3.5/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of BioShock Infinite.

My memory of Bioshock Infinite is greater than the actual reality of the state of the game, as it exists today. After about 18-hours, 13-hours spent completing the main-story, and an additional 5-or-so-hours to complete the two additional episodes, I think Bioshock Infinite is a somewhat lesser game when compared to it's predecessors. And, while the game aims to tell an extremely ambitious story, it only partially sticks the landing. It left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. The ending came more abruptly than what it deserved, especially with how long it too to actually reach that ending. The actual unveiling of critical plot points throughout the story are mostly satisfying, until the third act is reached. There are a lot of through-lines between the first game and this one, but ultimately, I don't think the game does an effective job to make that connection believable or fulfilling. There is some more exposition that happens in the DLC, Burial At Sea. This exposition, I think, does a much more effective job at accomplishing the explanation of the task that the original game set out to do, but it feels like additional bonus chapters to a novel that missed the mark. Additional bonus chapters that feel like they were added because the audience found the original novel to be lacking (not saying this is why the DLC was added, rather that the whole package feels like the above scenario to me). Either way, the story itself is engaging almost the entire way through, even through the end. I just felt that the ending missed the mark for me. This is also my second time playing through this game (first time was when it released), and remembering some of the plot points might have taken away some of the "wow" factor. But, I feel a good story should still hold up after experiencing it a number of times. The gameplay also took a hit, especially when compared to the previous games. The game essentially took away your options when engaging with enemies, and opted for a more straight-forward approach to encounters. The game is essentially all action-based now. Almost every level is designed to be a shooting gallery (and done so very well, I might add), which I do think makes sense given the new setting of Columbia. You only have two weapons you can hold at a time, and those weapons can be upgraded, but there is less visual flare / impact with those upgrades. Plasmids are fun to use, making a return as Vigors here. Vigors are pretty fun and mostly different compared to the other Bioshock games, but ultimately I only found myself needing/wanting to use three of them (this is out of the eight that you have access to). I was really disappointed with the lack of options, whether it be stealth, weapons, or ways to tackle a combat scenario. There are sky-lines that can be rode around arenas to tackle combat scenarios, tears that Elizabeth can open to give some extra firepower, and plenty of variety of enemies. The actual exploration is even less emphasized this time around. Columbia is a beautiful place to explore, and I love that the game opted to not provide a map or way-point. There is a one-button-press that can point you in the right direction, but other than that it's all about going where you find interesting. And, there are some extra and optional places to explore, which adds a bit to the world-building that is going on here. However, there is just significantly less areas to explore when compared to the first game. That could be a good thing, as the run time of the base-game here is about 4-hours shorter than that of the first. Even the places that you can explore, there is less reason and impact for doing so. In the previous Bioshock games, you were almost always rewarded with a new weapon, weapon upgrade, or ADAM prize. This time, all the rewards are monetary, resource upgrades, and story-based, which is still rewarding in it's own right. I have already mentioned it, but Columbia is a wonderful setting to have a Bioshock game in. It is an extremely interesting world; one that is based on essentially making a society around worshipping America's founders (in a culty-sort-of-way). The in-game history based around Columbia is always interesting to learn about, and the setting creates some wonderful environments to explore. Elizabeth is, somewhat, the main hook of the game. She is your companion, and she is designed pretty well. She assists you with finding helpful items, which I liked. She can open tears to help you get to different areas, or to tackle an engagement in a different way. Best of all, as every companion should do, she stays out of your way. Burial at Sea overstayed it's welcome for me, yet, it is almost essential to playthrough to get the full story of the Bioshock universe. Episode 1 has you playing as Booker, and revisiting Rapture. This episode I found to be cool, but mostly just to see Rapture with updated graphics. Story-wise, it ends pretty quickly, but leads right into episode 2. Episode 2 I found to be a bit more annoying to playthrough, but it introduces some unique ideas. You play as Elizabeth, and the gameplay focus is essentially geared towards stealth. It mostly works, but both episodes try and implement the gameplay systems of the first game, but do it in a much worse fashion. It really shows how far away Infinite got from the original's core mechanics and philosophy. Either way, seeing Rapture was cool, and the story, somehow, ties into the first game. I primarily played this one on my main PC. I played a couple of hours on Steam Deck, with some decent settings, but ran into some FPS-dips. I think it would probably run perfectly fine for a full playthrough on Steam Deck, but I just happened to be by my PC for the majority of this playthrough. In the end, this game was kind of a disappointment. It's hard, because this whole series has been very influential in the timeline of video games. Ken Levine is, undoubtedly, a very creative individual. Bioshock (1) was an extremely fun story, with some really incredible twists. Bioshock Infinite feels like it is being crushed by it's own weight and ambition. Bioshock Infinite is still a very good game, and tells a story that would probably be really fun for a first-time player. But, as a returning player, I found the story to be, at best, good. At worst? Fine, and a bit messy. Either way, it can be a fun game at times, despite it lacking in areas that it's predecessors excelled at. Bioshock (1) had an exceptional story with good game design and philosophy. Bioshock 2 had the series' peak gameplay and upgrade mechanics. If I had to pick an aspect that Bioshock Infinite excelled at, I would say presentation. Bioshock's presentation peaked with Bioshock Infinite. It's just unfortunate that it lacked in all other aspects. All of the Bioshock games excel at atmosphere and world building, and you can tell Ken and the devs spend so much time crafting. Looking forward to Judas; I just hope that the time in-between releases hasn't been completely spent for something that ends up being okay. Console Played On: PC (Steam) / Steam Deck (SteamOS) Game Played: 03/2025 - 03/2025 Review Written and Published: 03/09/2025