Game Reviews

Don't get me wrong, Infinite is still a good game. But it's the type of game that's best played once. First time through, you're caught up in the amazing visuals and the floating city of Columbia, the emotional beats and the mind bending ending. It’s an experience. But in subsequent playthroughs the cracks are starting to show. You begin to question the story, pick apart the inconsistencies, and realize that no matter how many times you think about it, certain things just don't add up. The narrative tries to be clever, but the more you examine it, the more it falls apart.

Visually, the game is stunning and honestly, that's probably the one area where it genuinely outshines the other two Bioshock games. Columbia is breathtaking, the art direction is impeccable, and the atmosphere is unforgettable. But beyond that, Infinite struggles to live up to its predecessors.

One of the biggest issues is how many ideas the game sets up and then completely abandons. Great promise is shown with the introduction of the Order of the Raven, Comstock House, and several other plot threads, yet they are never mentioned again, or resolved in unsatisfying ways. It’s like the developers had a million ideas and tried to shove them all in one game. So there are a lot of loose ends and wasted potential.

The story is all over the place trying to mash a bunch of different plotlines together, religious extremism, racism, quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and personal redemption, into one cohesive story. The result is a messy, convoluted mess that doesn't quite work. The characters are frustratingly inconsistent, saying one thing one minute and then contradicting themselves the next. It is hard to stay invested when you don’t know who to trust or why they are doing what they are doing.

Honestly I think if Infinite hadn't been a Bioshock game it might have been better received. It could have been a sci-fi shooter in its own right, free from the burden of being compared to its legendary forebears. But unfortunately, that's not what we got. It carries the Bioshock name, and with that comes certain expectations that it simply doesn't meet.