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Bioshock Infinite was a terrible sequel to Bioshock

shadowkat

Unconfirmed Member
I really liked Infinite. I didn't like it as much as Bioschok, but I did enjoy my time with it. I never played Bioshock 2.
 

Applebite

Member
Hate without giving good long arguments and shouting that all the reviewers got paid (cue "I don't know how that game even got those scores") because people don't agree with the good things this game did is not rightful critique, it's hating.
I see none of that. Sure, some people blurting opinions without a lot of explanation here and there, but that's par for the course for any message board. You make it sound like this thread is a shining example of this game getting undeserved disproportionate critique.
 

EmiPrime

Member
Infinite's story is still king, though. There were so many mindblows in that game

Infinite's story doesn't work,
especially the ending which contradicts itself as if there are infinite realities there is no point in drowning that Booker.
. It's a decent at best FPS with a story and social commentary that isn't nearly as clever or well executed as it wishes it was with beautiful environments picking up a lot of the slack. In my play through the moment I had to
massacre the Vox Populi and Daisy was turned into a villain
was when the spell was truly broken and I could see Infinite for what it was; just another linear FPS in which my only interaction with the game world was shooting everything put in front of me.
 
I liked it. The gameplay was streamlined and dumbed down but it was its own kind of fun, and I liked the general style of Columbia a lot even though it lacks any truly memorable location like Rapture did. Plot's the best in the trilogy (excluding only maybe Minerva's Den) although Bioshock has the best twist, I think it's its own thing. I think the original Bioshock is on a whole other level of amazingness, but I did love Infinite even though it streamlined too many things.
 

bman94

Member
Ugh, not this shit again. I've played the whole series slightly out of order: BioShock 1, Infinite and then 2. And by far BioShock 1 is the weakest of the series to me. BioShock Infinite actually allowed me to care about the characters involved. Jack from BioShock 1 was just another silent protagonist and the story elements of the first game bored me. The
twist with Andrew Ryan wasn't all that great and I had got a meh from the whole interaction.
I won't deny that the first BioShock had amazing presentation and atmosphere but we've seen the whole "destroyed and failed Utopian society" aspect before. The original BioShock was genuinely a scary experience, I won't deny that at all, but to undermine all the great things that Infinite did just because it wasn't like the original is selling itself short as well as the medium as a whole. Honestly to me, I'd be fine if we just had Bioshock 2 and Infinite because BioShock 2 did everything the original Bioshock did and did it a whole lot better. Infinite was amazing to me because it didn't go with the generic "silent protagonist" bullshit that is riddled in FPS. It had actual character development and made you feel for those characters. I didn't feel for Jack, and honestly I didn't feel for Delta until close to the end of BioShock 2. The idea of living in a Utopia as it is thriving and then seeing the fall of it is simply amazing and seeing first hand the different social classes makes this works so much. You don't see any of this in BioShock 1. You see the dilapidated underground society that failed but you are not actively in that society as it falls. Again you get put into that generic "something terrible has happened, piece together the clues to find out" story that has been over played in all types of media. Gunplay was better in BioShock 1, I'll give you that but the Gunplay in BioShock 2 was the best in the series and everyone makes that game the blacksheep of the series.I'm okay with series taking risks and trying something new and Infinite was still a very polished product with a lot to offer and this hivemind that it was shit needs to stop. The games can be as deep as you make them but that doesn't mean they are inferior because they don't hark on certain aspects that people find necessary.
 

mishakoz

Member
The reason infinite doesn't work (mind you, I still enjoyed it) is because the setting and tone contradicts with the gameplay. It's a shooter pretending to be another game, made all the more apparent with the "refinements" of adding regen health and a two weapon limit. Bioshock 1 at least allowed you to carry all the weapons and health packs, making it easier to enjoy the atmosphere instead of worrying about the next encounter.
 

Ouroboros

Member
Infinite is the first game that got my fiancee's attention to the point she wanted to play through the game. We are just learning about Liz's tears. Shes loving the game.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I liked Infinite as a shooter and a story. The best part about it really was the shooter mechanics, which were sharp and refined. The level design was extraordinary, art design was unmatched. So it had a lot going on. I didn't like the way it reused so many of Bioshock's tropes, so I wish it were a bit more adventurous on that front. However... the main criticisms seem to be that it's not the game people wish it were. Which IMO is a stupid complaint for a videogame.
 

dr_rus

Member
The reason infinite doesn't work (mind you, I still enjoyed it) is because the setting and tone contradicts with the gameplay. It's a shooter pretending to be another game, made all the more apparent with the "refinements" of adding regen health and a two weapon limit. Bioshock 1 at least allowed you to carry all the weapons and health packs, making it easier to enjoy the atmosphere instead of worrying about the next encounter.

Don't think that I've worried about the next encounter in Infinite even once. I thought it was a pretty easy game which actually encouraged the player to enjoy the atmosphere.
 
I think it's a better game solely because the mechanics, gunplay and pacing aren't as shitty as 1. To each their own though.
 
The world and art direction are stunning, and the story is a total mess that only succeeded at stringing along the easily impressed (in particular, there is no motivation or consequence for any action you take once you start hopping universes—you're just a tourist in the various sets), but you've heard all the arguments before.

What bothered me more than that was how the designers thought latching onto the dull, homogenized, tactically sterile two-weapon system was a good idea. To the extent that I can stand the FPS genre at all, most of the fun is in switching between a vast and situational arsenal as in the Half-Life games and yes, the first two BioShocks. The two-gun limit precluded the game from being much fun to play, to the point where I think the whole experience would have been better off as a Myst-like exploration adventure, as the environment was all it had going for it.

The scene with the guitar was a lovely touch, for all that.
 

dr_rus

Member
Where is all this hate coming from? The game is awesome
I think that all of us can like either Bioshock or Infinite as they are very different games, and the hate is coming from those of us who expected Bioshock 3 but got a completely different game named Infinite instead.
 

Akiraptor

Member
The atmosphere was different than the others, but Infinite owned it. Plus Songbird was best villain. I want more games with giant birds.
 

obeast

Member
...but the gameplay sucks ass, because the game shouldn't have been an FPS in the first place.
Should've been an Action-Adventure or Point & Click.

That was my take on the game as well, although I found it an enjoyable overall experience.

If you've created a game in which the most interesting element is its setting, limiting the player's interaction with that setting to shooting people and picking stuff up is not playing to your strengths. My most vivid memories of the game have nothing to do with shooting -- the songs, the bond between Booker and his charge, the nutty plot loops.

There is a certain thematic resonance to all the gun-and-flock-of-crows-play, at least in my memories of the game (which are fading), in that Booker is a man of violence, haunted by his actions, who can't seem to stop murdering people in gruesome fashion and large numbers. But that note could have been hit in a different game, in which your interaction with the setting was mostly via dialogue trees or exploration rather than mass murder.
 
I must have played a different game.

In the Bioshock I played, plasmids were inconsequential. I played the game on the hardest difficulty setting with no vita-chambers. I used only 2 weapons which I modified, stuff like the shotguns were completely useless. I never ran out of ammo. The only thing I had trouble with was a DLC challenge, I just couldn't beat it fast enough. Otherwise, it was easy. There was no atmosphere. Rapture is just an empty corridor shooter. The audio tapes awkwardly piece together a story. Luke, I'm you're father. Or something.

It's interesting to know that the Big Daddy/Little Sister is the true theme of Bioshock. The Ann Rand stuff was tacked on later. It was supposed to offer a moral choice, but it doesn't matter. How you approach the Little Sisters changes nothing.

I found the Vigors more useful in Infinite. I relied on them in several spots, highest difficulty again, like blowing enemies off ships. This time it's not a ghost town. There are people on the streets. When hordes of enemies are coming after me, there is a reason. The audio tapes are often used to explain what happened to characters between levels. I had a lot more fun with this one. Ironically, I didn't spent any money on that one and I wouldn't have played it had it not been free because the first one had been so forgettable.
 

BerserkerX2

Neo Member
Bioshock was great and loved infinite. I knew where the story was going in infinite but I thought they did a great job telling the story.
 
Infinite is easily the worst in the series.

Infinite was easily the best in the series.

I felt like Bioshock was an alight game for it's time but everything ended up being too blunt and unaware of its own shortcomings. The Ryan turn was all "You have no real choice in games!" when all the choices in Bioshock were terrible. Then the underlying themes of the fallacy of Objectivism and choice in games were undercut in favour of a SHODAN twist. Also the gameplay was butt.

Infinite on the other hand managed to address the uniqueness of a players experience in games through mechanics and a narrative based around time travel and string theory without beating you over the head with it. Booker being an utterly irredeemable selfish cunt who tore apart every timeline he was apart of made for a unique narrative. It's also my favourite playing shooter of last gen. The games only shortcoming were the leftovers from Bioshock they couldn't shake off like the dumpster diving for ammo and the DLC.
 

Altazor

Member
I wish I'd never played Burial at Sea (both parts). I think what they did to the story soured me on the whole Infinite experience. Ugh.

Gameplay (and atmosphere) wise, though, BaS Part 2 was great. It's just that how it retconned/shoehorned itself into the original Bioshock narrative bothered me quite a bit.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I think the biggest world building crime that infinite makes is definitely vigors.

The plasmids were not just a gameplay element but they were a story element, they were the reason as to why the people of rapture were going crazy and they were a core part of the rapture "utopia".

Vigors were uh, they were just there because the previous game had them.

Then there was the down right weird stuff like certain vigors just being endlessly scattered all over the map. I think the electric one was the main culprit of this, because after the part where you needed it to progress it kept showing up in boxes and crates or something weird.

I kept expecting the enemies to run over and drink it and then start blasting me with lightning but nothing ever came of it, so why the hell were there so many extra vigors? There is no way the game thought I was stupid enough to miss a required vigor did it?
 

I Got A Letter

Neo Member
First Post! (woo)

Agreed, I think I ended up only using a couple of them and forgetting about the rest.

Overall disagree with OP, I found it to be a worthy game full of intellectually stimulating subtexts and absurdities.

I think the biggest world building crime that infinite makes is definitely vigors.

The plasmids were not just a gameplay element but they were a story element, they were the reason as to why the people of rapture were going crazy and they were a core part of the rapture "utopia".

Vigors were uh, they were just there because the previous game had them.
 

Qwyjibo

Member
Despite its faults (the out of place vigors and conflicting action sequences), I loved Infinite. I loved it more than Bioshock.

This was due to the emotional investment I ended up having in Booker and Elizabeth, as well Columbia as a great setting (although Rapture was fantastic too). The voice acting, the music, and the overall presentation of the game override the decent but unspectacular FPS gameplay. I also enjoyed the overall story and while the use of the voxophones was a retread, it still worked to build up the world for me. Sometimes superb style is enough to overcome lacking substance and this is a perfect example for me.
 

JTripper

Member
BioShock Infinite is great.

BioShock 1 is a masterpiece.

In this comparison, yeah, maybe Infinite lacks in many areas where BioShock 1 excelled at therefore it's a weak sequel, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. I love Infinite despite its flaws but BioShock 1 is a seriously special game.
 

DarkKyo

Member
I am also a person who prefers Infinite to Bioshock. But Bioshock definitely made more of an impact on the medium.
 

Varna

Member
Well, Bioshock was a terrible successor to System Shock 2 that failed to capture any of the magic despite almost copying all the story beats (and flat out reusing some of the fetch quest type segments).

I enjoyed Infinite a lot more specifically because it wasn't constantly reminding me of how it was just a worse version of SS2.

I am also a person who prefers Infinite to Bioshock. But Bioshock definitely made more of an impact on the medium.

Can someone explain this to me? What was so ground breaking about Bioshock? Half Life did that same shit years before.
 

Zemm

Member
BioShock controlled like utter shit, so at least infinite was better in that regard, which is pretty big.
 

Drifters

Junior Member
The OP missed the point that Infinite was the yang to Bioshocks Ying. They were two games looking at a mirror and quite frankly it was brilliant.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Yes it was OP.

Going from a rightfully critically acclaimed masterpiece like Bio 1 to an overhyped railway TPS with a ridiculous story and huge corners cut is just a failure by any means. Fighting ghost lady 3 times should have clued everyone onto how bad the gameplay design suffered if it wasn't the for the 'carry two guns at a time', 'substitute deep and layered map system for arrow pointing', type of thing.
 
The original was phenomenal minus the piece of shit ending I got for saving all the little sisters.

Infinite wasn't bad, I still that it was good. not great and not anywhere near as good as the first Bioshock, but still good.
 

Livingskeletons

If I pulled that off, would you die?
Well, Bioshock was a terrible successor to System Shock 2 that failed to capture any of the magic despite almost copying all the story beats (and flat out reusing some of the fetch quest type segments).

I enjoyed Infinite a lot more specifically because it wasn't constantly reminding me of how it was just a worse version of SS2.



Can someone explain this to me? What was so ground breaking about Bioshock? Half Life did that same shit years before.

Atmosphere, plus cool world building. Also the best twist in the medium.
 

Con_Smith

Banned
I enjoyed my time with it somewhat but the gameplay and story changes completely pissed me off and left me wanting more than what was presented.
 

DeBurgo

Member
I find it really difficult to express my opinion on this since I already perceive the original Bioshock to be a poorly-executed immersive sim. That's clearly an opinion that only a minority of people that played the game seem to be able to or want to have. For me, it's a matter of choosing between which game I prefer among sub-par executions of two different genres.

The aesthetic choices of B:I are clearly superior to Bioshock, though I suppose some might prefer one over the other. While B:I has some pretty clear issues of coherency and consistency in the latter half of its plot, the last third or so of Bioshock is also incredibly silly, and its plot is hardly beyond reproach. I like the subject matter of B:I a lot more, and it had a lot of moments I still think about a lot.
 
I really don't like it, but I feel like a bad person because my friends liking it so much is what makes me almost hate it. I think it's partly due to how they (and so many others) treat it as the Messiah, and talk about how smart it is.

Bioshock Infinite is a lot of things, but smart is nowhere close to one of them. And I know this is truly petty, but it's also a pet peeve of mine when people praise Infinite so heavily while having never played Bioshock 1 or System Shock 2.
 

Varna

Member
Atmosphere, plus cool world building. Also the best twist in the medium.

So, like I thought. Nothing.

I get it just went over my head. The twist is terrible to me because there is never really any sense that you have any kind of choice. It's just not that kind of game were something like that works as a story revelation.
 

Bad7667

Member
So, like I thought. Nothing.

I get it just went over my head. The twist is terrible to me because there is never really any sense that you have any kind of choice. It's just not that kind of game were something like that works as a story revelation.

That was kind of the point.
 
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