BioShock Infinite review

Exceptional

by alextmoldovan

it's a fucking mess
it's not terrible, it is worth playing, but for years i've wondered why people absolutely hated it 
and now i get it lmao

the easiest thing to talk about is how the mechanics were downgraded into being Call of Duty but with plas- vigors and a hook ig
it's not as bad as that sounds, but it's very simplistic
there was very little strategy in how i'd play the game, i just stuck with a couple weapons i liked and that was that
this was done for the sake of the new heavy narrative focus, but it didn't have to be that way
actually, this game didn't have to be a shooter to begin with

this would have been the perfect opportunity to return to the immersive sim style gameplay that made the shock series a thing, because the absurd violence on display is precisely why the term "ludo narrative dissonance" became the bane of any games-writer's vocabulary
the story isn't necessarily about violence, but it does in some degree seek to critique booker's violent nature
lacking player choice IS part of the game's narrative, but you could've still played with that idea while allowing the player more agency to engage with the game beyond murdering people in ways that clash so fucking hard with the strengths of the game's narrative and presentation
because the strengths of the game have absolutely nothing to do with that

this is a gorgeous game, as always there's a lot of environmental storytelling that
while not very subtle like
ever
it's still good to have there - bioshock has NEVER been subtle
and it's all wasted when the narrative is constantly pushing you forward
bioshock 1 and 2 encouraged you to explore more often than not, even if they both had a little arrow guiding you to your next objective constantly

i lack the time or patience to go super in depth with the narrative, but i'll touch on a few things of personal note

how the game handles the revolutionary aspect of its fiction is fucking terrible, it's some game of thrones season 8 bullshit
that "the oppressed are really just as bad as the oppressors" centrist drivel that only works because the writers purposefully made their revolutionist side of the conflict turn into The Bad Thing
you'll hear booker say "they're all terrible, all grifters" or whatever before the Vox Populi have been shown to be anything but the thing that Columbia needs
when shortly before then he'd be saying that sometimes places need people like the Vox
as if something happened to make him change his mind beyond the leader being mean to him
some of this is addressed in the game's dlc, but it does very little to excuse the complete mistreatment of this aspect of the game given that it goes to great lengths to point out that Columbia is stupidly racist 

the alternate reality aspect is something that i feel gets too much hate, as i honestly could care fucking less about whether or not it makes pure logical sense
i do feel that it's very simplistic, but suspend your disbelief a bit and it's easy for it to end up working out
the dynamic between Booker and Elizabeth makes the game worth playing alone, and their conclusions are worth the fuckery written to get them there
the fuckery written to turn Daisy Fitzroy into "murdering white kids is cool, actually" isn't
i think there is a line between contrivance that's okay and contrivance that's not
but, ideally, you wouldn't have either, which is why i'm not gonna even begin to call the game's narrative clever or standout

it's well done in enough aspects to warrant the trip but there's a reason why the game nowadays has a lot of critics, and if i felt more inclined i could probably write a full on essay about it

but for now, it was okay