Bioshock Infinite Review
I've never actually reviewed a video game on this blog before, but it was either this or watching the 4 hour long director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven and I was not in the mood for that, not when there's Avatar to be binged.
The reason I've never reviewed a video game is because 1) I don't know a thing about game design whereas I've at least taken classes on film production and 2) even though I find video games to be an enjoyable pastime in and of themselves I have never found a game that was worth really digging into thematically or story wise. That is, until I played Bioshock Infinite. This isn't just a game I think is good; it's the game that I play when I need to remind myself that despite all the micro-payments and mindless multiplayer shooters flooding the market, gaming has just as much potential to be a platform for high art as any other medium. It's my gaming equivalent of Citizen Kane, the game that made me realize just how engrossing, creative and thoughtful this interactive outlet can be.
The premise of the story is that you are Booker DeWitt, a soldier turned private investigator who is contracted by a mysterious client to bring them a girl named Elizabeth to wipe away his gambling debts. However, Elizabeth is being held in Columbia, a floating city above the clouds lead by Father Comstock, a prophet who has brainwashed the masses into serving his every whim. After you get Elizabeth you must fight your way through the town, forge uneasy alliances with a rebellious underclass and ultimately discover the secret behind Elizabeth's strange powers and Comstock's plans for world destruction.
What I usually dislike about video games is that they often don't give you much to chew on. You're often just given an objective and told to accomplish it with not much else to think about. Bioshock Infinite on the other hand gives you issues to mull over right out of the gate as it bombards you with cults, manifest destiny and racism pretty much from the start of the game. After that, it throws even more philosophical and political topics your way like the justification of the Boxer Rebellion, socialism and appropriated history all while introducing other high concept ideas to gameplay like alternate dimensions and an elixir that lets you shoot ravens out of your hands. What I like about these ideas, though, is that none of it is delivered through expositional dialogue; the game developers just let you observe the lesson as you progress through the game machine gunning racists. For example, one of my favorite parts of the game is how thoroughly they destroy the idyllic view of socialism by showing that the one who proposed that society should be stripped down to make way for a new world is usually the one who has themselves in mind to rule this new world. That's what happened with Lenin and Mao and it's nice to see that the writers actually did their history homework for this aspect of the game and managed to show it in the context of gameplay alone without using dialogue.
So the game is extremely well-written and gives you a lot to chew on in terms of theme and story progression, but how does it hold up as a game? In other words, is it fun to play? The short answer is "Yes, very much so", though I suppose I should go into more detail. The gameplay is your standard two weapon slots shooter, but unlike in other shooters you have the option of choosing whatever guns you want for those slots. Unlike other shooters where you'd be stuck with one heavy weapon and one lighter one Infinite lets you choose whatever combination you want. If you want to fill your slots with a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher then more power to you. The combat also gives you the aforementioned magic elixirs which gives you a variety of powers from shooting lighting to lighting people on fire to, yes, launching crows at people to peck at their faces. The most enjoyable aspect of the game, however, is the sky-hopping mechanic where you can jump from hook to hook and even ride a railway through the clouds, with the option jump down on an enemy and splatter him across the pavement.
Bioshock Infinite is the video game I recommend to people who don't like video games. If we were living in a fair and just world this game would've had more impact on the medium than every free-to-play iPhone game or any number of indie Steam games. It stands as a pioneer of interactive philosophical storytelling and there's just nothing else like it, not while Ken Levine is sitting around twiddling his thumbs instead of working on his next game, anyway.
The reason I've never reviewed a video game is because 1) I don't know a thing about game design whereas I've at least taken classes on film production and 2) even though I find video games to be an enjoyable pastime in and of themselves I have never found a game that was worth really digging into thematically or story wise. That is, until I played Bioshock Infinite. This isn't just a game I think is good; it's the game that I play when I need to remind myself that despite all the micro-payments and mindless multiplayer shooters flooding the market, gaming has just as much potential to be a platform for high art as any other medium. It's my gaming equivalent of Citizen Kane, the game that made me realize just how engrossing, creative and thoughtful this interactive outlet can be.
The premise of the story is that you are Booker DeWitt, a soldier turned private investigator who is contracted by a mysterious client to bring them a girl named Elizabeth to wipe away his gambling debts. However, Elizabeth is being held in Columbia, a floating city above the clouds lead by Father Comstock, a prophet who has brainwashed the masses into serving his every whim. After you get Elizabeth you must fight your way through the town, forge uneasy alliances with a rebellious underclass and ultimately discover the secret behind Elizabeth's strange powers and Comstock's plans for world destruction.
What I usually dislike about video games is that they often don't give you much to chew on. You're often just given an objective and told to accomplish it with not much else to think about. Bioshock Infinite on the other hand gives you issues to mull over right out of the gate as it bombards you with cults, manifest destiny and racism pretty much from the start of the game. After that, it throws even more philosophical and political topics your way like the justification of the Boxer Rebellion, socialism and appropriated history all while introducing other high concept ideas to gameplay like alternate dimensions and an elixir that lets you shoot ravens out of your hands. What I like about these ideas, though, is that none of it is delivered through expositional dialogue; the game developers just let you observe the lesson as you progress through the game machine gunning racists. For example, one of my favorite parts of the game is how thoroughly they destroy the idyllic view of socialism by showing that the one who proposed that society should be stripped down to make way for a new world is usually the one who has themselves in mind to rule this new world. That's what happened with Lenin and Mao and it's nice to see that the writers actually did their history homework for this aspect of the game and managed to show it in the context of gameplay alone without using dialogue.
So the game is extremely well-written and gives you a lot to chew on in terms of theme and story progression, but how does it hold up as a game? In other words, is it fun to play? The short answer is "Yes, very much so", though I suppose I should go into more detail. The gameplay is your standard two weapon slots shooter, but unlike in other shooters you have the option of choosing whatever guns you want for those slots. Unlike other shooters where you'd be stuck with one heavy weapon and one lighter one Infinite lets you choose whatever combination you want. If you want to fill your slots with a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher then more power to you. The combat also gives you the aforementioned magic elixirs which gives you a variety of powers from shooting lighting to lighting people on fire to, yes, launching crows at people to peck at their faces. The most enjoyable aspect of the game, however, is the sky-hopping mechanic where you can jump from hook to hook and even ride a railway through the clouds, with the option jump down on an enemy and splatter him across the pavement.
Bioshock Infinite is the video game I recommend to people who don't like video games. If we were living in a fair and just world this game would've had more impact on the medium than every free-to-play iPhone game or any number of indie Steam games. It stands as a pioneer of interactive philosophical storytelling and there's just nothing else like it, not while Ken Levine is sitting around twiddling his thumbs instead of working on his next game, anyway.
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