RETROSPECTIVE: 'BioShock Infinite'

I've discussed System Shock 2, BioShock, and BioShock 2. I might as well do a retrospect of BioShock Infinite...even though it was only released two years ago. But this makes sense considering current-gen gaming has yet to offer anything this interesting or 'out there' or just good.

It's 1912, although everyone speaks like they're from 2012. You're Booker DeWitt, a private investigator whose fallen on hard times and needs to repay a debt. He's sent to an ominous lighthouse which just happens to be the direct link to a city in the sky. Unfortunately it turns out the city of Columbia, despite being one of the most beautiful environments in gaming history, is super-racist. Columbia follow an altered form of Christianity that isn't really Christianity. This is a place where America is a religion. As a non-American, I find this hilarious.

Your initial objective is to rescue a girl called Elizabeth and bring her to New York, but the plot almost immediately opens up to more than that. It's obvious that something greater is going on, not just regarding Columbia but reality as a whole. Whilst billed as a sequel, this is really a complete evolution. If BioShock was System Shock then this is Deus Ex - taking an already strong base and blowing it wide open.

Yes, BioShock Infinite is better than BioShock.

The problem with BioShock is that it was a survival-horror/action-game hybrid. It's a great game, but it's not a horror game and it's not an action game either. The combat was overly-simple and even on the hardest setting the game is too easy. The best parts of BioShock were creeping around the environment soaking it all in, and this atmosphere was always ruined when an enemy showed up because then you have to use the clunky combat as you face off against a boring foe.

EVERYONE IN THE WORLD: "Wooowwwww...."

BioShock Infinite is an action game through and through. There's only one part where you have to use stealth but it's short and works nicely as a break between act 2 and 3. Plus, if you mess up then you can just go back to the combat. And the combat is actually really fun now. You only get two weapon slots, so you have to swap weapons every now and then. I like this because unlike BioShock where it was more a case of using whatever I had the most ammo for rather than the best weapon for the enemy I was facing, here I swapped weapons depending on the situation. Sometimes there would be a sniper rifle conveniently placed nearby and like a good boy I'd think "right, I'd better use that to counter-snipe." Other times there would be a bunch of large enemies about and so I would switch to an RPG or something like that. My carbine went with me wherever I went though, and as with the previous games, a fully upgraded machine gun is still a perfect all-round weapon.

Whilst health doesn't regenerate, you're given a shield which depending on the in-game difficulty and how much you upgrade it smashes after taking a certain amount of damage. Take cover for a few moments however and it regenerates. I've heard a lot of people complain about this system, but that's probably because they've played this game on the easiest difficulty. On 'medium' or above the shield gives you just enough time to go out into the open and toy with the combat before taking cover. Since there aren't any cover-based mechanics you can easily get flanked or take cover behind something that doesn't actually cover you. Enemies don't take cover, instead moving about and firing openly. This means the combat is nice and kinetic. Add in the skylines and it's fun swashbuckling action that I enjoy immensely. Yes, it plays like a game made ten years ago, but I can think of no higher praise than: "it plays like a game made ten years ago - back when combat was fun."

The plasmids are back, but now they're drinkable 'Vigors.' The presence of these break the plot somewhat. Once again, despite every vigor coming with a skin-crawlingly cool animation showing your hands being horrifically mutated - you posess no side-effects. It's kind of just accepted that the power to summon lightning exists in Columbia, and what's even more shocking (hehe) is that hardly anyone seems to use these powers. Although, this time there are two enemies who use magic powers...which is less than System Shock 2's total of four but more than BioShock's grand total of one. (Seriously: everyone's supposed to be driven mad from splicing but only one enemy type actually uses plasmids? It's like if the entire population was bitten by a radioactive spider yet only one person got superpowers and everyone else dated Mary Jane)

Ooooh, nasty!

The only problem is that the plasmids are brutal. You don't just throw fireballs - you ignite people and watch their flesh burn off-of the skeleton. Lightning can completely disintegrate, and Murder Of Crows very viscerally pecks bits off-of enemies. With these powers combined, you can summon crows to ravage foes, then ignite both the foes and the crows. As a bonus, you can then zap 'em all with lightning. Whilst the juxtaposition between the Disneyland-like fakeness of Columbia and the horrific violence helps to establish just how much of a lie Columbia is...it's jarring in the wrong ways. The story very clearly shows that both sides of the conflict between the supremacist Columbians and the anarchistic Vox are just as bad as each other, so it makes even less sense when Booker violently murders both sides. There's one hilarious scene where Elizabeth blames herself for the death of just one character right after I'd set fire to a whole army of innocent men.

ELIZABETH: "I can't get over how I accidentally indirectly killed one guy."

BOOKER: *covered in blood* "WOOO! I JUST HAD CROWS PECK THE EYES OUT OF TEN PEOPLE BEFORE GIBBING THEM ALL WITH A VOLLEY GUN AND HEADSHOTTING TWENTY MORE GUYS BEFORE IGNITING THEIR CORPSES! Sorry, what were you saying?"

This is yet another example of games having their cake and eating it too: Making a statement about violence before refusing to let the player progress until s/he has murdered the population of Luxembourg. But at least the game admits you're not a good person, compared to BioShock where it thinks you're the nicest man in history despite the number of corpses with your name written on them.

But whilst the game could easily hold together based on it's satisfying, if overly-violent, combat; BioShock Infinite is predominately a story-driven game. So what's that part like?

A lot of people complain that the story is too linear. They claim that the game is akin to a roller coaster. You don't have much choice and you have to proceed through levels in a specific way in order to progress. Whilst the gameplay acts like a combat sandbox akin to Half Life 2, ultimately the story and its ending is the same regardless of your descisions.

Firstly: have you ever played a Call Of Duty game? You don't know the definition of linearity until you've experienced the singleplayer of a CoD game.

Secondly: yes, stories have to be linear in some way. You can't start a book from the end, you can't tune into a TV show midway through and you can't watch a movie backwards. Games should definitely offer choice, but give us too much choice and you lose narrative focus. Does anyone remember the story of Skrim? No. Everyone remembers that one time they were falsely imprisoned or captured by the Dark Brotherhood because those were scripted events where you couldn't fast-travel somewhere else.

Also, roller coasters are fun! I'm completely fine with being escorted along a linear pathway so long as I can go at my own pace and look around for a bit. Even action games are still a puzzle game. Ultimately a game is one big problem you have to solve. Part of the fun of Half Life 2 is figuring out how Valve are trying to subtly guide you through the level.

The story simply wouldn't work with a more open, BioShock layout. Mostly because you couldn't have Elizabeth.

OK, we'll let the "Press F To Emote" parts slide...

When I first played the game I groaned because I thought this was going down Resident Evil 4-style where she'd be this vital character who you have to shove into a bin every single time it looked like you were entering a combat arena. Elizabeth is vital, but she's certainly not a damsel in distress and she's surprisingly good at hiding. In fact, it's often a bit disturbing how she vanishes when enemies approach - occasionally re-appearing to give you health and ammo.

Her character arc is perhaps more interesting than Booker's, as she gets dragged from her tower and into a world which she initially finds beautiful but soon realises it's all a lie. You don't rescue Elizabeth, you essentially capture her and force her into a land of conflict. Very bloody conflict. Granted: we see what might have happened if she'd remained in the tower, and it's much worse than how the story finally goes down.

The story is also in several ways a mess of story threads. About a third through the game we discover that the 'Many Worlds' theory exists. There are a plethora of websites who can summarise this possible revolution in quantum mechanics (it's one of those things I really want to be true even though it might not be) but in simple terms: there exist parallel dimensions and with every choice in life there is an alternate dimension where the opposite is true.

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGGAAAIIINNNNN!

The Many Worlds theory is an absolutely mind-blowing concept that's very difficult to portray in fiction just because it's so difficult to comprehend it without needing to sit down for a moment. So I have no choice but to applaud BioShock Infinite for going all out and somehow managing to make sense. In a world of muscular, leather-jacketed heroes fighting an evil force that kills people because their evil so you kill people because you're good, it's great to see such a big budget title attempting to do something different. It's not like Portal or Far Cry: Blood Dragon or Alien: Isolation - games with a refined and daring indie sensibility but with all the polish of a Triple A game. But its still something to be applauded.

BioShock Infinite fixes BioShock's crappy final level and awful boss fight by having an awful, crap boss fight midway through the game. The level itself is also the only part that evokes BioShock and Systsem Shock 2 in that you have to run around an environment collecting a bunch of items before you can proceed. Whilst System Shock 2 will always be my one true love, I welcome any and all attempts to get away from its formula. Games need to be as scary as System Shock 2, not as annoying.

It's by no means a perfect game, but I enjoy playing it and in this day and age I have yet to see a game with this much ambition. Not only is it the best Triple A game in years, but it's the best Hollywood blockbuster in years also. Look at it from this angle, and you'll enjoy it.

"This isn't fair! The guy from the first game only got one hand wrecked!"