Bioshock Infinite (2013) by Irrational Games

Bioshock Infinite's visuals are undoubtedly the main draw, but it features remarkably little depth within

The good stuff: Amazing character design, very good writing. Think Disney characters stuck in a gritty, mind-bending plot. It's really fantastic. All of my drive from playing this game came from wanting to see Elizabeth's character development. The art direction is absolutely superb and unmatched by anything in the industry at this point, and the graphics support the artistic view. I will say that this game is embarrassingly hampered on consoles -- It really shines in 1440p, which is what I played it on. Absolutely beautiful game is every aspect.

Actually playing the game, however, is an utter disappointment. Totally gone are the best aspects of Ken Levine's first BioShock game: Altering the scenery to your advantage via hacking and trapping is completely absent. Those features, combined with the ability to manipulate the Big Daddies, were what made BioShock such an amazingly fun and unique experience. Now you've got some rails to fly around on. Seriously, that's it. Nothing else. The shooting in BioShock was universally agreed upon as the worst part of the game, but it was bolstered by some great environments that provided plenty of variety to the problem solving inherent in the game. That's nowhere to be found here. You're left with a group of boring weapons, not enough ammo, and no environmental alterations save Elizabeth's powers, which seem completely neutered. You can choose one alteration to make to each environment, out of 3-5 that Elizabeth presents to you. It's a far cry from the dozens of alterations that you could perform in the original BioShock when looking to take down a Big Daddy.

On top of this, the plasmids in this game are nowhere near as interesting and fun as those found in the original game. The combos are far more boring.

In the original BioShock I was constantly tinkering with different hacks and booby traps, and combining them with a variety of power usage to take down my enemies. It was at its best on the highest difficulty level, when you were truly pressed to plan perfectly and execute at 110%. In this game I find myself shooting, camping until my shields recharge, shooting, waiting until Liz throws me ammo, and shooting some more. It's a far more tedious experience than the original game.

In closing: This game is ABSOLUTELY beautiful in every way. The environments are breathtaking, the character design is stunning, the dialogue hits home with every line spoken -- It's both well-acted and well-written. But the gameplay simply is not there to support it.

If there were some way to combine the art design, acting, and dialogue of this game with the pure puzzle-esque gameplay of the original BioShock, it just might be the best video game of all-time. This game, however, is all aesthetics and no guts.

⭐⭐