Lets start by talking about the gameplay, Infinite's combat is much more refined than that of it's predecessors, the movement feels more accurate the guns have a better weight and sound to them than before and your Vigor's, which now take the role of the Plasmids have more flashy animations, and do more damage than they used too. But why the developers felt it was necessary to now limit you to two weapons at a time, rather than the previous eight in other games, is a mystery too me. If anything, this feels like a step backwards as it really limits your options in combat making the experience less varied. You will often find on your first play-through that you are entering a fight with the wrong weapons for that situation; and being ill prepared is just frustrating.
One final point on gameplay is the addition of the skylines, they essentially allow the player to zip-line around the current area at high speeds and can be used to reach vantage points. One part in particular is especially awesome and it involves using a series of skylines to reach a huge Zeppelin and bring it down, moments like this are what made the game great, unfortunately these moments are few and far between.Next I want to talk about the enemies. The standard enemies in Infinite will be extremely familiar to those who have played the original Bioshock, now this isn't a bad thing, why change what is broken. Splicers are now crazed fanatics and police officers, the Houdini Slicer is reworked into a bizarre crow shaman enemy. Infinite's enemies come into their own with the addition of the heavy hitters, this ensemble of Mini-boss characters replaced the much loved Big Daddies of previous instalments, meaning they have a lot too live up to.
First up is the Mechanised Patriots, these are robotic representations of past presidents. carrying Gatling guns, shouting war propaganda while endlessly pursuing the player akin to the terminator.The Patriots are great, they are by far my favourite of the four.
Next are the Handymen, these humongous enemies are extremely dangerous and deceptively agile for their size, nowhere is safe when they are around as they can leap through the air to reach any vantage point. On top of this they have a neat little trick where they discharge into the skylines causing the player to fall if currently using a skyline.
The Siren is an ethereal being able to summon ranks of undead enemies over and over again, this creates a unique battle scenario, because you cant simply clear out the enemies then kill the siren. Meaning you need to find a good balance between clearing out the enemies and chipping away at the siren, problem is she is hard to kill as half the time she is immune to damage.
Boys of Silence are the final heavy hitter, these creepy, bulbous helmet wearing guys act as a security system if they see or hear you they let out a deafening scream which attracts all nearby enemies.
The problem is that none of these four manage to achieve the same as the illustrious Big Daddies, they commanded a real sense of fear when being faced, especially on harder difficulties you really had to prepare and even then you were still in for a rough fight, none of the heavy hitters manage to achieve this.
Lastly lets talk about the story and the world, Infinite has a beautifully created and well realised world where everything from the shop signs to the weapons feel right at home, bu this was no surprise as we all expected this as Bioshock's Rapture set the bar so high, I'm happy to say the world of Columbia more than lives up to raptures legacy, personally I still prefer the much darker and eerie world of rapture but thats just preference; no one can deny when looking at Infinite that it's not one of the most visually appealing games ever made, the use of colour and lighting is astounding and the very premise of the flying city is nothing short of magical, supplemented by wonderful musical scores. This is where Infinite really shines.
The problem I can't help but feel the story is a little half baked, I found the game comes to a rather abrupt end, it's a little anti-climatic. Though it does keep you guessing from start to finish slowly teasing you with little snippets of information. I guess I just expected more from it because of how brilliantly the original games story unravels, maybe I expected too much.
One final point I would like to talk about is Elizabeth and the Songbird, Elizabeth is the reason you are in Columbia, the entire game and story revolves around her and she is integral to the plot, her character is so well designed from all her facial expressions, to animation cues and snide or charming remarks, problem is she is so good that she makes the rest of the character seems under worked in comparison, even though they're all great in their own respects.The only thing I need to say about Songbird is why go through all the effort of creating such an amazing antagonist character one that I feel is even better than that of the Big Daddies and then barely put him in the game, and when he is present its always cut scene or scripted combat, why is there no epic show down with the Songbird? Baffles me it really does.
After much thought Bioshock Infinite is a great game and well worth a play, but it have definitely been hyped up far too much, the amazingly high quality of the original Bioshock is this games undoing, so I would recommend to anyone who has played Infinite and was disappointed to go back and play the original.
THE SCORE 8.5/10
+ Beautifully realised world
+ Great cast of characters, especially Elizabeth.
+ Sylines and Heavy Hitters
- Doesn't live up to Bioshock's legacy
- Not enough Weapon/Vigor variety
- Story ends abruptly
