Pretty much everything except for gameplay is really well done here. The visuals, music, and writing are all really good for a Paper Mario game. I just couldn't be bothered with the ring mechanic especially without any incentive to do so. Then the whole 4 elements parts felt out of place and forced, always leading to an expected dungeon then an expected boss fight. The last act of the game is where it really stood out since that typical pattern was absent.

I can't write a review without mentioning how strangely sad this game was. Maybe it's because I expected nothing but the usual Mario-esque story but both Bobby and the ending actually felt sad ;(

Also for context this is coming from someone who has still yet to play the first two Paper Mario games.

This is my second playthrough, one that immediately followed a replay of the original Bioshock instead of the opposite when I first played Infinite.

I now see why people have come back and taken their 10/10 ratings away. Gameplay-wise the game feels like so much of stepdown from the more sandbox-like world of Rapture. The risk vs reward hacking, a lot more plasmids, the camera system, and so on are missing. Even with something as not having physics on objects takes away from that feeling.

It's obvious that Irrational Games had more planned for the game from all the demos and trailers that appeared years before release so it's sad to see so much cut.

But it keeps a pretty great story within it's more linear gameplay. When I first played the game back on release, it blew my mind. Although I see more plot holes now than before, I still really enjoyed the concept of Columbia. It's such a unique setting and could only make sense in the Bioshock universe.