I just finished Bioshock Infinite. I know it’s pretty risky to start a criticizing thread like this with everyone praising the game to death. It scores an exceptional high score on Metacritic and I saw many calling it a ‘masterpiece’. Although I agree it’s a good game compared to other AAA-games released this generation, the hype has grown too much.

I’m summing up some points that most of the gamers are overseeing and making this game not a masterpiece at all. I think we also have to look at what we are dealing with here, a game or a movie?

-              We’ve known the existence of this game so long. Also, when it was announced, it was told the game already was 2,5 years in development. So overall the game has been in developing for like 4 years. Then why is the single player so short? Especially in comparison with Bioshock which was about 15-20 hours. This game felt exceptionally short and it did end before I expected it to end. I don’t think I’ve played this game more than 8/9 hours. What did they work on for all these years? Games are also about content.

-              The gameplay isn’t that innovate or new at all. It actually is Call of Duty in the sky with an exceptionally good way of storytelling. This game has too much action in it and it really doesn’t motivate to explore the world like Bioshock did. More than often I stopped playing because I was sick of the action sequences and another one was about to begin. It’s just a cheap way to extend the overall length of the game. This game gave me the feeling to hurry up, instead of exploring. Also the setting isn’t as creepy as Bioshock was. The enemies are boring and repeated till the very end.

-              There was only one boss and that one felt out of place; a random ghost? A ghost in the world of Columbia doesn’t make sense at all. The battle itself is also unfair with tons of boring soldiers around you that don’t give you space to recover or get ammo (which get empty quickly). Letting myself die was the only way to begin with new ammo in some cases.

-              What are really the purposes of the plasmids in Columbia? They’re just…there. In Bioshock, all the enemies were obsessed with getting ADAM and getting power with plasmids. The plasmids in Infinite are forced the simulate gameplay like the original Bioshock. Also, plasmids in Bioshock were difficult to get. In Columbia everybody can get those plasmids but just a few are using them against you although they’re a powerful fighting tool.  The plasmids in Infinite really don’t make any sense.

                (SPOILERS)

-              Yes the storytelling is nice and the story itself is complex and therefore giving us the idea it HAS TO BE BRILLIANT. But this complexity is compensated by an almost Infinite amount of plot holes. This story gives us the idea there are an infinite amount of other worlds that are the same in a different way, but this game is focusing on the idea there are only two choices; Booker undergoes the baptism or he doesn’t. In a universe with an infinite amount of worlds there are supposed to be infinite amount of choices (so also a world where he doesn’t  even get the choice for baptism). There are also other choices you make in life that can change your life heavily, but they only focus on this one, like it’s the only choice available.

Why did the Lutece Twins travelled between the worlds at one specific time; booker getting in Columbia and waiting for him getting back his daughter. Why didn’t they just travelled until they found a world were Booker already saved his daughter? There are an infinite amount of worlds out there, so it was possible to find a world where Booker got the right variables/choices to save Anna/Elizabeth in ANY way you can think of.

Booker forgetting why he’s in Columbia because of the travelling is a really cheap way to keep things unknown for the player. But when travelling through different universes further in the game, Booker doesn’t forget anything. Thus, Booker forgetting his motives to travel to Columbia was something that could happen and the Lutece twins didn’t had any control over it. Once they noticed that Booker forgot he was in Columbia to save his daughter, why didn’t they tell him everything again? Booker forgot why he was there, so could be even more motivated when he remembered he was there to save his daughter. And why do something if you forgot why you’re doing it? The story really has serious problems in infinite ways (in any way YOU can think of).

No, I’m not saying it’s a bad game, it’s a decent game, but presenting itself more than it is. It isn’t a masterpiece. It is considered a masterpiece because we want it to be a masterpiece. We’ve never seen storytelling like this before and therefore forgiving and even overseeing it’s serious flaws in both gameplay and story. Bioshock Infinite wants to be more than it is.

I wasn't a fan of the whole metaphysics nonsense, either. Instead of a bold direction for storytelling in games, I saw a broken, cop-out plot device that would allow them to write in anything they wanted and erase/edit it as they went along. That took me out of the experience in a big way.

I also felt many of the familiar gameplay mechanics didn't fit into Columbia as well as Rapture, but had to be in regardless because it's a Bioshock game. I've been replaying Bioshock 1, and the sense of claustrophobia and terror around every corner in Rapture gives the game an edge that Infinite simply doesn't have. They didn't do enough to adapt the gameplay to the new setting.

I still liked the first game a lot more TBH.

I didn't like Columbia too much either Rapture was more mysterious, creepier, and diabolical, and you never knew what you would encounter next

most overrated game of all time. of all time.

7.0/10

Post will of course contain spoilers

The game for me was ~11 hours and I wasn't even spending that much time searching for Voxaphones etc. But the game isn't longer because there was a lot of iteration during development, just look at the early gameplay videos they released almost nothing from them is in the final game tho some elements have been altered and added into other sections. As the story and gameplay evolved they cut large sections of the game that just didn't fit any more. Having a bunch of extra padding wouldn't have made the game better ether.

The gameplay wasn't terrible original but it was very solid and quite enjoyable with plenty of variety in how you tackle each encounter with all the different powers, weapons and the skylines. The large mini-sandbox environments and powers as well as the different enemies make it play nothing like CoD, being a FPS with ironsights doesn't make it CoD that is a silly comparison.

I am not sure why not having lots of "Boss" encounters is really a complaint boss fights don't automatically make the game better, the boss fight in Bioshock was pretty terrible anyway. There were cases of sort of miniboss fights throughout the game every time a handyman shows up for example, or the Zeppelin battle near the end etc, boss fights don't really need to be against one really strong enemy. And it's not a random ghost if you listen to the dialogue and pay attention to context it explains what it is and why it is there. It's not a hugely enjoyable fight and is a bit of a slog but then again it's not meant to be. When I played through it Elizebeth threw me lots of ammo whenever I was running low and you can loot corpses so I don't really get that complaint. If you didn't like the fight I don't see why you would want more anyway.

Having Vigors around feels a bit shoehorned in, but if you listen to the people talking at the fare plus a couple Voxophones that are around it explains why they are there and why their use isn't that widespread. It is mentioned that they were invented by watching a certain Biologist through a tear, which implies that they were invented by observing the work of Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum who invented Plasmids. They were also recently introduced and the public also distrust the new technology one person mentions that they will wait until Fink works out the kinks first for example, they also cause horrible painful hallucinations when ingested and other side effects.

If my interpretation of the ending and post credits scene are correct (It's probably way off). There are an seemingly infinite number of worlds but they are mostly small insignificant differences, different colour book, whether Elizabeth wears a bird or cage symbol on the jewellery etc. There is a near infinite variety of choices but that one choice is a tipping point in Bookers life and presumably the earliest point that can prevent all the permutations with Columbia but also not so far back as to completely change the world. You see if we assume that the post credits scene shows a universe where booker still has his daughter Anna/Elizebeth I assume that Elizebeth (and all her permutations) went through every version of the universe where Comstock was born and killed him. Meaning that she could grow up with Booker as Comstock would never steal her away.

The Lutece Twins are the same person from different timelines. If what I gathered is correct Rosalind Lutece first opened a tear for Comstock (and provided the tech to create Columbia) she then went through a tear and encountered the male version of herself Robert who she then pulled through into her own timeline, and then when Fink sabotaged their machine used to create Tears (on Comstock's orders) they were essentially disconnected from any timeline and able to cross timelines at will. They are scientists and experimenting by bringing Booker through as Robert wants to erase the timeline where they stole and imprisoned Elizabeth tho Rosalind is implied to be against the idea.

As for bookers memories he doesn't forget why he is in Columbia he doesn't actually know. He is pulled through a tear into a boat and given a box with a key, gun postcard etc and told to find the girl in the tower (Elizabeth). His scrambled mind fills in the blanks piecing is existing memories together to explain why he is there. His mind uses his memories of giving up Anna to clear his debt to explain why he has to rescue a girl, which he has been trying to forget for years by drinking etc. He hasn't heard of Columbia because in his world it was never built, he doesn't forget his motives for going to Columbia because he never had any. The hops he made with Elizabeth where much smaller, only very minor changes were made and he didn't really have any reason to fill in the gaps as he is aware of passing through the tears rather than being pulled through.

The game is far from perfect by any means, putting key story elements into collectables is kinda stupid especially as many are so hard to find. And some of the combat sections feel like padding etc. And is a bit overated to be sure, tho it is a great experiance.

P.S. I very much reccomend playing through a seccond time you really notice a lot of little hints that you miss the first time through.

Still haven't played this but I imagine that I would share the OP's view if Bioshock is anything to base things on. That game was incredibly disappointing to me.
I will give this a go though, a lot of my friends have been praising it to the high heavens in all sorts of ways.

Lol seriously? i just don't understand you people, and some of you saying that the first Bioshock is better is realy making my day LMAO! xD

I enjoyed the story, and the ideas it brought to mind (do not want to go into further detail for fear of spoiling) but I did enjoy it. It is by no means the greatest game ever though, and Sesslers review was a bit too optimistic.

only read the first sentence so far, is this thread spoiler free?

Minor spoilers:

I disagree about the exploration. I did a lot of exploration to find all the voxaphones or whatever they are called. I feel like there was more than enough reason for you to explore.

I agree about the vigors they were really easy to get and cheap but still you were practically the only one that used them, that didn't make sense.

About the plotholes, every game that has some sort of time travel is bound to have plotholes. I don't remember ever playing a game or watching a movie about time travel and not finding plotholes.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. I didn't think it was that short, it could have been longer, but it was not short. It took me a decent 15 hours on hard and a bit of exploration. And the story although it has plotholes made me think and it wasn't predictable. The whole atmosphere in the game was amazing and the story telling was great. There weren't many bosses yes but there were mini bosses. And about the ghost fight it wasn't "cheap" in my opinion it just needed some strategy. I managed to beat it without dying once. I give the game a 9 or a 9.5.