{"id":11080,"date":"2013-05-08T20:30:57","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T10:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=11080"},"modified":"2014-05-03T18:32:25","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T08:32:25","slug":"bioshock-infinite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=11080","title":{"rendered":"Bioshock Infinite"},"content":{"rendered":"

This game was reviewed on Xbox 360.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt!”<\/em><\/p>\n

And with that memorable opening line, Bioshock Infinite<\/em> introduces us to the twisted sky city of Columbia, ruled by the despot Zachary Comstock who commands a xenophobic, religious metropolis that is enthralled with American exceptionalism.<\/p>\n

Players take control of Booker Dewitt, a trouble war veteran who finds himself indebted to the Pinkertons in New York and sent on an errand to liberate a woman named Elizabeth.\u00a0 It won’t be easy.\u00a0 She is locked away in the keep of the tallest tower in Columbia which itself is guarded by the Songbird, a terrifying winged mechanical creature that guards Elizabeth from any unwelcome visitors.<\/p>\n

As with the original Bioshock before it, the first half hour of Bioshock Infinite is a sight to behold; a mesmerising passive carnival ride in where one can soak in the sights of the fantastic cityscape that Irrational Games have created.\u00a0 Exploring the sun soaked streets of Columbia, interacting with amusement park distractions and listening to a barbershop quartet sing a gospel adaptation of the Beach Boy’s song ‘God Only Knows’, you can get a sense of just how much effort was put into creating this convincing and coherent backdrop for the story that unfolds.<\/p>\n

\"bioshockinfinite2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The story kicks off in earnest when we first rescue Elizabeth who then becomes Booker’s companion for most of the game.\u00a0 There is almost a Disney Princess quality to Elizabeth, both in her appearance and her earnest pragmatism.\u00a0 Credit where its due to the developers: Irrational Games have done enourmously well to create a character that is useful in gameplay, full of chatter and easy to bond with.\u00a0 In the few instances where Booker separates from Elizabeth, you quickly notice how much quieter things are and how much isolation you typically experience in a first person game.<\/p>\n

As Booker tries to lead Elizabeth to safety, the two fugitives in Columbia traverse a wide variety of locales.\u00a0 They come by the God-fearing All American nuclear families that occupy the beaches, cathedrals and carnivals.\u00a0 They also cross pathes with the ethnic minorities and working class labourers who toil in the underworld, shunned and tucked away out of sight.\u00a0 Bioshock Infinite<\/em> confidently tackles themes of jingoism, exceptionalism and class politics in a bald faced fashion that few other video games have dared to explore.\u00a0 I can only think of Grand Theft Auto<\/em> as the other major video game franchise that bares its political teeth so fiercely and even then, it does so under the guise of satire and deliberate crassness.<\/p>\n

Tying the game back to the original underwater Bioshock<\/em> games, Bioshock Infinite<\/em>‘s gameplay is largely comprised of combat that mixes conventional shoot ’em up weaponry with vigors, known in previous games as plasmids.\u00a0 Vigors allow the player to cast varying forms of magic that include fireballs, swarms of bats and miniature tornadoes.\u00a0 As with Bioshock<\/em> before it, combat in the game usually pits the player against waves of humanoid enemies and this normally devolves into a chaotic and noisy cacophony of bullets and screaming.\u00a0 Adding an extra dimension to the combat this time is skyhooks, rails that interconnect the city of Columbia which the player can use during combat to ascend to a more advantageous position.\u00a0 It gives a verticality to the combat is traditionally about circle-strafing and cover seeking.\u00a0 To the developers credit, they have dodged a potential point of frustration by making it difficult, but not impossible, to fall to your death.\u00a0 I think I only managed it twice in my entire playthrough.<\/p>\n

Bioshock Infinite<\/em> is an ambitious game in the political themes that it explores and it is complicated further still when it begins to play its hand with the narrative.\u00a0 The final chapter of the game is memorably disorienting, confusing and ultimately revelatory.\u00a0 It is worth staying spoiler free to experience this story firsthand.\u00a0 But to make sure you haven’t missed the finer details, I recommend reading EuroGamer’s excellent post-game analysis<\/a>.\u00a0 It really is a story filled with detailed minutiae and flashes of foreshadowing that rewards a second playthrough.<\/p>\n