Bioshock Infinite / Version Played: PS3
2K Games / Irrational Games / PS3-360-PC / March 26th / $89RRP
The game takes place in the airborne city of Columbia, in 1912, where the player assumes the role of Booker DeWitt, a disgraced Pinkerton agent. Booker has been given the job of finding a woman named Elizabeth, who has been confined by a hulking beast called Songbird. Following in the footsteps of previous BioShock games, the world of Infinite explores the chaos that results when strong ideals are taken to the extreme. At the time of DeWitt’s arrival, Columbia is a hotbed of ultra-nationalism, specifically American exceptionalism, as shown by the copious numbers of flags, patriotic music, and propaganda posters that promote the idea that Columbia is a ‘haven’ from the so-called ‘unwanted’ of the world. The story is the main reason that you will play this game. It will suck you in and make you feel apart of a world like no game ever has.
The graphics in Bioshock are some of the best i’ve ever experienced. Not so much the polygon count or realism of the environments but just the overall detail and character of every single room. I felt as if I was experiencing a completely new room their own personality and detail that fit into the overall time and setting of the Bioshock Infinite experience. The detail of the main characters in both their animation and voice acting was absolutely stunning and all helped to pull you into that experience.
The soundtrack in this game is absolutely incredible. From start to finish I was absolutely enthralled by the soundtrack and sound effect. I played Bioshock Infinite on PS3 and the frame rate was solid up until the credits. I was expecting it to stutter in the later part of the game where there is literally explosions and things happening everywhere but it held up time and time again. There were a few bugs here and there but it wasn’t enough to detract from the overall experience.
The gameplay in Bioshock Infinite is the vehicle for what keeps this amazing story going. There are so many reasons why the gameplay of Bioshock Infinite are just as good as the story and the game uses both to work together to create a masterpiece. Whilst the combat isn’t the best you’ll find in the market, it is the variety of ways to go about using combat that provides such a fresh experience throughout the whole game. The main element of Bioshock are Vigors. These are powers that Booker gains throughout the way. There are 8-10 of these that you find and can upgrade throughout the game in order to make them more powerful and give them different effects. Ontop of this, you are encouraged to use different Vigors together in order to create a whole new way to take down enemies.
There are 8-10 different guns throughout Bioshock and you’ll definitely favour 2-3 depending on which Vigors and play style you want to use. There are a number of different upgrades that you can choose to buy in order to make your guns more effective. You won’t get enough money to upgrade everything so upgrading a few weapons seems to be the best way to go about it. Ontop of this there is also upgrades for Booker scattered accross the game. These are harder to find and every bottle will allow you to upgrade Bookers health bar, salt bar or upgrade bar. All of these things make Bioshock Infinite’s pacing incredible, which is incredibly hard to do for a 14+ hour game. I only really had to push myself to get through an hour or so in the game where there wasn’t much variation or story progression, but outside of this every second of the game was a pure joy.
Elizabeth as an AI character is incredibly smart and always a pleasure to have by your side throughout the entire game. She never gets in the way in battles and the developers made a smart move in not giving her a health bar. She always seems to chime in at the right time with ammo, money, salts and health. The developers must’ve spent a long time balancing this as it never makes the game easier or makes the game feel cheap.
The game controls magnificently too. Buttons are mapped incredibly well and I never had trouble changing weapons or vigors, even through the most intense battle. After completing the game, i went back and spent a few hours using the Move controller on PS3. The game works with Move as you’d expect. The wand acts as the aimer(similar to Killzone 3) and you use the navigation controller to control Bookers movement. There are 3 control presets available, which alter the dead zone, turning speed and level of auto aim. If these modes still don’t feel right then there is a custom option which lets you customise movement, deadzone, autoaim etc. Bioshock Infinite controls well with the Move wand/Navigation controller and if you’ve preferred playing previous shooters with this method then it’s safe to say you’ll feel comfortable playing Bioshock with it.
Bioshock Infinite is a masterpiece. It is one of the best games i’ve played in my entire life. Not many games these days make you feel like you’re apart of a certain world and impact you to the point that you’re still thinking about the game days after completing it. The gameplay is incredible as well and does an amazing job in pushing the story along whilst keeping you entertained. You would be crazy to miss this title.
