Irrational Games’ new action shooter BioShock Infinite leaves its watery home and heads to a new lofty, fantastical setting. The trip there hasn’t been smooth sailing though, with developmental delays and a small cover art crisis. Has the wait been worth it? Is it just another BioShock in the sky? Find out after the jump.
BioShock Infinite tells the story of former Pinkerton agent, Booker DeWitt, who has gambled himself into a corner and must pay his debts by rescuing a woman named Elizabeth from a secretive city, Columbia, floating high up in the clouds (Columbia. Not Elizabeth). It is 1912. Columbia seceded from the United States government and is ruled by Zachary Hale Comstock, a figure held in godly esteem. Churches are built in his honour, children are named after him, and the city thrives in its exceptionalism thanks to Comstock. However, it’s not all sunshine and roses and a rag-tag group of resistance, aptly named Vox Populi, want to revolt against Comstock to return control of Columbia to all its citizens regardless of sex, race, or class. It is here that the player finds themselves, attempting a rescue in the midst of a civil war story that explores uncomfortable areas of xenophobia, classism, and slavery. While the story might be new the gameplay experience is one that might be familiar to some.
Much like its predecessors, BioShock Infinite tasks the player to fight through the game using a combination of weapons and extraordinary abilities. What were plasmids in the first BioShock are now called vigors. These nostrums allow the player to dispatch enemies in a number of delightfully painful ways. You can levitate enemies into the air, stun them with electricity, kill them with fire, or release a murder of crows to peck them to bits. As usual, the use of such vigors is metered. Using vigors depletes the amount of salts (the equivalent of EVE in BioShock) in your possession. It’s a simple equation—no salts equals no vigors—but the there is a plentiful supply of the stuff around the environment or they can be got from looting corpses.
Similar in function to gene tonics, gear in BioShock Infinite is presented in gift-wrapped boxes and can be in the form of hats, shirts, pants, and boots. Equipping gear provides boosts such as a decrease in reload time, an increase in clip size, or a better chance that a melee-d enemy will be set on fire. Unlike previous outings, the player is free to chop and change vigors and gear on a whim. And the claustrophobic confines like those of Rapture have been replaced with open-space environments that enable you to experiment with up-close combat and ranged attacks.
The weapons in BioShock Infinite include pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, and RPGs all with a quaint, vintage feel about them. They all pack a punch, and with the near constant supply of guns, ammo, and salts sometimes you feel just a little *too* powerful. On the medium difficulty, there are only a handful of sections that may prove problematic to the average player. However, Irrational Games has added a mode that might test more than the player’s patience.
1999 Mode is unlocked after the player finishes the game but it has been revealed that the mode can be accessed from the start using a variation of the popular Konami code. Unlike the standard difficulties included in the game, “non-hardcore” gamers are warned to give the die-a-million-times 1999 Mode a wide berth. It promises an experience where the player’s decisions have a certain… permanence. Resource management, strategy, and combat specializations play an extremely critical role in a mode where ammo is in extremely short supply, health is precious, and resurrection is only possible if the player has the resources to make it possible. Failure is sure to be a constant companion in a mode that Irrational Games’ creative direction Ken Levine says is for the hardcore because, “They’re the only ones that will understand why it’s cool.” Having given this mode a quick whirl, I would like the qualify that I am as hardcore as a goose down pillow.
We all know that video games are capable of immersive storylines without having to talk at you (take Journey for example). On the opposite end of the spectrum, Bioshock Infinite features over 10,000 lines of dialogue, and just over a third of that is between our protagonist and Elizabeth. But they’re not just babbling at the player. This is an earnest conversation between the characters and you get a wonderful sense of their mood be it apprehension, happiness, or unbridled terror. And the player feels that. As an A.I. partner, Elizabeth breaks away from tradition and isn’t some handicap to be escorted from level to level or a rogue agent who rushes out ahead of you and expects you to follow. Instead she is an intelligent and resourceful ally, scanning places for interesting objects and tells you things when you need it. Or she talks to you at random times. And thanks to the wordy script, she doesn’t babble the same lines over and over. It adds to the spontaneity. She takes action when it’s needed, for example when you’re out of ammo or low on health. She yells your name and throws a weapon or medpack your way. Surprisingly then, Elizabeth, this unplayable character becomes a more charming and likeable character than our protagonist. That’s some intelligent programming right there, and one of the truly stand-out things about Bioshock Infinite.
The visuals in BioShock Infinite are truly something to behold. The fantastical Steampunk/art-deco styled city of Columbia floats atop the clouds, held up (for the sake of spoilers) by balloons and the liberal application of magic. It’s a miracle what Irrational Games have done with the humble Unreal Engine. The city is built on a clear class divide, from its high-class residences, beach resorts, and gleaming metal structures to the cramped and over-populated shanty towns and factories that are home to the working class. The music perfectly matches the themes of the environments, with the sounds of metal clanking and chain gang songs in the factories, to the hallowed voices of a choir in the places of worship. The voice-work is equally emotive. Truly, there is a staggering amount of detail to this world and its convincing characters, and it begs for exploration.
In the end, if there are any low points of BioShock Infinite, I believe the narrative might be overly complicated for mainstream audiences (and I include myself in that group). All this fast-paced action is slowed down by the back story you need to listen to and watch during the game. This exposition is not presented in the form of cutscenes, but altogether there are some 117 informational artefacts scattered around the environments. The story remains a tad nebulous without searching out and listening to these titbits of information. Being that complex in nature, there are some confusing and paradoxical questions that come out of the game’s ending. Still, the story is good enough to distract you from the lack of variety in the gameplay department.
BioShock Infinite is also lacking the fear factor. There was always a sense of sense of trepidation of what might lurk around the corner in BioShock. There is no such feeling in this game. The suspenseful horror has been all but replaced with balls-out action and the small selection of enemies, save for one, don’t send any chills down your spine. But as a beautifully designed, engaging, and interactive world BioShock Infinite is like no other. I have a feeling that it might be a serious contender for game of the year. Despite what accolades may or may not be bestowed on the game in the future, it’s certainly a game that you should get your hands on, right now.
Final Score: 9 Sky-High Prawns out of 10
Detailed information:
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Distributor: Megarom Interactive
Platform: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, PC
Age Rating: 18
Website: http://bioshockinfinite.com