Well, I laud it not really for the gameplay (I never really like BioShock 1 or 2 either) but that they wrote a time travel / dimension hopping story that more or less made sense. It takes a while to follow the different timelines and story threads but in the end it almost all added up.

The only part that doesn't add up is that a Voxaphone in the Vox raging out of control universe tells of how that Booker died. Fitzory even comments that see saw her Booker die. Further listenings of Voxaphones reveal that the Booker that died had joined with the Vox in order to raid Comstock house and steal away Elizabeth. You jump into that timeline with your Elizabeth in tow, but there should have still been a second Elizabeth locked away in Comstock house. Maybe by going through a tear using Elizabeth's power resolved that by… erasing the second locked away Elizabeth with yours. Maybe there can be only one Elizabeth at any given time. But it's not really supported when every other thing was. Kinda sad after I spend days pouring over other's charts, building my own charts, and finally being satisfied that the story worked.

There was very little protectiveness in Booker, little paternal care. Maybe that’s supposed to be part of it, but it makes the big reveal feel disjointed. When Booker laces up Elizabeth’s corset after her little torture porn scene I was squirming. Even when she was revealed to be Anna in a very long walking sequence at the end, I still didn’t feel the game connecting Anna and Elizabeth. They are only the same person in a academic sense.

I don't think there was supposed to be. Booker, our Booker, went to Colombia thinking he had to kidnap a random girl to erase his debt. He was wrong on both counts since Elizabeth was his daughter and there was no longer any debt to erase, but he didn't know that and acted accordingly. Later as he understands the situation Elizabeth is in he tries to help and protect her, but only as a random young woman in a bad situation. Not as a daughter since he doesn't learn that until the lighthouses ending.

Corvo, in contrast, was Emily's father and knew it even if we the player only suspected in until the end with Pendleton revealing out loud that Corvo and the Queen were involved.

In the end I mostly agree with others who say that Bioshock Infinite's gameplay is nothing to write home about. But the acting, animation, world, and story were all top notch. I haven't played The Last of Us so I can't really comment, but I would put Bioshock Infinite a bit above Dishonored. Dishonored easily had better gameplay, but I enjoyed Bioshock's story, quantum mechanics and all, a good deal more.

I enjoyed the game while playing but kind of felt the same way as you- expecting a lot more than I got. I thought the acting was what really carried it, and I'm kind of thinking that maybe most of the reason that the story is so highly praised is because it's wrapped in some really great character performances and a pretty solid (if imperfect) setting. I didn't think that the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth was that shocking or that Comstock = Booker was a big deal- not that I had really predicted it, but it kind of seemed like 'Oh, okay. Whatever then.' The cyclical/parallel worlds idea was kinda neat, but I don't think it was done as well as other movies/books/games. I liked "always a lighthouse, always a man, always a city", but it wasn't as moving as it was in Skyward Sword, for example.

I didn't think the combat was very fun, but I loved getting lost in exploring. The atmosphere was great but I felt like I was doing the shooting and killing just to progress through the story.

Also, I felt that the idea of the plot stemming from a gambling debt to be kind of flat. It could/should have been a much more significant catalyst.

There were several things going on that could have been very poignant, but they fought each other for screen time more than they cooperated to create a greater whole.

The pacing was also pretty weak. Start and finish aside, it was less "carefully-shaped narrative" than "sequence events causally connected by a plot." And the gameplay didn't do much to help here; it didn't ebb and flow and dance and do funny business in a way which added shape to the game's progression.

I cannot disagree hard enough. Is it possible expectations resulted in a letdown?

I played it spoiler-free and was blown away. I found it to be heart-wrenching, melancholy, and sweet. I enjoyed it more than any other game of this generation save Skyrim, I think.

I loved Anna, and I did not want to be who Booker (I) was. I did not want my shady, tragic past. I spent the whole game trying to play away from it - sensing it was terrible - but could not escape who I was, what I had done. I had envisioned myself the hero, certain to save the day, only to find that I was the villain all along....

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.

I don't know if it's anything groundbreaking or special overall, but I'll argue it's solid, fun, and the sky hooks are pretty imaginative.

The first time through I was still learning the game, so I played pretty safe. Carbine/Rocket Launcher all day long with buffs to my Vigors, which I basically used as grenades. Pretty straight forward FPS action. It was quite satisfying carpet bombing Lady Comstock and her minions, btw.

Second time through I went a bit more willy nilly, and finally took the dive (snicker) into Charge. Yeah, I know, you figure I would've busted that out a lot sooner, being the ME3 Vanguard whore that I am. I also dedicated myself to learning the sky hook system more and tweaking a bit harder and more deliberately with the upgrades and clothing.

In the end, the game rewarded me for making the effort to learn its mechanics, which I think is the sign of good game.

(I'm thinking the third and fourth times through will be a goddammed Zaeed-apocalypse.)

And, though let’s not mention this one too loudly, Schooly and Cody both seemed to enjoy it.

There are various levels of enjoy.

Bioshock Infinite is like having sex with a perfect 10, who is prudish and just lays there doing nothing. On one hand, she is pretty to look at, and hey you're having sex, but on the other hand there's no passion and it's boring.

I found the scavenging element of the game very frustrating.

I didn't really have a hard time beating it on hard, however I began to dread each large space because I had to comb it for spare money/things I could use.

The idea that in 1999 mode, that things are more scarce and you have to make sure you hoover everything up? That sounds like the worst experience ever.

I want to run around a shoot, I want to run around and explore, but I don't want to explore for the sake of surviving while running around and shooting...

I mean I was full of praise for it by the time I finished, but now I can't imagine picking it up again. May do the waves and see if I can get into the shouty combat without cleaning up columbia in the process.

This game didn’t appeal to me when it was first being advertised. But it did come highly recommended. It’s often mentioned in the same breath as GotY. And, though let’s not mention this one too loudly, Schooly and Cody both seemed to enjoy it.

My opinion of the game was higher when I had just finished it. I believe this was due to a few factors:
(1) The plot twist was enjoyable
(2) I was glad to be through with it (more on this in a bit)

Looking back, however, I think my original appraisal was inflated. I won't go into any problems with the narrative or plot holes or environment since critiques of those things have been laid out in much more comprehensive fashion than I can do here. But I will say that, when I reflect on what I played, the thing I notice most is the gameplay was mediocre at best. Atmosphere and story aside, it was just another FPS with bullet sponge enemies and a couple of gimmicks (refer back to point 2). That's my biggest takeaway from the experience at this point.

This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be good, I still don’t understand that robot game thingy Schooly plays at LANs

I can tell you exactly why you don't understand Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, and it all goes back to the fact that you're a female.

FACT: women don't like giant robots because giant robots are the union of two things women also don't like: machinery and war. VO:OT is a game centered around giant robots shooting at each other.

FACT: women don't like fighting. VO:OT is a fighting game. This shouldn't require any more explanation.

FACT: women don't like 1 vs 1 combat because they cannot grasp the concept of manly honor that is internal to men. They cannot appreciate the (b)romantic struggle of a pure contest to see who is the better man. VO:OT is a 1v1 game (the sequel was 2v2 and was so bad it killed the franchise) and completely lacks any hair-pulling moves because (1) such moves would be dis-manly-honorable and (2) they're robots and they don't have hair.

FACT: women love stories and thus hate games with poor or paper-thin stories. VO:OT literally has no story, it's just giant robots fighting each other.

FACT: maid outfits

I wanted to read this post, so I actually went back and finished B:Infinite. I had stopped my first playthrough (on hard) after dying a dozen times trying to beat Lady Comstock (I, admittedly, am not the best at shooters). Up to that point, the game looked good and played okay, and the plot wasn't terrible. So I was mostly enjoying it, but a lot of the fights, for me, were just plain not fun. But after pushing through that boss fight, I keep plugging away, after all this was a Bioshock game, and I rather enjoyed the first (heh) one, ridiculous boss battle with Atlas notwithstanding.

Overall, Infinite let me down. The gameplay was, in some cases literally, nearly six years old and, for me, not much fun. Normally I would enjoy a plot citing factors like Quantum Locking and interdimensionality, in this instance though, I had guessed most of the key plot twists about a third of the way through (unlike the original Bioshock, which I most certainly did not see coming). Lastly that leaves the art and sound design. In all fairness, Infinite looks and sounds pretty darn good, and the only real problem I have with it is that I went and played The Last of Us during that boss hiatus. TLoU is probably the best game I've ever played (that's not hyperbole, I've given it a lot of thought), I enjoyed every facet of that game. So coming back to Infinite, it just felt a little tired and worn down by the time I finished it.

I guess by the time it was all said and done, I'd give Infinite 7 of 10. A good solid entry in the Bioshock franchise, but plagued by boring gunplay and a predictable plot. I probably won't play it again, or at least not for a long time.

This kinda reads funny, but I'm not going to fix it. :P

I want to talk about Bioshock Infinite.

This game didn’t appeal to me when it was first being advertised. But it did come highly recommended. It’s often mentioned in the same breath as GotY. And, though let’s not mention this one too loudly, Schooly and Cody both seemed to enjoy it. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be good, I still don’t understand that robot game thingy Schooly plays at LANs, but it’s still a recommendation.

It was, in fact, some judicious googling of Troy Baker after watching Last of Us playthroughs that had me deciding to pick Bioshock up a few weeks ago.

Let’s start with the good. The game is beautiful. It has some fabulous acting in it. That first long walk through Columbia, listening to anachronistic Barbershop and watching the ‘wrongness’ of a Bioshock world take shape was all wonderful. I’ve been playing that Tainted Love cover/original over and over. And I really appreciate what they tried to go through with the story. I appreciate the effort.

But let’s start with the story. Now a defence that people kept giving me while I was complaining about this game was that the story was great. I came to Bioshock completely spoiled. Not only completely spoiled, but I played Dishonored last year and watched a lot of Last of Us gameplay this year. (As an aside, I guess we’re fairly confident that gaming is reaching its middle ages as a medium). Remember that first time you see Emily draw a good Corvo? Or find the Fugue Feast book in her bedroom? How about when Joel tells Ellie “I sure as hell ain’t your dad?”

Even knowing the answer, I found a lot of Bioshock Infinite to be wilfully misleading. There was very little protectiveness in Booker, little paternal care. Maybe that’s supposed to be part of it, but it makes the big reveal feel disjointed. When Booker laces up Elizabeth’s corset after her little torture porn scene I was squirming. Even when she was revealed to be Anna in a very long walking sequence at the end, I still didn’t feel the game connecting Anna and Elizabeth. They are only the same person in a academic sense.

I did like layering Troy Baker’s voice over Comstock’s dire pronunciations, I liked the recurring misinterpretation of the baptism theme. I found “there is always a lighthouse, always a man, always a city” to be irritatingly smug, but hey, we’re using quantum physics.

But story wise I found Bioshock Infinite to fall woefully short of Dishonoured. If you want a game where a father chooses to sell his daughter, play a high chaos Dishonoured run. Even the Outsider will be surprised by you.

Bioshock also tries to couch all this in a backdrop of racial tension which I found to be laughable. Cody already linked to a very good article about that. To abandon that storyline halfway through for a half hearted “oh power corrupts” idea is just ridiculous.

There’s an additional mismatch between Booker and Comstock’s treatment of minorities which is not well explained. After all, losing a child and becoming and embittered gambler is not the usual prescribed method of dealing with deep seated prejudices, but this is a relatively small nitpick. Again, see Dishonoured for a wonderful contrast between the haves and have nots.

But lets talk about the fact this is a game. I finished it on hard mode after a week or so of playing, in between Fringe parties and impromptu DIY. I’m not that good of a player. Money is plentiful. Losing money is no big penalty (I doubt even losing 100 eagles at a time will upset me greatly if I do a 1999 playthrough) and so no horde of white or coloured bad guys will stop me from plunging onwards. I also never mastered the skyhooks it must be said, and quite often flung myself around again and again while desperately waiting for the fleeting aerial kill symbol.

When this game was fun it was aping Mass Effect. Lift, Charge, Shotgun was a favoured tactic. I also felt there were no real bosses in the game. Lady Comstock was a bit of a madam, the handy men liked to electrocute my skylines, the patriots were pretty unkillable, but all of these were neatly dispatched by random friendly version Elizabeth could call upon at will and if anything went wrong Elizabeth would throw some health kits or I’d die and be resurrected a little way away. The most frustrating part was the final zeppelin ride which relied simply on swamping you with enemies.

And if any game didn’t need choice, it was this one. And don’t give me bullshit about the futility of choice in a world of quantum physics or point at the coin toss with a smile. It’s nonsense. It has as much bearing as choosing to walk left or right out of the gate. But again, a small nitpick in comparison to endless irritation of hopping off of the world in an attempt to latch onto a skyhook.

Why is Bioshock Infinite so lauded?

But I’m still kind of excited about going back to Rapture in a few weeks.

I know tons of people who bemoaned the simplified gameplay of Bioshock 1 and even more sore the further reduced options of Infinite, but I mightily preferred playing Infinite compared to the first game, which I found an absolute chore. The vigors have a standard feel to them so you can intuitively pick up how to use them, you only have two weapons at a time so there's not as much of the "OH GOD AN ENEMY IS CHARGING ME I NEED ROCKETS CRUD I HAVE THE WRONG AMMO TYPE SO JUST FIRE EVERYTHING" crap that made firefights in Bioshock 1 a massive chore. You have actual sights, so you can approach enemies at range, and while Columbia is still pretty claustrophobic its leagues more open (see what I did there) than Rapture.

However...

the essential fun just wasn't there. The enemies become more bullet spongy and samey over time. The Heavy Hitters really didn't feel like they broke up gameplay or forced you to change tactics. Your screen is obnoxiously covered by the shield break effect (which happens all the time because your shields are so weak, even with infusions) and Booker is screaming from pain all the time that it's frankly awful to play through in instances. Even the weaknesses of previous Halo's sandbox or enemies were as nothing to what I felt playing Bioshock Infinite.

But I stuck with it, and that's because the story was good. Sure, it was a bit pretentious in places ("Will the Circle Be Unbroken Vignette" anyone, which is more irksome because you can't pick up this one damn apple like the rest of them because Elizabeth has to be nice with other people's food, GAH) and I think the end got a bit messy and Whovian with its "wibbly wobbly" approach to alternate universes... but I was invested in the world, despite its shortcomings and sermonizing (if you're expecting a theme beyond "all strident adherents to ideology are bad... well you haven't learned from Levin's playbook.) As weak as Columbia was in establishing a world... it still put more of an attempt into it than Halo has seen, and while Elizabeth still showed her seams in spots she was a companion who I genuinely cherished having (maybe if we'd had her instead of Kat, Reach wouldn't have fallen :P )

I read a lot of articles after the game came out accusing Levine of racism, which I thought was pure bullcrap; it's people reading into the game what they've already decided they're going to see. Fitzroy is a bad person not because of her skin color but because of Levine's simple approach to zealots. Hell, that ABC story linked above completely misses the point of the Native Americans being portrayed as cartoon savages, and once again shows his hand by the end that it's just a rant about "mainstream" game devs taking over indies. I *do* think there's merit to the argument that the over-the-top violence and blood in the game detract from the message; the opening assault on the police is wrenching in its gore, but the emphasis and gleeful focus on executions every time after that dilutes any meaning it had before. So I think Bioshock Infinite is just another example of a critically-acclaimed work of media that some people glom onto because they want to see smart, some people tear at because they want to be contrary, and a few good arguments can get lost in fanboy back-and-forth.

In short: the gameplay made me appreciate what every Halo, even Halo 4, gets right consistently. The story made me think about ways Halo could improve, as well as the genre as a whole.