Through the powerful bond they form, Booker is able to augment his own abilities with her world-altering control over the environment.
BioShock
Infinite is a stupendous game, portraying a beautiful and broken city that will
absorb your every waking thought.
The Good
Columbia is
an amazing place to be and explore
Depicts uncomfortable, relevant themes in an effective way Vigors and skyline rails make for fluid,
exciting action Upgrades make you feel
increasingly powerful Mind-blowing
ending that you won't soon forget.
The Bad
Occasional
quirks and contrivances disrupt the immersion.
What drives
a man of God to wash away the sins of his past, only to blacken his heart with
a multitude more? How far can a freedom fighter be pushed before virtue and
righteousness are replaced by a lust for vengeance? What does a privileged
society do when the foundation of its prosperity is shaken? BioShock Infinite
dares to explore these heady themes and many more, giving you glimpses at just
how the seemingly smallest of decisions can forever alter our realities, and
our hearts. As an agent provocateur in the fantastical floating city of
Columbia, your actions bring turmoil and strife to an ostensibly idyllic
landscape. It's immensely fun to stir up trouble, and even more engaging to see
how boldly BioShock Infinite portrays a society torn asunder. You'll be haunted
by this thematically devastating adventure, and indeed, its phenomenal final minutes,
which are bound to be discussed and dissected for some time to come.
And when
they had found him, they said unto him, all men seek for thee.
It starts
with a lighthouse. As former private investigator Booker DeWitt, you enter this
lighthouse knowing that you have been hired to retrieve "the
girl"--but who this girl is, and who hired Booker, remain a mystery, if
not to Booker, than at least to you. At the top of that lighthouse is a chair,
and once strapped into it, Booker is fired into the stratosphere, toward the
city in the sky called Columbia. And what a fitting name for this
hyper-American domain of 1912, which incorporates the classical architecture of
the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The red, white, and blue Columbian flag flies
from spires across the city, and statuaries and bas-relief panels immediately
evoke the sense of old America.
The
buildings of that 1893 exposition were part of an area known as The White City,
and here, too, Columbia lives up to the name of its inspiration--not just in
the whiteness of its buildings, but in the whiteness of its racial structure.
At a key early moment, you confront the festering illness corrupting this
porcelain-white culture, where anyone whose skin is not the ideal color is
ostracized and enslaved. You also confront one of BioShock Infinite's many core
mysteries: What is the nature of the brand on Booker's hand? In Columbia, the
brand is a mark of the false shepherd, this culture's version of the Christian
Antichrist and the 666 that marks him. Identified as a prophesied fiend, Booker
has no choice but to run.
Then shall
the lame man leap as a hart.
Columbia is
a tremendous place to be, the all-American dream-turned-nightmare crossed with
steampunk sensibilities. Nationalist propaganda is mixed with airships and
mechanical combatants, and the moving picture machines you occasionally use
elaborate on the history of Columbia, which seceded from an America that just
wasn't American enough. The leader of this city is Father Comstock, a
self-proclaimed prophet and religious zealot whose likeness and influence
pervade the game. What Andrew Ryan was to Rapture, Comstock is to Columbia; he
is a frightfully well-meaning man who believes so strongly in his own damaged
philosophies that you can only fear him. His worshipers are just as fearsome in
their blind willingness to follow their leader, even when the costs are high.
In BioShock Infinite, religious and political fervor intertwine, much as they
do in real life, and these similarities could fill you with dread and unease.
You
eventually find "the girl." She is the supernaturally talented
Elizabeth, locked in a floating tower and protected by a monstrous clockwork
creature called Songbird. Your first confrontation with Songbird is one of many
eye-opening scenes, and Elizabeth's relationship with her protector is a
complicated one. So is her relationship with Booker, for that matter, though he
is key to Elizabeth's escape from her solitary life, and to the city of her
dreams: Paris.
And so the
two go on the run, alternately exploring Columbia's private nooks and allying
with a resistance force called the Vox Populi, not out of politics, but out of
necessity. Columbia isn't as hushed and mysterious as Rapture, but exploring it
is no less tense. You are a witness to (and a participant in) an imploding
social order, and as the story darkens, so too do the places you investigate.
Sunny blue skies and perfect manmade beaches give way to burning streets and
ghostly memorials. When the narrative has you questioning the nature of
reality, the surreality of the environments reflects your confusion. So, too,
does the soundscape metamorphose. The concordant harmonies of a hymn of praise
take a sour and ominous turn as the more disturbing qualities of Columbia's
unerring faith emerge.
A time to
weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
Your
confusion is appeased by audio recordings you discover called voxophones, which
serve as personal diaries to past events. There are clues here to the nature of
Elizabeth's gift: her ability to open tears in spacetime and peer into…the
future? The past? Other dimensions? Voxophones also elaborate on Columbia's most
important citizens, such as Comstock's troubled, martyred wife, whose story
illuminates the desperate lengths to which her husband stooped to ensure that
his message might be heard in perpetuum. They even provide a few touches of
humor, as do other atmospheric audio audio details; alternate versions of
well-known tunes could have you grinning once you pick your jaw up off the
floor.
BioShock
Infinite is a first-person shooter, but you aren't armed just with machine
guns, pistols, shotguns, and the like; you also have vigors. Vigors, like the
original BioShock's plasmids, are seemingly magical powers that you can fling
at your enemies. Thus, you can weaken your enemies by zapping them with a bolt
of electricity or by charging into them at impossible speed. Try distracting
them with a murder of crows before gunning them down with your carbine, or
flinging them over the edge of a walkway with a shock wave and watching them
plummet to their deaths. You may even combine these powers, perhaps setting a
foe on fire and then charging into him for an explosive finish.
BioShock Infinite
is a stupendous game, portraying a beautiful and broken city that will absorb
your every waking thought.
While many
of your foes are of the gun-wielding human variety, the most notable of them
have thematic ties to the world they inhabit. Plodding George Washington
automatons threaten you with their chainguns, and the best way to bring them
down is to aim at the gears that protrude from their backs. The way Columbian
flags are draped behind these grotesqueries makes them look like dead-eyed
angels of death, a perfect metaphor for the city's faith-driven nationalism.
Surprisingly agile mechanical heavies may not be such obvious metaphors, but
are more subtle reminders of the the men bound by these skeletons of metal and
the factory owner unmoved by his slaves' pleas for a better life. You often
face these enemies in outdoor arenas that have you on the move in ways the
first two BioShock games never required.
Whosoever
shall fall upon that stone shall be broken.
Such
battlegrounds are given life by the Skyline railway system that winds through
and around them. With the press of a button, you can latch onto a rail with an
implement that functions as both a melee weapon and a Skyline hook. Enemies
come at you from above and below, and sometimes even from airships that float
into range, forcing you to grind the rails to get to higher ground, make a
quick escape, or close the distance between you and a pesky sniper. You can
leap from a rail and onto one of Comstock's faithful, skewering him before
leaping back onto the Skyline and landing on the deck of an airship crowded
with soldiers. It's rewarding to fling fire and blast enemies with shotguns as
you zip about the hovering platforms, as if you are a vicious circus acrobat
performing a murderous trapeze act.
Elizabeth
is usually at your side throughout such acrobatics, staying out of combat
proper while offering you support. She occasionally tosses a health pack your
way, or some salts, which power your vigors in the way EVE powered BioShock's
plasmids. As far as AI companions go, she's a fine one, rarely getting in the
way, running ahead to indicate the proper direction, and unlocking doors and
safes with the lockpicks you find scattered about. Things can still go a bit
awry: Elizabeth might not make it into an elevator with you, for instance,
leaving you to have a scripted, one-sided conversation. But such discrepancies
are rare, and little touches, such as how Elizabeth exhibits curiosity in the
world around her, tend to overshadow them.
Such as are
for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword.
Elizabeth
has one other important role to play: by accessing tears in spacetime, she can
pull helpful objects into the battlefield, such as hovering security turrets,
boxes of health packs, ledges with hooks to leap onto, and so forth. Such
objects appear in the environment as if covered with television static, and you
bring them into being by holding a button. This system is a contrived handling
of one of the game's important narrative conceits, an intriguing element
awkwardly translated into gameplay. Yet these tears also give battles an extra
sense of unpredictability, or provide important defensive elements when you
most need them. That isn't to say that BioShock Infinite is punishing: when you
die, Elizabeth revives you, remaining enemies gain a little health back, and
you lose a little coin from your pocket.
The combat
does exhibit a wonderful sense of growth, however. You find various clothing
items that grant you additional passive buffs, such as turning enemies you leap
on into human torches. You spend the coins you pilfer from corpses and cash
registers on vigor and weapon upgrades, though you ultimately must pick and
choose the direction you prefer, since you can't afford every possibility.
Should you run out of ammo and use a weapon you haven't upgraded, the
difference is notable: suddenly you're facing a challenge you may not have
expected. The final combat sequence gets frustrating should you be pushed into
using weaker weaponry; it's the only battle in which BioShock Infinite's
stellar gameplay doesn't come together. Fortunately, the astounding narrative
payoff is more than a proper reward for triumphing over this visually
remarkable assault.
Let my
prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry.
BioShock
Infinite's combat is more freewheeling and fun than in the other games in the
series, but its world is no less intriguing to explore. Secret codes yearn to
be broken, and exquisitely crafted gardens and museums cry out for greater
scrutiny. This is a game just as much about "place" as it is about
"play," and audiovisual touches invoke nostalgia for the original
BioShock in effective ways. There's that telltale mechanical tinkling of the
vending machines that sell ammo and upgrades. There's the lure of loot,
inspiring you to plunder every trash can and every lifeless body. Then there
are the old-timey videos introducing each vigor, the sound scratching as if
played on an ancient phonograph. Each element draws you further into Columbia--this
place so unlike any other you've seen in games that you can't tear yourself
away. And a place that so horrifyingly mirrors parts of our own reality that
you could never call BioShock Infinite escapist entertainment.
BioShock
Infinite could make you feel uncomfortable. If you adhere to religious faith,
or celebrate American idealism, this game may invite introspection or even
anger. BioShock Infinite isn't afraid to magnify the way religious and racial
extremism inform our culture and change lives. It isn't afraid to depict a
less-than-holy trinity diseased by power, deception, and manipulation. As the
story circles back on itself, you're left wondering whether redemption cleanses
us of our atrocities, or simply invites us to commit greater ones. Once the
finale comes, you will want to play again, watching each event and image
through the lens of information you can never un-know. BioShock Infinite is
more than just a quality game: it's an important one.
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