Bioshock Infinite Game Review
By Rob Boose
Ever since the rise of the Call Of Duty franchise, gaming has become an online battleground of competitive multiplayer that has pushed aside greatly pushed aside the storytelling aspect of gaming. Because of this, the FPS genre has gone stale and every ten year old has grown an explicit vocabulary full of words they do not know the meaning to. With little hope for, true gamers have grown to expect less out of the $60 retail price of a video game. And with PS4 and the next Xbox arriving this fall, what do we have to look forward to? Worry no more, Bioshock Infinite has arrived
Save the girl and wipe away the debt. The task seems simple for the character Booker DeWitt, the character to whom the player controls in Bioshock Infinite. He is tasked with retrieving a girl named Elizabeth, who is being held captive in the floating sky city of Columbia.
The city of Columbia is a beautiful 1912 rendition of an America that never was. People in the streets dance to carnival shows and fireworks explode in celebration of the pure sense of American exceptionalism.
This is a game to experience and get lost in and not rush through just to get to the end. Columbia is just so rich with many themes that part of the experience is to actually think about the intellectual aspects it offers. For example, Father Zachary Hale Comstock who serves as the stories main antagonist who has essentially established the founding fathers as religious figures, claims he had a vision of the future by an arch-angel to tear aware from the racial melting pot of America and establish a pure utopia in the sky.
Comstock’s will is to worship the” Founders” by striving to establish a more pure iteration of what America actually is. Opposing him is a group known as the Vox Populi, a rebel group of common people of races who are worked and repressed to uphold Columbia’s Utopian image. the Vox Populi fight against Comstock’s injustices in order to make their voices heard. And it doesn’t stop there.
It wouldn’t be a Bioshock game without various powers and weapons available to the players disposal.
The skyhook which is a weapon/railhook, allows Booker to swiftly travel across Columbia while equally pouncing enemies who get in his way. There are also numerous guns at the players disposal with names like the China Broom Shotgun or the PepperMill crank machine gun.Not enough, well powers know as vigor can be consumed to give Booker abilities such as “Buckin’ Bronco” which shoots enemies into the air and making them vulnerable to your attacks.
Or you could unleash a “Murder of Crows” that explodes a fist full of angry birds at your enemies from Booker’s hands. Elizibeth also abilities to help you take on the baddies the baddies of Columbia.
She man manifest “tears” that manifest things into reality that do or do not yet exist to provide cover and ammunition for Booker. This is later explained in a brain-jamming plot twist tha theoretical physics is now uncovering to be a real possibility, hence the “Infinite” of the subtitle
Indeed Bioshock Infinite this is a FPS, but the fact that the well-paced action sequences are perfected complimented with instances to discover the awe and mystery of Columbia set Bioshock Infinite apart from the hyper-masculine military campaigns players found in games like Call Of Duty or Gears of War all while bringing the player closer to Elizabeth through circumstances that really tap in to real human emotion is a achievement.
As the game unfolds, the of the floating sky and the girl is trapped in it draws the player into a narrative that is intelligent, engaging and just plain fun.In a way, Bioshock infinite proves video games are just as capable as telling thought-provoking and memorable stories in video games. The benchmark has truly been heightened in terms of gameplay, narrative, and originality.
Without question, Bioshock Infinite is one of the greatest games this generation. It deserves to got down as a game that gamers will talk about for years to come whether it’s about the amazing gameplay, oozing Atmosphere of American purism or the trans-dimension capabilities of Elizabeth. If you are ever looking for a gaming experience to spend your $60 dollars on, it is this game. Get it.
I give Bioshock Infinite a 10/10