Bioshock Infinite - Review Thread [UP: IGN exclusive split PC/Console review up]

Some great reviews. My only worry is that the first Bioshock also got great reviews.

Bioshock was my biggest let down this gen.

Great art style
Great storytelling techniques

But...

An incredibly shallow gameplay experience. Behind all the presentation there really wasn't too much to shout about.
 
thomasmahler said:
No, I think it goes beyond that. Say you're a Resident Evil maniac and for some reason you just love everything Resident Evil, absolutely everything. Would you then tell me that Resident Evil 6 is an amazing game?

That stuff happens (http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/resident-evil-6 - 95% from one outlet!), I know tons of people who are completely in love with a franchise like Star Wars and defend even the shittiest crap being done with it as the second coming.

If that's the case, your job is NOT to tell people that YOU loved the game. I don't care about YOU. I don't know YOU. I want YOU to tell me how I (ME!!!) will like the game based on analyzing the mechanics, understanding the world and giving people insight into it and simply finding out whether or not the end product is good or bad.

If you make valid arguments, I'll buy the game based on the facts at hand and hopefully got the experience you've been reviewing and not some fanboy slurp that no one gains anything from.
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Another great example. In fact I *am* a "Resident Evil maniac," again it's been one of my favorite franchises since the first game was released, and I didn't buy RE6 because the demo was such a piece of shit. And I didn't care for RE5 much either. So apparently the fact that I happened to love Doom 3 and GTA IV doesn't necessarily prove that I'm a mindless robotic franchise fanboy whore.

At the end of the day a review is simply one person's humble opinion. Period. There are surely plenty of games that have game play mechanics that sound great when analyzed on paper, but when I have it in my hands I don't care for it.
 
Ithil said:
Did it? I thought that was exactly what it was saying.
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hawk2025 said:
What?

I can't think of another way to do it differently without breaking the game. I don't think it went completely against what it was saying at all. You had illusion of control -- at that point, you realize you have none. It works.


Edited the "fighting words" a bit to make it clear that I can't think of a better way to do it!
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I always thought it would have made more sense to lock you in the room with him and make the player do it. Something akin to the player input at the end of MGS3, it adds a lot when the player is forced to pull the trigger. You would have had no control either way, but I do see what you're saying.
 
TheMagician said:
Some great reviews. My only worry is that the first Bioshock also got great reviews.

Bioshock was my biggest let down this gen.

Great art style
Great storytelling techniques

But...

An incredibly shallow gameplay experience. Behind all the presentation there really wasn't too much to shout about.
Click to expand...

Dig through all these reviews and I have a feeling it's the exact same with this game as well. But hey.. the experience!
 
TheMagician said:
Some great reviews. My only worry is that the first Bioshock also got great reviews.

Bioshock was my biggest let down this gen.

Great art style
Great storytelling techniques

But...

An incredibly shallow gameplay experience. Behind all the presentation there really wasn't too much to shout about.
Click to expand...

Less shallow than most shooters. You could actually be creative in how you approached combat, which the second game took even further.
 
Ack - I absolutely loved Bioshock and Sessler's review got me hyped (despite me not going to buy it day 1). I can't believe I'm holding off till at least May but the world looks incredible.
 
RyL said:
I agree. Sessler's Bioshock:Infinite video review is so awfully corny; very forceful artsy-fartsy and pseudo-intellectual nonsense. I'm not necessarily saying they have to tone it down to "dudebro" level or anything like that but some reviewers could have been at least a little bit more subtle about their writing style. (just a little)
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Some of it is perhaps a bit pretentious. But overall his passion and sincerity shines through.

I do think one criticism you can make of videogame reviews is that somewhere along the way the actual points system became artificially exaggerated. So a 10 is really more like a 9. A 9 is more like an 8. I don't know why this happened, but I do find these scores more accurate if you basically deduct about a point or so on your own. Not that we should pay all that much attention to the actual number anyway.

And hey, I don't always agree either. One recent example for me was Mass Effect 3. I thought the reviews were too glowing. The game just didn't give me the same buzz ME2 did, I felt like it had lost something, but maybe that's just me.
 
Papercuts said:
I always thought it would have made more sense to lock you in the room with him and make the player do it. Something akin to the player input at the end of MGS3, it adds a lot when the player is forced to pull the trigger. You would have had no control either way, but I do see what you're saying.
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I dunno, I think people would've complained more about that approach.
 
RyL said:
I agree. Sessler's Bioshock:Infinite video review is so awfully corny; very forceful artsy-fartsy and pseudo-intellectual nonsense. I'm not necessarily saying they have to tone it down to "dudebro" level or anything like that but some reviewers could have been at least a little bit more subtle about their writing style. (just a little)

Also, why are the journalists only reviewing this game in that kinda way and not every other (somewhat similar) game? Just because the other ones aren't as "deep & meaningful"? Come on, that says it all and I think that's why so many people here are baffled and some reviews appear questionable.
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Yeah, it's a little too glowing...not that he can't have that viewpoint but it just doesn't say as much about the game as the RPS review did...
 
Think we can expect this to unlock on Steam at midnight EST?
 
TheMagician said:
Some great reviews. My only worry is that the first Bioshock also got great reviews.

Bioshock was my biggest let down this gen.

Great art style
Great storytelling techniques

But...

An incredibly shallow gameplay experience. Behind all the presentation there really wasn't too much to shout about.
Click to expand...

But but but-- on paper, you can list and map out all of the myriad options in combat, the various plasmid combinations, ammo types, hacking bots etc. and mathematically "prove" that it's actually very deep game play, compared to other FPSs anyway. Which is what I think certain people in here are saying reviews should do.
 
TheMagician said:
Some great reviews. My only worry is that the first Bioshock also got great reviews.

Bioshock was my biggest let down this gen.

Great art style
Great storytelling techniques

But...

An incredibly shallow gameplay experience. Behind all the presentation there really wasn't too much to shout about.
Click to expand...

Yep.

I am still buying it as I thought Bioshock even with its dull gameplay was an interesting enough experience. But expectations are suitably tempered this time.
 
nckillthegrimace said:
I've had the joy and novelty of shooting people in the face beaten out of me by a console generation rife with games about shooting people in the face, so please forgive my skepticism regarding the alleged fun factor of a game that largely consists of shooting people in the face.
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This is how I feel as well. Some many resources in the game industry only devoted to make games about shooting people in the face :(
 
I can't believe people were expecting the game to flop (due to some of the dev team leaving). I'm thrilled that it's lived up to the hype.
 
ExigentContact said:
With film, you see plenty of reviews cover the mechanical issues, such as special effects, editing, sound design. All of those are mechanical, but are secondary to the movie overall in most cases. With game's the primary interaction with the world is through gameplay, so these mechanics are much more important, to the point where they match or supersede narrative.
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I really like your post although I'd have to disagree with this particular point.

If anything, a film's primary points of interaction are things like editing, mise-en-scene, sound design etc which are often taken for granted. Without all these working together seamlessly, the movie would be an incoherent mess... just like Aliens: Colonial Marines. They can't be secondary to the movie, they are the movie.

jimmypop said:
Peed a little bit.
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They gave it 9/10, man.
 
thomasmahler said:
The problem is that gamers expect more of game journalists. Bioshock is a fine game, but not a 95% worth masterpiece.

I think most people are frustrated with game journalists simply joining the hypetrain and not doing their job. As a developer, I always try to play games with an open eye and usually can relatively easily spot the flaws of a game - Not that this makes it unenjoyable to play, but then reading that the product has no flaws and is just 5% short of perfect is kinda screwed up.

And this isn't the first time this has been happening:

http://www.edge-online.com/review/legend-zelda-skyward-sword-review/2/

Remember this? 10/10, perfect game, 'A triumph', they said. I'm pretty sure it's pretty obvious to everyone out there that Skyward Sword was a very good, but also deeply flawed game. You'd probably think of a 8/10 there. And guess what? If Skyward Sword would've 'only' gotten a 8/10, Nintendo would be FORCED to finally change the formula. But no, 6 months after launch, journalists start complaining about the games they gave perfect scores and Nintendo goes in and does the same thing again, cause 'it worked the last time around'.

And let's look at a crazier example:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/doom-3/critic-reviews

Doom 3. Great looking tech demo, not quite the game anyone was hoping for. Tons of issues and flaws in that one. Look at how many journalists gave the game perfect scores. 94% says PC Gamer.

Assassins Creed 1? Same thing.

Bioshock Infinite is a good game with some really blatant flaws, it's annoying and stupid that game journalists aren't willing to do their job, a job that would help the industry mature and ultimately lead us to make better games. This is also part of the reason why people actually do lose their jobs or studios not able to work on riskier visions. I don't know why it's so bad to have an open, honest, true conversation about a game and look at what it's getting right and what it's getting wrong.

This kind of 'let's hype everything, everything is amazing and we love drinking the kool-aid!' approach to being a critique limits where we could go and ultimately also limits journalists themselves.
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Value is in the eye of the beholder.

I'm sure many have heard this expression before. In the case of this game (or any game for that matter) it's not up to any of us what a reviewer should score a game, because they could have interpreted and had a different experience from you. Everyone trying to project their own rationale as to why this game shouldn't be scoring the way it is without even playing it themselves is beyond absurd. Some people here just need to grow the fuck up honestly.
 
Well I bought it.

I don't know why. I know nothing about it yet, and I don't bother with reviews anymore. I didn't even really like the first Bioshock that much. I guess I bought it for the tf2 items.

I hope it's good I guess.
 
mxgt said:
I'm not, it's an 'AAA' game. It was guaranteed to get great reviews regardless.
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Aside from the high profile negative responses to Resident Evil 6, MoH: Warfighter, and SimCity, it seems like the most critical they can be toward a big-name game is still tepid. Even then the scores are generally around 8... 8 is the new 9?
 
Do any of the reviews directly compare the gameplay and combat to that of Bioshock? I thought the first game's combat was a little iffy, what with the enemies having such quirky behaviour (like how you never knew if they saw you or not because they continue to ramble on nonsensically even after they start attacking you).
 
Derrick01 said:
Confusing people using big words just to use big words as being an intellectual is probably the saddest thing that has happened in this thread. And yes I'm including the actual reviews for this game in there too.
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Without those big words their reviews would be at least 20% bigger than it is. Big words and slang exist for a reason. They are used communicate quickly something that shouldn't take even longer to explain.

There's no need to hide your embarrassment over not knowing certain words you don't commonly use them, by complaining they aren't speaking English with those very common words.

They should be ridiculed if they use such words and can't articulate to you what those words mean, but this is the internet where you are a google search away from looking up a word.
 
ViewtifulJC said:
Well just a little fyi, just between us guys: there are a lot of shooting people in the face in this game. If you're tired of that, this might not be a game you want to play, no matter how many skyrails and magic powers they throw in.
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It's funny because a lot of times with magic, you're really just aiming and shooting at people.
 
wildfire said:
Without those big words their reviews would be at least 20% bigger than it is. Big words and slang exist for a reason. They are used communicate quickly something that shouldn't take even longer to explain.

There's no need to hide your embarrassment over not knowing certain words you don't commonly use them, by complaining they aren't speaking English with those very common words.

They should be ridiculed if they use such words and can't articulate to you what those words mean, but this is the internet where you are a google search away from looking up a word.
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There's a difference, however, between jargon, and purple prose. And oftentimes more verbose reviewers veer heavily into the latter territory for no other reason than to come off as an intellectual.
 
wildfire said:
Without those big words their reviews would be at least 20% bigger than it is. Big words and slang exist for a reason. They are used communicate quickly something that shouldn't take even longer to explain.

There's no need to hide your embarrassment over not knowing certain words you don't commonly use them, by complaining they aren't speaking English with those very common words.

They should be ridiculed if they use such words and can't articulate to you what those words mean, but this is the internet where you are a google search away from looking up a word.
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I was an honors english student through school and college (not trying to brag since I actually hated those classes and the amount of work we had to do, it's just one of the only subjects I excelled at for some reason) so I get most of what they're saying. It's just after a certain point they come across as really trying too hard to come up with new ways to praise the next big AAA game. It really feels like a verbal dick measuring contest between them.
 
ExigentContact said:
There's a difference, however, between jargon, and purple prose. And oftentimes more verbose reviewers veer heavily into the latter territory for no other reason than to come off as an intellectual.
Click to expand...

So do undergraduate students in upper-level courses... :P

One of the reviews I read this morning committed such an error, but I think the problem was it boiled the game down to '-isms', which just kills any depth if you can kill something to a simple "this is sexism. this is racism. " I got a vibe that was akin to, "this is a game talkinga bout racism yay are we mature now!?" from a lot of reviews. I love me a good intellectual game, but I find that most journalists don't quite understand that simply tackling the issues is enough. Maybe this is just a case of reviews reviewing something that has so much complexity that a first-pass doesn't uncover much or any of it.

I'll shut up now. XD

EDIT: Derrick01 wins. And he isn't as verbose as me.
 
what a true shock at the reviews. I mean, I surely thought we'd get 7.0s or maybe even a 6.0, but 10/10s and 9.5!? Preposterous! Absurd! Inconceivable!

Hark.

Anyhoo, I am just so glad I got my new graphics card just in time for this game. I want the clouds to enter my room and start dancing and shit
 
nib95 said:
I don't really want bland straightforward descriptions from all the paid professionals. I have GAF and user reviews/impressions that do as much. Casual opinions shall we say. These journalists however are supposed to represent the best of the industry, and yes, a proper use of the language as well as a more versatile means of expressing and justifying their opinions might entail that.

None of Sesslar's review for example seems unnecessarily fluffy. It might be overly positive, but he justifies his opinion with a very well thought out explanation that highlights his love for the game and medium. If he'd been as positive without the thorough exploration in to the 'why', I would have disregarded his positivity altogether. Instead I fully appreciated and acknowledged it.
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...thats why i said there is a middle ground. Are you even responding to me?
 
solarus said:
Yup. Still, he won't mind shitting on every other big game before release and then going ahead and buying it at launch for full price and of course hating it anyway.
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How can you properly hate something if you havent played it!
 
captainnapalm said:
Some of it is perhaps a bit pretentious. But overall his passion and sincerity shines through.

I do think one criticism you can make of videogame reviews is that somewhere along the way the actual points system became artificially exaggerated. So a 10 is really more like a 9. A 9 is more like an 8. I don't know why this happened, but I do find these scores more accurate if you basically deduct about a point or so on your own. Not that we should pay all that much attention to the actual number anyway.

And hey, I don't always agree either. One recent example for me was Mass Effect 3. I thought the reviews were too glowing. The game just didn't give me the same buzz ME2 did, I felt like it had lost something, but maybe that's just me.
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He reviews all games like that now. I don't mind it at all--it's nice to get that perspective every now and then.
 
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