4.5/5 ★ – summercomet's review of BioShock Infinite.

I'm still reeling from that ending, literally bumped it a whole grade up. Given that we already did a lot with the first 2 games (3 since i count minerva), the series was bound to head into another location, to which it chose the sky. I just wanna start off by saying how much I LOVE the aesthetic of this game with the colonial steampunk fantasy setting of this game contrasting its previously noir 1960s memo. It adds an unbelievable amount of atmosphere and aura to an already crazy game series. This is going to be a longer review, first I have to talk about the game mechanics itself. The gameplay is very much akin to its previous game's styling with all the looting and shooting with the combat improving a lot compared to its earlier entries. The enemies are a lot crazier and varied, the weapons are all bombastic, and the navigation/traversal is incredibly fun and impactful. The gameplay loop in my opinion has become a lot more nuanced which benefits largely in their favor as everything is so much more engaging and fun to do especially the all new vigor mechanics. My only complaint though that I wish they had brought over from the previous games was the ability to carry way more weapons. I understand that they were trying to go for more of a realistic "Not Have a Black Hole Inventory" angle but it overall negatively limits our range of gunplay, I want my guns 2K. The environments and levels are GORGEOUS, and though very contrasted, still fits the vibe of Bioshock so well and is still one of my favorite designed environments in any game franchise, period. The music is amazingly grand and fantastical, even more than previous entries which elevates the gameplay and story so much more, I just LOVE how much it tickles my brain. My god, finally, the story. Ken Levine, you wrote the FUCK out this story man. In terms of storytelling, we might have to pour honey on the Bioshock series, this is definitely top 10 in my list. Everything is so cohesive, yet convoluted, so engaging yet so complex, so much grandeur yet with so much intracacy, my longish review cannot put this game's plot into words. It's so captivating, such great penwork, I can't think of the last game that made me so utterly shocked and amazed by a game's story than this game hell even the whole series. Please, I'm begging you to play this game, the only reason why it's not a 10 is with my gripes with the gunplay but if I had to rate just the story aspect of this game it's literally a 12/10. Don't do yourself a disservice, PLAY NOW, i demand it.