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Geek Review: BioShock Infinite

By the time you lay your eyes on this article, we should be expecting the latest DLC for BioShock Infinite to be released. And if you still have yet to part your hard earned cash for this game, the Steam Summer Sale would be round the corner and the possibility of picking up BioShock Infinite on the cheap is a huge possibility.

Your review is months late, why did you take so long?

Well, when you have a full time job and other commitments, parking your butt down to complete this masterpiece is no easy feat. Coupled with the fact that I had played on Hard artificially extended the gameplay time of BioShock Infinite. While not the hardest game per se, Hard mode would give the seasoned FPS veteran enough challenge as he makes his way with limited ammunition and health.

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There’s no such thing as regenerative health bars here. Be prepared to make plenty of vending machine runs.

The other reason why I took so long (15 hours of gameplay to be exact) was that BioShock Infinite is like an amazing book, the solid pacing of the game made it hard for me to tear myself away from it. I had completed the game in two whole sittings spread evenly. It took me a span of 4 weeks to actually boot up the game after the first session for I knew the moment I played it again it would be for completion. And guess what, I did.

So if you were to replay it again what would you do different?

I would actually take my time with the game and stop to smell the roses, unlike the first BioShock, there isn’t any alternate ending so take your time with it. I would also play the game with a guide right from the start. I found that there are actually pretty good spoiler free guides that would be able to lead you to pick up all the hidden Infusion bottles (powerups that increases your health, status and Salt {mana} bars) which would be especially useful when tackling hard mode.

I had realized that halfway into the game that I had missed so many Infusions that I was actually working on a self imposed difficulty higher than the game had intended.

Taking your time to pick up all the audio logs scattered all over Columbia would be the ideal way to fill in all those questions that you have of BioShock Infinite right from the very start. I feel that the game could have done better to illustrate the story to those who play the game like the average FPS title.

Further to that, unlike other FPS titles, your weapons on hand feel extremely underpowered. Whether it was the circumstance of playing in Hard, my fully upgraded Rocket Launcher should be packing more of a punch. The game has a rather steep difficulty curve that largely depends on how you choose to spend your hard earned cash on weapon and Vigor upgrades.

The Siren
Protip: Turn down the sound when you see her. You will know when you hear it.

The punishing difficulty only adds to the satisfaction especially towards the tail end of the game but not at the start when your character is horribly underpowered. Hordes of enemies that you would have to mow through while having limited ammo forces you to employ constant hit and run tactics just to stay alive.

Did I also mention that you will run out of ammo many a occasion? Players will have to dig down hard into their entire repertoire of offensive attacks to take down the hordes of enemies. Anything less than a head-shot from a fully upgraded and scoped sniper rifle will take more than a few bullets to take down.

Thankfully, Elizabeth would be on hand to replenish your supply at dire moments. However, do not count that as a sure thing.

bioshock-escort-mission
I’m sorry….

It sounded that you had a torrid time to the game!

I must apologise if it does seem that way but this IS BioShock and the story itself is the only compelling reason that should be sufficient to compel the player to keep powering forward.

I am not the best individual with words in describing the storyline without any spoilers but the ending did leave me rather stumped and I did have to consult Google to gain a better understanding of the entire game.

BioShock was deep yet confusing for me.

Thankfully, there is an awesome community online who were willing to illustrate and explain every single detail and nuance BioShock Infinite has to offer. So, like I had earlier explained – take your time with the game and you would be richly rewarded.

Hold on to your wallet, for the Steam Summer Sales are just around the corner.

This title was reviewed on the PC platform, provided by the good folks at 2K Games Asia.

GEEK REVIEW SCORE

Summary

Worth its price at full value, even better when on sale.

Overall
8.6/10
8.6/10
  • Gameplay - 8.4/10
    8.4/10
  • Story - 10/10
    10/10
  • Presentation - 7/10
    7/10
  • Value - 8.8/10
    8.8/10
User Review
0 (0 votes)