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The first two BioShock games are pretty damn great in my opinion. The first game takes players to Rapture, a once thriving underwater city that now lies in ruins with many insane genetically altered humans that make up what’s left of the population. BioShock is a fun game with numerous ways to customize your character and plenty of toys to play with. The sequel, BioShock 2, takes players back to Rapture and delivers more of the same but also comes with many refinements and changes that, in my opinion, make for a better gameplay experience. They aren’t perfect games by any means but they are fun and do a good job at immersing the player into the world. The next game takes players to a new setting, Columbia, a city in the sky which, needless to say, is quite the contrast to the undersea city of Rapture.
Developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K, BioShock Infinite was released for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in March, 2013. It was also released as part of BioShock: The Collection for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in September, 2016 and Switch in May, 2020. For this review, I played the PC version. BioShock Infinite is actually the first game in the series I played and I was kind of excited to jump back into it again now that I’ve finally played and beat the previous games. Plus, I’d be able to check out the DLC which I didn’t play when it released. I remember enjoying the game but over time, I started getting it confused with Dishonored in my head. I think it’s because both games feature a girl as a major part of the plot.
Set in 1912, the player assumes the role of Booker DeWitt, a private investigator with a violent past and mounting debts. He’s offered a deal to clear his debts if he retrieves a woman named Elizabeth imprisoned in the city of Columbia. Shortly after his arrival, he’s recognized as a “false prophet” and is pursued by authorities. He finds Elizabeth and learns she can open tears to alternate universes and together they uncover conspiracy and get involved in a war between the Founders that rule city and the rebel group that fight for the rights of the marginalized. Additional story content titled Burial at Sea was released as DLC in two episodes.
Set in 1958, primarily in the underwater city of Rapture, Elizabeth asks Booker to investigate the disappearance of a young girl named Sally. If I say any more, I think it would spoil too much. Despite the different settings of the storylines, they are connected and, needless to say, you should play through Infinite’s storyline first. It should be noted that Burial at Sea – Episode 1 is extremely short. Short enough that I feel both episodes could have been merged and released as a single campaign. Nevertheless, I feel the story as a whole is pretty damn good and Burial at Sea makes for a fitting end to the whole BioShock journey up to this point.
I feel Infinite’s storyline does require you to pay attention. Not that I typically ignore the storylines in games but if you don’t pay attention, Infinite’s plot can become confusing. It is a well told and compelling tale with excellent performances and it touches on some interesting themes including racism and religious extremism. What I really enjoyed is the game’s contrasts. The contrast to the previous titles and the contrast of the world’s atmosphere and tone to the violence and horror, especially in the beginning. The floating city in the sky concept of Columbia is obviously a major departure from the underwater city of Rapture. While Rapture gives off a dark and mysterious clearly shit went wrong kind of horror vibe, Columbia is brighter and more colorful and comes across as a thriving and peaceful city. At first, that is. While Rapture in the previous games only contains remnants of its former glory with inhabitants that are now mostly insane, Columbia showcases regular seemingly decent people simply living their lives. The pleasantries come to end when Booker is discovered as the “false prophet” resulting in violence and bloodshed and then the real horrors of the city are revealed as the story progresses.
Another interesting contrast comes in the form of gameplay. The gameplay of Infinite’s campaign and that of Burial at Sea, specifically Episode 2, are quite different and I’ll talk about that in a bit. I also like the tone of Burial at Sea – Episode 1. It seems to aim for a noir style which I enjoyed and not only was it fun to revisit Rapture, but you actually get to see parts of the city before everything went to shit. You get a glimpse of Rapture in its prime which I thought was neat.
When it comes to the gameplay, Infinite’s main campaign should feel familiar to veterans of the series, even with the noticeable differences. The story plays out in areas and many staples of the series return; shooting, experimentation, and exploration. All of this carries over to the Burial at Sea DLC as well. However, Episode 2 in particular is more focused on stealth than action. Even Episode 1 seems to encourage a bit of stealth. The player assumes the role of Booker in the main campaign and Burial at Sea – Episode 1 and as Elizabeth in Episode 2.
As it relates to the main campaign, in many ways, Infinite is more of the same but with a new coat of paint. Vigors replace plasmids but serve the same purpose. They grant you special powers and consume salt instead of EVE when used. I believe gear is the replacement for gene tonics although you can’t equip nearly as many gear items as you can tonics. Each piece of gear you find offers some kind of bonus. There’s no research, no Gatherer’s Gardens, and no Gene Banks. You can find infusion bottles that let you increase your max health, salt, and shield and you can swap gear out at any time from a menu. You can find resources in the environments and there are vending machines scattered across the city that offer different things including items and ammo, weapons, weapon upgrades, and vigor aids which are basically upgrades for your vigors. Also, hacking has been cut but you can use the possession vigor on vending machines and enemy machines like turrets to make them work for you. Although, in the main campaign, possessions are not permanent like hacked machines which is kind of a bummer. But there is an upgrade that lets you possess humans which is cool.
The Burial at Sea campaigns feature much of the same stuff but rebrand some things to fit the familiar Rapture setting. For example, vigors are called plasmids and salt is called EVE. The episodes come with a limited number of plasmids. You can buy upgrades for them in Episode 1 and find mods for them in Episode 2. Episode 2 places a big emphasis on stealth. Staying quiet and out of sight is important. You can use weapons but it’s typically better and safer to evade foes or knock them out quietly. You will make more noise moving on certain surfaces, you can pick locks which is a minigame, and you’ll get to wield a crossbow that can fire tranquilizer darts, noisemakers, and gas bolts. You also get a plasmid that will let you see foes through walls.
When compared to the previous games, one of the biggest new features in the Infinite campaign is Elizabeth. She will accompany you throughout most of the journey and can hold her own during battles. You never have to babysit her which is fantastic. The game actually makes it a point to tell you that she can take care of herself. She will toss you resources from time to time like Silver Eagles which is money, and during battles, she will toss health kits, salt and ammo if you need them. You can find and buy lockpicks and command her to pick locks so you can access new areas and even unlock things like safes. She can also open tears to bring things in to aid you like hooks, turrets, motorized patriots, cover, weapons, health kits, and salts.
Infinite is a story-driven action game with ways to customize your character not unlike the previous games. There are a lot of weapons in the game and I think Infinite contains the best gunplay up to this point. Weapons have great audiovisual feedback, enemies will bleed when shot, and blood will cover bodies and splatter on surfaces. One of the first weapons you receive is a sky-hook which can be used as a melee weapon and way to get around. You can use it to perform executions, most of which are bloody, violent and awesome. Burial at Sea features the Radar Range weapon which might just be my favorite weapon in the game. It heats up enemies eventually causing them to explode.
As expected, much of the fun comes from experimenting with different weapons, vigors, and gear. The new setting comes with new ways to get around which is where the sky-hook comes in. You can use it to quickly jump to hooks in the environments and ride sky-lines. These hook mechanics will allow you to reach various destinations at different elevations and you can jump from hook to hook and line to line, launch yourself at enemies and even shoot foes as your riding the lines. The hooks and lines also make for easy getaways if you end up low on health in the middle of battle. Although, beware some enemies can also ride the lines. Ultimately, I feel this is a nice addition to the typical brand of BioShock action.
In my opinion, the tears and hook stuff help make the game standout. Not just in the series but also among its contemporaries. Unfortunately, there’s not enough of it. Hooks, sky-lines, and tears should be everywhere, available during every battle, and they’re just not. Now don’t get met wrong, there are plenty of areas where battles take place that do feature these things but I honestly feel a bigger focus should have been placed on them. As far as I’m concerned, the most enjoyable battles in the game let you utilize these mechanics and that’s in addition to experimenting with weapons and vigors in typical BioShock fashion. The good thing is that if the campaigns leave you craving more hook and tear action, the Clash in the Clouds DLC has you covered. It centers on challenging encounters and you can try for leaderboard high scores. It comes with a hub area where you can buy weapons, vigors and upgrades. There are multiple levels with hooks, sky-lines, and tears along with plenty of baddies to kill and challenges to complete. If you like the action in Infinite, this DLC gives you plenty of it.
Much like the previous games, Infinite’s campaign and both Burial at Sea campaigns place an emphasis on exploration. The areas (or levels if you want to call them that) are fairly linear but also quite large and many feature branching paths and buildings to explore with goodies to find. Several locations will have people or guards that are non-hostile and you can do things that will piss them off, causing them to attack you. You can find items that reveal optional quests that will lead you to valuable resources and there is no map to reference but you can press a button to reveal an arrow pointing you where you need to go. General exploration and some of the optional quests can lead to backtracking but the main objectives primarily keep you on a straightforward path.
I think the Burial at Sea – Episode 2 campaign might be my favorite in terms of level design and that’s because the levels feel more open-ended which I think works great for the bigger focus on stealth. At first, I thought the stealth was going to feel tacked on but I can honestly say that’s not the case. The new features really help make the stealth feel enjoyable. This campaign gives you plenty of tools to help you remain undetected. That, and the more open-ended level design allows for numerous routes and ways to get around and plenty of locations to explore with valuable goodies to find like plasmid mods, some of which come in quite handy. In fact, I was so impressed that the stealth wasn’t as frustrating as I initially thought it would be that I wouldn’t mind a full game like this. A pure stealth focused BioShock title that expands upon what’s already established here. These games have always given you ways to be somewhat stealthy but Episode 2 is on a whole different level in my opinion.
BioShock Infinite is yet another entry with a great art style. Obviously different than that of the previous games, the presentation is colorful, many of the backdrops and cityscapes look gorgeous, and the character and weapon models and visual effects all look good. The presentation is very pleasing on the eyes. Furthermore, Burial at Sea retains the same kind of style as that of the first two games and I think Rapture in its prime in Episode 1 is rendered beautifully. Infinite doesn’t convey the same type of brooding atmosphere as its predecessors but it definitely has its own thing going on. The music definitely helps drive the tone and atmosphere of the game. There’s a good mix of upbeat, ominous, and dramatic sounding tunes that help create different moods. Some of the music sounds so upbeat that it just adds to the idea that something is off about Columbia. Ultimately, I feel the audiovisual presentation is fantastic. On the technical side, the game ran great and I encountered no major issues.
I had a great time with BioShock Infinite but I think I prefer the previous games just a tad more. I think I prefer the underwater city setting. That’s not to say I don’t like Columbia because I do enjoy the floating city setting as well but there’s just something about Rapture that I like more. I also think BioShock and BioShock 2 have more addictive qualities. Several things have been cut in Infinite and much of it relates to upgrades. In Infinite, you spend money on vigor aids and weapon upgrades, and research rewards have been omitted entirely. In the first two games, weapon upgrades are free but you’re limited to one per station and you need ADAM to unlock gene slots and character upgrades among other things. As it relates to ADAM, you can choose what to unlock. Furthermore, you can research enemies to unlock bonuses, tonics, and even upgrades. In Infinite, you need to find infusion bottles to unlock character upgrades and you also have to find gear and can only equip four at a time as opposed to the numerous gene slots for tonics. The changes in Infinite aren’t necessarily bad but I find that there’s just a more addictive quality to discovering and unlocking things in the prior games.
Objectively speaking, as it relates to the mechanics, I think Infinite feels the best to play. Much of what has returned has been refined in a good way and the action and gunplay feel better as a result. The hook and tear stuff are wonderful additions and it’s only shame there isn’t more of it in the main campaign. Thankfully, there’s plenty of it in the Clash in the Clouds DLC. I’m also very impressed with the stealth gameplay of Burial at Sea – Episode 2. It’s a lot more fun than I initially thought it would be. My biggest disappointment with the game lies with the Episode 1 campaign. I love the tone and it is cool getting a glimpse of Rapture before its fall but it’s just way too short. I really feel the episodes could have been combined and released as one campaign. In the end, even with some of my gripes, I found the whole package to be very enjoyable.
I absolutely recommend BioShock Infinite. It tells a great tale with interesting characters, features excellent gameplay, and refines some things for the better. I don’t think it has the same kind of addictive quality as the first two games but it is a lot of fun and retains much of what made the those games so enjoyable including plenty of toys to play and experiment with. Definitely check it out.