Woof. From a design and gameplay standpoint, what we have here is a betrayal of nearly everything that was great about the first two Bioshock games. What makes this game truly execrable, though, is its politics, which only appear worse in the post-Trump nightmare zone that is the USA in 2021.
I admit to being befuddled by the praise this game received as a gameplay experience, because it seems to me that it’s a pale shadow of what came before. One really obvious change is that there are basically no longer any true immersive sim elements here. The first two Bioshocks were really only loosely connected to that tradition, but those connections were what made Rapture feel like an actual place. All of that’s gone here. Columbia looks great at first, sure, but we’re missing so much about how it actually functions as a city. Remember how the tonics you found in the first two Bioshocks actually helped flesh out the world and told you something about how people lived in Rapture (in addition to allowing for a multitude of builds)? Remember how the audio diaries told short stories about the areas you were exploring and actually were placed in logical spaces (in Infinite, by contrast, you will find recordings of Comstock discussing his evil plans in a drawer in someone’s random apartment)? Pretty much all of that is tossed out the window in this game, for reasons that I can’t begin to fathom. What we’re left with is simply an extended corridor shooter with bullet sponge enemies in a setting that looks cool but never feels alive and coherent in the same way Rapture did.
How did this happen? My honest guess, based on what came out about this game’s troubled development, is that the devs spent a chunk of their time building Columbia as a fully developed, immersive sim-style successor to Rapture, but then switched focus midway through to incorporate the many-worlds plot. If so, the end result is that neither element reaches its potential. I like Elizabeth well enough both as a character and as a gameplay feature, and some of the more mind-bending aspects of the alternate realities plot are admittedly rather clever. But on the other hand, there are a lot of things about the many-worlds aspect of the story that straight-up make zero sense (indeed, considering her vast powers, it seems like Elizabeth could’ve skipped Booker past a lot of this trouble).
All of these issues pale in comparison to the repulsive and cynical handling of the political issues in this game. This is a game that shamelessly exploits the historical trauma of minority groups in America for cheap shock value…and that’s just in the first 15 minutes. In a grotesque display of cynicism, this is a game which suggests that exploited minority groups suffering under the yoke of a cabal of racist ultra-nationalists would be just as bad as their oppressors if they were in power. Seriously, it’s mealy-mouthed, ‘both sides’ centrism at its very worst.
As an avid fan of the series, I had high expectations for Infinite. Alas, it completely falls flat for me, both as a sequel and on its own terms.
I admit to being befuddled by the praise this game received as a gameplay experience, because it seems to me that it’s a pale shadow of what came before. One really obvious change is that there are basically no longer any true immersive sim elements here. The first two Bioshocks were really only loosely connected to that tradition, but those connections were what made Rapture feel like an actual place. All of that’s gone here. Columbia looks great at first, sure, but we’re missing so much about how it actually functions as a city. Remember how the tonics you found in the first two Bioshocks actually helped flesh out the world and told you something about how people lived in Rapture (in addition to allowing for a multitude of builds)? Remember how the audio diaries told short stories about the areas you were exploring and actually were placed in logical spaces (in Infinite, by contrast, you will find recordings of Comstock discussing his evil plans in a drawer in someone’s random apartment)? Pretty much all of that is tossed out the window in this game, for reasons that I can’t begin to fathom. What we’re left with is simply an extended corridor shooter with bullet sponge enemies in a setting that looks cool but never feels alive and coherent in the same way Rapture did.
How did this happen? My honest guess, based on what came out about this game’s troubled development, is that the devs spent a chunk of their time building Columbia as a fully developed, immersive sim-style successor to Rapture, but then switched focus midway through to incorporate the many-worlds plot. If so, the end result is that neither element reaches its potential. I like Elizabeth well enough both as a character and as a gameplay feature, and some of the more mind-bending aspects of the alternate realities plot are admittedly rather clever. But on the other hand, there are a lot of things about the many-worlds aspect of the story that straight-up make zero sense (indeed, considering her vast powers, it seems like Elizabeth could’ve skipped Booker past a lot of this trouble).
All of these issues pale in comparison to the repulsive and cynical handling of the political issues in this game. This is a game that shamelessly exploits the historical trauma of minority groups in America for cheap shock value…and that’s just in the first 15 minutes. In a grotesque display of cynicism, this is a game which suggests that exploited minority groups suffering under the yoke of a cabal of racist ultra-nationalists would be just as bad as their oppressors if they were in power. Seriously, it’s mealy-mouthed, ‘both sides’ centrism at its very worst.
As an avid fan of the series, I had high expectations for Infinite. Alas, it completely falls flat for me, both as a sequel and on its own terms.