BioShock Infinite

 PC
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9926 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8,187 out of 9926
  2. Mixed: 1,100 out of 9926
  3. Negative: 639 out of 9926
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  1. Dims
    Aug 10, 2021
    2
    Скучный запутанный сюжет, непонятная концовка, убогое управление, ужасная система зелёных стрелочек, физика тоже говно, в принципе вся игра кривая, только шутерная составляющая оставляла хоть какие-то надежды по началу, но надоела через 30 минут игры... постоянный недостаток патрон превращает игру из шутера в какой-то Resident Evil, отвратительная физика оружия, его звук и дизайн. ИзСкучный запутанный сюжет, непонятная концовка, убогое управление, ужасная система зелёных стрелочек, физика тоже говно, в принципе вся игра кривая, только шутерная составляющая оставляла хоть какие-то надежды по началу, но надоела через 30 минут игры... постоянный недостаток патрон превращает игру из шутера в какой-то Resident Evil, отвратительная физика оружия, его звук и дизайн. Из плюсов только ИИ и компаньон в лице Элизабет. Ну и стилистика (сеттинг) А еще русского языка нет в игре (только руссификатор от энтузиастов), только в меню.… Expand
  2. handheldfever
    May 17, 2021
    2
    This game is very shallow.

    I didn't find the gunplay to be anything special, and I feel like vigors just don't belong here. Weapon upgrades are also very bad. Applying this system with the two weapon system isn't a good idea. And the upgrades are useless. And the guns all feel the same. And multiple ammo types have been removed. And why are there RPG's in 1912? Also, I really don't like    This game is very shallow.

    I didn't find the gunplay to be anything special, and I feel like vigors just don't belong here. Weapon upgrades are also very bad. Applying this system with the two weapon system isn't a good idea. And the upgrades are useless. And the guns all feel the same. And multiple ammo types have been removed. And why are there RPG's in 1912? Also, I really don't like Elizabeth. And the game is relying on her to hold itself up. That's a problem. I've been NPC blocked more times than I can count. This happened a little in the first Bioshock, but it's ridiculous here. I literally got stuck in a doorway for over 5 minutes. Speaking of Elizabeth being annoying, she talks over the audio diaries. Why? The autosave is a really bad idea. I don't like relying on it to get me through the game. I had a situation where I couldn't get the auto save to work and there's no manual save, meaning that every time I turned the game on I had to start all over again from the beginning, regardless of my progress. The vigors absolutely suck in this game. First off, why are they even here? How did these people discover Adam? Was it found inside a flying pig? And why did Columbia develop vigors anyway? Rapture was all about the development of science at the expense of morality. Why the hell would a hyper religious society of Christians be playing god like this? And they don't even make any practical sense. Combat plasmids made sense in Rapture because there was a civil war. Why are vigors being developed for combat? And why don't the military use it? Outside of one or two with either the fire or crow vigor that rarely show up? Vigors are so illogical and stupid in this society.
    In gameplay, I really don't like these. They cut the max vigors down to 8. That isn’t a problem, and the fact I can hold all 8 at once instead of 5 makes sense for the faster paced style of this game. And being able to use vigors and guns at the same time is a good improvement (one that Bioshock 2 already made)
    Unfortunately, the vigors suck. They either function exactly the same or they're so useless you'd never use them. I find it amazing that Bioshock 2 gets so much hatred, even from people like the Completionist, for not adding new plasmids, but this game gets rewarded for reducing the plasmids and diluting the remaining ones till they're unrecognizable.
    I found the possession vigor to have a lot of bad ideas. Enemies are supposed to commit suicide once the vigor stops, but many enemies commit suicide with a rocket launcher and the blast radius can also hurt the player. That's bad game design. And it happens a lot. I also noticed that if an enemy, like a gun turret, doesn't kill itself, then you have to wait for the possession to wear off before you can shoot it. How did this not come up in play testing? I discovered it at the beginning of my first playthrough. I cannot believe this made it into the game.
    Also, the bullet sponge ghost bosses are insufferable to deal with.
    The story is really not good either. The first act of the game is literally just a single event (finding Elizabeth) being recycled 3 separate times and ironically, for as much hate as Ken Levine seems to have for Bioshock 2 (even though he didn't bother to help the relatively much smaller dev team that made Bioshock even once throughout the relatively tiny development time it had) this game copies a lot from that one. Even down to Elizabeth basically just being Eleanor but less good.
    Why are black people even living in Columbia? It's not exactly easy to get onto a flying city and they obviously weren't natives there.
    And why don't the black people actually use vigors? It's not like they're hard to find

    And the manipulative attempts to spotlight choices to the player, only to lie and have them mean nothing is so dishonest and insulting.
    Also, Booker is an idiot.
    So much of the dialogue reads like a bad fanfiction you'd find on Wattpad.
    The ending is also just stupid. Just banging pots and pans together. What a lazy copout.
    By the time the Comstock death scene happened, I was so thoroughly done that I started listening to podcasts and stuff in the background. God, that monologue just went on and on and on. I hate games with several hours of unskippable cutscenes.
    And Elizabeth's powers are extremely nebulous, poorly explained, and just dumb
    They hyped up the songbird boss only to pull a lazy copout and throw it away in favor of that stupid blimp horde mode.
    Honestly, this game shouldn't be a Bioshock game. And many of the mechanics that we dragged in from other Bioshock games and crudely stapled onto this one hurt it the most. Especially the plot. And yeah, this story doesn't belong in Bioshock. Although, even on it's own terms, this story is dumb and the dimension jumping is really dumb.    … Expand
  3. Resoul
    Jun 21, 2023
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ( TLDR Version) The so called masterpiece by some of a story is fine at best **** at worst and mostly kinda bad on top of that gun play is pretty bad
    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
    1 Elizabeth: Elizabeth starts off kinda dumb with her calling you a monster even tho the people you killed in front of her attacked you first and were the real monsters as not only were they trying to kill you they also held her prisoner her whole life and on top of that how they treat black people so Elizabeth calling you a monster is kinda of dumb of her as aside from her not knowing how they treat black people she knows how bad these people are. Also later she starts crying after seeing you're trying to take her to new york and not paris even tho you just told her why to were saving her and what would happen to her like a minute ago, no really it was like less then a minute before was she not listening or something why she acting like she didn't know what was gonna happen, its just dumb whats the point in having your character tell her that if shes just gonna forget it ten seconds later, it's unforgiveablely dumb.

    2 Poor combat: Gun play is pretty bad and for a game that came out in 2013 that is not acceptable and in the final bit of the game where there is a lot of combat, it's made even worst by not giving like any pistol and carbine ammo which were the only two guns i was using since there was no point using any others with how poor the gun play is also tho not really a big deal water doesn't react to the player which isn't a bad thing but does lower my enjoyment of the game,it only comes up at the start and very end of the game but still, pretty sure games in 2013 had water that reacts to the players so this game can't be given a pass, if i had played this game back when it came out i would have the same feelings toward it that i have now tho i likely would rate it higher for its graphics in 2013 then i would now, graphics still look good but i wouldn't give it a higher rating like i might have in 2013.

    3 Save points: i hate waiting for save points, sometimes you want to or need to stop playing and having to wait to get to a save point is such a pain, a blast to the past and not in a good way, i do not miss not being able to save from anywhere or when ever you want in games, i'll never take quick saving for granted again, also i wish the auto save icon stayed up longer as it goes away really quickly and is easy to miss. Also can we stop putting loud ass sounds at the start of games when you first load them up please, having the main menu trigger my tinnitus every time i load it is really annoying.

    4 Story/ writing: Tho i don't really care for the plot it's fairly well written for the most part bar a few parts mainly Elizabeth stuff but nothing to write home about, iv come across 5 points where the writing goes from fine to outright bad 2 of them come from Elizabeth being dumb. The ghost "mother" bit of the game was by far the best part of the game tho the boss fights were a little annoying due to the games bad gun play and my god the end of the game was just the worst of it, Dewitt becomes super annoying for no reason at all and all the timeline stuff just falls flat for me as iv seen this type of stuff done so many times in all sorts of media and done way better and lastly the baby stuff at the end was just kinda dumb, i get was they were trying to do but it just isn't good the story isn't "bad" more so just fine but that with the poor combat really bring down my enjoyment of this game and its story and it just kinda felt like a chore to get threw mainly the last hour give or take.    … Expand
  4. ViralKillsBrain
    Apr 21, 2013
    1
    Poorly designed first-person-shooter with useless spells called vigors that are made redundant by overpowered guns you are constantly being fed ammo for. Not only that but there are automated sentries littered throughout the game you can activate to play the game for you. The plot is just a build-up to an epic twist and it is essentially a 10 hour escort mission with a typical damselPoorly designed first-person-shooter with useless spells called vigors that are made redundant by overpowered guns you are constantly being fed ammo for. Not only that but there are automated sentries littered throughout the game you can activate to play the game for you. The plot is just a build-up to an epic twist and it is essentially a 10 hour escort mission with a typical damsel running in front of your gun and whining.… Expand
  5. CharlieBrown8
    Jun 11, 2013
    1
    The most overrated game of the year, with a ridiculous setting, a badly-narrated plot that made no sense at any point, and that left the player wondering what's happening throughout the game. And the game itself was just an average, straight forward shooter that wasn't even much fun. It was a bore to get through it, and I only endured it because I wanted to see what the ending was allThe most overrated game of the year, with a ridiculous setting, a badly-narrated plot that made no sense at any point, and that left the player wondering what's happening throughout the game. And the game itself was just an average, straight forward shooter that wasn't even much fun. It was a bore to get through it, and I only endured it because I wanted to see what the ending was all about. Honestly, the game is not worth the time invested, and I don't know why all the critics are raving about it.… Expand
  6. Ancient
    May 18, 2013
    1
    looks like today for a good game you just need American flag and founding fathers!? This game tries to be serious, but deeply fails.

    Great hype!!!!!!
  7. Carnakt
    Apr 13, 2013
    1
    Infinite sets out to be a bioshock game but fails to grasp what made Bioshock 1 good. Bioshock 1 and 2 was set in a city under the sea and this not only made for some interesting environments and Lighting but also gave you a much greater feeling of decay and danger seeing how the city was gradually being reclaimed by the sea. These feelings are lost in infinite largely due to theInfinite sets out to be a bioshock game but fails to grasp what made Bioshock 1 good. Bioshock 1 and 2 was set in a city under the sea and this not only made for some interesting environments and Lighting but also gave you a much greater feeling of decay and danger seeing how the city was gradually being reclaimed by the sea. These feelings are lost in infinite largely due to the inabillity to look out of most windows and the fact that thers no real sense of danger if a window or even an entire wall breaks.

    Another thing that this game lacks is the use of plasmids (or vígors as they call it), sure they exist in the game but the only enemies that actually uses any seems to be the Zelot and fireman making alot of the combat dull and generic. They also lack a good explenation to why or how these vigors where invented in ifinite making it feel like they where just thrown in at the last minute.

    One small thing that i miss that you can no longer see the difference on your weapons or plasmids after upgrades. I also think that it is very sad that they dont have puzzles like lock-picking and hacking.

    But even rating the game without looking at the games that came previously in the series does not make it better. The story started ok but made less sense the longer i played and resulted in a rather lackluster ending after a few uses of the plot progression tool known as "rifts". The Graphics are not terrible but lags behind as most console titles tend to do and it only supports checkpoint saving.

    The game is also laughably easy due to 3 reasons: Regenerating Shields, Elisabeth keeps you rather well supplied with ammunition, Health, salt and coins and If you die you will just get ressurected closte to where you died and lose some Money.    … Expand
  8. macishiryu
    Mar 30, 2013
    1
    This game is absolutely overwhelmed. The graphics is mediocre, even in max settings. The low res textures and poor models are a shame. The story is complete nonsense, the characters have no personality. I hate it.
  9. Harlotsmouth
    Mar 31, 2013
    1
    Over hyped, linear storyline, poor mechanics, choices are mere aesthetics, False advertisement, producers and developers clearly had no idea what they were doing, seems like they spent most of their money getting two people to write song about the damn game then clearly adding to the single player experience then taking away from it. example of why disappointedOver hyped, linear storyline, poor mechanics, choices are mere aesthetics, False advertisement, producers and developers clearly had no idea what they were doing, seems like they spent most of their money getting two people to write song about the damn game then clearly adding to the single player experience then taking away from it. example of why disappointed http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/fuusn2/bioshock-infinite-ten-minute-demo-gameplay… Expand
  10. ION666
    Apr 4, 2013
    1
    I with all the other negative reviewers.this game is boring.An other reviewer said it best."Just because an idea is overly convoluted and complex, doesn't make it cool". The ending was muddled garbage.I used my ugly guns without needing those cheezy powers.Its too linear and it never too hard.No challenge at all.The person who watched me play said "thats it?" for a game that spends 3yrs inI with all the other negative reviewers.this game is boring.An other reviewer said it best."Just because an idea is overly convoluted and complex, doesn't make it cool". The ending was muddled garbage.I used my ugly guns without needing those cheezy powers.Its too linear and it never too hard.No challenge at all.The person who watched me play said "thats it?" for a game that spends 3yrs in dev.The game should be longer.With no multiplayer?.With the voice of Jax Teller from son of anarchy"you've got be kidding me".… Expand
  11. fung0
    Apr 9, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am astounded by the many positive reviews. Aside from the graphics, this game is lame in every conceivable way. The "story" barely deserves that label. It's just a bunch of very tired time-travel and alternate-reality cliches piled on top of one another, with no semblance of character development or plot. The ending is senseless and depressing. And entirely bereft of logic. Why did DeWitt do what he did? Who were the two people following him around? What was the big bird?? And most important, if everything was predestined, why the should I care?? ASIDE from all that, the gameplay is really weak. The weapons lack precision, the kills are unsatisfying, the combat is poorly paced. And there are WAY too many on-rails segments. (Literally on-rails, not just metaphorically.) This 'game' is a barely-interactive embarrassment. I played it through to the bitter end so you don't have to. Trust me, it's not worth it.… Expand
  12. costava
    Apr 22, 2013
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A game that doesn't really deserve any of the praise it gets. The gameplay is very easy, even when compared to the original Bioshock due to the fact that there's a two weapon limit in a linear FPS, and that there's regenerating health. Most of the RPG elements found in the previous games are nowhere to be found. Bad gameplay aside, what really baffles me is that the worst part of Bioshock Infinite, its story, is the reason it's garnered so much praise. From what we've heard, the original story was simple, but still holds up. This new story desperately tries to implement time travel to make its story seem deep, and the plot is directly ripped from Looper. Overall, Bioshock Infinite isn't worth your time, unless you have a thing for Steampunk and chicks with bob cuts.… Expand
  13. krcourville
    May 25, 2013
    1
    I really wanted to like this game but can't seem to interest myself in it. I loved the first two. Perhaps, I shouldn't have played Farcry 3 first. It is hard to compare a FUN (and even goofy) game against one with mediocre, stiff combat and too much religious and racial discussion. When I play a game, I want to have fun and escape from the real world and not be subjected to politicalI really wanted to like this game but can't seem to interest myself in it. I loved the first two. Perhaps, I shouldn't have played Farcry 3 first. It is hard to compare a FUN (and even goofy) game against one with mediocre, stiff combat and too much religious and racial discussion. When I play a game, I want to have fun and escape from the real world and not be subjected to political statements. I know people are a$$holes. And I do not feel the need to pay someone else to remind me of it. There's not a ton I can do except treat everyone equal and hope time will heal itself. For now, my gaming time is limited, and I've just freed up that time for something else.… Expand
  14. nonconsentingba
    Oct 5, 2013
    1
    This is an interactive movie, not a game. The expectation with Bioshock is that the gameplay is in a sandbox; this one is linear. One expects to be able to skip cut-scene's and that they will be brief, most of the storyline (and advertising at the start) is forced on you. It's a half hour before you get a gun from the start of the game and some cutscene's last up to 15 minutes. InsteadThis is an interactive movie, not a game. The expectation with Bioshock is that the gameplay is in a sandbox; this one is linear. One expects to be able to skip cut-scene's and that they will be brief, most of the storyline (and advertising at the start) is forced on you. It's a half hour before you get a gun from the start of the game and some cutscene's last up to 15 minutes. Instead of adding game-play time was spent on recordings, video's, and other schwag added in all over the place. Graphics and ambiance are over the top and impracticable for a shooter; if you have a job and come home from a long day of work to get away from it all, you find yourself with a headache from sensory overload. Giving it a score of 1 because in the 3 hours of playtime, it didn't crash once and THAT is worth something in this industry. This one is for the kiddies, and certainly nobody who's ever experienced a proper FPS. Absolute garbage.… Expand
  15. BreinFubar
    Dec 19, 2013
    1
    go shoot, and that's the whole game, no deposit, I do not understand what it all like?
    I dont reccomend that, i got it on steamgifts, its not a game//
  16. AnnoyedatThis
    Jan 27, 2015
    1
    Another clunky shooter covered with lights and fog machines to hide the fact it's so poorly and cheaply constructed the graphics quality on maximum settings look no better than Bioshock.It was all hype and crap and insipid people buying into a steam punk theme...

    The story was borderline incest time travel Daughter/wife/killer WTH
  17. LowSpecGamer
    Mar 7, 2020
    1
    2k does not respect low spec gamers, pulls games from gfnow without any warning.
  18. Gravin
    Apr 17, 2013
    0
    It's generic shoot 'em up with a better than average story that goes haywire in the end. I really don't know how critics can give this game so high score. It's 6+/10 at it's best no more!.
  19. badatvidyagames
    Jun 24, 2019
    0
    Overhyped trash, wanted to replay it but the gameplay is so bad, boring and mediocre I couldnt finish.
  20. ploppytheman
    Apr 8, 2013
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The only thing that is good is the basic idea of a floating city, not any of the politics. This game is basically a standard "white devil" game that attacks America, Christianity, Whites, and conservatives (and I mean some warped version of conservatives that liberals think conservatives are), the only people it is acceptable to attack anymore (dont forget men and heteros though), its so common that it doesnt bother me that much. I am used to liberal bias in games (for instance bioware but DA1 and ME were good otherwise) and I am not giving it a zero based on that, I just thought Id point this out. I judge people as individuals and believe in merit and personal responsibility, and know that any person could do the things that were done and not just straight white christian male conservatives are capable of evil.

    In the first few minutes you are drowned in your baptism somehow with like 20 people around you in knee deep water with some warped pseudo version of christianity, and that is also the ending you must be drowned in another baptism type scene. It feels like the dev just hates Christianity tbh. I mean can you imagine if this game was about nationalist racist Jews and Isreal? It would never see the light of day and we all know it.

    Its linear, ez mode, consolized trash, with boring powers, boring guns, dumbed down gameplay, trash UI, and a halo shield mechanic. Its like if you made bioshock 1 worse in everyway but also discriminatory and full of liberal propaganda. There is almost no RPG and no inventory. Its just bland, generic, and boring. None of the characters are interesting at all in the least and I had to quit half way through due to extreme boredom. There is no challenge. Elizabeth was interesting at first but it feels like you are just sent off on random tasks with no reason behind it or explanation, and I did watch spoilers of the ending so I know what happened, and its not interesting and doesnt make sense, you cant undo what you did by using knowledge of things that you are trying to undo, not even with multiple timelines because you STILL are relying on information you are attempting to erase, if anything it would just split again into two more multiverses.

    The hard mode is extremely ez and I didnt know about 1999 until chapter 20 (when I quit), and u cant change difficulty mid game for some stupid reason (prob related to, lol, achievements). I mean why lock the hardest mode? Its a trend in gaming nowadays and its very annoying, I guess I need to research everygame and see if it has an unlockable mode that presents any sort of challenge, but not too much wont want people to have to try or adapt, nope gotta be spoonfed and babysat.

    The guns suck and are boring, The enemies are small in number but come in waves so it is chaotic (seems like they spawn behind you at random and Im good at shooters and watch my flank). The abilities are also boring. You constantly run out of ammo so you have to swap to different guns since you can only carry two, or are forced to buy ammo. Girly throws you ammo sometimes but I dont like being forced to use w/e weapons are available if I dont want to waste money on ammo, so you can either be wasteful or have to constantly swap guns and hope they dont despawn on you. Also looting is terrible, there is no point in it b/c you pick up everything, it just wastes our time. The illusion of certain foods adding one state and decreasing another doesnt really matter, might as well let pickup be auto and not waste our time scrounging, since its a rail shooter with no inventory anyway. Low ammo caps just complicates the gun problem forcing you to swap, it doesnt make it harder in anyway, just annoying b/c I'd prefer to have a pistol and carbine.

    There is no tactics or strategy needed, its spam bullets until you need shield or health, then hide, repeat. Summoning in other world isnt even interesting because they dont do much except let you toggle one benefit at a time, rather than do anything exciting. And apparently other universes are broadcasted on old crappy TVs with bad reception. The only thing you need to do is shock any difficult enemy and unload into them, and its EXTREMELY repetitive. Enemies take multiple headshots too, its just boring and stupid with obvious console limitations and terrible AI. The AI is basically path to you if they cant shoot you, and if they can see you they shoot from across the map.

    And the enemies dont do too much damage or have decent aim, but your shield recharge slow and your guns take forever to kill anything and are inaccurate, aiming with ironsights seems to be LESS accurate for some reason and has massive recoil.

    Another trash console money grabbing game not worth anyones time and blatantly discriminatory and offensive. I guess thats the price USA has to pay for being the greatest country on earth.    … Expand
  21. ZombieBacon
    Sep 5, 2013
    0
    This game is abysmal. Complete waste of time and I'll apologize, but not worth a long review.
    Game play, mechanically speaking, as an FPS is disgustingly simple and usually bad and inconsistent. The weapons are not good with very little noticeable difference in "upgrades".
    The story is boring and drags on; Columbia is no Rapture. It was so bad I walked away for 5 months and then    This game is abysmal. Complete waste of time and I'll apologize, but not worth a long review.
    Game play, mechanically speaking, as an FPS is disgustingly simple and usually bad and inconsistent. The weapons are not good with very little noticeable difference in "upgrades".
    The story is boring and drags on; Columbia is no Rapture. It was so bad I walked away for 5 months and then decided to finish it before uninstalling and that was a mistake. The ending is worthless drivel.
    BORING. I can't believe all the people that think this passes as even a remotely good game. Complete waste of time and money in every respect (and I loved Bioshock).    … Expand
  22. Magdi_alafifi
    Apr 30, 2013
    0
    the worst and most overrated game in the history of gaming.. it's terrible really, it's extremely tedious, it literally has the most repetitive gameplay ever, You spend the whole game shooting the same people in different places, jeez they even all have the same model, it really feels like you're killing that same guy millions of times, and damn that guy just wont die.. It's below average,the worst and most overrated game in the history of gaming.. it's terrible really, it's extremely tedious, it literally has the most repetitive gameplay ever, You spend the whole game shooting the same people in different places, jeez they even all have the same model, it really feels like you're killing that same guy millions of times, and damn that guy just wont die.. It's below average, the gameplay has nothing special, it's a normal shooter, they added some "super-powers" trying to give a false feeling that this game has something special, but those powers are just a week imitation of mass effect 3 and other ARPG games.. the game is full of redundant missions, just to make more tedious gameplay hours, like that mission where you get the electricity ability, or when that rebel takes your plane, so you go bring her some weapons from a gunsmith, which leads to another useless mission.. Sky city environment is kinda good.. but nothing is really thrilling about the graphics, cartoon-ish graphics can be good but they never can be awesome.
    I was playing far cry 3 for the second time (repeating outposts) while playing Bioshock,, and i definitely enjoyed far cry 3 second-side-missions-walkthrough way more than bioshock infinite.    … Expand
  23. deuteros
    Apr 7, 2013
    0
    This game has been referred to as a "work of art" by many, and I don't disagree at all with this. The setting is incredibly imaginative, the (outdoor) graphics are gorgeous, the plot is semi-brave, mostly fleshed-out and very suspenseful. I adored the plot, I adored Elizabeth, and I adored the sky city of Columbia. So why do I have no choice but to give this a highly negative review...?This game has been referred to as a "work of art" by many, and I don't disagree at all with this. The setting is incredibly imaginative, the (outdoor) graphics are gorgeous, the plot is semi-brave, mostly fleshed-out and very suspenseful. I adored the plot, I adored Elizabeth, and I adored the sky city of Columbia. So why do I have no choice but to give this a highly negative review...?

    The game is an interactive movie more than it is, well, a game. Every single-player campaign and story released today cannot truly qualify as a game. Everybody who picked up this game would have been grossly unimpressed by the shoddy and thin "core" gameplay elements here, had this game been released in the era of real games (80's to the 00's). Given the outstanding reviews, I expected either a retro game experience or a revolutionary one, and got something that would probably be best described as a diluted version of Call of Duty's gameplay. Now, don't bite my head off for that one. It's clear that all FPS games today borrow from the core formula used in "modern warfare"-type shooters, like the ability to carry only 2 guns, the recoil physics, the *very* specific ammo types, the realistic iron-sights, cover-and-heal mechanics, 'hit' indication on your reticule, checkpoint saves, etc. etc. Newer gamers take these for granted they are really just annoying little copy-cat additions all the latest FPS games have. The point is, the actual gameplay borrows from a modern shooter and yet feels as clunky and unsatisfying as a previous-generation shooter, failing entirely to be either one.

    The guns are *extremely* unimaginative and generic (shotgun, burst-gun, sniper rifle, non-sniper rifle...), and some of them are completely useless. This is a highly redundant and annoying system. For example, since you lack alternate firing modes, you literally have to switch to a burst-gun and use exclusive burst-gun ammo instead of using an SMG and switching it to burst fire, saving you one ammo type to collect.

    There are plasmids in this game, now relabeled as "vigors" for some reason. You get several types, each with a very amusing short tutorial video, silent-film style. Unfortunately, though useful and somewhat creative, they are often ineffective and expensive to use.

    Item collection is erratic as hell. You will find 'vigor ammo' ("salts") all over non-combat scenes but extremely sparsely placed over areas of prolonged combat. For this reason, you usually find yourself maxing out your relatively small "salts gauge" and unable to collect additional salts for half the game, while being unable to use any vigors for the other half of the game because you have no salts left! The same thing applies to ammo, which is made even worse because you can hold very little ammo of any type, and there are far too many types in the game due to the inflated number of generic guns available.

    Thankfully, however, a very pleasant-looking NPC supplies you with a bit of health, salts and ammo during battle to compensate for the awful item placement. She will give it to you in the nick of time, but if you run out again, you're screwed you have to wait a very long time to get anything else from her. It works to balance out the poor level design, but it is just a patch on an ugly gameplay wort.

    For a game with such an enormous graphics budget, some of the characters look very cartoonish while others look human. There are also *very* few face models in this game. Columbia is populated almost entirely with Generic Male NPC #1 and Generic Female NPC #1. I understand the need for face model recycling, but when you have three clones of the same woman in front of you with different voices, it gets ridiculous. There are also many invisible walls, which become apparent when you try to shoot around obstacles or jump on crates. And for the love of The Prophet, don't look at background details too closely! The bag of apples is literally a JPEG of a pile of apples stretched over a bag and what's worse, the designers put full-3D apples on top of them for the player to collect. The graphics are *very* far from being fleshed-out in any way here.

    The best weapon is a melee hand-held slicing thingy, kind of like the painkiller (if you can even remember that game...) You use it to bash enemies' heads in, and you can perform overly gruesome finishing moves with it. There is *no* reason to use these moves, unless you like seeing heads explode, and the little indicator that tells you when to activate them is not easy to find in a pinch. Also, every time you melee, the camera gets fixed in the attacking direction, meaning if you melee multiple times, your character is thrown between enemies and you're essentially just button mashing at that point, because you can't see what's going on. The number of enemy types is also slim and uninteresting.

    In short, play this game for the story. It's a pretty good one, but if you were expecting a fun game, look elsewhere!!    … Expand
  24. mileafly
    Dec 15, 2013
    0
    This is a good game on it's own. But compared to the original Bioshock and System Shock it is crap. As far as a Shock game i was very dissapointed even though I played through it twise (one time on 1999 mode, hoping for a bit of the old feel, but no).
    While Bishock and Systemshock feelt "real" and dynamic in a way few games do, Infinite feels more like a bland rail shooter. It is not    This is a good game on it's own. But compared to the original Bioshock and System Shock it is crap. As far as a Shock game i was very dissapointed even though I played through it twise (one time on 1999 mode, hoping for a bit of the old feel, but no).
    While Bishock and Systemshock feelt "real" and dynamic in a way few games do, Infinite feels more like a bland rail shooter. It is not really a shock game anymore, you don't even have a map! (because you don't need one in this "corridor" shooter!)

    And while the splicers in the original Bioshock feelt very thoughtout and fitting to the setting, they just copied them to what is supposed to be regular humans in Infinite, taking another well thought out game setting and turning it totally unlogical. In Bioshock, crazy splicers jumping at you in frenzy make total sense. In Infinte regular policemen doing the same, not so much.

    They had the good sense to not involve nps:s in the first Shock games to much, in Infinte again, they just screw it up with populating the world in some areas with these "robots", just taking away from the feeling this is a real place.
    The best things about the game are Elizabeth as a character and as an AI. Very impressive. Also the story is interesting, but not as involving as in the original Bioshock. I had to judge this as a 0 to counter the ridiculous scores from people who seem to know nothing about games or what the Shock series is even about. This is a Shock for the CoD generation.    … Expand
  25. Halochief360
    Mar 27, 2013
    0
    The game is a disappointment. It was hyped so much that in the end it just shatters before succeeding in what it is trying to do. Bioshock 1 was a lot better than this. I really don't understand why are people so overwhelmed by this game. Lets see first thing is graphics, well this is such a clever ruse, all that bloom, fog and light shafts are well placed to cover poor models andThe game is a disappointment. It was hyped so much that in the end it just shatters before succeeding in what it is trying to do. Bioshock 1 was a lot better than this. I really don't understand why are people so overwhelmed by this game. Lets see first thing is graphics, well this is such a clever ruse, all that bloom, fog and light shafts are well placed to cover poor models and textures in general. Next thing is horrible collision zones, at first it was not a big deal but it became more and more annoying. Also difficulty is pretty low i cannot even imagine how easier the game could get on lower difficulties.

    I bought this game mainly for the story and characters, but it is not that good, and are mix up of several clichés with several ups and downs and for once finally useful sidekick on the contrary enemy AI is quite poor and you will see big number of enemies stucked in some obstacle. There is also that unpleasant fact that this game embrace only checkpoint saves.

    This game is quite average, and people need to start thinking for themselves and not pay attention to "Professional" reviewers, who are always biased, and have a hidden agenda with their reviews. Look at IGN for example they had the "exclusive" review, so they obviously wont rate it with less than a stellar review.

    Professional reviews suck, and that is just the plain truth.    … Expand
  26. mansie2
    Mar 26, 2013
    0
    I might not mind the ZERO choice, on-rails, gameplay if the story-line made any kind of sense or if I cared the least about the main character, but he goes from being an idiot to being a bigoted genocidal maniac. Maybe I should have played the previous bioshock games for this to make any kind of sense.
    As-is this just looks pretty, but the gameplay is so linearly on-rails it's tormenting.    I might not mind the ZERO choice, on-rails, gameplay if the story-line made any kind of sense or if I cared the least about the main character, but he goes from being an idiot to being a bigoted genocidal maniac. Maybe I should have played the previous bioshock games for this to make any kind of sense.
    As-is this just looks pretty, but the gameplay is so linearly on-rails it's tormenting. You can genocide everyone in your way (for no apparent reason), or just run past them all, your actions have zero impact, you never get to make any real choices and should you somehow fail you get seemingly infinite immediate retries.    … Expand
  27. Evanescence
    Mar 26, 2013
    0
    One of the worse use of DirectX9 ever. Abusive HDR and bloom, VERY VERY small FOV texture are ok when you are far, but as any game on Unreal Engine 3, texture look's really ugly when you try to enjoy close-up in the game.

    Most confusing game ever, hard to follow the story too. Tons TONS of good features got removed from it, (even hacking system like it had in Bioshock 2. Multiplayer)    One of the worse use of DirectX9 ever. Abusive HDR and bloom, VERY VERY small FOV texture are ok when you are far, but as any game on Unreal Engine 3, texture look's really ugly when you try to enjoy close-up in the game.

    Most confusing game ever, hard to follow the story too.
    Tons TONS of good features got removed from it, (even hacking system like it had in Bioshock 2. Multiplayer)

    They tried to make an semi open world game, it failed totally, very confusing, not clear at all on where you need to go.    … Expand
  28. dougisasupersex
    Mar 27, 2013
    0
    Though it touches on topics revolving around racism, religion, rebellion and revenge, these themes take a backseat to BioShock Infinite's primary topic: Love. Whether it be a society in love with its own patented brand of American Exceptionalism, a leader in love with his own self-appointed immortal image, or a pair of people that come together to care for one another, BioShock Infinite isThough it touches on topics revolving around racism, religion, rebellion and revenge, these themes take a backseat to BioShock Infinite's primary topic: Love. Whether it be a society in love with its own patented brand of American Exceptionalism, a leader in love with his own self-appointed immortal image, or a pair of people that come together to care for one another, BioShock Infinite is a love story.

    And it's super duper incredipuley impossible story to fall in love with.    … Expand
  29. sticky-fingers
    Nov 11, 2014
    0
    Graphics are fantastic, there's a kind of poesy but it's not enough

    In fact, this game is an empty FPS, a corridor game

    I can't understand why this game is rated so high, "gameplay" remembers late 90's before Half Life 1
  30. Drako77
    Apr 3, 2013
    0
    The guys that voted 9 or something are probably coming from console, cause from a PC point of view the game is complete garbage: the model are really simple (console port), the color and caracter are super simple and animated not that well (poor console port) the caracter in the game are a total of 10 maybe, maybe less, and all of them look alike in apparences and behaviour (poorThe guys that voted 9 or something are probably coming from console, cause from a PC point of view the game is complete garbage: the model are really simple (console port), the color and caracter are super simple and animated not that well (poor console port) the caracter in the game are a total of 10 maybe, maybe less, and all of them look alike in apparences and behaviour (poor development?)

    And don't let me started about the story, wich is full of holes, meaningless, somehow disturbing and in the end quite annoying (i just liked the SPOIL "10 second" of the story when the finger thing is revealed). The black people are the poor guys, then not, they are the bad ones, then not, all of them are bad, even you! Wow what a development...

    Everything else is really garbage, and this game seems like a incomplete product pushed on the shelfes just for money making. And to use the Bioshock trend to sell a coplete different product is really not good...

    I?m just happy that i got it for free, or i would have really wasted a lot of money for a mediocre game with nothing but hype behind it...    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best PC Game of 2013
3
#3 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
8
#8 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 68 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 68
  3. Negative: 0 out of 68
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 5, 2013
    92
    Play BSI slowly, relish the moments and don’t rush to the end. It’s certain that you will have lived one of the richest gaming experiences that, as far as narration, lyricism and story are concerned, will take a lot of time to forget! [May 2013]
  2. CD-Action
    May 7, 2013
    85
    A very solid, but not revolutionary shooter in an amazing setting, with a story that struggles to convey its authors’ ambitions and is only seemingly complex. The vision is less focused than in previous Bioshocks and it does a worse job on binding the plot with gameplay. [CD-Action 05/2013, p.46]
  3. PC PowerPlay
    May 1, 2013
    80
    Problematic plotting and excessive amounts of poorly balanced combat apply friction to what is otherwise one hell of a rollercoaster. [May 2013, p.80]
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