Bioshock Infinite
If Yahtzee likes it, it has to be at least pretty good, right? Well, I don't think it would have been possible for Bioshock Infinite to live up to the hype, but it is good. It plays well. It looks gorgeous. You get an NPC along who is a boon rather than a burden (which is pretty awesome, but I don't feel it's as revolutionary as it was made out to be). Best of all, the story itself is good and executed well. Given the challenge involved even when not dealing with alternate realities and timelines, it's quite an achievement to pull that all together so well as they did.
So what holds it back from perfection? Mostly the little things. The skylines are neat, but little more than a way to get around and an additional feature in a handful of combat areas. While there is some variety in weapons/vigors/gear, there's very little reason to do other than rely on the same set throughout the game. You might occasionally be forced to switch weapons by running out of ammo, but you can only carry two at a time, so options are limited. Most of the vigor ("magic") effects are pretty similar. Most of the gear (clothing with bonuses) benefits are so obscurely conditional that they're easy to ignore. But none of that detracts much from the experience.
The end is suitably thought-provoking, though there are a few details that bug me.
Archangel: Comstock references an "archangel" that spoke to him the prophecy about his child taking up his cause and attacking the surface. I think he even mentioned it in an audio log, which makes it harder to believe it's something he fabricated wholly for the masses. Even if he did, the source of the prophecy is never clear, even though it seems oddly accurate (if ultimately wrong). Elizabeth didn't seem to tell him this, and the only other source I can think of would be Lutece, but it doesn't feel right to me for him to take something learned that way and call it a religious experience. Ultimately, it's not a big deal, but it's a hanging question.
Songbird: There felt like there was more to the connection between Songbird and Elizabeth. Considering I picked up an audio log where Lutece was talking about integrating man and machine while I was looking at a diagram of Songbird, I can't help but feel it was part human. Given the connection between the two, I wondered if it was made of an alternate-Booker or something.
Having started in on (but not yet finished) Burial at Sea Part 2, some hints about Songbird's origins seem to be being revealed, so I may have to edit this later...
Edit: Nope, note really. There's reveals about the imprinting process and parallels between Songbird/Elizabeth and Big Daddies/Little Sisters, but no answer as to whether a person was in the big mechabirdman (though I'd say that's implied) or who it might have been.
Slate: Which the other two issues rated "unanswered question," Slate represents the one thing that actually bothers me as feeling paradoxical. Maybe I'll have to replay that section, but he seemed to refer to Comstock as someone who just came along and stole his glory, claiming responsibility for a couple battles he had no right to. Meanwhile, he talks to DeWitt as a fellow soldier, someone who was there and worthy of respect. He talks about the two as individuals even though he seems to be one of the few in a position to recognize them both as the same person, and that doesn't really make sense to me outside of game designers not wanting to spoil the twist too early.
Finale: Based on the final end of the story after the DLC, I have to say I find it sad and a little disappointing. It's very well done, but... Booker's sacrifice at the end of the main campaign, to me, feels more like an act he embraced for Elizabeth's sake, to set her free. Yet in the end, she gets caught up in vengeance and grief and throws her own life away to secure the "good ending" of Bioshock...
Burial at Sea Part 1: This DLC threw everything out of whack for me. It's neat to see Rapture on the eve of its fall rather than after, and the story addition is interesting, but it's a leap up in difficulty. I attribute most of that to the suddenly cramped interiors (compared to the openness of Columbia) combined with scarce ammo resources. It lets you carry more weapons (though you have to swap them into your two active slots), but even so, you can still burn through all your ammo very quickly and have trouble finding more. On top of that, they took my preferred weapon, the carbine, and ruined its accuracy by making it a burst-fire weapon. Ugh.
Burial at Sea Part 2: Part two does a better job. Same mechanics, but by making Elizabeth the protagonist in Rapture and setting up a scenario where you know she's out-gunned, it becomes a more stealth-based game - and that seems to work.
This takes the route of tying everything together with Bioshock (and 2), weaving Infinite's tears and multiple realities in with the story of Rapture pretty well.
So what holds it back from perfection? Mostly the little things. The skylines are neat, but little more than a way to get around and an additional feature in a handful of combat areas. While there is some variety in weapons/vigors/gear, there's very little reason to do other than rely on the same set throughout the game. You might occasionally be forced to switch weapons by running out of ammo, but you can only carry two at a time, so options are limited. Most of the vigor ("magic") effects are pretty similar. Most of the gear (clothing with bonuses) benefits are so obscurely conditional that they're easy to ignore. But none of that detracts much from the experience.
The end is suitably thought-provoking, though there are a few details that bug me.
Archangel: Comstock references an "archangel" that spoke to him the prophecy about his child taking up his cause and attacking the surface. I think he even mentioned it in an audio log, which makes it harder to believe it's something he fabricated wholly for the masses. Even if he did, the source of the prophecy is never clear, even though it seems oddly accurate (if ultimately wrong). Elizabeth didn't seem to tell him this, and the only other source I can think of would be Lutece, but it doesn't feel right to me for him to take something learned that way and call it a religious experience. Ultimately, it's not a big deal, but it's a hanging question.
Songbird: There felt like there was more to the connection between Songbird and Elizabeth. Considering I picked up an audio log where Lutece was talking about integrating man and machine while I was looking at a diagram of Songbird, I can't help but feel it was part human. Given the connection between the two, I wondered if it was made of an alternate-Booker or something.
Having started in on (but not yet finished) Burial at Sea Part 2, some hints about Songbird's origins seem to be being revealed, so I may have to edit this later...
Edit: Nope, note really. There's reveals about the imprinting process and parallels between Songbird/Elizabeth and Big Daddies/Little Sisters, but no answer as to whether a person was in the big mechabirdman (though I'd say that's implied) or who it might have been.
Slate: Which the other two issues rated "unanswered question," Slate represents the one thing that actually bothers me as feeling paradoxical. Maybe I'll have to replay that section, but he seemed to refer to Comstock as someone who just came along and stole his glory, claiming responsibility for a couple battles he had no right to. Meanwhile, he talks to DeWitt as a fellow soldier, someone who was there and worthy of respect. He talks about the two as individuals even though he seems to be one of the few in a position to recognize them both as the same person, and that doesn't really make sense to me outside of game designers not wanting to spoil the twist too early.
Finale: Based on the final end of the story after the DLC, I have to say I find it sad and a little disappointing. It's very well done, but... Booker's sacrifice at the end of the main campaign, to me, feels more like an act he embraced for Elizabeth's sake, to set her free. Yet in the end, she gets caught up in vengeance and grief and throws her own life away to secure the "good ending" of Bioshock...
Burial at Sea Part 1: This DLC threw everything out of whack for me. It's neat to see Rapture on the eve of its fall rather than after, and the story addition is interesting, but it's a leap up in difficulty. I attribute most of that to the suddenly cramped interiors (compared to the openness of Columbia) combined with scarce ammo resources. It lets you carry more weapons (though you have to swap them into your two active slots), but even so, you can still burn through all your ammo very quickly and have trouble finding more. On top of that, they took my preferred weapon, the carbine, and ruined its accuracy by making it a burst-fire weapon. Ugh.
Burial at Sea Part 2: Part two does a better job. Same mechanics, but by making Elizabeth the protagonist in Rapture and setting up a scenario where you know she's out-gunned, it becomes a more stealth-based game - and that seems to work.
This takes the route of tying everything together with Bioshock (and 2), weaving Infinite's tears and multiple realities in with the story of Rapture pretty well.
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