Many
big budget games rely on the player overcoming violent opposition to progress. Taking
place in the floating city of Columbia during its yearly fair, BioShock Infinite’s first hour makes a
compelling argument that this needn’t be the case. Columbia is mysterious. Posters bear cryptic references to prophecies
you don’t yet understand; ambient dialogue and seemingly innocuous fairground
games hint at a culture where racism is rife; stalls show off curiously
advanced technology for a game set in 1912. Everywhere you look in BioShock Infinite, scraps of Columbia’s backstory are incorporated
organically into the landscape, and each one you discover pulls the curtain
back a little further. This process of discovery is so tantalising that you’ll
never find your trigger finger itching. When the curtain comes all the way back
and the extent of Columbia’s prejudice is laid bare, it’s one of the most
incredible scenes in gaming to date.
Beautiful but oppressive, Columbia is a utopia to its inhabitants but a dystopia to us,
which makes exploring it a fascinatingly conflicted experience. While playing BioShock Infinite, I began my exploration of new areas by checking where my next objective was before immediately
setting off in the opposite direction. This was always rewarded with something interesting: a sinister statue here, an explanatory voice recording there. The
sense of curiosity is emphasised through Elizabeth, the woman the player
character, Booker DeWitt, has been sent Columbia to rescue. Held captive since
birth, Elizabeth is endlessly inquisitive, and her excitement at seeing the
outside world for the first time mirrors our own at exploring Columbia. It’s a
shame, though, that combat is so pervasive that Infinite’s exploration and discovery never again feels as pure as it does
during the first hour.
This
isn’t to say that combat isn’t enjoyable. There are plenty unique features that
set BioShock Infinite apart from
other shooters. Most interesting are the vigors, supernatural abilities similar
to BioShock’s plasmids. Vigors have
been designed with plenty of imagination, and it’s always a pleasure to deploy
them in battle. Bucking Bronco, for example, catapults enemies into the air to
the sounds of horses whinnying, while Possession takes the form of a ghostly
woman whispering in your target’s ear. Infinite’s
gunplay is also an improvement over BioShock’s,
though for all their period stylings, its firearms feel dull in comparison
to the vigors. You can also use zip lines to get the jump on enemies, or have Elizabeth
conjure cover, supplies, and allies into the fray, meaning you’re never short
of options in battle. There are problems with the enemies, though. Lacking the
unhinged menace of the original BioShock’s
splicers, the interchangeable canon fodder is instantly forgettable. More
powerful foes such as Handymen and Motorised Patriots have clearly had more
attention lavished on them, but they appear too often and are dispatched too
easily to capture your imagination and instil fear in the same way that Big
Daddies did.
Booker
and Elizabeth’s story is initially intertwined with the the civil war brewing in Columbia between the Founders and
the Vox Populi (usually shorted to ‘the Vox’). The Vox are a group of rebels
made up mostly of disenfranchised black and Irish workers, and early in the
game it seems clear that you’re supposed to sympathise with them. However, around
the game’s midpoint, the Vox are abruptly written off as extremists, apparently
to justify deemphasizing the racial conflict and foregrounding the story’s more
fantastical elements. Not only is it disappointing that a potentially impactful
topic is squandered, it’s offensive to see an issue as repellent as racism used
frivolously as set dressing. Infinite goes
on to explore Elizabeth’s ability to open ‘tears’ in space and time. These
science fiction elements are well thought out, but they tread familiar ground, and
it feels like a miscalculation on Irrational’s part that they end up so
prominent in the narrative.
However,
while BioShock Infinite’s plot
doesn’t live up to its initial promise, the characters it creates are strong
enough to carry it through. Booker initially seems generic, but he becomes more
interesting as his past comes into focus. Elizabeth is more immediately appealing. Drawn as a Disney princess and animated just as
smoothly, she is an unforgettable companion, and the relationship she and
Booker share is touching, unforced, and well written. Their story features as many understated moments as it does moments of high drama. When Elizabeth finds a
guitar in a backroom, for example, she complains that she can’t play. You can choose to have Booker pick it up and
strum a few chords, and Elizabeth responds by singing Will
The Circle Be Unbroken. Little touches like this linger long in the memory.
BioShock Infinite is a brilliant, but
self-contradictory game. It’s a solid shooter, but its non-violent exploration
is so memorable that it would have been just as compelling if you never fired a
shot. It tells a competent science fiction story set to a backdrop of racially
charged conflict when it could have delivered a devastating critique of racism
with science fiction elements. The high points in BioShock Infinite will rightly take their place alongside the defining
moments in gaming, but Irrational fail to capitalise on them, meaning BioShock Infinite falls just short of being the generation defining experience that many had hoped
for.
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