FairXchange
Member
Taking my sweet time with this game. I'm blown away with how much detail is packed into the game, it looks stunning even on consoles. Love the combat, just getting used to the vigors and how to take out enemies in unique ways.
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Bioshock Infinite |OT| No Gods, Kings, or Irrational Games
- Thread starter Cystm
- Start date
Just finished the
part and was wondering about the tip I got earlier about possessing vending machines? Is it worth it to do that even if I end up buying the salt% from said vending machine? I do it anyway but Im not sure if Im gaining money, breaking even or losing money.
Also, not sure if it's AI/difficulty driven but Elizabeth keeps
to the point where it's kinda annoying me? Everything else she does is pretty cool, except swapping my guns out I guess -- but feels like the game is helping me along too much and compensating for my suckiness? I die a lot, although I've gotten a lot better about staying alive for the past hour or so, maybe one death every 3-4 encounters?
Hall of Heroes
Also, not sure if it's AI/difficulty driven but Elizabeth keeps
giving me money every few minutes
I don't think it's actually worth it. I had zero points in the Vigor upgrade and I could only do two possessions from a full bar. That means that I would need to get more than 67 Silver Dollars(price of a 100% vigor?) from the two in order to break even. I feel like each machines gives between 20 and 25 dollars.
song spoilershiny happy people
So how's Army of Two?
Best powers in the game (IMO) based on when you find it and overall effectiveness:
1. Murder of Crows
Long range, not especially expensive until late game, but what really sells it is the upgrade that lays down crow traps when an enemy dies being crows. These traps have a huge radius, are probably the best to deal wit large groups of enemies and the traps also trigger more crow traps. Lots of bang for your buck. Also works great on Handymen.
2. Possession
It may not seem like it at first but possession has tons of benefits. From the cash to the trap form. If you have a cluster of enemies an upgraded possession can take them all out in the blink of an eye. It also helps squeeze every bit of cash from vendors. A necessity for 1999 mode. A major problem with the power is probably the delay it takes to get to an enemy and it's early expense. More reason to invest in the upgrade early to cheapen it to lay down stronger trap possessions that can possess several things for longer periods of time.
3. Return to Sender
This would have been higher on my list if it didn't appear so damn late. I really should have used it more in retrospect. Great upgrade tree, great for scavenging ammo, cheap to use. If only it didn't come so darn late...
4. Shock Jockey
Electrobolt. Nuff said.
Ok, ok. It is cheap, basic bread and butter with an arching powerup. A neat power for sure and your best weapon for dealing with patriots. I found in the final moments that I was abusing the heck out of it. Sadly I kind of hate the trap form of this power. It never seemed that reliable to me.
5. Bucking Bronco
The cheapest tonic in the game. If it wasn't for the limited range this could easily to the list. Great for melee and shotgun builds this is also great if you choose to not focus on salts with infusions. You can lay this shit down everywhere as a trap. Shame it's upgrade tree is 'meh' and it sends enemies flying if you use a machine gun.
6. Devil's Kiss
A personal favorite of mine but it gets to be really expensive late game. Great for traps and in a particular fight near the end game in the end but the 2000ish cost to make this tonic effective may not be worth it for most.
7. Undertow
Great for pushing enemies off of ledges and for melee builds. Neither were desirable options for me when preparing for 1999 mode. I might give this another shake in the future. Good for dealing with handymen.
8. Charge
Personally, I hate this one. Expensive, mid game, and rather limited and the perks weren't worth the overall investment. Good for the a certain end game fight and maybe some melee builds but in the endgame I could not see myself using it.
So, thoughts, opinions? I may change my mind as I progress through 1999 mode but I firmly stand by crows and possession near the top 3 spots so far.
I might write about the weapons but that will take a ton of time to use each one fully upgraded.
1. Murder of Crows
Long range, not especially expensive until late game, but what really sells it is the upgrade that lays down crow traps when an enemy dies being crows. These traps have a huge radius, are probably the best to deal wit large groups of enemies and the traps also trigger more crow traps. Lots of bang for your buck. Also works great on Handymen.
2. Possession
It may not seem like it at first but possession has tons of benefits. From the cash to the trap form. If you have a cluster of enemies an upgraded possession can take them all out in the blink of an eye. It also helps squeeze every bit of cash from vendors. A necessity for 1999 mode. A major problem with the power is probably the delay it takes to get to an enemy and it's early expense. More reason to invest in the upgrade early to cheapen it to lay down stronger trap possessions that can possess several things for longer periods of time.
3. Return to Sender
This would have been higher on my list if it didn't appear so damn late. I really should have used it more in retrospect. Great upgrade tree, great for scavenging ammo, cheap to use. If only it didn't come so darn late...
4. Shock Jockey
Electrobolt. Nuff said.
Ok, ok. It is cheap, basic bread and butter with an arching powerup. A neat power for sure and your best weapon for dealing with patriots. I found in the final moments that I was abusing the heck out of it. Sadly I kind of hate the trap form of this power. It never seemed that reliable to me.
5. Bucking Bronco
The cheapest tonic in the game. If it wasn't for the limited range this could easily to the list. Great for melee and shotgun builds this is also great if you choose to not focus on salts with infusions. You can lay this shit down everywhere as a trap. Shame it's upgrade tree is 'meh' and it sends enemies flying if you use a machine gun.
6. Devil's Kiss
A personal favorite of mine but it gets to be really expensive late game. Great for traps and in a particular fight near the end game in the end but the 2000ish cost to make this tonic effective may not be worth it for most.
7. Undertow
Great for pushing enemies off of ledges and for melee builds. Neither were desirable options for me when preparing for 1999 mode. I might give this another shake in the future. Good for dealing with handymen.
8. Charge
Personally, I hate this one. Expensive, mid game, and rather limited and the perks weren't worth the overall investment. Good for the a certain end game fight and maybe some melee builds but in the endgame I could not see myself using it.
So, thoughts, opinions? I may change my mind as I progress through 1999 mode but I firmly stand by crows and possession near the top 3 spots so far.
I might write about the weapons but that will take a ton of time to use each one fully upgraded.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
BioShock Infinite, quick and dirty thoughts.
+ Significant combat improvements over BioShock. Excellent sense of feedback on hits, tight hitboxing, enemy type diversity, and encounter variations.
+ Power improvements, rendering powers useful and intelligently designed. Ties in with the above.
+ Rail usage a smart addition. Not over or underused.
+ Confident focus on streamlined level design with occasional quasi-hubs. More "traditional" than BioShock, but the result is better paced level design.
+ Far better upgrade balance over BioShock. Can't upgrade everything.
+ Extremely interesting narrative hooks that develop in powerful ways throughout the journey, keeping mystery at the forefront of the adventure.
+ Excellent "journey" game. Like Half-Life 2, you cover a lot of terrain and go many places.
+ Strength of the themes wont become evident until the credits roll, and it all sinks in.
+ Elizabeth was an inoffensive and pleasant companion irrespective of what was going on around you. Smart decisions like making her invincible, and little contextual interactions, give her life.
+ Believable character writing and voice acting.
+ Incredibly cohesive world vision and execution from both the art and audio team. Countless little details that 'make it'. Irrational's production team isn't unmatched, but they're certainly not bested.
- Little quirks and idiosyncrasies throughout every element and component of the game drag down the overall package.
- Combat: the odd iffy encounter design with unnecessary enemy health padding on hard. Damage stacking over shield to health is moronic. Occasional confusing feedback on taken damage.
- Narrative: Similar to BioShock, occasional narrative downtime sends the player on bizarre tangent objectives that put too much time in fleshing out secondary characters and lore elements. Sometimes focuses too much on developing Columbia and moving you through environments over giving you a strong internal objective, leading to dragging peaks of "wait...where am I and what am I supposed to be doing?". Again, similar to BioShock's narrative shortcomings.
- Elizabeth: That unfortunate "gaminess" preventing her from really excelling beyond what the medium is already known to be capable of. Obvious teleporting to catch up to the player, and occasionally goofy facial animations. Transparent "stop, narrative exposition time" talky talk. Alyx 2.0 in a nut shell. Which is great. But, you know, isn't all that much more amazing than what Valve accomplished years ago.
- Level design: Side quests are all unanimously awful in execution. They're all, no exception, treasure hunt fetch quests with needless backtracking. Painfully easy to accidentally miss and boring to consciously embark on.
- Hat/Pants/Vest/Shoes upgrade system seemed a bit tacked on. Probably requires more input from a lot of people to really see how much diversity the upgrades grant. Some really great powerful ones, while others seem like a waste of space.
Infinite is a quintessential Irrational game, drawing from the team's best and worst qualities in all areas of game design. It's a familiar BioShock game through and through, though thankfully addresses and builds upon majority of the aforementioned game's weaknesses, while still retaining all of its strengths. Cut up all the pieces and there's issues in the design and execution worth discussing and looking for improvement. But the some total of all parts make for a very complete and satisfying experience. I don't really think it brings anything new to the table, or turns the medium on its head. Much of the design is tried and true, including directly from Irrational themselves, but polished to a greater degree than their previous work. It's a intelligently conceived game, bringing many of the best qualities of known game design together in an incredibly satisfying way.
On a strict ten point scale where a five is a firm "average", I think I'd give Infinite a very solid 8/10, with certainly no wiggle room to drop under. With a dash of generosity it could easily make a 9/10 from me.
+ Significant combat improvements over BioShock. Excellent sense of feedback on hits, tight hitboxing, enemy type diversity, and encounter variations.
+ Power improvements, rendering powers useful and intelligently designed. Ties in with the above.
+ Rail usage a smart addition. Not over or underused.
+ Confident focus on streamlined level design with occasional quasi-hubs. More "traditional" than BioShock, but the result is better paced level design.
+ Far better upgrade balance over BioShock. Can't upgrade everything.
+ Extremely interesting narrative hooks that develop in powerful ways throughout the journey, keeping mystery at the forefront of the adventure.
+ Excellent "journey" game. Like Half-Life 2, you cover a lot of terrain and go many places.
+ Strength of the themes wont become evident until the credits roll, and it all sinks in.
+ Elizabeth was an inoffensive and pleasant companion irrespective of what was going on around you. Smart decisions like making her invincible, and little contextual interactions, give her life.
+ Believable character writing and voice acting.
+ Incredibly cohesive world vision and execution from both the art and audio team. Countless little details that 'make it'. Irrational's production team isn't unmatched, but they're certainly not bested.
- Little quirks and idiosyncrasies throughout every element and component of the game drag down the overall package.
- Combat: the odd iffy encounter design with unnecessary enemy health padding on hard. Damage stacking over shield to health is moronic. Occasional confusing feedback on taken damage.
- Narrative: Similar to BioShock, occasional narrative downtime sends the player on bizarre tangent objectives that put too much time in fleshing out secondary characters and lore elements. Sometimes focuses too much on developing Columbia and moving you through environments over giving you a strong internal objective, leading to dragging peaks of "wait...where am I and what am I supposed to be doing?". Again, similar to BioShock's narrative shortcomings.
- Elizabeth: That unfortunate "gaminess" preventing her from really excelling beyond what the medium is already known to be capable of. Obvious teleporting to catch up to the player, and occasionally goofy facial animations. Transparent "stop, narrative exposition time" talky talk. Alyx 2.0 in a nut shell. Which is great. But, you know, isn't all that much more amazing than what Valve accomplished years ago.
- Level design: Side quests are all unanimously awful in execution. They're all, no exception, treasure hunt fetch quests with needless backtracking. Painfully easy to accidentally miss and boring to consciously embark on.
- Hat/Pants/Vest/Shoes upgrade system seemed a bit tacked on. Probably requires more input from a lot of people to really see how much diversity the upgrades grant. Some really great powerful ones, while others seem like a waste of space.
Infinite is a quintessential Irrational game, drawing from the team's best and worst qualities in all areas of game design. It's a familiar BioShock game through and through, though thankfully addresses and builds upon majority of the aforementioned game's weaknesses, while still retaining all of its strengths. Cut up all the pieces and there's issues in the design and execution worth discussing and looking for improvement. But the some total of all parts make for a very complete and satisfying experience. I don't really think it brings anything new to the table, or turns the medium on its head. Much of the design is tried and true, including directly from Irrational themselves, but polished to a greater degree than their previous work. It's a intelligently conceived game, bringing many of the best qualities of known game design together in an incredibly satisfying way.
On a strict ten point scale where a five is a firm "average", I think I'd give Infinite a very solid 8/10, with certainly no wiggle room to drop under. With a dash of generosity it could easily make a 9/10 from me.
blame space
Banned
nevermind what i said eatchildren made a long though-out post. he said it was the best game of all time.
10/10 from me even with some minor issues.
I love the
dialogs. 
Game is getting kinda boring now.
The story/plot is actually whats pushing me through the game right now. I really want to know whats going on.
Lutece brothers
Game is getting kinda boring now.
Looking for the three tears from Elisabeth's mother, that I just found out isn really her mother :O.
You're nearing the end. No worries it stops dragging after that segment, it irritated me too.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
On my second playthrough, I was constantly waffling between 8/10 or 9/10. Sometimes I'm in one of those great dynamic battles or admiring all the themes and foreshadowing or just the entire first and last hour or so of the game or just appreciation how damn good the presentation of it all is, and I'm thinking, "Yes, GotY, definitely". Then there are other times where I'm doing fetch quest for three tears/running around Finktown, or mindlessly clicking on lots and lots of randomized shiny things as "exploration", or watching the Handyman absorb a billion bullets well past the point of tedium, and I think "Ok, maybe not the best thing in the world"
8.75/10, how's that for a grade
8.75/10, how's that for a grade
Cool! Good to know. Cant wait to finish it.
Yeah, the game was on GOTY levels until some point in the middle where the set pieces started to not feel as impressive and the places became repetitive. There were some brilliant stuff before that though, I have to say.
Incendiary
Banned
Man I just had the most ridiculous infinite loop combo kill ever.
A wave of about 8 regular enemies came charging out at me. I fling Murder of Crows at them to stop them in their tracks: headshot one with the Hand Cannon. Overkill goes into effect, stunning and shocking all of them in place. The first dead body turns into a Murder of Crows trap, trapping them all in Crows again as soon as the Overkill wears off, and then I headshot the next guy. Overkill stun again + new Murder of Crows trap. Rinse/repeat until they're all dead. I think only one enemy got a shot off the entire time. Just straight up murder, no pun intended.
For me it's:
1. Murder of Crows
2. Bucking Bronco
3. Undertow
4. Return to Sender
5. Shock Jockey
6. Charge
7. Possession
8. Devil's Kiss
I disagree with you about Possession, because honestly the only time I whip Possession out is when I'm facing turrets and need to pacify them. My main two I have equipped are Murder and Bronco, swapping in Undertow for the more open battles. Those three just suit my playstyle way more.
A wave of about 8 regular enemies came charging out at me. I fling Murder of Crows at them to stop them in their tracks: headshot one with the Hand Cannon. Overkill goes into effect, stunning and shocking all of them in place. The first dead body turns into a Murder of Crows trap, trapping them all in Crows again as soon as the Overkill wears off, and then I headshot the next guy. Overkill stun again + new Murder of Crows trap. Rinse/repeat until they're all dead. I think only one enemy got a shot off the entire time. Just straight up murder, no pun intended.
For me it's:
1. Murder of Crows
2. Bucking Bronco
3. Undertow
4. Return to Sender
5. Shock Jockey
6. Charge
7. Possession
8. Devil's Kiss
I disagree with you about Possession, because honestly the only time I whip Possession out is when I'm facing turrets and need to pacify them. My main two I have equipped are Murder and Bronco, swapping in Undertow for the more open battles. Those three just suit my playstyle way more.
OriginofHysteria
Banned
Man, how many times do I have to fight
Lady Comstock's ghost
ThaiGrocer
Member
Holy shit, fuck one of these last segments of the game. (late game spoilers->)
This is really leaving a sour taste in my mouth, not to mention the absolute creepiness of the place.
I'm in the Atrium/Prison/Comstock house whatever the hell it is. Basically it's where Elizabeth has been captured and you're trying to rescue her. How is everyone beating these mobs of enemies when there's virtually no ammo or extra guns around? I run low on salt, have no ammo and am basically having to slowly take them down one at a time with melee attacks. I've figured out if I go to the previous room, they wont follow you in but it still makes it a painfully slow process to beat them.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Funnel them down into a narrow choke point, devils kiss with clusters/extra damage ftw. Least that's how I did it
it was in front of us all along.
Just stealth that section.
If the Boys of Silence don't see you, the little Washington-head dudes won't attack you.
Don't get detected.
Don't let their light hit you. They'll give you a yellow warning / red attack indicator like turrets
i didn't bother. felt good to kill them. too bad you get zero drops.
Yea I stealthed my way through that section. Just gotta time the path of the light. Don't rush it.
lol you think that is the crazy part?
hah...ahah..hahahahah
lol you think that is the crazy part?
hah...ahah..hahahahah
Red Blaster
Member
you can also walk past them when they're looking away, no need to crouch
Really? Hasn't anyone else encountered this as a major issue with Elizabeth?
Not really I was happy to see her do her own thing without needing to stand in place and stare at her.
You don't need to use Songbird to take out the smaller airships, just shoot them. When I figured this out it made things a lot easier.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Between Elizabeth and the combat/level design, I'm not really feeling much revolutionary here either. Certainly evolutionary, but other than the narrative and artistic vision, there doesn't seem much to get all hot and bothered over to the extent of calling this the game of the gen. I suppose it could be argued as such insofar as it is an exceptional example of the things which have defined this gen.
In the case of Elizabeth though, it's tough to judge when something works well enough you don't think about it. To paraphrase Neil Degrasse Tyson, the act of shaving well means no one notices.
Thankfully though, the narrative and vision are both unique and powerful, and the gamey bits are excellent with the exclusion of foraging.
Also, the save system issue should not be given a free pass and be forgotten come the end of the year.
In the case of Elizabeth though, it's tough to judge when something works well enough you don't think about it. To paraphrase Neil Degrasse Tyson, the act of shaving well means no one notices.
Thankfully though, the narrative and vision are both unique and powerful, and the gamey bits are excellent with the exclusion of foraging.
Also, the save system issue should not be given a free pass and be forgotten come the end of the year.
Naw thats the final battle.
It's more important to time the attacks of Songbird, espeically with it's long as cool down. I used Songbird to clear the deck since the cooldown is so short. When it comes to the zeppelins make sure you can handle the waves of enemies while Songbird is cooling off. Tho with liz giving you salts,ammo,etc you should be fine. I used shock jock upgraded and bucking bronco upgraded, both which target a group of people instead of just one.
cpp_is_king
Member
What do I need to do if I want to backup my save so I can start a new game without damaging my current save?
I notice when I crawl she doesn't move.
ChimpBottle
Member
so what do you guys reckon the Story DLC will be about? Considering the main plot seemed pretty linear and it didn't seem like Booker and Elizabeth ever really had the time to go on a different adventure, I am at a loss as to what they do, unless it's from a different point of view, like Dishonored.
Keyser Soze
Member
I do not like fighting
. On second now. Hate it.
Rest of the game is spectacular, and a good challenge (playing on Hard),
are a shit versions of Big Daddise. Even Big Sisters were even fun to fight. These are not.
Handymen
Rest of the game is spectacular, and a good challenge (playing on Hard),
Handymen
there are places in the environment where Elizabeth would lean on the wall or sit down. she won't move if you go up to her there. too bad she doesn't emote much there. at least you can admire the textures on her dress.
Thanks. I think came close a couple of times but I've been so frustrated I can barely remember the game leading up to it, which is a shame because it was awesome.
Yea they are a bitch, rather deal with the MP at times then them.
Riposte
Member
I'm finding the opposite to be true for most of the game. Camping is really good until you run into the tougher enemies. I think the game actually discourages mobility (on hard) until you get a lot of salt to work with.
Haha, yes. Group them all together and put out some AoEs. Pretty sure they were designed to be like that given how guns work on them.
How are you trying to fight them?