BioShock Infinite is a visually stunning and narratively ambitious first-person shooter. Its unique setting, compelling characters, and thought-provoking story make for a memorable experience. While combat can feel repetitive at times, the overall atmosphere and mystery surrounding Columbia are captivating enough to keep players engaged until the very end. A must-play for fans of atmospheric shooters and compelling narratives, even if the gameplay occasionally falters.

What can be said? Is it possible to convey the beauty of this game to the audience with just one comment? I suggest you make your life more enjoyable by experiencing this game.

"There is always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city."

Despite waiting over 6 years for this game in 2013, and still greatly enjoying it another 12 years later in 2025, there are so many little decisions taken by Irrational Games that I wish I could ask Ken Levine about. So many whys, so many little answers to their own 2007 creation BioShock, most of which never asked a question in the first place.

The first had a city in the ocean, so this has a city in the sky; the first had a self-righteous Libertarian atheist, so this has a self-righteous Fascist holy man; the first had many Big Daddies and Little Sisters, so this has one "Big Daddy" (Songbird) and one "Little Sister" (Elizabeth); the first is a pseudo-immersive sim with many weapons and tools, so this one is more of an open-level shooter with limited tools; so on and so forth.

But the answer is always: why? Was it for the art, to make a statement perhaps? What BioShock did so well in the gameplay department, Infinite essentially does away with entirely and almost never for the better.

Keep in mind none of what it does, in a bubble, is inherently bad. The gameplay is tight and the guns both look and feel incredible (apart from a select few), the Vigors (Plasmids) are a spectacle and fun powers, the levels are detailed in both story telling and visuals, and Columbia is enticing and beautiful and sinister from the first step off the air bathysphere.

It's just that, when compared to the original BioShock on a fundamental gameplay level, so much was stripped away. Why can I carry all of my weapons' ammo, but I can't carry all of my weapons? Why can't I carry health packs and salt (this game's Eve) and instead have to hope Elizabeth throws me something, or that trashcan has some hotdogs? Why do I need money for every upgrade--most of which is literally unaffordable, ever--in lieu of hidden upgrade stations?

The list could go on for a dozen lines more, but I think you get the point. Essentially, the moment-to-moment gameplay is as tight as ever, but the actual game design makes for a more frustrating, less satisfying experience.

Unfortunately, the story also doesn't emerge unscathed either, both in terms of the ideological questions it presents and the occasional plotline. Before I get into that I'll say, with spoilers, that: the story has a satisfying emotional payoff and is fun until the end.

The twist that Booker DeWitt is Comstock through a religious rebirth and that Elizabeth is your actual daughter Anna from your troubled past is great! Elizabeth as a whole is well-written and still works wonderfully as an AI companion. You see her both physically and emotionally change as the mysteries unfold, and the little treats she throws your way is all the more endearing; it's effective storytelling within the gameplay, and that's something most games struggle with even today. The somewhat ham-fisted topics of racism, American colonialism, and religious fascism are still effective and, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ somehow, even more relevant today as I write this in early 2025. The striking images of villainizing Lincoln and uplifting John Wilkes Booth is not lost on me. It's incredibly depressing how befitting the commentaries are today, even if they're not as intellectually stimulating as the first two BioShock games.

With that said, the story still disappoints in a few key areas. Just like the gameplay decisions, I'm left with a few head-scratching 'whys' and a major let down from a singular character choice and resolution. Again, spoilers ahead.

Like all stories that have time travel, there's always an element that needs a bit of suspension of disbelief. Everyone's rules work a bit different, but this version of quantum... theories and alternate timelines/universes offer great gameplay moments and a fun toy for the story to use, but don't make much sense when put under a scrutiny--at least, insofar as I can understand.

For instance, why did we do a whole side quest about getting guns for the Vox only for it to fizzle out yet be a key turning point in the story? To recap, we need an air ship. The Vox (the rebellious faction of minorities) hijacked it, but promise to give it back if we help get them weapons from a known sympathetic dealer. But, twist, the dealer is dead because the fascist regime knew he was a sympathizer, and also he was a minority that didn't worship the Prophet!

This is where the logic of the story starts the bend, and never quite corrects itself. Elizabeth uses one of her quantum tears to go into a version of the city where he's alive... but he doesn't have his tools. So we (stuck in this version of Columbia) go get the tools. But we can't transport that much machinery so we use ANOTHER quantum tear to, I guess, go into another version of the city where he has his tool and isn't dead. But, surprise, he and his (now White) wife are both dead in this version.

So why didn't we just go into a version of Columbia where the Vox never boarded our original ship? Also, if we did all that timeline/universe jumping, who's to say that the new timeline/universe is one where A) there isn't already versions of us running around, and B) we still need to be doing this side adventure in the first place? The actions we took would theoretically never have had an end result where we could've brought working machines to an alive gunsmith and mix that into our "original" timeline/universe.

Do you understand the issues I'm having now? Again, this feels like a turning point where the logic sort of breaks down. The emotional core and simple goal of Get Out of Columbia with Girl Alive is still intact--as are the great emotional moments later in the game--but for a cerebral story like this with quantum science gimmicks, these kinds of questions are sort of unavoidable unless the author makes a point to plug any holes. Sadly, it seems like Ken Levine and his team couldn't stop this part of the ship from flooding.

The way the Vox Populi and Daisy Fitzroy are handled--again, the version we're stuck with at this point in the story, possibly not the "original" Vox Populi--is also a major let down.

Once again, this story is a striking and relevant commentary on the American government that I'm currently living under, so I was extremely sympathetic to Daisy and her people's plight. I am also, at the age of 32, no longer swayed by stories that take the "you'll be just like him!" angle when dealing with certain villains. Sometimes violence really does solve issues when we reach a breaking point, and this game has the foresight to include a billionaire CEO that takes advantage of the population, complete with the blessing of the ruling government.

But Infinite did something worse: Daisy goes "crazy", I guess, and kills all of Columbia instead of just the fascist leaders and abusive business men. She targets children and executes innocent civilians against brick walls. But... why? What happened? Is this some sort of commentary on the cycle of violence before The Last of Us 2? I'm not sure, but what was going to be an interesting grey ally turns into a bog-standard villain that we don't even get to confront directly.

Therein lies the essence of BioShock Infinite: a fun game with a fun story, but with deeply rooted issues that prevent it from reaching the greatness of the original. It's a shame this is all we've gotten from Ken Levine since then and that BioShock as a whole is dead--BioShock 2 proved a different team can handle the IP with care. Apart from the time travel/quantum realm logic issues, the ending was a great emotional gut punch and could've set up a wonderful anthology IP. Maybe a BioShock 3 on an island? Or maybe it's in space this time? We may never know, but at least it still went out with a good game.