Bioshock: Infinite

I probably played through the whole game on hard mode in like 4-5 hours and I think there were a couple holes in the story (it might have been me breezing through everything because I haven't had too much time lately, I want to get a slower playthrough in at some point) such as how Elizabeth ended up being able to jump through timelines and/or create new ones. It was just never really explained. Probably the only major downfalls that I can think of.

The rest of it was easy enough to put together, you're Comstock if you were to get baptized (which I thought was sort of brilliant since that's how the game started and you saw the first flashback). The two Lutece(s) were really the same person in different timelines and they gave Booker's daughter (Elizabeth) to the Booker (Comstock) from a different timeline after his wife/girlfriend died giving birth. The Booker you play as tried to forget about giving away Elizabeth, but everything came back (I assume that's what caused the bloody nose and the flashback-like stuff) and the Lutece(s) took him to get his daughter. Only thing I didn't like about the story was that at the end everyone just died and/or vanished.

The fact that it sort of tied into the original Bioshock where everything started with a lighthouse and you ended up visiting Rapture was really cool, but I just didn't get that spooky, dark, *** up feeling that Rapture gave me (except when you were following around Comstock's wife's ghost, but that part of the story could have been expanded much further), and that was also somewhat disappointing.

Overall opinion:
Best game ever? No. Really good? Yes. Better than the original? No. GOTY? Probably.

The origin of Elizabeth's power, and who her mother is, were the only two major story points that were missed that couldn't be explained away using the alternate universes/timelines. Hopefully some of that is addressed in the DLC, we'll see.

The first is how well the original created an atmosphere that meshed exactly with the story. One example: The fall of Rapture was as much tied in with the splicers getting drugged up on tonics and plasmids and losing their minds as it was because of the social unrest caused by Ryan and Lamb. Vigors felt like they deserved more of a story, here they felt more a secondary product of an amazing flying city than an engine of social unrest.

The story seemed predictable to me, in a sense that the whole WYK scene from Bioshock really knocked me on my ***, where I predicted the Dewitt/Comstock revelation an hour or so before the end of the game. I don't know whether its because I paid more attention to the story, whether they left more clues in Infinite, or because I was just used to Levine's plot twists. I would have prefered to been as shocked as I was in the original Bioshock, but it was still a fantastic story all the same.

Well, you know her mother is Anna and died giving birth to her, probably what made Booker give her to whichever Lutece is from his timeline. I guess you never meet her, but that seemed like a choice rather than just missing information.

The storyline was good, it was just short. I'd like to see quite a bit more information on the songbird (you never got to fight it, that was insanely disappointing), on Comstock's wife (maybe if you actually went into those timelines instead of just looking at them a little bit), and how/why Elizabeth has her powers.

Oh! Another thing. You were able to completely avoid all of the Boys of Silence. I had to go back and get found by one on purpose just to see what the hell they did. The Mechanized Patriot and Handyman were done pretty well, I thought, but the Boys of Silence were the creepiest part and they never really got explored, just thrown in right at the end of the game.

Well Anna is Elizabeth's real name. I don't know that it was her Mother's name as well. It might've been, but things start getting really sketchy around the whole forgetting thing. That's one of the weaker parts of the story, because he has the brand as penance for giving Anna away, and calls out her name a couple times when regaining consciousness early int he game, but in several timelines seems to forget her. That can kind of be forgiven due to the whole time/universe jumping effects.

Oh, I figured Anna was her mother's name, you're probably right.

Story was great and I loved the tie in that it was an alternate reality to the rapture universe at the end. I have to admit at the time it didn't really click and my main thought was "Please let me fight a big daddy for old times sake" but after it kinda hit me like a truck. All in all, I find it very hard to find many flaws with the story, and I think any that I could find are rather small; largely based in not finding all the recordings despite looking all over, or in the fact of how infinite the multiverse theory really is.

Game was pure art until the city fell apart. Through the dimension that you are the martyr of the revolution the atmosphere is amazing and thoroughly in-depth. At some point after that (it was too gradual for me to say an exact moment) it felt like it dropped off. I don't mean "I miss the pretty clouds" I mean that the actual effort seemed lacking. It wasn't enough to ruin the game, but given the effort put into the early game it detracted a bit. The largest issue I had along these lines: Why are most, if not all, the Vox Populi on the final airship fight white (and not Irish looking)?

Main issue I had with the game was that I found that the game design leading up to the battles, or my inability to predict a situation, was lacking. The over abundance of guns lead me to enter battles scrambling for the right gun for the situation. Many times before a fight, I would open a locked room and inside find some gun that would be unlikely to have at that point otherwise. I'd think "Oh if I had to use keys to get this sniper, it is probably good to have for an upcoming fight" only to end up in a fight where I'm way too close to effectively snipe anything (granted, snipers are surprisingly good close range weapons against handymen). This lead me to carrying the carbine and a machine gun or shotgun for 85% of the game as I found them very balanced but which prevented me from taking advantage of the multitude of other weapons.

The actual fighting on fights where I had the correct guns was fun. In fact, almost every fight I eventually got into the "whats the best move to make now" type mentality that actually makes shooters fun. The automated patriots were kind of pushovers, but handymen definitely managed to still make me panic when one started attacking me. Compared to big daddys in 1 (at least early in 1), I didn't feel quite as intimidated. Compared to anything else, ***.

Salts were fun but effectively fighting enemies quickly got me down to only using 3 (horse, shock, crows and crows were only for handymen normally). Only other complaints about them was that I didn't find them all that interesting to use early on.

100% will play through it again soon at least one more time on 1999 mode. This will I assume alleviate most of my complaints with the battle system as I'll know what fights to expect and be better prepared, plus having more difficult intense battles.

Other stuff (spoilered again because they are very specific)

They attempt to explain it, though it is kind of weak. Early on in the game there is a voxaphone that Lutece postulates "What makes the girl different? I suspect is has less to do with what she is, and rather more with what she is not. A small part of her remains from where she came. It would seem the universe does not like its peas mixed with its porridge."

Yeah I think the carbine was one of the better weapons in the game. It had excellent balance between medium-short and medium-long range. It's damage/shot was also well balanced with the total ammo stockpile size. I didn't never run out of ammo, but it was rare that I felt overly pressured with the carbine, even with infrequent ammo purchases. I did make an effort to clear as many kill objectives with each gun, so that made it a little more difficult.

In regards to the necklace, I'm not sure it makes a major change in the story, and I'm not sure there are any significant decision points in the story. Which kinda made me sad because even if there was only one major decision point in bs 1/2 it still had a significant influence on the ending.

The children of silence were fun, I found that fire crows or shock crows were invaluable at that point. Upgraded crows are powerful in any fight you can force enemies to funnel along paths to kill you. The traps the crows create just end up creating a chain reaction that really make them much more valuable than the initial slat cost would seem.

I really liked both Anna and Booker, and they essentially killed both of them off. Super. ***. depressing!

I think the only really frustrating part was trying to be sure the airship lived long enough to get to the statue thing when you had 3-4 mechanized patriots trying to kill it.

but I found that as long as I could distract things and put up the protect/absorb/throwshitbackatpeople/absorb ammo tonic thing I was fine, and there were pretty much unlimited salts throughout that part.

As soon as I get the time (probably this weekend) I wanna give 1999 mode a shot.

Bought this shirt, and while asking people if the design should go on the front or back, someone said "upside down!" I laughed about it, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks.