Will I like Bioshock Infinite based on what made me love the original?

[2fish]

I loved Bioshock 1, System shock 2, and Bioshock 2 (listed in the order I played them)for the atmosphere and the intriguing story. The aura of dread that came out of those games amazed me.

I am worried I might not like infinite as it is not a once great collapsed city filled with people that left their humanity behind but a fully functional (though screwed up) one. I know nothing of the story other than find the girl so I do not know how it compares or how interesting it is as a world.

As there are so many first person shooters I want to try to pick the ones I will like most.

Thank you.

 

[LaoJim]

Based on your criteria, no there's not really a feeling of dread within the game. (The fear that there is more like the fear in a dark fairy tale rather than a horror movie for example). What there is, is more of a feeling of wonder, of a very detailed, surreal and beautifully created world.

I won't say more to recommend it, as there is lots of reviews on the internet, frankly though the game is now so cheap (I got it for 6 pounds in a sale recently) that I think you'd be foolish not to take a look at it, even if you have to accept its not got the same mood as the previous ones. It certainly doesn't come across as just a generic shooter, and so I wouldn't be too worried about becoming burned out on shooters. You can even turn the difficulty down and just breeze through the shooting parts, you'll still get a lot of value out of the story and environments.

 

[Zhukov]

Nah.

It isn't going for the pseudo-horror feel that the original game had, especially toward the start. It's more colourful swashbuckling adventure, albeit with some dark overtones.

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

No, no you will not. I enjoyed the first two BioShock games for very similar reasons and found Infinite pretty much devoid of everything I found great about the previous games. And I understood even when Infinite was still in development that it was going to be quite different in a number of ways; I just didn't realize it would lose everything that made BioShock interesting to me. I will give it credit for still being more compelling than the average first-person shooter, but that's still a long shot from meaning it's a good game. Once you get over the ending and the fan service, it's easy to forget about.

The best thing I can say about Infinite is that the Songbird statue that came with the collector's edition is damn cool. Would not recommend the game unless you're insanely curious about it. Even then, I'd say you'd be better off just watching a Let's Play.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

Nope. The things I loved best about the first two were the great, nuanced stories, interesting characters, and the unique and varied gameplay that allowed you to customized Jack and Subject Delta to a fair degree. There's none of that in Infinite. It took away pretty much anything that made the first two games interesting and is essentially Call of Duty with magic powers (most of which all do the exact same thing when you get down to it). And the story is a cliche-riddled political navel-gazer that you'll be able to figure out in all of an hour so long as you've seen an episode of The Twilight Zone or any other sci-fi themed show. I'm not a huge fan of the Half-Life games, but they're much better than Infinite, so either play those or just replay BioShocks 1 and 2. And if you haven't checked it out already, you should definitely buy the Minerva's Den DLC for 2. Seriously, that damn thing actually made me tear up.

 

[hermes]

Not really. I enjoyed those games because the atmosphere and world built was unlike anything you can find... anywhere. In that sense, Infinite delivers in spades.

But the atmosphere of this game is not of dread, but of extreme brightness and naivete. Its like an extreme Disneyland: bright and shinny on the outside, but completely artificial, like you could peek behind the walls and discovered it was a maquette all along. It takes a sharp turn into darker elements around the middle point and there are some later elements that go toe to toe with the original Bioshock (that Asylum), but at that point you are either invested on the game or you are not.

 

[Mike Richards]

You can almost think of Infinite as the exact counterpoint to the first game. Bioshock was entirely about the exploration of Rapture, using it's characters as reflections of the philosophies that created it and spawned from it. Infinite is more about exploring it's characters and using Columbia and it's conflicts as a way of exploring and reflecting them. Andrew Ryan existed because he was the only kind of man who would create a place like Rapture, Columbia exists because that's the kind of place a man like Zachary Comstock would create, if that makes sense.

It goes further too. B1 emphasizes exploration over direct narrative, BI emphasizes narrative over exploration. B1 is very directly menacing and threatening, BI is about a more subtle menace and threat in their culture. Rapture has already fallen and you must put the pieces together after the fact, Columbia is just beginning to tear at itself and you must pull the pieces apart. Jack is a complete non-entity because the plot demands him to be and explores what his lack of history means, Booker is a rather complex piece of work with a lot of backstory and explores what it means to be handed that backstory and how that relates to him now. Rapture is a city of ironically devout secularism rejecting a world (mainly America, it seems) that historically failed them, Columbia is a city that devoutly worships American history because they feel the present has failed them. B1 climaxed it's story 2/3rds of the way through and had serious pacing problems dragging itself to the ending, BI saves it's biggest story moments for the very end and as a result has some pacing problems 2/3rds of the way through in getting there.

So yes, they are very different from each other, but they have a lot of the same pieces on the board. And they're different in such a perfectly mirrored, clearly intentional way that it still ends up feeling like a Bioshock game. Not Bioshock 3 by any stretch of the imagination, but Bioshock none the less. I can't guarantee you'll like it but it's definitely worth giving a try. I loved it.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Short of a few rather brief sections of the game, there is never really that sense of dread. There are some rather twisted aspects of Colombia, but the city itself never really gives off a sense of dread the same way Rapture did. With that said, when the game actually recognizes Colombia as an outwardly living, stable city built on dark secrets and prejudices, it manages to pull of an atmosphere about on the same level as BioShock. It's just a shame that most of the game is more about the action than exploring Colombia as both a place and an idea.

As for the story, different people have different perspectives. Personally, I thought it was lacking. It showed a lot of potential, but it rarely delivered. Comstock turns out to be little more than a children's cartoon villain, particularly when held up against Ryan and Lamb. We're constantly given snippets of potentially good character arcs for Elizabeth, but most of them aren't really developed, and it makes her seem shallow compared to Eleanor or Tenenbaum. Songbird is mostly an afterthought in the story and is barely present most of the game. The story also never felt as cohesive as the first two and spent way too much time commenting on Colombia's prejudices without really doing much with them throughout the second half of the game. There's also some problems with how the story relates to the gameplay. For instance, most of the story sections make it clear that Elizabeth needs your help to survive and not get captured, but the gameplay sections tell you that she can take care of herself. In general, the incredibly shallow connection among the gameplay, story, and world is what really makes it hard to appreciate on the same level as the first game.

In the end, if you want a game that gives off a similar feeling of dread in the atmosphere, I would probably look into the Metro series or DOOM 3 BFG. Their stories, like Infinite, are nowhere near as good as BioShock's, but their atmospheres at least make them closer to BioShock than Infinite is.

 

[Arkynomicon]

I just found Bioshock Infinite to be rather trite.

The weapons and plasmids are more boring than in previous games, the story is awfully predictable, the story elements are badly thought out, quantum physics that keeps getting brought up is pretty much the Bioshock Infinite's version of "A wizard did it." and I don't cared what happened with any of the characters.

I don't know what people see in this game outside it being pretty.

 

[momijirabbit]

Well I enjoyed Infinite a lot and I think that Bioshock 1 is one of the worst games I have ever played, so you can take that as you want.

 

[Remus]

Bioshock Infinite puts forth a "perfect world" and almost immediately shows you that there is an underlying darkness behind it, like that friendly small town that's actually run by religious cultists, only on a far grander scale. There are horror elements but the game itself is not as survival-horror as the original Bioshock. It's a big, beautiful world that steadily erodes the more you play it. This was not true of Bioshock 1 because the world was already broken from the outset, illusions shattered. For a lot of people, the post-game hangover has set in so the more they play it, or talk about it, the more they'll see flaws. In my opinion, get some couch change and try it out. I bought the game at full price, and its DLC episodes, and don't regret a penny lost.

 

[Lilani]

I loved Bioshock 1, System shock 2, and Bioshock 2 (listed in the order I played them)for the atmosphere and the intriguing story. The aura of dread that came out of those games amazed me.

I am worried I might not like infinite as it is not a once great collapsed city filled with people that left their humanity behind but a fully functional (though screwed up) one. I know nothing of the story other than find the girl so I do not know how it compares or how interesting it is as a world.

As there are so many first person shooters I want to try to pick the ones I will like most.

Moviebob once pointed out that Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite both have very deliberate and detailed atmospheres and stories, but they build these atmospheres and stories in very different ways. I won't spoil anything, but basically the story of Bioshock is a small story that slowly gets bigger. You're just a guy stranded in an underground city, and suddenly conspiracies align and things are a lot bigger and complicated than you could have ever imagined. In Infinite, you start with what is obviously a place full of conspiracies and characters, and slowly the story becomes smaller and more focused on just a few people. The atmosphere of Bioshock is subtle, while the atmosphere of Infinite bright and in your face. But both of their atmospheres compliment their worlds--Infinite isn't bright and in your face because they were "trying too hard," it's in your face because that is the identity of that world.

I can't say too much more without spoiling anything, so the short answer is yes. Those elements are there, just presented very differently, and a lot of their significance will not become clear until the end.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Well, you might still like it since it's an excellent game but no, it does not have that aura of dread you are talking about.

 

[pearcinator]

After getting pumped for Infinite from watching the trailers I was disappointed by the final game (mostly because what they showed in the trailers wasn't even in the final game! WTF). I was expecting more open areas to explore with many rails to jump to and travel around the map. However the rail sections were really limited and mostly just went around in a loop. There weren't that many rail sections either. It was a mostly just a 1st-person shooter with magic powers. Mass Effect 3 had much better combat in my opinion.

 

[Supdupadog]

If you liked Bioshock murder shooting then you will like Infinite murder shooting.

As for the city, think of it as pre-rapture. Where everything seems fine and all the people are all high and mighty about their scientific marvel and living from those punks on land, and you get to watch all the flaws with that unravel into a mess.

Also a tip for enjoying the story, it is all about Booker and Elizabeth. No matter what crazy sci-fi gets thrown at you, they are always the center.

 

[2fish]

A good mix of yes and no. I feared this would be the answer.

I guess I will have to try it to find out.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Vault101]

I am worried I might not like infinite as it is not a once great collapsed city filled with people that left their humanity behind but a fully functional (though screwed up) one. I know nothing of the story other than find the girl so I do not know how it compares or how interesting it is as a world.
.

no, but thats probably a good thing...why just rehash the first one?

I liek Infinite better than the first one (and I LOVED the first one) for many reasons, its not the same but its awsome in its own right

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Bioshock 1 & 2 were about exploring a location after the downfall and complete devastation. Bioshock Infinite is you experiencing the downfall and devastation.

Still a great game, still has moments of dread. Story is bleh though.

Burial at Sea DLC is pretty stinking good, if you're willing to drop the money for it. Its story isn't bleh at all and it returns to Rapture.