BioShock Infinite - How I loved and hated it at the same time.

Judging by the reviews I've read, I think perhaps I'm the only person that was somewhat disappointed by BioShock Infinite. Don't get me wrong - it's a great game and better than most, but for me, it just wasn't quite right.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOLLOW

Right from the beginning of the game, something didn't seem quite right - the Lutece twins. Whilst undeniably well written and imagined characters, they aren't fitting for a "-Shock" title. They were just too chipper and too comedic. I couldn't help but like them and hate them at the same time. Except when they popped up in a "telescope" scene and ruined it, then I just hated them. Well done Irrational, they're good characters, but next time put them in a game more suited to their personalities.

Quantum-Physicists and part-time Jesters, the Lutece twins.

Much like the Luteces, Columbia itself was also an astoundingly well imagined city. Irrational did a stellar job on constructing Columbia and bringing it to life. The concept is of a city floating in the clouds is an absurd one. This is even more bizarre when you could quite believe it's a real city due to the amount of attention paid by the developers. The city is bright, and beautiful and full of wonderful technology. So what's wrong with it? The best way to explain would be to compare it to Rapture. At the beginning of BioShock, when you first enter Rapture and step in to the bathysphere, I was intrigued immediately. The city captured my imagination and I wanted to know what had happened there. I'd even say I was more interested in what had happened, than what was going to happen (although that, it turns out, was equally awesome). Columbia just didn't do that for me, and it didn't have that perfect "everything's gone to shit and you don't know why" hook.

A wonderfully bright and clean city doesn't really scream "dystopia".

Much as Columbia is an inferior setting to Rapture, Zachary Comstock is an inferior antagonist to Andrew Ryan. Comstock seemed apathetic in most of his rants, he seemed lifeless, dull, and boring. Listening to his recordings, I wasn't sure whether he was ranting about something, or just reading some snippet of monologue from a cue-card. Andrew Ryan however, was full of passion, in my opinion Ryan is one of the most emotive video game characters of all time.

Staying with characters here, Booker is inferior to Jack, for one reason - he has a voice. Playing as Booker I felt like I was watching Booker's story unfold, like it was him exploring Columbia. Playing as Jack in BioShock, I felt more connected with the world as Jack didn't have a voice, he had no thoughts, no opinions and he didn't give me helpful hints on what to do. It was me exploring Rapture, and it was me surviving against the hordes of Splicers.

Which leads me nicely on to the enemies. Policemen. Seriously Irrational? Freaking policemen? Is that the best you can do? The Splicers are quite possibly my favourite video game bad guy of all time. Each splicer seemed unique and had unique phrases, which had been expertly acted and captured. Their derangement and depravity instilled fear, and the variety was great - different Splicers could be dealt with in different ways using ammo types and tactics. What do you get in Infinite? Racist (read: stereotypical) policemen, that ALL have guns. The enemies were the biggest disappointment of all. They didn't even use Vigors for crying out loud.

And that too was upsetting. The Vigor & Kit system was no where nearly as well thought out or deep as the Plasmid & Tonic System. There were a handful of Vigors which were of limited use. There were a far greater selection of Plasmids, which made for a far greater variety of gameplay. One of the Vigors even completely substituted the hacking system from BioShock. What was that all about? The hacking system was great!

I also sorely missed the inability to carry health packs, and to scavenge for bits and pieces to make ammunition with, these were great features of BioShock which made it more of a survival game than and action FPS, complete with god damn health regeneration.

It was a great game, and the story was amazing, no disappointments there, but it's clearly been dumbed down for the masses and converted in to another action FPS. Okay, so the Vigors add a slight difference, but not enough to distinguish the gameplay from any FPS in which you can dual-wield.

In short, yes, Infinite is a fantastic FPS, but it just isn't a game worthy of the BioShock title.

Plus - why did they get rid of the Big Daddies?