An analysis of why Bioshock Infinite is incredibly overrated.

[surpriselol]

First of all let me begin by saying this game is good, but not great. It has a lot of polish that makes it seem good. Passable graphics, well designed mechanics, standard but enjoyable weapons and powers, excellent voice acting and interesting locales.

But if you dig just a little bit under the surface of this game, it falls apart. First of all, this is barely what I'd call a 'game'. It's more of an interactive story, much like the early Metal Gears (especially Metal Gear Solid 2) which are more story than game. Yes, there are guns and stealth and other 'game mechanics' but the fact is that those things are just there to primarily support the story of the game, not enhance fundamental gameplay. And this is the case with Bioshock. Yeah, there are enemies. Yeah, there are guns and vigors. But they feel forced and the vigors seem unnecessary relics of past Bioshocks. Why do the vigors exist in this world? There is no logic for them to be here. They make the world seem more unbelievable than add to the believability of an early 'colonial' floating city (already initially a difficult thing to sell). Even the enemies and weapons just seem kind of pointless; supporting roles in a game lead by a brash, overzealous story, which leads me to my next point.

One of the things modern video game script writers absolutely do not understand is subtlety. I think a lot of the time they struggle with implementing a story that works in tandem with the action in a way that will not only enhance the action, but reinforce it. One of the big problems with Infinite is that it bashes you over the head repeatedly with its anti-right wing, anti-colonialisation message to the point of comedy. There are valuable messages to be had here, but they're not terribly new in Western society, nor are they subtle in any conceivable way. Quite the opposite. At every possible opportunity this game is just pounding you with its 'this is good, this is bad' message and after about 5-6 hrs of playing this game I am totally sick of it. You know what? I GET IT IRRATIONAL GAMES. RACISM IS BAD. SEGREGATION IS BAD. WHITE SUPREMACY AND EUROCENTRISM IS BAD. Yes, we all know. If there was more to the overarching story than that it might be interesting but for the love of God I GET IT. Which brings me to my next point.

Booker and Elizabeth have a good relationship and this is a really good aspect of the game, but why in the world can she open tears? Was this added purely to add a cool factor to the game? Because honestly this doesn't add to the believability of this world, at all. First of all, if she hated being trapped in a tower for her entire life (and everyone would) then hey, guess what? YOU CAN OPEN A TEAR AND ESCAPE YOU KNOW. The fact she is still 'trapped' in that tower at her age is 100% baloney. I know that you can try to justify the story and explain it with reason in ways like 'maybe she just never found a tear she wanted to escape through' or 'maybe she was afraid to leave' but I just don't buy that at all.

Edit: After finishing the game I understand why she couldn't open any tear she wanted but it does not explain why she couldn't escape through one of the tears she *could* open. Somewhere in the tedious first half of the game she mentions she doesn't want to escape because of 'family' yet she has no family and talks endlessly about escaping. Towards the end she says she'd rather die than go back to the tower. None of this makes any sense.

And unfortunately it's all a little too hard to swallow for me. Columbia looks nice and it has interesting and well-designed locations, but the combat is average FPS fare. Gone are the days of laying traps with your plasmids and mini-turrets and preparing to fight a Big Daddy or hordes of splicers while you protect a little sister. Gone (most importantly) is the time and thought you'd put into these areas of combat and the choice that came with overcoming those obstacles. This doesn't exist in Infinite. One of the best things about the combat in earlier Bioshocks is completely absent here. You can put 0 thought into what you're doing and still easily come out ahead. Shoot things, use a vigor every now and then and you're done. And this is exacerbated by the fact that this game is too easy.

I am not a big FPS person. I don't play Call of Duty games or Battlefield, but I do enjoy 'themed' FPS, I guess you could say. I played the original Doom as a young teen, and Quake, and enjoyed both of those games and their sequels immensely. I enjoy FPS games that don't attempt to be straight up 'realistic world' shooters and that's purely an issue of subjective taste, but it's also the reason why I enjoyed the first two Bioshocks a lot. Having said all of that, I'd say I'm 'decent' at FPS games. Par for the course, not instantly headshotting from outside draw-distance by any means, but I'm decent.

I'm currently playing this game on Hard, and I have no idea why it's called Hard. For me, there is absolutely nothing 'hard' about this difficulty setting. Enemies die quickly, Crows and other advanced enemies really aren't that hard to dispose of, and ammo and currency is plentiful. Infinite on Hard is actually a substantial amount easier than Bioshock 2 on Normal. Which is a direct result of being overly obsessed with story-telling and not with gameplay. This unfortunately, leads me to my next point.

Like I said, I'm 5-6 hours into this game and I'm bored. The world isn't believable for me; there's no strategy in the combat (or at least, nothing at all relative to previous Bioshock games); I'm incredibly sick and tired of being slapped in the face with the overarching, brazen themes of the story and most of all: it's too easy. I'm bored with the story and the game (if you can call it that) itself. I'm bored with the combat. I'm bored with the seemingly pointless journys to ironically interestingly designed locations to be given one more piece of story and not an interesting, intelligently designed area of combat.

Will I finish the game? Sure. Will I care? Not at all.

[euryleia]

The more down the OP I read the more I am certain that the author lacks basic comprehension of how the game world works. Liz can't open tear whenever or wherever because of the siphone. When it is destroyed, she flicks her hand and done, Rapture. Oh, am sorry, was that a spoiler? Sorry, can't let something like that passes by unchecked.

Author also got the real work backward. There are many types of games. One is open-world, like Skyrim. This one is an amusement park rail system, like Disney World. The story is king----Read: Single-player at launch, and no Multiplayer on the horizon. The action phase is just there to move the story forward.

What OP wishes he has done is watching spoiler YouTube videos before plunging down 59.99 for this ride.

[Nerevars Goat Univeron]

I would like to point out, what the hell did you mean "Laying traps with your plasmids to protect a little sister'
Not only could you not lay plasmid traps, but you also only protect a little sister 3 times.

[euryleia]

I imagine the day Liz opens a tear into 1983 Paris, and dies the moment later. Reason: A car at 60 km/h hit her just as she tried to cross the street for a book store.

[rogueboomer]

SPOILER ALERT First 1/3 to me was interesting and then it became like COD. Songbird criminally underutilised, a small game world with hardly any secrets to pursue (eg. an opened locked door in luxury apartments doesnt give further rooms and areas to explore) and all those vigors and are they somehow genetically linked to you, only a few mini bosses can use them and hardly any enemy variety...Only Elizabeth can lock pick and in the immortal worlds of george lucas if you kill anakin there can be no luke or leia. The studio cut a lot of content.....a hell of a lot of content and then they said oh it wasnt necessary to the progression of the story...If I want a story I will buy a book. and the relationship between brooker and elizabeth was like something out of a twilight film....you are a monster one minute and then she is offering her assistance. I played it once and all I can say is Bioshock 2 is my favourite behind the original sytem shock......ps irrational we need to see Shodan again

[Meztaz]

there is a voxaphone a few hours before the end which you can pick up and will explain why elizabeth has her powers and you will understand the limitations of them once you reach the end

[Zimmies]

Publicado originalmente por surpriselol:

. Will I care? Not at all.

There are a lot of silly people out there which lie to themselves and talk very needless things

You say you dont care...and write this extreamly long post....?

IF i dont care, i dont spend time for it....


AND most of all, or you LIKE something OR is something good, are TWO absolutely different things!!! Fact

1. you dont like something for some reasons....thats your right, than was i dont like it

2. it IS a fantastic piece of Gaming Art...no matter or folks like it or not...point

[Rockhead Gaz]

Personally, I feel that something that is getting consistent 10/10 review scores is overrated. Nothing's perfect, and this game is no exception. Doesn't stop it from being a great experience.

[Hermann Knallfeiss]

Publicado originalmente por Rockhead Gaz:

Personally, I feel that something that is getting consistent 10/10 review scores is overrated. Nothing's perfect, and this game is no exception. Doesn't stop it from being a great experience.

The ten scale has lost all meaning in relation to gaming. There was once upon a time in which 7 was considered a rock solid score. Somthing like.

1.call the police and tell them about the fraud you just got exposed to
2.broken game
3.bad game
4.pointless, with some merrits.
5.Mediocre. The average.
6.above average, has its highlights and fans of the genre will get their worth
7.good. It may not be for everyone but it works as advertized and are free of game and immersion breaking bugs and decisions.
8.rock solid performance, tell your friends. Most would want to own this.
9.superstardom. Everybody wants to own this and talk about it over the watercooler at work. It doesnt have to be original but its a flawless excecution.
10.genre defining moment, games will copy this for years to come. it is a classic that sets new bars for others to catch up with.

Apparently no bad or even mediocre games are released anymore?!

BI is a strange fish in that storywise, world and setting is atleast 9. probably a ten. Other games will copy ideas here for years to come, but its wrapped in 7 graphics and a 5 first person shooter. IMO.

[Hermann Knallfeiss]

I think thats what splits people so much tbh. Those who are in it for the story and setting are flying high. Those that expected a challenging shooter, the gamer who are more about mechanics than story feel let down. So as a whole I cannot rate it higher than 8. And I find it suspicious that very few reviewers did that.

[Bite]

I'm amazed that you talk about lack of subtlety, seriously, all those questions about vigors and Elizabeth's powers that you're asking? they get very, VERY sutble answers, it doesn't shove them in your face, but the game trusts you to do a some connection of events and voice recordings to get those answers.

[Tekhne]

btw, dan brown is a mediocre pop author--no dis to eury. Just to remind ourselves that the rubrick of what was termed "modernism" has nothing to do with Dan Brown. Regarding bioshock--the game has had lulls for me (I'm almost at the end) and moments of engagement. The things that I miss the most are the free-roaming aspects of the game and the feeling of empowerment getting a new plasmid or weapon upgrade in Bioshock 1/2 would bring. It's an infuriating trend in recent games; they give no flexibility to the gameplay, the gameplay systems are simple, and there is no building up your character. So yes, the game feels more like playing a movie. And I totally agree with eury, they don't take a concrete moral stance other than the typical "oh wow, turns out both sides have the same moral faults". It's the opposite of modern, it's romantic and not in a good way. Bioshock infinite is so close to being a really great work of art--and I mean stacked alongside any art--but the comparative shallowness of the gameplay, the linearity, and the sometimes vaguely silly story prevent it, in my opinion, from being a truly great videogame. However, it's still one of the best I've played in a long time, and in general it has been an incredibly engaging, beautifully designed and creative ride, and I'm definitely playing 1999 mode to extract all the complexity and strategy there can be in this game. Ken levine and his team of artists have created an original world, and I think pushed the vanguard for videogames in general. I think that's the most important thing to keep in mind.

ps. the stuttering issues almost drove me to hurl myself off a cliff tho

[Richard]

Why does she have tear powers? Umm.. Did you even finish the game

[Richard]

Too easy? Play it on Hard or 1999 mode

[kalcijs]

I second this! The game is overrated!

[Wario]

Publicado originalmente por surpriselol:

An analysis of why Bioshock Infinite is incredibly overrated

Would you look at the pretentious title... We've got a talented one here, haven't we?

Publicado originalmente por surpriselol:

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Funny, everyone in the surface of Earth now thinks their essays are worth reading.

Publicado originalmente por surpriselol:

Will I finish the game? Sure. Will I care? Not at all.

The question is: will anyone care if you ever finish any game at all? Heh... no.