I probably don't need to do a review for this game, but again getting my thoughts out.
BioShock Infinite is the third entry in the BioShock series, notably taking place outside of the underwater city of Rapture and heading to the skies to a flying city known as Columbia.
Columbia is set in the early 1900s, and the sort of themes you'd expect with that time period come-up as well. The early innovative machine craze, racism, sexism, a city divided by the rich and the poor, among many other themes. While these themes are explored, unfortunately most feel like they become rather underutilized for the last third of the game as the main story sort of kicks in.
We follow a man named Booker DeWitt, who's come to Columbia to wipe away the debt. He has to capture a girl named Elizabeth, who we quickly figure out is some kind of icon for the city. She is guarded in a very Statue of Liberty-type structure, and has a giant colossal bird guardian known as the Songbird. And upon her rescue, we quickly find out why she is so precious to this town... She has the ability to open up tears in reality, which break the rules of time and space and go into other time periods and alternate dimensions.
BioShock Infinite is a weird game for me. I both loved it, and didn't at the same time. Maybe a more appropriate way to word this is that I loved parts of it, and other parts didn't quite do it for me. I feel the game was maybe plagued by having way too many ideas, that many of them end up feeling kind of underutilized. And meanwhile other elements feel like they get too much attention and focus.
The game is insanely pretty and visually impressed me time and time again to the climax. It doesn't look particularly realistic, but has an artistic and colorful charm, with some fantastic lighting effects, that really bring the world of Columbia alive. This is backed by excellent attention to detail, there is a bunch of small things in the environments that really make the whole location feel believable, if not fantasy-esque. The setting really did it for me, while it's maybe not as well realized or atmospheric as the forefather city of Rapture, it has charms that may strike high with those with a love of early 1900s aesthetics, gardens, and steampunk charm. The characters are also well-designed and expressive.
The music in the game is rather well done too. The soundtrack supports each scene, and audio is utilized well in the environment. A few songs one might recognize also creep their way into the game, with some spun into early 1900s versions of themselves. With classic-style renditions of Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Everybody Wants to Rule the World, who can complain?
Voicing is also really well handled. While a few actors can be noted on who they are on the spot (such as our everyman voice of Booker, voiced by none other than Troy Baker, though I think most gamers who play the game will know), but they do good on delivery, emotion, and sounding natural.
This game is probably too action-focused for it's own good, especially in the last third of the game. Up until that point, I did find the combat to be enjoyable, adrenaline-pumping, and well spaced out with other elements. But to the last third, combat becomes far more frequent and honestly overstayed its welcome. And this honestly is probably the single biggest sin the game commits, as it threatens to ruin the otherwise fantastic endgame the game provides, and may make many too frustrated or just bored of tedium to really enjoy the things around them.
I feel BioShock Infinite is at its best when it's not composed of action corridors and shoot-out sequences. And there thankfully is a lot of that here too. There's a lot of things off the beaten path to indulge yourself in. Areas to explore for the sake of exploration, little side distraction, secret scenes you can trigger, things to interact with... I think I enjoyed the game most in downtime to explore the vibrant world of Columbia. It's an element one could skip over the entire game, but I honestly think they'd be robbing themselves of some of the best moments and enjoyable qualities that Infinite holds.
And when BioShock Infinite is good, it's really good. If you happen to be a person who loves exploring, world-building, and just getting into the atmosphere of a game and taking everything in, Infinite has moments like this in spades, and the title may be worth experiencing alone for this purpose. It's littered with interesting sights, moments, and memorabilia. And the game isn't super short, it should take someone between 10-25 hours to complete it (the time varies so greatly because of all of this optional content one can either partake in or not, I personally was around the 22-hour mark).
But then certain elements feel so underutilized it's honestly disappointing, or certain things feel like they could of been spaced out more. The Songbird's role becomes rather lackluster unfortunately and hardly lives up to the promise such a beast holds. Certain story threads are delved into, but still feel underutilized, especially as so many are dropped so easily, leading to a lot of themes and plot threads feeling non-conclusive, or really just there to be there. The rail segments, where you can hop and ride on rails, are interesting and appropriately adrenaline-fueled, but in the end are shifted over to hardly more than a distraction or a method to one-hit kill enemies. And then even possibilities the game brings up, both in narrative and mechanics, feels like they remain underutilized as well.
And I think that's why the combat feels even more tedious towards the end. Because the game seems to want to deny itself delving into the really fantastical and instead rest on what we've seen a lot of in the last few years, a first-person shooter. It's not a bad first-person shooter, but it feels like it was too scared these other more interesting elements would bore some action-craving crowd and drags us back reluctantly to remind us that's the core game here.
But I'd still say BioShock Infinite is worth experiencing. While unfortunately the whole is not as great as it could be, the sums of its parts hold absolute brilliance and are definitely worth experiencing. And the climax and finale, while what I expect many won't see coming, are deliciously... Well, that'd be telling.
BioShock Infinite is pretty, backed with fantastic atmosphere, world-building, and more brilliant moments that most any other game could envy. But it's because of these moments the tedium of the game, especially as a first-person shooter, really stands out and starts to grate on the player. It's still worth experiencing though, even if it provides both the antidote to what's wrong with FPS in this day and age, and the poison.
I know it's not nearly as good, but...
