By: Kyle Fee
I remember back in the September of
2007 I only had a few minutes to play the new game I had gotten before I got
rushed to a football game. In those few
minutes of playing the original Bioshock I remember looking at the city of
Rapture below the sea being awe-stricken by how different this setting was. The idea of a city below the
ocean and all the great ideas of plasmids and big daddies was what made it such
an amazing game. Now the sequel was good
but lacked the same feeling you received when you initially set eyes on Rapture
for the first time….lets fast forward to the now. Here we are and Irrational games has created
a fresh new game. Just like entering
Rapture, seeing the city of Columbia floating amongst the clouds was totally
different and never before seen (Bespin in Star Wars games doesn’t count). and
Irrational has again succeeded in making me dumbstruck by the imagery and
graphics of the game.
The year is 1912 and we are immediately
introduced to Brooker Dewitt. The
character you play as through the game.
He is sent to this city for one thing, find a girl and wipe away his
debt. This term or phrase will be heard
a lot as you play through the game so to avoid any spoilers that’s all I will
say about that. Now the girl you’re off
to find is Elizabeth, a young girl locked away in a massive tower. Now almost like a Damsel in distress, you free
her from her locked castle. After that
you will meet many more characters in an attempt to escape Columbia. The main villain here is Zachary Hale
Comstock. The charismatic leader of
Columbia. His word is law and life for
the people is perfect, that is if you’re not one of the hated groups of people
in Comstock’s eyes. The idea of racism
and segregation is strong here, but it plays a key part of this game. Going back to Elizabeth, she is one of the
stronger female characters I have ever seen in a video game. The way she is portrayed, and the voice acting
for her is indeed great. When she is
beside you during the game, she doesn’t run for cover and does nothing but she
seeks ammunition, health and salts for your vigor’s (I will discuss that in a
minute). She can open tears that allow
weapon drops, allies and cover to spawn in game to help you during combat. So as for that to you will be thankful for
having Elizabeth around.
As
for Combat in Bioshock, it’s great. At
first when I initially played I was not too impressed, but after a few more
combat scenarios or fights broke out during the game I was hooked. The weapons are all different and offer their
own way of going about fighting, rather it be a simple machine gun or a shotgun
blunderbuss or a RPG, the weapons will all play into the game in different ways
and allow for different way to approach a fight. The citizens of Columbia utilize Zeppelins,
small hovering boat look alikes, and the skyline to travel across the city of
Columbia. Now why do I mention this?
Well the skyline plays a key factor in movement in the game and also a awesome
way to get around enemies and dive on them for a quick melee attack. This was cool and once again allowed for
quick tactical decisions for combat. Now
for Vigor’s, the equivalent of Plasmids from the original Bioshock. Some similar to the older ones but some
creative ones like my favorite Murder of crows which allows a swarm of crows to
peck their way at enemies and help you attack them while they are being
swarmed. So with Vigor’s, aerial
attacks, weapons and tear’s allow for combat to be solid and work amazingly in
Bioshock Infinite.
Bioshock Infinite has a different
feel to it. That’s what made me feel
like the game was great. You fight
enemy’s that range from the common solider to the brutish Handy man (Equivalent
to the big daddy from Bioshock). It has
a great story and though I didn’t divulge into as much (to avoid spoilers), that is also very good. The story moves
along and even though you expect a twist to come, you’re expecting it but you still won’t see it coming at all.
The combat works great and is still extremely different than what we
come to expect from first person shooters and allows for the player to engage
in combat from different angles. Overall
my time with Bioshock was great, I still had to complain about the small things
but it was still a great experience.
Good:
-Great visuals
-Great story
-Combat is different and Irrational
was able to provide a different experience once more
-Great characters, especially Dewitt
and Elizabeth
Bad:
-Visuals were great but lack a little
on counsels, for best experience use on P.C if you have a good RIG