I'd never played the original Bioshock. For all of the praise that game received and all of the wonderful things my friends had to say about it, I'd never played it. I didn't even have the slight desire to play it. I'm wary of first person games in general. The last FPS I recall playing thoroughly, enjoying and completing multiple times on various difficulties is Perfect dark. The amazing N64 version. Not that horrid overly specular shined mess released for the Xbox 360. I've not been too enamoured with any FPS which has released since. And 'Yes', that includes Call of duty and Battlefield. They may be part of your holy grail, but there aren't part of mine. I'm just not an FPS type of guy. At least not any more. I like my shit third person. A preference which has become cemented as I've gotten older.
But despite my viewpoint preferences, Bioshock Infinite caught my attention in the same way it did everybody else's when this amazing trailer from the game surfaced. As much as I loved the look of it, I knew I would never end up buying this game and would probably never play it; wishing I were the kind of person who would go out and just buy this game. But a visit to a friends house ended up with me leaving with a copy of it and now here I am. Playing Bioshock Infinite.
So, I'm in a boat. On stormy seas, with some couple who are bickering. They do not tell me what I need to do, or where they are taking me. This is Bioshock Infinite. There is no intro, no prologue, very little is explained to you in terms of context. You just...discover things. See everything unfold before your eyes. You just about know what you need to do, but everything in regards to why remains a mystery. I've never experienced a game like this before and I really like it, because it's what sets it apart from anything else I've ever played. The beginning of Bioshock Infinite reminds me a lot of Link to the past; feeling as though you are starting a story about 3 chapters in, knowing that you'll never know what happened prior. Where exactly you are, who the couple are and who has sent you on this mission is never explained. Much in the same way why Link's Uncle set off to Hyrule castle in the rain and his connection with Zelda is never explained.
I go into a lighthouse, I sit in some chair, it takes off like a rocket, and then I see see air ships, and a steam-punk city above the clouds before I crash land into a cathedral decorated in so many candles that you wonder if the head Priest has any concept of fire regulations. Still, nothing is explained. I'm baffled and nothing is making any sense to me, but I admire the artistic direction and the narrative....or immediate lack of it. But this is all followed by wandering around. Lots and lots of wandering around which uncovers that; it's okay to eat food from dustbins, people leave lots of money on the floor, robot horses are creepy and that white people in this city hate negroes. As cool as this is for the first 10 minutes I grow sick of it as this stretches into an hour. An hour of bugger all. I know what is coming because you've seen it in trailers. But i want it all NOW! I want that hook thing that lets me ride the rails around the city and to get the girl that can open rifts in time. But by god, it's a slog to get to these points. I'd almost given up bothering, because everything leading up to these moments was such a slog.
What keeps me playing Bioshock is my admiration for the vision and its commitment to this setting. At no point does the game break away from a first person perspective for a letter-boxed cut scene shot from a third person. Everything unfolds in first person with things seamlessly transitioning between a scripted event and game play You are kept immersed in the game and the character at all times. Although, despite this I never feel a true connection with DeWitt and I never develop the same likening and empathy towards him that I do for my partner in crime Elizabeth. Whether this is due to the story of Elizabeth being built up from the start or the viewpoint which allows you to physically see Elizabeth's actions and emotions, I'm not sure. But there's a disconnect with DeWitt. I like him as a character, but I never feel as though I'm given a chance to connect with him. Even when he's talking about having a family he'd lost and not approving of his own lifestyles, I feel very little empathy. This disconnect is by no means the result of Dewitt's voice actor, Troy Baker. Troy is amazing and his lead role as Dewitt is one of his best to date. He strikes a perfect balance between a broken, disingenuous hit man for pay and somebody who genuinely cares for others. The dynamic between DeWitt and Elizabeth characters fleshes out nicely. Although at times it does feel off kilter. Elizabeth seems oddly at ease with running off with a complete stranger and she doesn't seem too phased by watching this stranger slaughter waves of people. And occasionally DeWitt feels a little too cold and abrupt towards Elizabeth, despite developing such sympathy towards her upbringing prior to meeting her face-to-face for the first time.
In terms of my progress, I'm not making much. I'm shit at the game. Shit at the combat. I'm one of those slow gamers who searches every nook and cranny of every area. There isn't a single dustbin in Columbia I have had my hand in. But even for me, I'm finding Bioshock's general pace a bit slow and the formula is becoming all to evident to me.
Verdict: I like melee attacking people with the hook thingy and setting them on fire.
But despite my viewpoint preferences, Bioshock Infinite caught my attention in the same way it did everybody else's when this amazing trailer from the game surfaced. As much as I loved the look of it, I knew I would never end up buying this game and would probably never play it; wishing I were the kind of person who would go out and just buy this game. But a visit to a friends house ended up with me leaving with a copy of it and now here I am. Playing Bioshock Infinite.
So, I'm in a boat. On stormy seas, with some couple who are bickering. They do not tell me what I need to do, or where they are taking me. This is Bioshock Infinite. There is no intro, no prologue, very little is explained to you in terms of context. You just...discover things. See everything unfold before your eyes. You just about know what you need to do, but everything in regards to why remains a mystery. I've never experienced a game like this before and I really like it, because it's what sets it apart from anything else I've ever played. The beginning of Bioshock Infinite reminds me a lot of Link to the past; feeling as though you are starting a story about 3 chapters in, knowing that you'll never know what happened prior. Where exactly you are, who the couple are and who has sent you on this mission is never explained. Much in the same way why Link's Uncle set off to Hyrule castle in the rain and his connection with Zelda is never explained.
I go into a lighthouse, I sit in some chair, it takes off like a rocket, and then I see see air ships, and a steam-punk city above the clouds before I crash land into a cathedral decorated in so many candles that you wonder if the head Priest has any concept of fire regulations. Still, nothing is explained. I'm baffled and nothing is making any sense to me, but I admire the artistic direction and the narrative....or immediate lack of it. But this is all followed by wandering around. Lots and lots of wandering around which uncovers that; it's okay to eat food from dustbins, people leave lots of money on the floor, robot horses are creepy and that white people in this city hate negroes. As cool as this is for the first 10 minutes I grow sick of it as this stretches into an hour. An hour of bugger all. I know what is coming because you've seen it in trailers. But i want it all NOW! I want that hook thing that lets me ride the rails around the city and to get the girl that can open rifts in time. But by god, it's a slog to get to these points. I'd almost given up bothering, because everything leading up to these moments was such a slog.
What keeps me playing Bioshock is my admiration for the vision and its commitment to this setting. At no point does the game break away from a first person perspective for a letter-boxed cut scene shot from a third person. Everything unfolds in first person with things seamlessly transitioning between a scripted event and game play You are kept immersed in the game and the character at all times. Although, despite this I never feel a true connection with DeWitt and I never develop the same likening and empathy towards him that I do for my partner in crime Elizabeth. Whether this is due to the story of Elizabeth being built up from the start or the viewpoint which allows you to physically see Elizabeth's actions and emotions, I'm not sure. But there's a disconnect with DeWitt. I like him as a character, but I never feel as though I'm given a chance to connect with him. Even when he's talking about having a family he'd lost and not approving of his own lifestyles, I feel very little empathy. This disconnect is by no means the result of Dewitt's voice actor, Troy Baker. Troy is amazing and his lead role as Dewitt is one of his best to date. He strikes a perfect balance between a broken, disingenuous hit man for pay and somebody who genuinely cares for others. The dynamic between DeWitt and Elizabeth characters fleshes out nicely. Although at times it does feel off kilter. Elizabeth seems oddly at ease with running off with a complete stranger and she doesn't seem too phased by watching this stranger slaughter waves of people. And occasionally DeWitt feels a little too cold and abrupt towards Elizabeth, despite developing such sympathy towards her upbringing prior to meeting her face-to-face for the first time.
In terms of my progress, I'm not making much. I'm shit at the game. Shit at the combat. I'm one of those slow gamers who searches every nook and cranny of every area. There isn't a single dustbin in Columbia I have had my hand in. But even for me, I'm finding Bioshock's general pace a bit slow and the formula is becoming all to evident to me.
- Get dropped off in a new area. Go to a place.
- Reach the place, find somebody / something.
- Just before you get to that person / thing, you run into an open area with bits of cover. Gunfight.
- Acquire said person / thing. Go back to a previous area to which this new person / thing will allow you access to some ship or something.
Verdict: I like melee attacking people with the hook thingy and setting them on fire.
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