15 Nov

Bioshock Infinite

Filed under: PC Games 4 Responses

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Easily one of the most breathtaking opening scenes in any game.

Finally played and finished Bioshock Infinite! I guess there’s not much point in writing a lot about this so long after release since so much has been written about this game already. But it’s my blog so whatever. I was always going to play this, given how much I liked both Bioshock and Bioshock 2. I’m even one of those crazy people who liked the sequel more than its original. I heard a lot of mixed things about Bioshock Infinite, which is one reason why I put it off for so long. Now that I’ve finished it, I’ll start things off by saying that I like it a lot, but I also like it less than both of the first two games.

There’s no denying that the newer game is graphically fantastic. That very first sight of Columbia in all of its glory is a genuine jaw-dropping moment. The brighter palette and arguably more anime art style sets a markedly and refreshingly different tone from Rapture. I really like how the game habitually allows you to just stroll around and take in the sights of a Columbia at its bustling best, which makes for a great contrast to being present only to witness Rapture’s downfall. I love the little snippets of overheard conversation as you wander around (a pity these tail off significantly in the latter parts of the game) and the great touches like the barbershop quartet. It conveys a great sense of how this is a city filled with people, all living their own lives.

As for the combat, I didn’t like it at all at first and kept flailing about on Hard mode. But it grew on me as I came to understand how the combat in this game is fundamentally different from that in the previous two. Playing in Rapture always had a survival horror element. You were almost always confined to tiny locations and had to scrounge for ammunition and supplies. You fought fewer enemies but you also had to carefully husband the resources needed to defeat them. Most enemies don’t have ranged weapons so combat tends to be in your face and personal. Part of the fear of the powerful Big Daddies was how little room for maneuvering you often had. The chambers you fought in were so small that they could drill holes in you with a single lunge no matter where you were.

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I like to stay far, far away from enemies.

Since Columbia is expansive and open, the combat needs to adapt to this radically different environment. Almost all enemies have ranged attacks and they are able to accurately hit you from so far away that you can barely see them. There also many more of them. On the other hand, you now have a regenerating shield so you don’t need to worry about small hits in a fight, provided that you can find some cover to let it recharge from time to time. There are also tons of resources scattered around. No matter how much ammunition and life and salt you expend, it’s usually easy to top yourself off after a battle. So you have every incentive to go totally crazy and let loose everything you have. The openness of the levels and the presence of freight hooks and skylines give the fights a lot of verticality and dynamism too. It’s all about using vigors to lay down mass destruction and running and jumping to recharge your shields or pick up ammunition and health and salt.

The problem with this is that this is what most fps games play like already and I really appreciated how the original two BioShock games felt unique in this regard. The regenerating shield mechanic is overused and being limited to only two weapons at a time feels silly. I also hated the change to having more weapons while eliminating some of the distinctiveness of the individual weapons. It’s particularly puzzling why they went to the trouble of making Vox versions of many weapons but also made them all pretty crappy to use. I did like how it’s much easier to use Vigors and the nice combos that are possible. Too bad they are so poorly integrated into the game story-wise.

Then we come to the story. I have to say that it’s appropriately mind-bending, impressively ambitious and so very clever, with all of the connotations this adjective has. The best description I’ve found was when Eurogamer called it Nolan-esque. That’s because just like Christopher Nolan’s crop of more recent films, it’s chock-full of plot holes that don’t stand up to close scrutiny. The most obvious of these is why the heck Cornelius Slate doesn’t recognize who Comstock really is. Also ridiculous is why the Vox Populi continues to attack Booker long after the death of Daisy Fitzroy when he was regarded by them as a hero in that timeline and the only person who could gainsay that was dead. And then there is the ridiculousness of the origin story of her powers, only hinted at in a voxophone log.

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Plenty of Christian imagery in this game.

I did like a lot of the story ideas like the heavy use of Christian imagery and the founding of America myths. I liked how Columbia is revealed to be stunningly racist and they then really won me over by showing how the rebels are just as racist. Details like the music we know showing up because Albert Fink heard them through the tears and created his versions were great as well. Other shout-outs deserving of mention include: references to the Wounded Knee Massacre and the Boxer Rebellion, U.S. presidents as mechanized enemies and the Lutece twins as a reference to the Battlestar Galactica angels. My complaint is that the story just doesn’t cohere well into something great. It feels like a mish-mash of ideas that are thrown together, using the concept of alternate universes to smooth over the inconsistencies.

I was also disappointed in the character of Elizabeth,  despite the wealth of resources that were obviously spent on developing her. I did come to care for her, to the game’s credit, but I can’t help but think that Eleanor’s arc in Bioshock 2 was conclusively better. As for using her as an in-game sidekick, while it’s a great idea I’m not sure it’s pulled off all that well. I’m sure it’s an easy and clever way for the developers to make sure the player is never stuck in a tight spot with no resources. But it also breaks immersion in many ways when she can move instantly from a brooding bit of dialogue to being instantly cheery that she found some cash. And as everyone has pointed out, it is idiotic that she keeps pointing out lockpicks for you to pick up but she’s the only one who can use them.

I could go on and on but overall while Bioshock Infinite is an excellent game that is well worth playing, I think it is decidedly inferior to its predecessors. Columbia is pretty but it isn’t as interesting as Rapture. Since the level design doesn’t have hubs that you need to go through as you travel throughout the city, there’s less of an illusion of it being an open world as well. I did like the combat for what it is, and I have to confess that I found hard mode to be appropriately challenging in a fun way, but I also think that there is a lot to be said about the criticism that the gameplay here works against the story. It would probably make more sense to make this an adventure game of some sort. Even scavenging for resources here feels weird when there are all those civilians about. A good game but it could have been so much better.

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Handymen will never be as cool as Big Daddies!
Written on November 15 2014 and is filed under PC Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Bioshock Infinite”

Ayheng

on the other hand, i like Bioshock Infinite’s story better than Bioshock 1 and 2. But then again, I’m a sucker for Nolan-esque stories in their shock value more than their consistency.

Bioshock Infinite have a sort of grandeur to the proceedings while Bioshock 1 feels like a smaller scale story. I guess I like the escalation of power and spectacle.

wankongyew

After writing that, I found this video critique that I generally agree with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdNhwb7iuI4

I also found some of the pre-release preview videos that Irrational made. Holy shit, they look like a completely different, 100% more awesome game.

Heng Aik Yong

The video critique starts by nitpicking on the racism portrayal and on the limited player choice and agency… I didn’t really watch the rest as I felt perhaps the author was too discerning on things that didn’t bother me.

Maybe I did suspend a lot of my belief going into Bioshock Infinite’s story. Oh well, at least I myself enjoyed it.

wankongyew

Okay, dropping this subject and moving on with Nolanesque, I have no idea if you read my non-games blog, but here is my take on Interstellar. I suspect you may not be pleased…

http://calltoreason.org/?p=12320

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