Bioshock Infinite takes place in set in 1912, set in a suspended city known as Columbia. The town was originally developed by America as a showcase for the World’s Fair. But the city’s occupants, led by a quasi-religious figure by the name of Zachary Comstock, defiantly seceded from the United States. It is there which you, Booker DeWitt, have to rescue a mysterious girl named Elizabeth and bring her back to New York. Doing so will pay back a massive debt DeWitt owes to some mysterious figures.
Columbia is simply beautiful. Rapture, the city under the sea that the original Bioshock happened in, was more limiting like a setting. It was either indoors, with limited illumination, or in tubes surrounded by water. Columbia’s most salient feature is its sky. It’s rendered with an unbelievable shade of blue, sometimes punctuated with clouds. The sun will occasionally peek through, resulting in a totally believable “god ray” effect I spent a number of minutes just stopping and staring at. You’ll see everything from the ritzy banks and shops of Columbia, to its poor, downtrodden underbelly. This makes it seem like much of the areas are portrayed much like the original Bioshock, where it seems like each area has its own mini-story and its very own cast of characters, but every person region doesn’t bleed in to the next one: They stand alone in Bioshock Infinite.
The world of Columbia is focused in the ideal of American Exceptionalism, but taken to severe extremes. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin are prayed to as gods, and Columbia is seen as the last bastion against the foreign hordes. To drive this home, the people that rule Columbia are known as the Founders, a name obviously meant to invoke the Founding Fathers. Anyone who is Irish or isn’t White is observed as a second class citizen. There are segregated bathrooms, numerous propaganda, and audio recordings that reinforce the idea that the White American is the “chosen race. ” I am not old enough to remember a time when segregation was politically mandated, so the efforts the game takes to show class differences appears like it could’ve potentially created a caricature of a society that existed numerous decades ago. But I came out of this experience believing that this sky-bound society could actually exist, and I am able to do that thanks to the effective depiction of said setting in the game. Being put in a world set 100 years ago allows the mind to wander and take a few leaps. But hearing people state that God wanted the Black man to work and toil with the White man leading him grounds your thinking and makes the mood especially unsettling, as that same “logic” was in fact used in America in the 18th and 19th centuries to justify slavery.
Fighting against these forces are the rebels of the Vox Populi (Voice of the People, in Latin), a subversive group that seeks to overthrow the leadership of Columbia. Led by Comstock’s previous scullery maid Daisy Fitzroy, the Vox tend to be demonized by the Founders as a chaotic, bloodthirsty mob through the propaganda that they distribute. The Vox Populi, seeing what the Founders are doing to the underclasses, want to overthrow Comstock and install a new sense of justice in Columbia. However, as is the case with rebel groups, some parts of the Vox Populi do turn into violent, bloodthirsty mobs. The question the Vox pose to the player is, “Do the ends justify the means? ”As Booker DeWitt, you’ll encounter these two groups. However the game never paints them as completely right or completely wrong. Screwed up and dysfunctional? Undoubtedly. There are those with good intentions and bad intentions. Bioshock Infinite doesn’t try to make your moral decisions for you, or even attempt to frame the answer.

I've heard that the game is visually stunning. I have only played the first BS game, but I enjoyed it.

As far as the game as a whole goes, I've heard mixed reviews, but it looks pretty sweet. I'll probably pick it up used during the summer and play through it.

Nice little review you made there I have been meaning to play this game myself, but as I'm not much of a FPS game player, I'm waiting for the price to drop slightly. I have heard so many mixed reports on this game, but from what I have seen its beautifully made. Good job! Had some nice facts in there

its a decent game but it has some major flaws.
first, they clearly changed the plot halfway through development, evident by watching the early trailers and then playing the game.
another would be its major focuss is guns and it does get tiresome.
visualy, its great, but whereas in rapture, I actually cared about the city, in columbia I gave not a jot. it was interesting in that it was set during the citys peak, the last 2 wetent.
I think it may have been better served as a standaline title, if not for a certain part at the end of the game