BioShock Infinite Complete Edition

Bioshock: Infinite is a very pretty game with a marvelous sense of place and some interesting characters. The promise of what this game could have been is what ultimately makes it such a disappointment. The first quarter or so of the game steep you in the airship Columbia, packed with a delightful combination of idealized early-twentieth century Americana, hints of xenophobia, racism, and aggressive exceptionalism, and mysterious anachronisms (the soundtrack is in a class by itself). Then... You shoot and zap things. And search through wastebaskets for food and money. You curse the two-weapon limit, and get used to making do with whatever the bad guys of the area are dropping. You make a small number of story-related choices that (small spoiler) really make no difference what-so-ever. Which is kind of the point. It's just a lousy point. There are a lot of people who rave over the story, and I think it mostly just goes to show how hungry people are for mainstream games that have a story *at all*, beyond the kind of "here's why you're shooting people" that goes into a made-for-cable C-grade action flick or a Tom Clancy knock-off. But it's not a story that bears real examination. It's faux-intricate. Facade-thoughtful. It wants to delve into the supposedly infinite possibilities of alternate worlds (which does everything from time-travel to creating ghosts when we need a supernatural-not-really boss fight), and then it wants to tell the player that for all the "applied phlebotinum" that power is used for throughout the game, there's really only one possible conclusion, and what you want is irrelevant. With that, it leads the player by the nose to its "inevitable" ending. The conflict between infinite possibilities and inevitability is only one of several inconsistencies the plot does not address. Early previews hinted at a different game and a different story (Comstock's identity, Elizabeth's finger.) What we got feels like it was a front-loaded compromise.

It's pretty. It's got action. It has the basics of previous Shock games. But the plot is weak and convoluted. There is a lot of bait-and-switch as well as Fed-Ex questing. I got this during a big sale when it was maybe $15 or less (?) and I don't know if it was worth it then. It's certainly not worth it at full price. Over $50 for a 6 year-old game? Nope.

I be age 79. Computer geek since 1979. Witnessed the growth of games, and the development of graphics and gameplay. THIS game is beautiful, multi envronment, easy controls. So SO innovative in every direction. I love the pseudo-1920's world. The game is racist and sacriligious and would certainly offent any poltically correct or religious person... but that is part of it's appeal.

The bae game's story is pretty good, and there's no doubt it's the game's selling point. That being said, technologically, it's a very disappointing entry, and one I have no intention replaying ever again - gun mechanics are simply awful and if you play it with mouse (it's a shooter after all, duh), you're not going to feel any weigth of your equipment, no recoil either. It's just point and click shooting kind of game. Magnetic hook you have feels like a gimmick most of the time. Sure, it's fun twice, but few times later it becomes an annoyance. What's the biggest deal breaker to me are the terrible DLCs - that's nothing new if you know 2K's history with downloadble content addons, they usually are laughably bad, but aside from being short, gimmicky and done as quickly and cheaply as possible, they're also nonsensical. You see, I'm a sucker for universe building, and Infinite added the concept of multiverse and time travel to the series. Too bad it's all contradicted and straight up ruined with DLCs. Yes, DLCs' plot directly opposses the main game's events. That's simply inexcusable to me. Don't recommend this one - if you want a shooter, look somewhere else, and if you want something with ambitious storytelling, well, there's plenty of better choices out there as well. Ones that don't retcon themselves.

Let's get this straight. Bioshock Infinite is not a bad game but it is no way the gaming equivalent of the second coming of Christ that most gaming media made it out to be. Indeed outside the presence of plasmids there seams to be very little of Bioshock. The gameplay is ok, the visuals are ok, the characters are ok, story has more plot holes than a Swiss cheese and seams to change rules and plot points on a whim. The game is just ok and after the first "wow" moment when looking at the art design you will come to play a generic FPS (regenerating shield and two weapon slots included).