Bioshock Infinite

While I very much enjoyed the first Bioshock, I still haven't played the second one - put off by its terrible reputation. Similarly, Bioshock Infinite, though I very much liked the concepts revealed in the development process, was low-priority. But hey, it was free for PS+ members this week, so why not?

Ultimately, it's not a game I would recommend, especially beside the far better original. There are some fine ideas, and the basic concept of taking a series known for being set underwater and taking it instead up into a floating city is a nice idea. Unfortunately, it also means they swapped claustrophobic, dank, creepy tunnels for wide open spaces and bright colours, noir-ish art deco for idealistic Americana - horror for cartooniness. And a whole lot is lost in terms of atmospherics as a result. 

Bioshock Infinite follows grizzly but heroic Wounded Knee veteran turned potboiler detective Booker DeWitt (geddit? Like Bryce DeWitt?), who has a chance to wipe away his gambling debts by recovering a girl from the floating city of Columbia, run by a prophet in a monumental cult of personality. Along the way, he has to contend with the local law enforcement, including people with bizarre powers that he can then take on himself much like in the first game, plus sentry turrets, goofy-looking 'handymen' and the best idea of the game, the iconic 'Motorized Patriot'. Later, there are also the utterly pointless Boys of Silence, who are supposed to encourage stealth but do nothing more than set weaklings on you anyway, and the game's beefed-up version of the Big Daddies, the massive Songbird, which it is only possible to defeat through the power of plot progression. 

In terms of gameplay, it's like playing the original in the sunshine, only with a lot more limitations on guns. You can only carry two at a time, and ammo is limited - though in massive supply. It was a mistake to put it on 'normal', because it was extremely easy, with no strategy needed except for one annoying ghost battle. My biggest problems came from poor QA - twice I had to restart my game because of bugs, once when Mrs Lin refused to move out of the way and once because I charged at the ghost and got stuck inside a pillar. Great. I suppose that's the trouble with playing the free games - I normally want to get as much time as possible out of a purchase, but free ones I want to rush through. 

Once DeWitt meets Elizabeth, the girl he's been charged to rescue, the main thrust of the plot begins - not only is there the question of why the 'prophet' Comstock has locked her up, but the fact that she has unusual powers. The city floats thanks to advanced quantum engineering, which also hints at multiple worlds. Though the title is 'Infinite' and the story hints at infinite possible universes, that's not the route it goes at all. The plot relies heavily on the idea of constants - there is apparently 'always a man and always a lighthouse', which allows for a nice trip to Rapture that unfortunately is only a keen reminder of how much better the first game was, and though I like the way DeWitt is led to make the decision Elizabeth is leading him to from the start, without some very iffy reasoning on how constants then exclude the possibility for infinite worlds to come about and awful Back to the Future paradoxes with people able to make themselves disappear by altering past events, the ending just doesn't work - and in any case certainly isn't compatible with the idea of infinite universes of the 'quantum tears' crossing time as well as space - which it does. We should be used to bad sci-fi writing on time travel by now, sure, but Bioshock is known for its clever writing and intelligent twists. So the disappointment was far worse.

There are some bright ideas and lovely visuals here. But the precedent made me want a game that was fun to play, frightening, creepy, intelligent and had a good twist. And it kinda fell short in every one of those aspects.