Bioshock Infinite is a weird game to look back on almost ten years later. I guess a bit of forewarning: I gave this game three stars because I had fun playing it, and not because I think it's this intelligent masterpiece like everyone did in 2013. I had fun with it, and I'm not ashamed to admit that.

I believe the biggest issue people have with this nowadays is that it uses very real, touchy subject matter in a way that's less than ideal. And listen: I get that. But at the same time, I don't think it's as bad as it's been made out to be. (im dum) To me, it's more a case of two benefactors than the one maligned force of malevolence. One, Ken Levine is absolutely an "idea guy," and the games industry worships him because it wants to legitimize itself. I refuse to call him an auteur because, while that theory has SOME credibility, it's an increasingly archaic theory in an ever-changing world--and that's when it comes to film. When it comes to games, you can't "fix it in post" because "post" doesn't exist. You can tell your team of level designers what changes you might want to see in a certain area, but generally speaking, making games is a very iterative process that requires a lot of creative talent. At any moment in time, the supposed auteur can be proven wrong. If nobody is there to tell him "no," he'll probably spend several years developing an ambitious, open-ended game with complex moral choices that doesn't run on the current hardware it's targeting--which my gut tells me is exactly what happened in Infinite's case. If there's the feeling that something's missing here, it's because there is. Factions were supposed to be more fleshed out, and the world was going to be more active. The two-to-three moral choices that show up were supposed to be twelve to twenty, and their impact was slated to be massive. In the finished game, it doesn't matter what pin you make Elizabeth wear or who you decide to throw the baseball at. Either way, you'll need to pick up a gun and shoot at people. The second factor is that, while it took someone a long time to tell Levine to be more realistic with his ideas, you bet your ass somebody was probably on board to keep things from getting too controversial. The mantra of the AAA market isn't just to make the biggest games possible but also to appeal to the broadest demographic they can. Occasionally, there's a game that breaks this mold. But those games are the exception to a long-standing rule, which Bioshock Infinite proves. Bioshock Infinite clearly wants to say something about America but pulls so many of its punches it's almost like watching a boxing match played in reverse. Much of what it has to say is gestured at but never explored because saying any more than it does would offend someone. If there's the chance that portraying a character a certain way will turn a demographic away, they put a centrist spin on the matter and say, "well, but the other side's not too good, either." It's not offensive to me, nor is it disgusting: it's bland and willfully ignorant instead. The political takes in Bioshock Infinite are probably the same ones you heard all the time in 2016 and during the Trump presidency, which might explain why many have found this to have gotten more grating over time. In my personal opinion, it's annoying and absolutely takes away from the overall product. But it's never so much that you can't have mindless fun with this if that's what you're seeking. If the idea of a game that tackles real-world subject matter in that way is indefensible to you, I can see why you'd hate something like this.

As for that mindless fun, I found it to be pretty engaging. The combat in Bioshock Infinite isn't groundbreaking, and it won't change the way you look at games. But it's solid, has a few pretty cool ideas, and is enjoyable to play with from beginning to end. The highlight of the show here is the verticality some of the levels have. It's pretty limited, but using a skyline to jump onto a ship so you can blow up its turrets before hopping off to a hook somewhere else rarely gets old. It's a feature that could make for a more exciting game if embraced for more than combat and minor traversal. As it stands, though, its inclusion still leaves a lasting impression and gives levels that would otherwise feel pretty empty some much-needed weight. The mechanic of using tears in the fabric of time to spawn in support items is also neat, although it's hardly as groundbreaking as the game wants it to be. There's nothing forcing you to switch between tears, and the two-weapon limit means that you might never need to use some of what's offered because the rocket launcher Elizabeth is trying to give you doesn't have enough ammo for the current fight or because you already have a much better weapon in store. There are also obligatory weapon upgrades which feel more tacked on than necessary. I don't mind weapon upgrades when they're done well, but Infinite's roster of upgrades only offers stat increases. That's bad enough, but paired with the two-weapon limit, spending money to upgrade a weapon is useless because you'll probably be stuck in a section without that weapon or ammo for it further down the line. But all of these pale when compared to what REALLY kills this game's pace: there's just too much combat. I know that feels like a weird complaint about a first-person shooter, but bear with me: an essential aspect of pacing a good shooter is called "quiet time." Quiet time, as its name spells out, is giving the player enough time to process each individual combat section so they don't all blur together. Bioshock Infinite does have this, but it's very inconsistent with how its use is handled. Sometimes you're given ample time to process things, while other times, it feels like a rush from one set-piece to the next. While I certainly had fun with this game, very few of its levels stick out to me for this reason.

All-in-all, Bioshock Infinite is an okay time if you're not willing to think about anything that happens in it and just go along with the ride. Looking back on it in this way, it's still a transparently flawed title with what could charitably be described as a hellish development cycle (if the differences between pre-release footage and the final game are to be believed), and if you're not willing to forgive the game for that, I don't blame you.

Quick edit: Apparently, there's a MASSIVE Wikipedia page dedicated this game's development, and uhhh...

" 2K later hired Don Roy in March 2012, a former game producer from Sony and Microsoft. Roy found that there [was] no effective playable build of Infinite, and Irrational had outsourced so much of the content of the game but failed to have any process to bring that back into their internal production line that the content was effectively lost, leading to a lot of wasted costs and time. Roy stepped in to streamline the production processes and try to bring the game back on track."

Yeah, sometimes it's good to trust your gut.

Here's the link to that page if you're curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_BioShock_Infinite