BioShock Infinite Review (Debjit_M)
One of the best story-rich FPS of all time.
If you've played BioShock 1 & 2, especially 1, then you're in for a treat & I'd suggest you to buy both Burial at Sea DLCs. The ending of the main game will blow your mind. Those DLCs kinda travels back to the very beginning & wrap things up, explains what started it all, why & when.
If you've never played any previous BioShock games, I'd suggest you to buy this game anyway for the amazing game-play mechanics paired with a unique combat system. Stay away from both Burial at Sea DLCs as you'll probably have no idea what's going on.
Get Clash in the Clouds DLC for some creative combat challenges. Columbia's Finest DLC isn't worth it unless you're looking to complete your BioShock collection.
Environment
The game takes place in a floating city. The city is really beautiful & no place feels empty. The game does an awesome job at visual storytelling as you'd expect from a BioShock game. There are so many assets in every corner of the map, which makes you wanna actually take the time to look at them instead of just walking past them to continue with your current objective. It's worth mentioning that you never die from falling off the city during combat or exploration. You'll just spawn very close to the area you were in - almost instantly without any consequences. You can still die from dropping to the ground from really high heights though, especially if your health is low. If you're looking for some good soundtracks, this game has none. No music matches with the different atmospheres the game has to offer. This is really not that noticeable because most of the time there's several sound effects of whatever is happening around you, along with various NPC dialogues. Almost every level has some Sky-Lines & Freight Hooks which is an awesome way to traverse the area. Overall, the world feels very detailed & alive. Don't expect realistic graphics though, as the game is from 2013 but still, I think graphics could have been better. Lights are way too bright in some places & it can be annoying at times. Meshes of a few objects look really outdated. At least Elizabeth looks beautiful - you don't want to spend your time with a character that looks ugly. Engraved weapons look great too.
Story
I'll try my best not to spoil anything but if you think you should skip this section, feel free to do so.
When you arrive at the floating city, the game puts all the combat aside to let you take a good look at what kind of things you might expect to encounter in the near future, that level is very well designed. It's like a tutorial without it feeling like a tutorial, if that makes sense. Unlike the previous games where the main climaxes were at the very end, this game throws in some twists every now & then but saves the big surprise for the end. This doesn't make any of your mission feel boring even though the game is quite long. There are Voxophones scattered throughout the game which serve as audio logs & most of them contain important information of the main story-line. I highly recommend finding & listening to all of them. You'll do most of your journey with Elizabeth. She'll interact with various objects in the world & speak some dialogues at certain locations, after seeing some objects etc. You'll never feel like you're with a lifeless character the game is forcing you to be with for the story. She has so many dialogues & some of them are surprising & funny. The story of this game is really very complex. It's a good thing that you can replay every single chapter of the game. So if you don't understand something (especially near the end), just replay the chapter & try to listen carefully what the character(s) are saying. There is only 1 ending however, you'll be presented with some choices during the main story-line, none of them will affect the ending. The choice to throw the ball in the early level has a benefit of giving you 1 extra Gear later in the game. Choosing what Elizabeth wears (bird or cage) is purely cosmetic. Choosing to take a knife to the hand or shooting first is mostly cosmetic too except it'll only affect 2 dialogues in the same level & won't be brought up again.
Game-play
You have 1 weapon in one hand & 1 Vigor in the other. Vigors provide unique powers that can help you in combat & with some other stuff in the environment. Using vigors require Salts. Elizabeth can find salts, money, health & ammo for you from time to time, even during combat. There are total 14 weapons & 8 vigors in the main game. 12 of your weapons & all vigors can be upgraded. You can have 2 weapons at a time, not counting the melee weapon & can have all of your vigors at the same time but can only carry 2 vigors for quick-access. All upgrades require purchases using in-game money in different types of vending machines. There are total 3 different vending machines that you can use: "Minuteman's Armory" for upgrading weapons, "Veni! Vidi! Vigor!" for upgrading vigors & "Dollar Bill" for purchasing general stuff like ammo, health & salts. These machines can be found in lots of places. You can find in-game currency Silver Eagles in so many places in the game. You can search tons of things in the world to find food, ammo, salts, health & money. All this might seem a bit confusing but it's really not. You can do a little trick on vending machines with a vigor of yours to get more benefits.
Combat
Combat is awesome in the game & there are a lot of enemy encounters. What makes combat fun is the combination of vigor usage & taking advantage of sky-lines among other stuff thanks to Elizabeth. Using a vigor followed by another one can have cool effects. You have an arguably invisible Shield that absorbs some of the damage before breaking but it recharges automatically & infinite number of times without the need of any resources. Don't be disappointed in the fact that you can only carry 2 main weapons at a time. There's always that perfect weapon for that perfect situation - dead enemies also drop weapons. You can choose to keep a heavy hitting weapon as a secondary for emergencies & keep switching your primary weapon to try out different stuff as there are a lot of weapons available. Enemy encounters, most of the time come with a few normal enemies, some machines & a mini-boss near the end. There are 11 enemy types in the main game. From the weakest to strongest (in my opinion): Founder's Police & its Vox alternative, Gun Automation, Mosquito, Rocket Automation, Zealot of the Lady, Beast, Fireman, Boy of Silence, Motorized Patriot & its Vox alternative, Siren, Handyman & its Vox alternative. Of course, you'll not encounter them in that order in the game. You can temporarily turn any enemy into your side, ask for Elizabeth's help in combat & can do really great stuff if there's a sky-line available near the fighting area. It's important to note that Elizabeth doesn't need protection during any combat encounters as she'll stay hidden behind a cover. Elizabeth can help you by opening a Tear of your choice during combat, that can bring weapons / ammo / health / salts / freight hooks / covers etc. You have a useful melee weapon that can perform executions on most enemies & it also helps you use freight hooks & sky-lines. Defeating mini-bosses require different strategies & it's a good thing. Some of the vigors are great for laying down traps & for specific enemy types while others are just fun to use in general.
Conclusion
This game has a mind blowing story & one of a kind combat system. It's so hard to think of any reason why I should not recommend this to someone. Get this game even if you don't care about the story, the combat & overall game-play will more than make up for it.