Zero Punctuation: BioShock: Infinite

[immortalfrieza]

It's been three years, and Yahtzee still has yet to adequately explain why he hated BioShock 2 so much. His actual review came down to a load of silly nitpicks of the sort he would normally reserve for games he likes and has to fill time complaining about anyway, and he hasn't said anything beyond "Grr sequels" since.

A bunch of silly nitpicky and mostly invalid crap is what all the haters including Yahtzee always complain about when it comes to Bioshock 2. Everybody looooved Bioshock 1 soooo much, but when they later make a direct sequel that not only has everything Bioshock 1 had, it has more, and B2 even addresses quite a few things that were wrong with the B1 as well, they hate on it for being everything they loved the previous game for. The most common complaint I hear is [really whinny unpleaseable fans] "the story of Rapture was over! This is just a lazy cash grab![/fans]" No, the real truth is you just have a complete lack of imagination, you can't think of a way for Rapture's story to be continued so you think that it can't happen, so when the folks a 2K manage to do exactly that, coming up with a great story that makes plenty of sense, you whine because you're jealous that they are more imaginative than you.

Spoiler

I'm sorry, but the Vox were utterly, utterly in the right. And turning them into the enemies for the final acts of the game is amazingly unfair to the cause of oppressed peoples. Even after they shoehorned in the scene of Daisy trying to murder a kid it didn't undermine the cause of equal rights, it just showed that she was a psycho. So while I didn't mind it when Elizabeth killed her, my stomach was in knots for the rest of the game as I was forced to kill people who only wanted to be treated like people. Granted, my Irish grandfather whom I'm named after was a union organizer in the 20s so I'm a bit biased. But I would have disagreed with Dewitt in his comparison of Comstock and Fitzroy regardless.

In short, while there are bad people everywhere not all causes are morally equivalent, which is what it seemed like Levine was trying to say. Basically it pushed me out of the story.

Maybe what the Vox claimed they were fighting for was right, but it's pretty clear long before Fitzroy went completely off the deep end that equality isn't what the Vox ever were fighting for, only to replace the Columbians' bigotry and oppression with their own, and it only becomes more obvious as time goes on that if the Vox were either going to genocide all the Columbians who weren't part of their movement or kill all who opposed them and enslave the rest. Even if the Vox WERE truly fighting for equality, their methods were anything but noble or moral, or even fit into I-did-what-I-had-to-do by any reasonable standard. Booker knew that people by their very nature want to control and leech off others, he knew that the Vox would barely be any better in the end than Comstock, and that's exactly what ends up happening.

Spoiler

The ending - Okay, the ending in itself is not what's bad. What is bad is the rushed feel of it, and the fact that you contribute squat to it. You and Elizabeth travel through a few different worlds, she explains the plot to you because the game hasn't done that already, a twist is revealed, some more world-jumping, another twist, and then it's over. All within 5 minutes. Okay, so I know Bioshock had a slightly rushed ending as well, but at least there the twist was presented to you and the plot was explained quite a while before the game was over. This gave the player time to absorb what had just occured, what it meant for them, and ponder just how they should act henceforth. In Bioshock Infinite, a majority of the plot is given to you in the last 10 minutes, before the game abruptly tells you to sod off. And you might have different ways of interpreting the ending, or explaining the plot, but the fact is that the whole existential world gobble-di-goo just comes right out of nowhere. It just feels like it could have been better handled, is all.

My biggest problem with the ending is unlike the other 2 Bioshock games there's no multiple endings to it, that makes every one of those choices they threw at you at various points throughout the game COMPLETELY pointless, and it also means the game has basically 0 replay value.

Spoiler

I've also never cared much for games which the ending has the player character erase the entire events of the game from ever happening, because it makes me feel like both the player character and I never actually accomplished anything.

Despite this, Infinite has managed to do 2 things that a video game only does once in a blue moon these days, 1, it made me sad at the end when the game was over, not because the ending was sad, but because the game itself was over, and 2, when I put it down, it made me desire to have a sequel RIGHT THE F&*K NOW!!! Very, very few games are good enough do that to me much anymore.

 

[I.Muir]

I have pet peeves about the ending
Same kind of thing I feel about using time paradoxes

Spoiler: Play through the game first

So when Liz drowns Booker she somehow drowns all those people who would become Comstock which causes her to no longer exist as it were. If this was the case and she never existed then how did she drown Booker? Why does drowning a single Booker that is not likely to become Comstock at that stage kill all the Comstock"s that might occur? If it does then wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that all Booker's present at the baptism were all drowned? So assuming Liz gains her power by having part of her in another dimension that was specifically removed during the closing of that first tear on her pinky rather than leaving hair, skin cells or anything people have drop off them all the time then.... whaaaaaaaattttt? Why does suddenly turn omniscient after gaining her power back? She can "see through all the doors".... not buying that one. Why are they trying to mix the idea of constants with multiverse theory, that just does not work. Supposing that they (They being the not/twins) are merely exploring events that have branched only partially down a single path and what keeps that a 'single' path are these constants... nope it still does not really work.

This shit ain't logical

Still I enjoyed it more or less but prefer the first bio shock
No doubt Infinite is a success due to how much discussion it's generating but it's annoying having pseudo intellectuals try and tell me I just don't understand as a means of deflecting questions like this
For some reason sea slugs and little girls making mystic goo seems more plausible

 

[ShiningMetaLord]

Gonna post my thoughts here, I was gonna make a full review, but meh I couldn't find a way to tie all of the points together. No spoilers, so don't worry if you haven't played the game.

Story points:

One thing that always stuck out in my head was the dialogue. Booker barely ever talks with other people in the game outside plot-important characters which I felt was a missed chance to bring more character and charm into the world. The NPCs talk to Booker sometimes but her never really gives a reply, he just looks around containers for money and food and shooting at things which are out to shoot him. A chance was wasted here in my eyes.

The other thing which took all immersion I had away from me was how Elizabeth acts the exact same way towards locks or something when it makes no sense in the context of the scenario. An example being I had just went through the scarier part of the game and was making my way to the final area. Elizabeth was rightfully upset at this point in the game for reasons I won't mention, but the instant I ask her to pick a nearby lock to pick up an upgrade she happily skips over to the lock as if the previous event never happened. This isn't to say Elizabeth was a bad character, I love her stronger points and how she grows up over the events of the game, but that just broke all emotional tension that I had at that point.

Combat Points:

All the enemies are either bullet-spongy or they got shredded like paper depending on who I was fighting. Those Vox rocket guys are the worst offenders in this case in terms of normal foes. The special enemies like the Fireman or the Crow I can forgive for being bullet-spongy because they were a cut above the rest and I genuinely enjoyed fighting them. To touch on the Heavy Hitters real quick they range from decent to down right annoying, with the majority taking up the annoying slot. I liked the patriots because they required strategy in order to beat, having you to hit the gears as much as you could. The other three I found were annoying as hell. The Handymen were more of a chore then anything and because they're so quick you can't do much in order to dodge his attacks. The siren was interesting but a bit more bullet spongy then I would have liked. The absolute worst was the Boy of Silence. Because they have turret properties one would think you could just avoid being seen and get away from them, especially considering the area they reside in has barely any ammo so you had to conserve your shots, but no they had to be triggered in order to proceed, leaving me without ammo or salts to defend myself.

Speaking of which, Elizabeth's ability to throw salts/health/ammo/money your way is a blessing. A blessing because you can be in tight situations where you need your health recharged and she can save you in hairier moments, and I appreciated that she had a cool-down so you couldn't abuse that mechanic.

One last thing before I end this post, the game felt like it had so much more potential but failed to meet that potential. A lot of the areas felt small and didn't have as much verticality that I figured this game would have especially when you throw in the sky-lines which I feel were used so rarely that they didn't matter in the long run. The fact that they were rarely used outside a couple arenas surprised me. You would think that a mechanic that's been talked about since the first public announcement would have a much bigger effect on the gameplay and combat (and to that extent the world) but no it's rare to see skylines in Infinite, and while I'm glad that they don't shoe-horn them in to the point of annoyance, having them in here as little more then a way from getting to place to place smacks me as missed potential outside of the aerial attack which hits about one enemy and really has no strategic value whatsoever besides being flashy. Maybe they have a bigger role in the future DLC, I wouldn't know. I'm not going to hold my breath and wait for it.

With all of this said I do love the game and I had a blast playing it. However, it's not a perfect game (what game is?) and these are nothing more than the opinions that I had after playing the game and letting everything sink in.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

I'm kinda surprised he liked it since we are starting to get people who are ragging on it for all the perfect reviews it got when it came out.

You say that likes there's something wrong with one expressing disapproval at the common consensus that it's a completely flawless game.

Now I haven't played the game for myself, but from what I've seen most people complaining about the perfect reviews actually liked the game quite a bit, but are bothered by how most critics are not listing any of the games faults whatsoever and many people are already heralding it Game of the Year or even Game of the Generation. I've seen people mention some pretty legitimate faults (including Yahtzee in this very review), which many are overlooking completely. That's where the naysayers' issues lie - not with people liking the game, but with the notion that the game has no faults at all and is absolutely perfect.

Before someone points this out to me - yes, those who love the game are entitled to express their opinions. So are those who don't find the game to be flawless and who don't agree with the perfect reviews.

 

[Worgen]

I'm kinda surprised he liked it since we are starting to get people who are ragging on it for all the perfect reviews it got when it came out.

You say that likes there's something wrong with one expressing disapproval at the common consensus that it's a completely flawless game.

Now I haven't played the game for myself, but from what I've seen most people complaining about the perfect reviews actually liked the game quite a bit, but are bothered by how most critics are not listing any of the games faults whatsoever and many people are already heralding it Game of the Year or even Game of the Generation. I've seen people mention some pretty legitimate faults (including Yahtzee in this very review), which many are overlooking completely. That's where the naysayers' issues lie - not with people liking the game, but with the notion that the game has no faults at all and is absolutely perfect.

Before someone points this out to me - yes, those who love the game are entitled to express their opinions. So are those who don't find the game to be flawless and who don't agree with the perfect reviews.

I've been having to deal with a friend of mine bitching about every little damn thing about the game. Its one thing to not like it but she also liked to say that anyone who liked certain parts of it, like the story, is an idiot. Yes she is a bit of a ***** at times.

 

[Mayamellissa]

GREAT REVIEW!!!!!

 

[Nowhere Man]

I would love a Ken Levine as God DLC. Make it happen Irrational! You know what would also be cool? If there was a DLC where you enter a continuity where Songbird is revealed as none other than Ken Levine in a steam-punk bird suit.

 

[StormShaun]

But isn't tha ... oh ...

...

I'm getting out now.
*leaves and comes back*

Well that was an arse of a review, a very firm arse which stuck together very well.
Also I liked the arse jokes.

And the humor in this one was nice.
Though I don't think Infinite has a comfy arse enough to become game of the year.

... I wonder what Yahtzee thinks of Saints Row 4 so far (Since we all know he wants to marry Saints Row 2). XD

 

[Darth_Payn]

Yahtzee, I sense a growing trend of using strategically placed pauses to set up jokes, like the Poo Map thing from your SimCity review. And you showed us a Back to the Future Shout out and Marvel gag in one screen! Yeah, I saw that 616 Continuity line on your board. Are you trying to tell us something?

 

[Number-14]

All I got from this review are butts. There were a lot of butts in this review. Butts

 

[Robot Number V]

There's only one bit I flat out disagree with in this review: The party.

It might seem like we're the party and shit is getting messy because of us, but that's a lie. The place starts out all fine and ends with you walking out of the rubble... and that's only because you teleported into the rubble after everyone else had gone. You actually aren't there when shit gets messy, you just kinda walked into a world in which shit was already messy... from a world in which shit couldn't get messy. In fact, you get a statement explaining that the only messy shit the other you contributed before dying was to burn a building down. Then, afterwards, you keep showing up to areas where there was just a party not five minutes ago, but most party-goers are gone now and you're left dealing with the angry ones that stayed behind to clean up.

Otherwise, yeah, the rest of what he said was true.

Hmm. I don't think that's exactly true, though this is kind a personal interpretation: See, when Elizabeth expands the tears, I don't think she's just taking herself and Booker through a portal to a completely separate reality. It's more like she's taking another reality and...superimposing it over the existing one. Remember how all the dead guards "inherited" their memories of their formerly dead selves: This means that the two realities are connected at least in some way. My personal theory is that there's only ever one true version of the universe, and all the other universes don't actually exist until somebody observes them. It's like Schrodinger's Cat. The cat is alive and dead until someone observes it in either state, and at that point whichever state isn't observed simply collapses. [footnote]Unless I don't understand Schrodinger's Cat nearly as well as I think I do, which is extremely possible.[/footnote] Basically, Elizabeth has the power to open the box and see the cat in both states, and choose for herself which state becomes "reality".

So she IS technically responsible for choosing the "Shit Has Gotten Messy" reality and bringing it into existence, even if she was only trying to move some guns. Though you could argue that moving those guns was directly related to the shit getting messy, and Elizabeth knew that at the time she was trying to move them. The phrase "uprising" had already been thrown around, she knew what she getting into.

 

[Monsterfurby]

"Pretentious". Thank you, that was the word I was looking for when trying to appease the murderous rabble that was trying to lynch me for not liking Bioshock Infinite.

Yeah, I don't like it (that includes generic reskinned squadmate #31471823 that somehow got people claiming she is not generic reskinned squadmate #31471823), but that's just personal taste of course.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

The gameplay feels lacking compared to the previous games, but the art style and storytelling was fantastic.

thats not good considering bioshock felt its gameplay was lacking compared to SS2, with the minor exception of big daddies.

 

[DoctorObviously]

Welp, even Yahtzee likes this one. Guess I am the only organism who didn't liked it.

 

[VoidWanderer]

While I never finished the game, as I realized that the slippery slope the game plot was sliding towards had spikes at the bottom, I found my view of the game very grounded (sorry for the pun).

I saw all the reviews giving this game glowing recommendations, and after getting as has as I did my only question was... "How?" The game is fun, don't flame me, but the plot is not that strong. Compared to the first Bioshock game, the plot is like the movie 'Click' with Adam Sandler. Elizabeth is less companion and ally, but more like a plot continuation device and random ammo/health generator.

I saw a youtube video which showed all the points in the game that seemed weak. I am happy Yahtzee enjoyed the game as it is good, it is even great, but only to a point. If you want me to give a score out of 10, I would say 8.5.

For those who rave about the game and think it is the best thing since ('last great game'), check out this link and tell me what you thought of the points made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Yc15KgfNJsw

Edited because I linked the wrong video....

 

[Requia]

I'm pretty surprised Yahtzee likes the game.

Not saying I don't, in fact I really like it myself. I just sorta expected him to tear the game to pieces like he does in most of his reviews.

As for the final level. I actually liked it.

Spoiler

You get to sick Songbird on zeppelins! Friggen awesome!

The problem (for me) with the final level is that the game spent the entire time not giving a shit if I was any good or not, and then the game suddenly introduces a way to fail, creating a difficulty curve that can best be described as a flat highway that ends in a brick wall.

A new game to keep me away from Minecraft sounds good. The biggest question is, do you have such scarce ammo like in System Shock 2?

Hell no. Its got ammo coming out its ass. Actually was kinda fun, since I got to focus more on whether the weapon I was using was actually the right weapon for the job instead of whether or not the game would fuck me over by not having any ammo for it for the next 2 hours.

 

[scorptatious]

I'm pretty surprised Yahtzee likes the game.

Not saying I don't, in fact I really like it myself. I just sorta expected him to tear the game to pieces like he does in most of his reviews.

As for the final level. I actually liked it.

Spoiler

You get to sick Songbird on zeppelins! Friggen awesome!

The problem (for me) with the final level is that the game spent the entire time not giving a shit if I was any good or not, and then the game suddenly introduces a way to fail, creating a difficulty curve that can best be described as a flat highway that ends in a brick wall.

*shrugs*

Personally, I didn't find it all that hard. I beat it on my first try. Of course, I was playing on medium the first time I was on there, so I guess that explains it.

 

[1rock]

That's just not credible. How are you posting on The Escapist, if that's the case? The Escapist's pages are far slower to load and less reliable than Google.

Sorry to say it is credible. The reality is that the internet is very slow in our country and very very expensive. We still have 1Gigabyte caps... Yea you do get better but then you are talking about big money.

Even this Forum takes about 2 minutes to load and jumping from page to page take about 1 minute if I am lucky. The truth is ?fast and affordable? doesn't exist here... That is also the reason why I took up fishing... Gaming became to expensive... The updates are MASSIVE and it just takes to long. But thankfully the review clips allows me to see what I miss so I am thankful for them. Really they make my day.

If I want to play a game that needs online support it will take about half the day to update and by that time I get to play the weekend is a memory. In short it sucks but it is the truth.

You are welcome to PM me and I will send you some info on the speeds and cost of our internet. It is scary expensive...

 

[PeanutKai]

Genuinely surprised Yahtzee liked this game. I thought for sure he'd say the plot is a fucking mess. When you introduce time travel and multiple universes you're asking for plot holes. There is far too much suspension of disbelief needed for my tastes. When fans need to make videos and graphs explaining the ending then something has gone wrong. Anyone who's familiar with the grandfather paradox knows why the ending is bullshit. The game is up its own arse far further than first thought. 7/10

 

[Aardvaarkman]

nternet is very slow in our country and very very expensive. We still have 1Gigabyte caps... Yea you do get better but then you are talking about big money.

I still think you're exaggerating. I'm pretty sure Google would time-out your connection well before five minutes. And if The Escapist pages take only 2 minutes to load, how does Google take 5 minutes, when it's a much smaller page, hosted on much faster servers?