Thursday, April 11, 2013

Thoughts on Bioshock Infinite (VERY SPOILERY)

So, I finished the game.  I semi rushed through it.  (Basically, I kept a list nearby that had all the audiodiary and other background info locations.  That way I wouldn't really have to search.)  And... Because of a mindscrewy ending, I'm still digesting it.  ((I'm also trying to figure out if it makes less or more sense then the idea of Timetravel in Kingdom Hearts.  The only time Time Travel really works is in Doctor Who... and Back to the Future.))

Anyway,  the big twist in the end is Colmstock IS Booker from an alternate time line, and Elizabeth is actually Anna, his daughter, which he kind of sold.  Also, Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite are "What If's" of eachother and there will ALWAYS be "A man, a city, and a lighthouse." 

Part of the reason why I love Bioshock 1 is how much we learn about the city.  There are 127 Audio Diaries.  These Diaries, when not found in random boxes, are often linked to one another, the city, and are found next to the people's corpses or in significant areas.  (In most circumstances.)  While the focus of Bioshock Infinite shifted from the city to the people, they never felt as connected.  All the dimension hopping left several questions unanswered, (and made a few things more confusing)  And yet it still feels brilliant.

The city is not the focus, I get that, but in Bioshock we connected to the city through the people. Through the audio diaries.  Through exploring homes.

Which, that's actually my main issue with Infinite.  Our inability to explore.  Many of the shops were blocked, the differences between the universes were not explored (Seriously, I want to find out a bit more about the old universes and what happened?  What about Earth1 Daisy?)  I'm not saying the universe had to lack gravity but... we never really found out the differences.  And, I wanted to do that. I wanted to look more into each store, how would they differ?  In Bioshock 1 we got to visit many stores, and they were drastically different.  There were a lot of stores, and they could be different, but those were only in a few levels.

((That being said, Finktown and Lutece Labs/Memorial Gardens was glorious.  But I wish other areas got that much detail))

So, in the end, my main issue was the lack of background detail.  It didn't help that battles were set up to move you along instead of letting you evaluate things.  The battles rushed you through when I wanted to explore.  I was almost livid when a Mandatory Finkton fight kept me from listening to everyone talking.  I actually RESET so I could hear what people said.  It was fascinating.  And I did NOT need fights all the way through the levels.

Yes, Bioshock did regularly spawn enemies, but as long as you did the initial clear out, you were usually okay.  There were a lot of flagged enemy encounters and it was...distracting.  I could not look at the lack of detail when I was in a firefight.  The firefights had much more enemies then a Bioshock fight and, as a result, I was just tired and wanted to move on when I was finished, rather than interested in exploring. 

In addition, the Vox Populi threads were dropped.  Yes, there was no more reason (and I understand that)  But they never really dove into how it got started.  We have the fact the founders are gigantic racists and Daisy was wrongly accused of murder, but other than that, we have nothing.  I want to know more, I want to know about her lieutenants, I want to know how Daisy Prime would react compared to Daisy world 3, What happened in World 2 before and after you left? 


We don't know.  And this is prime world building areas. 

While I honestly liked the game, I feel like we were cheated out of some of it.  We were cheated out of what made Columbia, Columbia.  We don't know more of the ins and outs.  We don't know of the random friendships, complaints about the Sander Cohen characters for stealing apprentices, we follow a female soldier throughout the game through the audio diaries, and then she just disappears!

We don't have all those little and random bits and pieces of locations and character knowledge that make the first game so wonderful. The game is still great, but it's one step short of amazing.


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