• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Bioshock Infinite |OT| No Gods, Kings, or Irrational Games

Drago

Member
So here is my little mini, mostly spoiler free review of the game

Gameplay: Vigors are awesome (Bucking Bronco is the best) and the guns felt satisfying to use. The enemies weren't too tough but I felt they appeared a little too often and got in the way of the story in some cases
particularly the onslaught preventing you from saving Elizabeth and the final battle, I HATED the final battle
but overall, I had some good fun. I kinda agree with the notion that the game shouldn't have been a shooter, but it still kinda fits.

Story: One of the best (if not most confusing) stories I've seen in a game. Once you take it all in, everything clicks and it makes for a very satisfying narrative. I did not like how the game constantly seemed to switch themes, however - it went from religion to racism and such without spending a whole lot of time on them. I would have liked to see these themes constantly running throughout the game instead of losing focus on them in exchange for another.

Graphics: LOVE LOVE LOVE the art style, colors, attention to detail, EVERYTHING about how the game looks. Some character models were weird looking and had no emotions whatsoever, which kinda took me out of the game, but overall a wonderful game to immerse myself in. Can't wait until I eventually play the PC version with all the bells and whistles.

Music: Generally unnoticeable throughout the game, but there were some great songs there indeed. Loved the classic remixes of more recent songs (especially Everybody Wants to Rule the World, heh). Don't have much more to say here.

Overall, It's an 8/10 from me. Great but flawed game, and my GOTY so far. I'm happy that I got to play it.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
repost but whatever.

i don't get the elizabeth love. she's basically a mule, tossing booker ammo, coins, pots and vigors. otherwise she cowers or investigates nodes near booker.

That sealed it for me. Super helpful, especially when my first go was on Hard, saved my ass plenty of times. She doesn't get in the way of combat (which is more than what I can say for most FPS' with AI teammates). Plus, character-wise, I dig her and Booker's relationship: the battered, broken and cynical vet with the disney princess. Fun stuff.
 

DatDude

Banned
Playing this game just made me appreciate Andrew Ryan all the more. Comstock isn't nearly as engaging or intimidating as Ryan was. In fact, he's absent for the vast majority of the game, and aside from knowing that he's a racist who's built a cult of personality around him, he's pretty uninteresting.

None of Comstock's voxophones come close to the brilliance of Ryan's. Those really were something else.

It's sort of Unfortante that you compared everything from Bioshock 1 to Infinite.

I'm pretty sure Comstock was never set out to be the 1:1 ratio equivalent of Ryan.

I have friends (which I did as well) that all they did was compare every single aspect of Infinite back to Bioshock 1. Which is sad, because your not comparing the game based off it's own unique merits and accomplishments, but rather the unique merits and accomplishments of previous games.

Playing Infinite as a new ip was a much better experience for me honestly.
 

Duffyside

Banned
Cleaning up getting all the achievements.

Is there a way check which kinetoscope or telescope you're missing? I'm only missing one and I have no idea which one it is lol.


Other than cross-referencing the ones you collected to a list online and seeing which one is missing, I don't think so.

Really unbelievable that such a high-profile game shipped without this feature. Still steamed about it.
 

DatDude

Banned
I like the game and all but the combat pisses me off. I'm constantly dying, never feel confident in a battle. Always taking damage, rarely know where I'm getting shot from. A lot of the Vigors seem useless

Drop it down to easy. Might make the game a bit more enjoyable that way...at least it did for me.
 

DatDude

Banned
I think you meant to say, a story doesn't have to do both, to be great. Which is spot on. Yes, it's possible to do both. Does it have to do both to be a great story? Hell no! It's like you guys have a checklist of what a great narrative needs, to be considered great, deep or mature.

I personally feel that people feel as if they HAVE TO BE more harder on the narrative, and critique it more so, due to the fact of how much it's been highly regarded and lauded for it's narration accomplishments in video games.

I agree there's quite a few flaws, it's not perfect. But I think if we consider all the video games that have been released, it sits at the top.
 

Drago

Member
Drop it down to easy. Might make the game a bit more enjoyable that way...at least it did for me.

Yeah did this too, doubt I would have enjoyed it as much if I played on a higher difficulty.

I agree with JB1981 about the frantic combat, but it wasn't as much as a problem for me because of easy. I doubt I'd be anywhere near finished if I was playing even on normal, haha.

:(
 

Tesseract

Banned
That sealed it for me. Super helpful, especially when my first go was on Hard, saved my ass plenty of times. She doesn't get in the way of combat (which is more than what I can say for most FPS' with AI teammates). Plus, character-wise, I dig her and Booker's relationship: the battered, broken and cynical vet with the disney princess. Fun stuff.

i guess i expected more from her. she ain't doing anything an npc couldn't do in valve's source sdk. oh well, at least she's a great character.
 

SGRX

Member
Really unbelievable that such a high-profile game shipped without this feature. Still steamed about it.

This is probably my only complaint with the game. It's not that bad with the voxophones since you can just compare titles and isolate what you missed, but if you miss a telescope or kinetoscope somewhere, have fun backtracking through the entire list one by one.
 

Tesseract

Banned
i'm also not a big fan of audio diaries. a lot of times i'm listening to them during firefights or something when my attention is split among combat, health and salt management, so forth. pausing to listen to them again because i missed bits of info during a firefight stinks. i think they're a lame way to backstory characters, events, whatever.
 
Gonna have to say Bioshock 1 is better than Infinite in every way:

-Better artstyle
-Better music
-I liked the gameplay more to tell you the truth
-Better level designs
-Big Daddies of course
-Ryan was better that Comstock
-The game was hella scary, too.
 
I think you meant to say, a story doesn't have to do both, to be great. Which is spot on. Yes, it's possible to do both. Does it have to do both to be a great story? Hell no! It's like you guys have a checklist of what a great narrative needs, to be considered great, deep or mature.

Not at all. I go by how it makes me feel. This left me wanting, and I highlighted the areas where I noticed it.

I really don't have much bad to say about the second half of the story. If there's something to accuse me of, it's that I seem to spend a lot more time talking about what I didn't like than what I did.

repost but whatever.

i don't get the elizabeth love. she's basically a mule, tossing booker ammo, coins, pots and salts. otherwise she cowers or investigates nodes near booker.

*whoops, meant salts*

She's basically

EZiO7sM.png


only nicer to look at.

I personally feel that people feel as if they HAVE TO BE more harder on the narrative, and critique it more so, due to the fact of how much it's been highly regarded and lauded for it's narration accomplishments in video games.

I agree there's quite a few flaws, it's not perfect. But I think if we consider all the video games that have been released, it sits at the top.

That's a pretty bold statement. You'd put this above Planescape:Torment, or even just System Shock 2?
 

Toa TAK

Banned
i'm also not a big fan of audio diaries. a lot of times i'm listening to them during firefights or something. pausing to listen to them again stinks. i think they're a lame way to backstory characters, events, so forth.

I really enjoy them. I think they're a nice way of explaining stuff without really being in your face about it. I love listening to them as I explore the setting, whether it's Columbia or Rapture. If I have any complaint about them this game, is that we didn't get enough of the "average joe" voxophones. Hopefully, DLC will fix this.
 

pa22word

Member
See I don't understand this at all.

The most shallow?

If anything Bioshock 1 was the most shallow if you consider the progression from System Shock 2, to Bioshock 1.

At least Infinite retained more rpg lite elements with the use of gears, and had a much improved combat system.

Care to explain where you saw it to be more shallow? Because that just boggles my mind how someone could even say such a thing? :/

Infinite retained more rpg elements? What?! The game essentially has no RPG elements at all, and I'd go out on a limb and say that 70% of the gears are entirely superfluous and/or redundant. The tonics system in both Bio1 and Bio2 was much more effective at molding /different/ play builds, while the infinite system is essentially nothing more than a CoD style perk system. Not to mention the gears are completely random on pick up, meaning actual building is completely impossible, vs the tonic system which had both adam-use store options for buying them and non-random drops. This ensured that the player could depend on having a certain tonic at a certain point in the game (or any point in the game, if they chose to purchase it) and build a playstyle to and around those tonics. In infinite it's purely a dice roll.

Much improved combat? ...I can't see how you can say this with a straight face considering the combat in this game is essentially nothing more than BioShock2's combat if the designers made 99% of the enemies hitscan, removed a metric-shit-ton of combat options (removing some of them for no reason other than to have a justification for having elizabeth around, which is utterly despicable game design imo), effectively halved movement speed, and implemented a really haphazard health system.

The game's combat is worse than Bio2 in every quantifiable way. There's not a single thing this game does better than that game does in the gameplay department, other than arguably the skyhooks adding a really small distraction

If talking in relation to Bio1...I can't even say its better than bio1. Maybe if you're on a gamepad, where accessing different plasmids and guns instantaneously was rather...troublesome I guess it might edge it out, but the steep drop in combat options (every offensive vigor is essentially nothing but crowd control, and the two unique plasmids come much too late in the game to nullify the problems) and maneuverability makes me give the edge to Bio1.
 

Duffyside

Banned
This is probably my only complaint with the game. It's not that bad with the voxophones since you can just compare titles and isolate what you missed, but if you miss a telescope or kinetoscope somewhere, have fun backtracking through the entire list one by one.

Unless you start a new game in 1999, thinking "there's no way this list won't carry over, right? There's THREE different collectibles in this game. THREE. All with a trophy attached. It's guaranteed to be in."

Ugh.

I only complain about it this much because I'm hoping it gets fixed.
 

Tesseract

Banned
realtalks: i think it's an ok shooter but far outclassed by singularity, rage, human revolution, and dishonored. it certainly ain't a swansong generation ender of shooters to be admired for decades.

great art though, seriously disgustingly talented artists at irrational.

i'd probably give it a 3/5 somethings.
 

butts

Member
Played through this once and would like to take a second stroll through but with infinite salt and ammo - is there an easy way to do this on PC without downloading some sort of trainer?
 

pa22word

Member
I really enjoy them. I think they're a nice way of explaining stuff without really being in your face about it. I love listening to them as I explore the setting, whether it's Columbia or Rapture. If I have any complaint about them this game, is that we didn't get enough of the "average joe" voxophones. Hopefully, DLC will fix this.

I don't think they work very well in Infinite when compared to previous Shock games due to the game's inherent linear focus. They worked fantastically in the older titles due to the open level design where you can listen to the audio diaries while you explore the environment, occupying your mind with glorious exposition while you muck about searching for where to go.

In Infinite you have to essentially entirely stop forward progression and listen to them due to the Half-Life-ian style "linear with legroom" design. It just doesn't work as well here, where it's an intentional stopping of the action in a linear action game vs something that provides narrative exposition during exploration in a game with a focus on exploration.

Just doesn't mesh as well with the game they were making, imo.

Played through this once and would like to take a second stroll through but with infinite salt and ammo - is there an easy way to do this on PC without downloading some sort of trainer?

Buying the season pass and using the upgrades for salts is really the only viable non-cheat device method atm.
 

Kajiba

Member
Found the telescope that i missed and got the achievement. Lucky guess on my part lol.

Thank god didn't have to go through the whole list to find it.
 

DatDude

Banned
Gonna have to say Bioshock 1 is better than Infinite in every way:

-Better artstyle
-Better music
-I liked the gameplay more to tell you the truth
-Better level designs
-Big Daddies of course
-Ryan was better that Comstock
-The game was hella scary, too.

No offense, but this is more opinion (artstyle, music, scary-ness) than actual flaws.

You could just say you prefered Bio1 more, which is understandable since not everyone who likes choclate ice cream, will like vanilla.
 

Tesseract

Banned
No offense, but this is more opinion (artstyle, music, scary-ness) than actual flaws.

You could just say you prefered Bio1 more, which is understandable since not everyone who likes choclate ice cream, will like vanilla.

um, of course it's an opinion.
 

DatDude

Banned
Infinite retained more rpg elements? What?! The game essentially has no RPG elements at all, and I'd go out on a limb and say that 70% of the gears are entirely superfluous and/or redundant. The tonics system in both Bio1 and Bio2 was much more effective at molding /different/ play builds, while the infinite system is essentially nothing more than a CoD style perk system. Not to mention the gears are completely random on pick up, meaning actual building is completely impossible, vs the tonic system which had both adam-use store options for buying them and non-random drops. This ensured that the player could depend on having a certain tonic at a certain point in the game (or any point in the game, if they chose to purchase it) and build a playstyle to and around those tonics. In infinite it's purely a dice roll.

Much improved combat? ...I can't see how you can say this with a straight face considering the combat in this game is essentially nothing more than BioShock2's combat if the designers made 99% of the enemies hitscan, removed a metric-shit-ton of combat options (removing some of them for no reason other than to have a justification for having elizabeth around, which is utterly despicable game design imo), effectively halved movement speed, and implemented a really haphazard health system.

The game's combat is worse than Bio2 in every quantifiable way. There's not a single thing this game does better than that game does in the gameplay department, other than arguably the skyhooks adding a really small distraction

If talking in relation to Bio1...I can't even say its better than bio1. Maybe if you're on a gamepad, where accessing different plasmids and guns instantaneously was rather...troublesome I guess it might edge it out, but the steep drop in combat options (every offensive vigor is essentially nothing but crowd control, and the two unique plasmids come much too late in the game to nullify the problems) and maneuverability makes me give the edge to Bio1.

I see what your saying I guess. But to me Bioshock was nothing more than a FPS with shallow rpg elements, even with the tonics.

Same goes for Bio2, even Bioshock Infinite.

System Shock 2 blended the perfect mix of gunplay, and rpg and really shits upon all 3 of these bioshock games.

An regarding the gameplay. I loved it more than Bio 1 (which after replaying it a few weeks ago is stale as fuck), and Bioshock 2. Deal with it.
 
Found the telescope that i missed and got the achievement. Lucky guess on my part lol.

Thank god didn't have to go through the whole list to find it.

I was missing three at the end, and I went through the full telescope list and every time I saw one that was listed and I thought "hm, that doesn't sound like one I got" I went to that point. Got all three on the first try, thank God.

The beginning takes too long IMO.

I actually like that the beginning can take as long or as short as you want it to. You can probably power through everything to the point where the action starts in about ten minutes if you just ignore everything and just run.
 

conman

Member
I think you meant to say, a story doesn't have to do both, to be great. Which is spot on. Yes, it's possible to do both. Does it have to do both to be a great story? Hell no! It's like you guys have a checklist of what a great narrative needs, to be considered great, deep or mature.
I actually agree with this. I didn't mean to sound quite so programmatic. Infinite is definitely a game that tries to do both (character story and high concept), but is much more successful with the former than the latter.

I don't think they work very well in Infinite when compared to previous Shock games due to the game's inherent linear focus. They worked fantastically in the older titles due to the open level design where you can listen to the audio diaries while you explore the environment, occupying your mind with glorious exposition while you muck about searching for where to go.
The thing that bugged me was how often you'd be listening to an audio log, walking around collecting loot, and then you'd pass some invisible trigger point that triggered dialog. The audio log would then fade to the background so you could hear only the character dialog. I get why they do that, but it's a sloppy solution to a problem that shouldn't have existed in the first place. It's like they didn't quite know how to integrate the audio logs in a natural way. They weren't important enough to get "top billing" in the audio mix, but they also reveal too much important plot detail to completely ditch. An imperfect solution to an outdated design element. Easy enough to access afterward, though. But, again, if they're not important to the story, don't include them at all. And if they are important, give them the "space" they deserve.
 
Hey guys I finally got myself a copy. I only finished Bioshock 1 for the first time about a month ago and while I thought it was fantastic, I was a bit tired by the end. Should I not bother with Bioshock 2 now and just get stuck in to Infinite? I think it would be ages before the fatigue of 2 would wear off enough to get stuck into Infinite, and I'm kinda caught up in the hype right now!
 

LiK

Member
Really? It took me 21 hours.

yea, 12 hours on Normal for me.

Hey guys I finally got myself a copy. I only finished Bioshock 1 for the first time about a month ago and while I thought it was fantastic, I was a bit tired by the end. Should I not bother with Bioshock 2 now and just get stuck in to Infinite? I think it would be ages before the fatigue of 2 would wear off enough to get stuck into Infinite, and I'm kinda caught up in the hype right now!

yea, skip 2 and go for Infinite. I really enjoyed 2 but i think you might be burned out if you play 2 before Infinite. save 2 and Minerva's Den for a rainy day.
 

DatDude

Banned
Hey guys I finally got myself a copy. I only finished Bioshock 1 for the first time about a month ago and while I thought it was fantastic, I was a bit tired by the end. Should I not bother with Bioshock 2 now and just get stuck in to Infinite? I think it would be ages before the fatigue of 2 would wear off enough to get stuck into Infinite, and I'm kinda caught up in the hype right now!

skip 2. totally irrelevant to the series.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
Hey guys I finally got myself a copy. I only finished Bioshock 1 for the first time about a month ago and while I thought it was fantastic, I was a bit tired by the end. Should I not bother with Bioshock 2 now and just get stuck in to Infinite? I think it would be ages before the fatigue of 2 would wear off enough to get stuck into Infinite, and I'm kinda caught up in the hype right now!
I would go ahead and play Infinite now since you have beaten the first. But do yourself a favor and give 2 a chance once you think you're through with Infinite.
 
If you've played shooters before hard is not a big deal. I died maybe 10 times in the entire game and I used the pistol and first machine gun exclusively. No RPG, no shotgun, and just possession + devil's kiss. Exploration makes the game way easier.
 

jadedm17

Member
I really enjoy them. I think they're a nice way of explaining stuff without really being in your face about it. I love listening to them as I explore the setting, whether it's Columbia or Rapture. If I have any complaint about them this game, is that we didn't get enough of the "average joe" voxophones. Hopefully, DLC will fix this.

I completely agree. After playing Bioshock Infinite a few hours I have made two of my friends play it, who in turn devoted a several hour span to playing. Its amazing seeing them provide new perspective on the surroundings, and seeing what they discover or don't discover.
I didn't completely get the John Wilkes Booth statue at first.

My favorite part of this game is you choose what you learn. Personally the voxophones are my favorite part, and some are downright chilling. I stop every chance I get to read the posters and such as well.

On another note, I was at work the other day when I overheard (I work in a restaurant) a few cooks talking about recent games. One was praising Tomb Raider while saying he didn't care for Bioshock, that he "beat it in a day". What the hell man? I've spent hours just staring off in the distance, do you really feel you gave this game a chance or did you play it like a COD shooter?
 

Ce-Lin

Member
Anybody here play this game like a Vanguard from ME2/3? The charge vigor was ridiculously overpowered when mixed with gear that boosted your melee and an upgraded shotgun. It got to the point where I didn't even need to switch vigors towards the end because everything died so fast.

My method was as so:

1. See enemy
2. Use "Charge" to fly across the map at them.
3. Once I hit them with charge, melee attack with gear that had 70% to set them on fire and do additional damage.
4. Shotgun blast
OPTIONAL:
5. Do another charge or shotgun blast to finish them off.

Combine all of this with gear that has a chance to give me back vigor replenishing items upon enemy death and you were only limited by your ammo. Once you upgrade Charge to replenish your shield, it's even more ridiculous.

As much as this playstyle kind of cheesed most of the games enemies, it was a blast to play.

Edit: I beat the game on Normal, so maybe Charge isn't as advisable on harder settings.

I beat 1999 mode several times already and the last two times I made it without even dying once, of course I used Charge (specially the Shawn combo), it was a blast and no, it doesn't cheese the gameplay since the Charge vigor isn't available until
the last third of the game
and the gear you get is randomized each playthrough.

so yes, even in the hardest difficulty modes Charge + charge boost + explosive upgrade + replenishing salt/ammo gear upon melee = amazing ! will save your life a lot of times.
 

bhlaab

Member
I personally feel that people feel as if they HAVE TO BE more harder on the narrative, and critique it more so, due to the fact of how much it's been highly regarded and lauded for it's narration accomplishments in video games.

I agree there's quite a few flaws, it's not perfect. But I think if we consider all the video games that have been released, it sits at the top.

Well you're not accounting for the half of the argument that there is little value in linear, purely author-driven narrative in an interactive medium. That it doesn't matter how good the storytelling is when many believe that a game shouldn't be primarily focused on telling a story in the first place.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Something weird in my game.

I haven't gotten the explosive blast yet for my Charge and yet *if* I paired up that hat that confers 70% chance of flaming the bad dudes (I forget that name) and *when* that 70% activates then my Charge will explode regardless...?

Not that I am complaining, hahaha, but, huh, that's weird.
 
Gonna have to say Bioshock 1 is better than Infinite in every way:

-Better artstyle
-Better music
-I liked the gameplay more to tell you the truth
-Better level designs
-Big Daddies of course
-Ryan was better that Comstock
-The game was hella scary, too.
Word.

But

FwlYzQ5.jpg


Is better than anything in Infinite.
 
you could have an argument for everything there except gameplay. gameplay in bioshock was blaaah.

this was actually fun to play as a shooter thank god. i was hyped for infinite's setting and story but was dreading the dull gameplay. but it was far more fluid than i expected.

edit: system shock 2 is still the best thing levine's ever made.
 
It's weird the AI is way superior in Infinite but the cramped levels in Bioshock really allowed you to tee off and made ever battle feel threatening. So I can see people liking Bioshock's better.

The skyrails are fun as hell but they were a pretty good escape and regroup bailout.
 
I don't think they work very well in Infinite when compared to previous Shock games due to the game's inherent linear focus. They worked fantastically in the older titles due to the open level design where you can listen to the audio diaries while you explore the environment, occupying your mind with glorious exposition while you muck about searching for where to go.

In Infinite you have to essentially entirely stop forward progression and listen to them due to the Half-Life-ian style "linear with legroom" design. It just doesn't work as well here, where it's an intentional stopping of the action in a linear action game vs something that provides narrative exposition during exploration in a game with a focus on exploration.

Just doesn't mesh as well with the game they were making, imo.



Buying the season pass and using the upgrades for salts is really the only viable non-cheat device method atm.

Agree

Frankly pretty dissapointed that they still opted for the audio diary system here, especially because it's at odds with the pacing, like you put it.
It made sense in System Shock 2 with PDAs in the future and whatnot, was sort of silly but amusing in Bio1 and 2 (lol, people just leave personal diaries lieing around everywhere?), and just a distraction with Infinite. You REALLY couldn't come up with a better way to deliver exposition?

I actually agree with this. I didn't mean to sound quite so programmatic. Infinite is definitely a game that tries to do both (character story and high concept), but is much more successful with the former than the latter.

The thing that bugged me was how often you'd be listening to an audio log, walking around collecting loot, and then you'd pass some invisible trigger point that triggered dialog. The audio log would then fade to the background so you could hear only the character dialog. I get why they do that, but it's a sloppy solution to a problem that shouldn't have existed in the first place. It's like they didn't quite know how to integrate the audio logs in a natural way. They weren't important enough to get "top billing" in the audio mix, but they also reveal too much important plot detail to completely ditch. An imperfect solution to an outdated design element. Easy enough to access afterward, though. But, again, if they're not important to the story, don't include them at all. And if they are important, give them the "space" they deserve.

YUUUUP!!!
 
It's weird the AI is way superior in Infinite but the cramped levels in Bioshock really allowed you to tee off and made ever battle feel threatening. So I can see people liking Bioshock's better.

The skyrails are fun as hell but they were a pretty good escape and regroup bailout.

i'm talking about the gunplay and use of vigors moreso than the other elements.
 
Top Bottom