“Booker, are you afraid of God?”
“No, but I’m afraid of you.”

So, I’ve returned from my adventure of finding and rescuing Elizabeth who was locked up in a tower since she was a baby; by no other than the prophet, Zachary Hale Comstock.

Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt

It’s a game where twisted history and fables intertwine with each other, with a stroke of genius and legendary design – everything in the game is just beautiful, though it’s racist, given that it’s still the year 1912 where America is still in its beginning and the blacks are still slaves, Chinese are dubbed “of yellow skin and slanted eyes”. Everything was – chronologically – very 1912-ish.

If you still don’t know about the game (you caveman!), check the trailers below.

The story starts with you, as Booker DeWitt, in a small boat being rowed by a mysterious man accompanied by a mysterious woman, both in raincoats. Their conversation did not make any sense. But you will have a flashback on this very moment in your head(literally), hearing that conversation again where they make total sense after you’ve finish the game.

I say, when you finish the game, the entire story will curl up into a small and super dense ball which undergoes supernova in which it will explode, unraveling every single and small detail from the soundtracks to those small clues in conversation and dialog throughout the game.

That is how well crafted this game is.

Time for the real review.

Warning: You can read the top part but there will spoilers at the bottom. I’ll put a spoiler ‘warning line’ so you won’t cross it accidentally and ruin the game experience. When you see the spoiler line, do not proceed unless you’ve finished the game.

The top part however may contain mild spoilers but will not effect the storyline. Which is subjected to spoilers of (but not limited to): weapons, gameplay, characters and soundtracks. 

Elizabeth

So, let’s talk about Elizabeth. The developers have inserted a soul into this character. The way she talks, the way she walks, the way she explores her surrounding; she can phenomenally convey and transmit genuine human emotion from polygons to the player. Her face is so detailed and dynamic that you can literally understand her emotion along with reading her body language. This is pretty amazing for a video game character. You can see her soul just by looking into her virtual eyes. It took developers two years to perfect this game with a couple of delays to smooth out all the imperfections. Elizabeth showed how video game has evolved.

The character itself is actually given some extensive artificial intelligence programming which allows her to behave like a real person who have emotions and a human character. By default, she would follow wherever you go and stay within your field of view but when there’s something interesting, she would go and investigate them. She can also search and look for stuff for you such as coins.

“Elizabeth is an artificial intelligence that’s quite different from what you see in other games,”

-Ken Levine via NBC News

Indeed she is very different and unique from any other game character I’ve ever encountered. Her action and behavior is amazingly natural and energetic. Most  game character would be lifeless, following you like a robot with no soul and only interact when there is a cut scene or some important event occurred.

Her body language is just so accurate that you don’t even need to notice to be able to read her. Those tiny details like how much her eyes blink, her posture and that small degree of her body is facing in which direction has successfully imitate genuine human body language.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This video is an interview of the studio’s creative director, Ken Levine and his team of phenomenal people. It shows just how much effort and time was invested into Elizabeth’s development and programming that made her alive and have a soul of it’s own.

Gameplay

The game is basically a FPS where you will explore the world and ride the adventure while  carrying out your mission that is to defend yourself and Elizabeth from the bad guys while doing your job to bring her safely back to New York. Pretty much the classic way of story telling in a super awesome way. The shooting mechanics is perfect. The actions are smooth and the weapons do not suck.

The first weapon you will obtain is the Sky Hook which you stole from a police officer who tried to kill you violently in front of a crowd. I guess they just got a taste of their own medicine.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The SkyHook is a permanent, non-swappable melee weapon. It also doubles as a mean of transportation via the Sky Lines where you can attach to and travel at high speed. The best part is that you can control everything in this game. When you are riding the Sky Lines, you will not go into a cut scene and travel magically to somewhere else. Instead, you have total control of your character at all time meaning you can control the speed, shoot stuff and even execute an air strike to the enemies.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

During combat, Elizabeth role is to aid you by finding ammo and first aids. She will take cover and take care of herself so you do not have to protect her during a gunfight. At first I thought that she will cling on to you during a Sky Line travel but apparently, she can also use the SkyHook like a total badass.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

But like the two previous Bioshock games, you now have Vigor – a drink where they give you the ability to cast certain spells, each with their own variations and also upgradeable.

The gameplay mechanics is excellent if you ask me. It really puts you into the skin of Booker DeWitt and having near to real life relationship with the environment.

Graphics

Well, to be honest, I do not have the best gaming rig in town. I’m still using a 5 year old laptop with a weak Nvidia GeForce 4800M GS. Turns out that my laptop can’t even run smoothly even on ‘Very Low’ settings. So I decided to borrow my sister’s laptop. Her laptop is running on Intel® Core™ i3-3110M with no graphics card. Amazingly, it runs super smooth on the ‘Very Low’ settings.

Even on ‘Very Low’, the detail is quite amazing. Elizabeth’s face is still as real as it gets. Only the texture are a bit ‘undetailed’ but hey, make of what you have. If the detail and graphics is this good then it must be freakin’ amazing on ‘Ultra High’. I can’t really say much on this part 🙁

Storytelling 

Remember when I said it’s a story where twisted history and fables intertwine? Well, be amazed that a character which strongly resembles Nikola Tesla makes a cameo in the game too.

As there are no cut scenes, you are in total control of the character in every step of the game. What’s more interesting is that there are these audio logs called the Voxophones which contain lots of information that can piece together the whole story. Make sure not to miss these. Some people love to skip these but if you skip the voxophones, the ending and the whole story won’t make sense. Some people even played the game twice for the sake of finding all the voxophones and trying to understand the whole Bioshock Infinite story.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This game is actually quite complex and detailed so make sure you pay attention to everything. I can tell you that everything in the game is there for a reason. Nothing is random. The writers are genius. Easily one of the best sci-fi story line ever.

Settings/Era

The adventure starts during the year 1912. The city of Columbia as built in 1893 while Booker DeWitt was born on 1874. However, during this era, quantum physics and advanced science was discovered. Floating city, heavy machinery and other advanced science stuff. It would be a spoiler if I say more. Now, let’s get down to the spoiler line and talk more about this.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Before we jump over the spoiler line

Irrational Games really nailed it in terms of immersing the player into a virtual world while giving them a true to life experience. Those incredible tiny detail of how the characters react and Elizabeth’s body language is just so accurate that you don’t even need to notice to be able to read her. The story line is genius – pure science fiction goodness. One that will leave the player to think about everything they’ve done in the game and how did the game come to that conclusion. I myself spent a day researching and reviewing the story line, reading everybody’s opinion.

Bioshock: Infinite will the game that will define future development of other games in terms of visuals, programming and a near perfect replica of a human being.

Bioshock: Infinite

9.7/10

Spoiler Alert ——–Spoiler Alert ——–Spoiler Alert ——–Spoiler Alert

CONTAINS SPOILER IN FORM OF WORDS AND PICTURES. DO NOT EVEN SCROLL! 

THIS GAME IS SO BEAUTIFUL THAT YOU SHOULD FINISH IT BEFORE READING THIS. 

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Continuing from the settings/era, The Lutece had actually discover that they can make the city float! They are not floating balloons or suspended in mid-air by some propulsion system. The city’s base is actually made out of  what they call ‘quantum particle’, which the particle is suspended in space in a state of quantum lock. They have also found that they are able to tear through space and time making Comstock, a prophet.

The guns are the classic 1900 era weapons. My personal favorite are the carbine and the sniper.

As Nikola Tesla appears to be Jeremiah Fink, the great inventor who created Vigors, guns, electricity and everything industrial – all thanks to again, the Lutece’s ability to travel through space and time.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Soundtrack

Credits to the music director as he chose a lot of amazing songs. Most of the tracks are obviously from the early eras; classical music such from “Air On The G String” by Bach to “Solace” by S. Joplin. Relatively modern songs such as “Makin’ Whoopee” by Eddie Cantor and “Button Up Your Overcoat” by Helen kane. Much more interesting is that they even include the song “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”  by Cyndi Lauper. Now remember that I said, everything in this game is not random. Each song have their own role in the storyline. Even some lines in the lyric can piece the Bioshock Infinite story later on.

The soundtrack really gives you the emotion and feeling that you are indeed in that era. Even with all those technological advancements and stuff the soundtrack puts you into the correct frequency. The songs even tell you stories in the game. The songs give soul to the ambiance of the game – really spices up the entire experience I would say. Some classics and oldies as aforementioned, Cyndi Laupers Girls Just Want To Have Fun really did made me crack out a smile under the intense immersion of the game.

You can find that there are songs got remade into the 1912’s gramophone quality, like what they did to Scott Joplin’s Solace which really adds the soul to what 1900s feels like. A calliope version of Girls Just Want To Have Fun at the beach also adds the feel of what beaches used to be like back in those days where people are singing, dancing and playing their musical instruments to have a fun day together.

I can only say, the soundtrack is an amazing piece of art with the multiple versions of battle theme songs that really gave the oomph to the gunfights while making it feel totally fresh each time.

---

Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!

---