High up in the sky comes the final install in the Bioshock series comes Bioshock Infinite. Unlike the previous games, Bioshock Infinite is a much more narrative driven game. Even with its linearity, I still find that Bioshock Infinite offered me a lot, and constructed better than what was offered in Bioshock 2. Now let me show why I enjoyed Bioshock Infinite.

Story

Unlike the first couple games in the series Bioshock Infinite features a fully voice protagonist and a prominent deuteragonist. Our protagonist is Booker DeWitt, a war veteran and ex-pinkerton agent who has been hired to retrieve a girl in order to settle his gambling debts. Unbeknownst to him she is actually located in the floating city of Columbia. Columbia like Rapture is sold as utopia, but like Rapture,Columbia also turns out to be nothing but false hope. However, Columbia is the polar opposite of Rapture: Rapture is secular as Columbus is religious, and Rapture hates government as Columbia loves old american government. And when I say that Columbia loves old american government, I mean racist, immigrant despising, anti-semitic america. Irish, chinese, african, and any other minorities are seen as nothing more than cheap labor to the white american citizens of columbia. In fact the, punishment for interracial coupling is stoning, and as well there’s even a cult that worships John Wilkes Booth. All of this prejudice has the minority groups to raise up against their “betters”, calling themselves the Vox Populi, led by Daisy Fitzroy. Now I said Columbia is religious, but it isn’t the traditional religious, while they still pray to God, they also worship the founding fathers, and even their city’s leader, the prophet, Zachary Hale Comstock. In fact Comstock is the reason why so many want to kill Booker, telling the citizens that he is the false shepherd that has come to take away their lamb, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is strange girl, who despite being locked up in a tower for years, is so full of life and curiosity. In fact when you’re exploring you can see her intentively looking as well. However, Elizabeth is a strange girl as I before said, well that’s because she can open tears into whole new worlds. In fact the story delves some what into quantum mechanics, mostly into interpretations of quantum mechanics (i.e. many worlds). However despite that and the civil war going on, I felt that is meant to be a backstory to the real story: Booker and Elizabeth. I enjoyed how the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth grew from their meeting. Every conflict that Booker encounters is just an effort to get back to Elizabeth, so they can get out Columbia together. However, the biggest obstacle to them is Songbird, Elizabeth’s former warden. I thought that Songbird could have a rather great piece of the story if it wasn’t so underused. But, I definitely loved how the struggles that Booker and Elizabeth made them grow together, and the revelation at the end was incredible despite a plot hole in it. The visuals of the game also help to uplift the story.

Graphics

Bioshock Infinite has pretty much the same graphical style that the previous games with a few changes. First is the fact that there is so much more lighting in the game, thanks due in part to the game taking a more outside setting. The lighting is beautiful and gives the game a sense of artistic beauty. In fact when you first walk into Columbia I thought the lightning was beautiful, and that the water there (along with the rest of the water in the game) was just lovely. The environments are also beautiful to behold, even though none of them are as awe inspiring as the first game’s environments. The character models also look very much improved, with the characters having better lip syncing. This game also some very nice cutscenes, which really showcases the improved character models and their improved facial animations. However, the textures are kind of low res in a few places, and some of the environmental assets could have used improvements. The game is also supported by just not its visuals, but the quality of its sound.

Sound

Once again Bioshock gets a cast of wonderful voice actors in Bioshock Infinite. I say props to Troy Baker, Courtnee Draper, Jennifer Hale, Oliver Vaquer, Kimberley D. Brooks, and Kiff VandenHeuvel for a job well done. Even the enemy voice acting is pretty nice and their dialogue are kinda interesting to hear. Unfortunately, you won’t hear any crazy rantings from the common enemies since they aren’t insane (well not in mental sense). But, the special enemies do have dialogue that can be kinda sad to hear at times. The soundtrack is also wonderfully done, full of intensity and beauty. The sound also gives the gameplay that extra impact.

Gameplay

Like its predecessors Bioshock Infinite is a first person shooter. Unfortunately though Bioshock Infinite is on a more linear path than the previous games. You still able to explore of course for supplies, but sadly to say to lesser extent. However, exploration is still an important asset as it was since you no longer hold medkits and hypos, and you’ll need a lot of money. I felt that money serve a grander purpose in this game because you need to get any of the upgrades. I also felt that being killed had graver consequences in this game since being revived will take some of your money. You’ll need save up your money if you wish to purchase the game’s many upgrades.

As in the previous games, you may purchase upgrades from machines, which this time around have animatronics with creepy yellow eyes. Weapons can be upgraded in order to increase their damage output and increase their ammo capacity, however the additional upgrades will be different depending on the weapon (ex: shotgun has a spread boost upgrade). However, unlike the weapon upgrade machines of the previous games these machines do not shut down after upgrading. These upgrades instead are bought, and their price varies depending on weapon and upgrade. This game makes a bit easier to upgrade your weapons, though it’s wise to save your money for the upgrades that suit you. Additionally you may purchase vigor upgrades, which really increase the effectiveness of your vigors. Unfortunately, these upgrades cost a lot, so you’ll need to save if you even want to purchase even one. However, the tonic system has been replaced with the rather similar gear system. Gear is similar to tonics in that they both increase your effectiveness (ex: quick handed increases reload speed), but they are different in that you can only have four pieces of gear equipped at a time, which are hat, shirt, pants, and boots. Additionally, you can change gear at any time, and gear is only received through mostly randomized drops. I like the gear a little bit more than the tonics since I found the gear a little more useful, and I kinda liked that the gear found was mostly random. Unfortunately though, gear can be kinda hard to find due to the randomization. Your health, salts (same as EVE), and shield can be upgraded through infusion bottles, which also must be found. Picking up an infusion will let you increase your health, salts, or shields. All of these upgrades are important in surviving longer in battle.

Now, you can also carry two weapons at a time, which I actually didn’t mind at all. You can however switch between two equipped vigors. Vigors can now be charged to launch, for the most part, traps that affect unsuspecting enemies with the effects of the vigor. Traps are rather useful against enemies that move throughout the battle (ex: bucking bronco traps causes the trap trigger to float helplessly in the air). Vigors can also be comboed together to create a more destructive effect (ex: using shock jockey on a possessed enemy turns them into a walking tesla coil). I found this feature to be kinda cool, even looking forward to the albeit repetitive fights so I could test out new combos. Additionally is the use of the skyhook, which serves a dual purpose. First, the sky hook serves as your melee weapon, and you can even use it to quickly finish off weak enemies in a violent fashion. Second, it serves as a way to hook on to the skylines. These serve as a neat way to quickly get around the battlefield, and getting a new angle of attack against your enemies. I found myself using the skylines a lot just to save myself, especially considering that I can’t restore myself. However, that is where elizabeth comes in.

Elizabeth is very useful both in and out of the battlefield. In battle Elizabeth will throw you supplies, such as a medkit. Fortunately though, she doesn’t throw supplies that often, so I didn’t feel like she was just giving an infinite supply. Additionally you can have her open tears to get supplies, cover, aid, or a skyhook. This is actually pretty useful when you become overwhelmed, but you can only have one tear open at a time. Now, outside of combat Elizabeth will find and give you money on occasion, which is nice because upgrades. She can also lock pick doors using the lockpicks that you find. These locked rooms can hold anything from supplies to collectibles. I should also mention that is little neat that Elizabeth reacts to what happens, such as be disgusted by melee finishers. She along with upgrading yourself are important in surviving this game.

I have to say that compared to the previous games Bioshock Infinite had me little more caution in combat situations due to fact that I couldn’t restore myself. I also felt that the enemy A.I. had improved somewhat, though since their bioshock enemies it’s not by much. The common enemies (i.e. soldiers) have a wider range of weapons compared to the splicers of the previous games, which can make things a bit more challenging (especially those darn snipers). The game also offer a few interesting special enemies that really amp things up, such as the fireman and crow who together pay homage to the houdini splicer. Due to their special abilities I felt that that to pay extra attention to them since the crow teleports and has strong melee, and the fireman creates fiery explosions. But those guys are chumps compared to the motorized patriots and handy man. Both of these guys can easily kill you if you don’t use the right tactics. Motorized patriots has incredible fire rate, which makes hard to confront him directly. The handy man is a little cheap due to his aggressive high impact jumping, and the fact that he electrify skylines. It is also worth noting that the special enemies have resistances to certain vigors, such as the fireman being immune to devil’s kiss.

Bioshock Infinite is a beautiful game in both visuals and sound, which help to uplift its story. However, I had a few issues with the gameplay that bothered be somewhat, such as the repetitive battles, the cost of the upgrades, and the gear system. I also didn’t like that you couldn’t explore as much, and the fact that the locations weren’t as interesting compared to the first game. But despite those issues I still found the game to be an enjoyable experience.

Great job with this review. you did a good job with adding a lot of detail and I think you did well explaining why you feel the way you do about the game. Again, good job and keep up the good work.

This is an amazing review! The only thing I'd like for you to improve is to put the score you gave the category next to the category title. If you do that, this review would be one of April's best reviews. I hope to see more activity from you!

This is a pretty good review. It's rich in details and you even give comparisons to previous games, a feature I always like about reviews. 

However (that's a personal preference), I usually prefer "neater" division of the sections. For example, you say that the game doesn't offer as many possibilities to explore; you could have a whole "depth" section and talk about your deception. And if the cost of the upgrade makes the game more difficult, create another section for that.

Otherwise, it's worthy of a 4.