pretty sure the writers of Bioshock Infinite began their creative process by saying "we need a bigger plot twist than Bioshock 1", and once they'd written that (the start and end of the game), they realised they had to come up with something in the middle, where gameplay could occur. Hence why the game's city, its themes, its revolution, its inhabitants...just feel thrown in, and never really go anywhere. They are the game's plot, and yet they have nothing to do with the game's story. It's bizarre.

And all of that might be okay if the plot twist was well thought out, but it wasn't. It was loaded with huge plotholes, magical handwaving of key plot points, facepalm-worthy arbitrary rules, and an overall feeling that the player's actions are meaningless. There are games out there that have pulled off the same idea in a vastly superior manner. So...bleh.

@EPICCOMMANDER: I thought the narrative was the weakest part of Half-Life 2. Shame too, cuz the premise is interesting when it's not being vague as shit. But hey, to each their own.

I don't see being vague as hell as being a bad thing. Pulp Fiction is vague as hell (remember the briefcase?) and it's one of the most brilliant stories ever written. Infinite's problem is it has too much going on, and it doesn't know when the important parts are that you need to pay attention to, and what parts are superflous.

@EPICCOMMANDER: And Half-Life 2 doesn't have much going on? And Pulp Fiction was less about the briefcase and more about exploring the characters and how they would really interact in gangster roles. At least BioShock Infinite knows what it is from the start. Half-Life 2 just goes places without a reason other than the plot says so. Gordon Freeman is the biggest sucker on the planet all because he can't be bothered to say no, something that the BioShock series deconstructs effortlessly. I'm sorry, but I don't see what's so special about a scientist killing aliens because plot.

Bioshock 1 did that....infinite in my opinion fell flat on its face. I feel exactly the same as the OP. I found no reason to care whatsoever and it all just felt forced.

This is exactly why I don't like sci-fi and comics etc. They over explain things and it just feels poorly planned like someones inside joke that I don't find amusing.

You will continue not to care about the whole Vox tangent: it's barely anything more than an excuse to make the game longer. Chances are you will not like the rest of the plot either, as it only goes downhill from there, delving into competently written, but absolutely overly convoluted metaphysical bullshit that ultimately completely undermines the events of the whole game, leaving a few gaping plot holes open for good measure.

The gameplay doesn't get any better either. Still, don't abandon the game: it definitely deserves at least one full playthrough, if nothing else, for the masterful art design.

Story is great but gameplay mechanics are nothing special.

After hearing all the praise in the first few weeks of the game coming out I gave it a try. Played through the whole game waiting for the part where it became "epic"...never happened for me...

Curiously enough, I decided to try the first Bioshock afterwards and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Just finished the whole game. I wish I could say I enjoyed it, but it'd have been a lie. The ending was so terrible... And it's not that I didn't get it cause it was very easy to understand with just a little amount of thinking. It's just terrible, that's all... and at the final scene with the baptism they contradicted themselves - what Booker did was utterly pointless, given everything you learned during the last 10 minutes of the game.

@xxninja666xx:

Ken Levine has taken time away from you, time you will never get back.

But atleast now its over, you can move on to better things.

Gotta keep a positive attitude - maybe there's a parallel universe where I never got to experience this piece of shit? ;)

@xxninja666xx:

LoL. Hopefully.... perhaps you like The Last Of Us more.... I did..... sort of.

@Lulu_Lulu:

I'll play it eventually, when the price for a PS3 and games for it will drop to a reasonable value.

@xxninja666xx:

That might be a while..... at least in my country it would be a while...... I saw a PS3 bundle with uncharted 3 snd the GOW saga for $450..... I could get the Wii U for that kinda money...... but only the wii u.... no extra controller or games.

agreed.

the story is not the easiest to soak in but overall i enjoyed the game and columbia is exquisitely beautiful at times. persevere, start again or revisit in a few months time would be my advice

edit: not sure how i missed your comment saying you finished it lol. never mind, carry on

Yup, it completely negates everything you've done, and opens a big plot hole, considering the idea is deleting every Comstock everywhere, which is impossible because hypertime means there are infinite dimensions and tangents where every possibility is exhausted, and you can therefore never amend them all (they are infinite, the clue is in the title, writers) and there will still always be infinite dimensions in which the baptism still happened.

Anyway, you think that ending was terrible, wait until you see the DLC. They made it even worse. Watch them on youtube or something, that's what I did.

Uh, no, we definetelyneed more sci-fi games, not less. And Infinite may not have done a good job, but it deserves high praise for attempting to explain something so philosophical in a video game. It's only a matter of time before a game achieves what Infinite could not.

I agree that we need more sci-fi games. Been feeling burned out on too many fantasy games lately.

From reading a lot of science fiction novels, I've noticed that many sacrifice the personal character story and focus instead on the "world" story. I.e. they focus on what makes the world/conflict/setting interesting. They don't focus on pulling you into individual characters as much as fantasy novels. I wonder if there might be the same tendency in video games?

In any case, I would agree that Bioshock Infinite doesn't pull you into the characters as much as the first Bioshock. It must have been hard to out-do the Big Daddies and Little Sisters though. Bioshock set a high bar, not only for its own sequels, but all other games out there.

You seem to forget games like Planescape Torment, Silent Hill 2, and Kotor 2 existed way before Bioshock Infinite and Bioshock Infinite wasn't really the first one to do that.

Haven't played any of those other than KOTOR 2.

Also, I really don't care much about stories... I was just going by what I've heard said about Infinite.