BioShock Infinite

The Good
The game makes some improvements over the previous two games - the respawning has been removed which was my main annoyance about the first two Bioshock games and now you have a big living world - a world which is quite unique and very well designed with gorgeous artwork. It feels very real - like stepping into a book or a movie - and it's what will make it hard to forget this game even years after you've played it.

The story is quite imaginative as well and it makes clever use of concealing plot elements from you until you slowly unravel them by listening to audio tapes, watching movie clips, reading signs, picking up clues. I love when games let you figure it out by yourself instead of spoon feeding it to you. Half-Life 2's main strength was its mysticism (what happened to the world?) and for Infinite, it's "who or what is Elizabeth and how on earth could they build a city in the clouds?" and smaller questions later on.

Elizabeth herself is a very interesting character. She actually helps out, you never have to defend her and she never gets in the way - look at Daikatana to see an example of the opposite. She's definitely one of the most interesting companions I've seen in a computer game so far and she makes the game more interesting by far.

The Bad
While Infinite does improve upon some aspects of the older games, it makes the same mistakes as well and some new ones to boot:

You can only carry two weapons at once which is extremely annoying and a needless limit. You see, in combat you ideally have four types of guns: accurate single-shot ones for head shots (sniping rifle, pistols, etc.), you have close range weapons (shotguns), you have long range automatic weapons (machine guns) and you have splash damage weapons (rocket launchers, grenade launchers). Each have their unique use tactically: a single enemy you pick off with a single-shot weapon. Low ammo cost, accurate and fun. Big clustered crowds that don't move need splash damage weapons (rocket launcher), lots of moving targets at a distance require machine guns and moving targets up close require a shotgun. See, every situation has its type of gun. And then Infinite just forced you to pick two. And there goes what could have been great combat down the drain ... for every combat situation makes you curse since you have to make do with the limits (and it doesn't help that you very quickly run out of ammo and have to pick up random weapons lying around).

Sure, you have your Vigors (new name for plasmids or magical powers) but most are rather weak and pointless and they drain your salts far too quickly to be of any real use. They're poorly balanced as well - most Vigors barely work in practice. Sending crows to attack an enemy doesn't even kill him most of the time, for example. Throw down electric fields and the enemies simply won't walk through it either. It's more like a barrier than a trap this way. It just feel very underwhelming. The only Vigor I use a lot, is the one to turn a foe into a friend for a few seconds. The rest aren't worth the salt you spend on them.

They did add some variation in who you're fighting but after a few hours, it's still 90% identical foes you're gunning down and it does get a bit dull. The special enemies (which use Vigors) are interesting at first but you've quickly seen them all and then they are more a nuisance than fun to fight.

Mix this with lots of scripted events and a mostly linear experience like in the previous two games, and you feel like they kinda tarnished what could have been a much better game. Again. For the third time.

The Bottom Line
If you enjoyed Bioshock 1 & 2 but want something similar that isn't as dark and bloody, this is a great game for you. It shares many of its same flaws, however, and while I feel combat has been improved a tad, there's still a lot of room for improvements. In the end, however, this game is much more about the story, setting and experience than about the combat. The Victorian-inspired setting with the city in the sky looks amazing and it's a real joy to walk through. Just for that, it might be worth checking out even if the combat does get repetitive later on.