Gamer'Z ChoicE: Bioshock Infinite - PC (Complete Review)

Hello everybody today i'm writing up the review of Bioshock Infinite for which am honestly very excited , and apology for missing out on review of Tomb Raider (2013 reboot). now lets talk about Bioshock series , 2K games took many gamers including me by surprise and mesmerized us when first Bioshock game was released back in 2007 , it was a polished and unique first person shooter with a slight hint of adventure present in it and had an amazing story present in the under water world of Rapture and when the follow up cam the Devs expanded even more of original game and unfolded many mysteries about Rapture but even though the franchise a polished and unique experience still i've always felt like this series was under rated honestly because people prefer mainly action heavy military shooter present in the market , but this time around it also seems like the Devs went for a little action oriented gameplay with bright surrounding rather than dark tone given to franchise by previous titles and this time around they have shifted the whole scenario from under water world of Rapture to flying city of Columbia.So, lets take a look if these changes leads to making or breaking of the series.

Story

Well if you have read my previous reviews , then you'll know that i don't give away any spoiler or at least any major spoiler. So. as many of you know this time game takes place in 1912 in flying city of Columbia , in the game you are placed in the shoes of the protagonist Booker Dewit who was hired by an unknown person to bring him the girl (Elizabeth) to New York unharmed , now the game start with you going to a light house on a small boat as directed by the person who hired you & you have no idea what you'll find when you reach there as you went into light house investigating one thing led to another and you find yourself inside a jet pod thrusting you to Columbia. Columbia seems like a racist catholic city where everybody praises 'Comstock' a person who calls himself the prophet of the lord and he seems to know Booker ,but Booker doesn't have a clue who Comstock is and pretty soon after your arrival in city you find yourself accused of being a False Shepherd and every city gaurd or authority wants you dead on command of Comstock(Prophet) , now you have to use any means necessary for your survival and after an hour or two of gameplay you found that Elizabeth is held captive in a tower and during her rescue you find that you are being attacked by a giant mechanical eagle known as Song Bird which is sort of a protector/warden of Elizabeth and after escaping the Song Bird , you and Elizabeth agree on helping each other to escape Columbia . Now both of you have to survive the obstacles and enemies thrown at your path by Comstock(Prophet) and escape the flying city , and don't let this simple theme of the story fool you because as deeper you go into the game it becomes more cynical and plot becomes more mysterious . I can 100% vouch that this game is 2K's Master Piece with one of the most amazing and twisted plot ending which will not only make this game a memorable experience but also it will be stuck on your mind for days.

Gameplay

Gameplay Mechanics of this game is some what different from previous titles its more of an action shooter but adventure part of game is also well oriented and rather than forcing waves of enemies at your face for you to survive the game encourages you to use tactical techniques to fight off enemies using weapons , environment and vigors. Vigors are same as plasmids from previous titles , you acquire different types of Vigors throughout the game via , small bottles of vigor drink to activate new vigor like using a fire ball or bolt of current or levitating enemies in air , using vigors depletes your salt bar much like eve hippo from previous games. Salts can be found in environment pretty easily which are not only available as blue salt bottles but they can be also found in different foods or drinks which also provides you health. Using vigors and surprisingly wide variety of guns present in the game combat is enjoyable till the end but one of the main attraction i found was that even being a linear game Bioshock Infinite provides a larger playground for combat (combat inside buildings are excluded) where you can use sky hook (a gear attached in left hand of Booker) to slide over skyline rail system that loops around the buildings and covering a larger area for combat zone and you can also use sky hook to perform deadly executions and attacks filled with blood and gore , this makes the shooting experience fast paced and highly engaging and thank god the AI in the games are not brain dead they are well designed even on easy difficulty they won't be foolishly standing around they will try dodging you fire and as soon as you start reloading a weapon AI will charge towards you with heavy melee attacks and gun fire , even though there are no boss battles the game throws at you some sort of mini bosses like automaton robots or some sort of half mechanical half human giant bot to provide variety in combat having their own set of immunity and vulnerability towards your vigors and weapons.

Now taking a look at other aspects of the game , like previous titles you have to salvage any thing you can from corpses or storage objects (trash can , desk , barrels etc.) for ammo , health , salt and money , money can be spend on vending machines to upgrade guns or vigors or you can buy resupplies in them which isn't much needed because resupplies can be plenty in surroundings if you search for them and in the campaign after you rescue Elizabeth she travel along with you , even though she doesn't fight against enemies still she proves to be quite helpful by providing salts , health kits and ammo during combat from the surrounding if you are busy in action or unable to reach and believe me this proves to be very helpful and she also have ability of opening a tear in space and time and manifesting different objects and support items like creating a cover from gun fire or a turret to support you or stashes for ammo resupply or medical kits and she can also open locked doors or safe for you if you provide her with required no. of lock picks which you have to find in surrounding which wont be much of a problem if you are one of the exploring the complete environment type.

Even though the game is engaging and very enjoyable having almost no bugs that ive encountered but still there is a big problem with PC version the game stutters and drops frames some times which becomes very irritating , luckily i found a fix for this stuttering here which almost completely solved the problem but still the games a proper official patch to fix this.

Multiplayer

I personally was a little disappointed when first heard that there will be no multiplayer because even though in Bioshock 2 the multiplayer was a little buggy and unpolished , i still liked that game as it was a nice break from typical shooters but iam glad they went on complete focus on enhancing the experience of single player campaign.

Visuals/Sound FX

Honestly speaking visuals in the game is amazing but still even in Direct X 11 max settings it wasn't showing any major noticeable effect since i compared by running game both on DX 11 and DX 10 apart from it the game looks beautiful and city of Columbia is filled with its originality having identical set pieces and interaction with many of them and you can even notice the humming birds hovering over flowers and scary crows flying around the darker environments and if closely observed you can see great details in character models and environments and the effects created by water is splendid you can observe each drop of water flowing in the rain from any object or your hands and blood and gore seems pretty satisfying , the game shows a brilliant example of tyndall effect as light enters the room you can observe dust and smoke particle by presenting one of the best Shadow and light effects ive ever seen in a game and there are many major or minor effects visual effects that enhances your experience and make Columbia look alive.

Speaking of sound effects music score or sound track is based on early 90's theme music which really suits the surrounding but still its nothing memorable but the game really makes it up to you by providing solid voice acting to characters even npc's and enemy AI and the sound effects are dedicated to variety of visual effects to make the city worth remembering be that the firing of the gun or screeching of metal , breaking of glass or bursting of spark or crowing of the crow . The sound effects in the game is really well implemented.

Final Words

Bioshock Infinite is a beautiful game with highly detailed visual effects and the sound effect which complements it and one of the most twisted and amazing plot of the game.

even though the Direct X 11 implementation was negligible (which is easily forgettable) and stuttering issue proves to be a deal breaker some time(i found the fix so it didn't bothered me so much) This game is a MUST PLAY

Pros-Amazing plot for the game , beautiful sound and visual effects which complements each other , combat is engaging and fun

Cons- Direct x 11 implementation was negligible , stuttering and frame drop of game prove to be a deal breaker some time(Luckily i found the fix) , Story developes at a slow pace