Never played a Bioshock game should I start with this one?

[Deagle]

I unforunetley have never played a Bioshock game despite many people telling me this is one of the best games ever. Well, storywise will I understand it if I start with BioShock Infinite?
Or should I purchase the 1st and 2nd game.

[CursedPanther]

BSI is the prequel of BS1 so you're good.

[Spook'd]

Finish Infinite, play through 1 and 2 afterwards, then play through Infinite again to acknowledge the story line even more, then play through the Infinite DLC. Congratulations you now have a complete understanding of Bioshock. :)

[taxicabmessiah]

You can start with Infinite because it is a prequel, but I would recommend playing the original first.

BS2 does not follow the stories of those games. You can skip it if you want, but it's a pretty good game.

[Sledgehammer Wacko]

Originally posted by Skaraok:

I would not recommend playing Infinite first, since you won't completely understand the ending, but it's not absolutely necessary to play Bioshock 1 first.

Hah I asked my older brother the same question about that, and he says to start from the beginning to understand both the story and backstory of the 3 games.

I did what he said but I just skipped bioshock 2, due to it being an after story that doesnt seem to connect much in both games, it also made my pc lag unlike both games.

[mfoley1981]

You may wish to play the original Bioshock first, simply because many people (and professional critics) have argued that it's just a better, well-rounded game than Infinite. My situation wasa similar to yours, as in I hadn't touched the franchise until I heard about Infinite and saw that 17 minute E3 trailer. I played the original game first, then kind of glossed over Bioshock 2 for an hour or two, then jumped into Infinite. I still play through both games over a year later.

[☢ GoldFish (SVK) ☢]

Story of Infinite can be experienced and fully understood without playing Bioshock 1 or 2.

There's a chance that you might be disappointed by what is in my opinion a "meh" kind of gameplay, but the story and atmosphere saves it. A lot, I repeat, A LOT of the story happens off-game, in the form of audio diaries, so make sure you listen to them if you want to have a chance of understanding it. Chances are though that after your first playthrough you'll be like "wtf just happened", mainly the last 30 minutes or so, so don't fear to consult the internet for explanations afterwards (NOT SOONER lol). Second playthrough will be very rewarding, mainly because you'll know what's what, who is who and you'll be able to pick up these details and story hints that you surely missed the first time around.

I'd say the ideal playlist of all Bioshocks might look like this imo:
1) Bioshock: Infinite
2) Bioshock: Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 1 (doesn't directly relate to the story of Bioshock 1)
3) Bioshock 1
4) Bioshock: Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 2 (it's kind of independent from Episode 1 (you play as a different character), but only kind of, not really. It very closely relates to the story of Bioshock 1 and would spoil some really important things if you played it before Bioshock 1)
5) Bioshock: Infinite 2nd playthrough (necessairy step in order to enjoy the story at its whole)

I have yet to beat Bioshock 2, but I heard that because it's made by a different studio, the story picks up from Bioshock 1 but is totally unrelated to Bioshock: Infinite.

[Solarmech]

Always play Bioshock 1 before Bioshock 2. And always ALWAYS play Bioshock 1 before playing the Burial at Sea DLC for Bioshcok Infinite. sm

[Falcrist]

Bioshock Infinite has a strong tie-in with Bioshock 1, but Bioshock 1 isn't required to understand Bioshock Infinite.

The ideal play order is still

Bioshock 1 first,
Bioshock 2 optional (always after 1, though),
Bioshock Infinite last.

[TheGreekLantern]

I played Infinite before the first Bioshock, and I didn't have any problems following the story. However, you would probably enjoy and appreciate the ending a lot more by playing the first one beforehand.

[Ivlichnov]

Bioshock 1,
Bioshock Infinite,
Burial at Sea Ep 1,
Burial at Sea Ep 2,
Bioshock 2,
Minerva’s Den (Bioshock 2 DLC).

Originally posted by TheGreekLantern:

I played Infinite before the first Bioshock, and I didn't have any problems following the story. However, you would probably enjoy and appreciate the ending a lot more by playing the first one beforehand.

You only need to play through the first level or two of Bioshock 1, before playing though Bioshock Infinite.

But Burial at Sea (especially Episode 2) does contain spoilers for Bioshock 1.

[freemymamma]

Originally posted by Ragnarok:

Finish Infinite, play through 1 and 2 afterwards, then play through Infinite again to acknowledge the story line even more, then play through the Infinite DLC. Congratulations you now have a complete understanding of Bioshock. :)

I would say that you should actually start with bioshock 1 and 2. Because I started with Bioshock infinite and was confused, and i dont want to have to do it again.

[aethervagrant]

Originally posted by GoldFi$h {SVK} #GET REKT:

Story of Infinite can be experienced and fully understood without playing Bioshock 1 or 2.


I have yet to play Bioshock 2, but I heard that because it's made by a different studio, the story picks up from Bioshock 1 but is totally unrelated to Bioshock: Infinite.

How could you even make an educated reccomendation without having played all the games?
In my opinion Bioshock 2 is the best of the series. The plot choices were more interesting, it wasnt such a "sixth-sense deus ex machina" ending, The gameplay options and style were improved even from Bioshock 1 as you play a Big Daddy, and not some random joe who stumbled in.

[☢ GoldFish (SVK) ☢]

Originally posted by aethervagrant:

How could you even make an educated reccomendation without having played all the games?
In my opinion Bioshock 2 is the best of the series. The plot choices were more interesting, it wasnt such a "sixth-sense deus ex machina" ending, The gameplay options and style were improved even from Bioshock 1 as you play a Big Daddy, and not some random joe who stumbled in.

I don't want to sound like I'm boasting, but on Steam alone I've got around 130 hours of Bioshock: Infinite + DLCs (78/80 achievements) and around 60 hours of Bioshock 1; not counting the hours outside of Steam. I think I know what I'm talking about man ;)
You liking the game is ok (although from what I gather, Bioshock 2 is somewhat poorly received compared to the rest of the series), but OP wasn't asking about people's personal opinion on quality of games from the series (and neither am I judging them), but he was asking about whether it's needed or not to understand the story of Infinite. Strictly from the story-line perspective. Does Bioshock 2 relate to Infinite in any way? If not, why were you even talking man.

A side-note - seeing that Bioshock Infinite alone is a Steam-exclusive game, and seeing that neither of the series is on your Steam account, I really hope you played them on consoles or that this is not your real Steam account.

[King Bradley]

Really no need to play BioShock 1 and 2 before this. And if you want play BioShock 1, second part is terrible story wise.

[Lahwik]

You don't have to play Bioshock 1 and Bioshock 2 to play Bioshock Infinite. But if you want to play Burial at Sea it would be better if you played the previous games, especially Burial at Sea 2.