BioShock Infinite is a game about contradictions. It is a first-person shooter that spends most of its time asking you not to shoot. It is a sequel to a beloved series that shares almost nothing with its predecessors beyond a name and a willingness to make you uncomfortable. It is a story about American exceptionalism told through a floating city that has made itself the purest expression of that idea, and it is a game that wants you to feel both awe and disgust at the same time, often in the same room.
Set in 1912, the game drops you into Columbia, a city in the sky built as a monument to the founding fathers and the prosperity of the white Protestant American. You play as Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent with a debt and a mission: find a girl named Elizabeth and bring her back to New York to clear that debt. Nothing is that simple.
The city is run by a prophet named Zachary Comstock, a man who has built a religion around himself and the idea that Columbia is the new Eden. The game’s opening hour is a slow burn of wonder and dread, as you walk through a city that is beautiful, clean, and utterly wrong.
The first thing you notice is the sound. The game’s score, composed by Garry Schyman, is a strange blend of period music and anachronistic pop songs. You will hear a barbershop quartet singing a version of “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys, and later a gramophone playing a rendition of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper. These songs are not jokes. They are the game’s way of telling you that Columbia is a place outside of time, a place that has decided which parts of history it wants to keep and which it will discard.
Trailer, via Ghost Story.
Columbia and Its Lies
Columbia is the real star of BioShock Infinite. The game’s art direction is extraordinary. The city is a collection of Victorian buildings, marble statues, and manicured parks, all suspended in the clouds. It is bright where the original BioShock was dark, and that brightness is a kind of lie. The game wants you to love this place before it shows you the rot underneath.
The first time you see a group of citizens lynching an interracial couple, you understand what you are actually walking through. The game does not hide its politics. Columbia is a racist, xenophobic, theocratic nightmare, and it is also gorgeous. That tension is the point.
The level design is mostly linear, but it is built to be explored. There are vending machines that sell ammunition and health, and there are “vigors” — the game’s version of plasmids from the first BioShock — that give you supernatural powers. You can shoot lightning from your hands, summon crows to attack enemies, or trap the ground with fire. These powers are fun to use, and they combine with your weapons in satisfying ways.
Meeting Elizabeth
The other major addition is Elizabeth. She is the character you are trying to rescue, but she is not a damsel in distress. She is a young woman who has been locked in a tower her entire life, and she is curious, clever, and capable. She does not just follow you around and wait to be saved. She finds money, ammunition, and health for you in the middle of fights. She opens “tears” in the fabric of reality, pulling in useful objects like a turret, a supply crate, or a piece of cover. She is a companion who actually helps, and her presence changes the feel of the game.
The relationship between Booker and Elizabeth is the emotional core of BioShock Infinite, and it works because the writing is patient. The game gives the two characters room to talk, to argue, and to grow comfortable with each other. Elizabeth is not a prop. She has her own opinions, her own fears, and her own arc. The voice acting, by Courtnee Draper and Troy Baker, is excellent. Baker gives Booker a weary, damaged quality, and Draper makes Elizabeth feel genuinely alive. Their scenes together are the best parts of the game.
Riding the Skylines
The skylines are the game’s signature mechanic. Columbia is a city of rails, and you can hook onto them and ride through the air, zipping from one platform to another while firing at enemies below. It is fast, chaotic, and exhilarating. The combat encounters that use the skylines are the game’s best, because they force you to move and think in three dimensions. You can jump off a rail mid-flight, land behind an enemy, and hit him with a melee attack before hooking back on.
The gunplay is competent but not exceptional. The weapons are standard for the genre: a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, a sniper rifle, a rocket launcher, and a few others. They all feel fine, but they do not have the weight or personality of the best shooters. The enemies are mostly human, and they are not particularly smart. They will take cover, they will flank, and they will sometimes call for reinforcements, but they are not a serious challenge on the normal difficulty. The game is more about spectacle than precision, and that is fine.
The vigors are where the combat gets interesting. Each one has a secondary fire that can be used to lay traps, and combining them is the key to surviving the harder encounters. You can lay a trap of crows on a doorway, then hit an enemy with a shock of electricity, then finish him off with a shotgun blast. The game rewards creativity, and it gives you enough tools that you never feel like you are stuck with a bad option.
The problem is that the game throws a lot of combat at you, and some of the later fights drag. The game is about ten to twelve hours long, and there are stretches where you feel like you are fighting the same waves of enemies in the same kind of arena, waiting for the story to move forward.
Twists in the Tale
The story is the reason to play BioShock Infinite, and it is a story that is best experienced without spoilers. What can be said is that the game is about choices, about the weight of history, and about the nature of reality itself. It is a game that uses the concept of multiple universes as a narrative device, and it handles that concept with more care than most science fiction. The game does not just use parallel worlds as a gimmick. It builds its entire plot around them, and the implications are both personal and cosmic.
The ending is divisive. Some players loved it, and some felt cheated. It is a twist that recontextualizes everything you have done, and it asks you to reconsider the characters you have spent the game with. It is a bold choice, and it is one that rewards careful attention. The game drops clues throughout, and if you are paying attention, you will start to see the shape of the truth before it is revealed.
The game is also a commentary on American history, and it does not soften its message. The game’s villains are not cartoonish. They are people who believe they are doing God’s work, and the game treats their beliefs with a kind of terrible sincerity. Comstock is a frightening figure because he is not a monster. He is a man who has convinced himself that his cruelty is righteousness, and the game shows you exactly how that happens.
Sound and Music
The audio design is top-tier. The sound of the city is alive: the hum of machinery, the chatter of crowds, the distant music from a bandstand. The game’s original score is excellent, but it is the licensed songs that stick with you. The choice to use modern pop songs in a 1912 setting is a deliberate anachronism, and it works better than it should.
The voice work is uniformly strong. The supporting cast, including the twins Robert and Rosalind Lutece, are memorable. The Luteces are a strange pair, scientists who seem to exist outside of time, and their dialogue is some of the best in the game. They are funny, cryptic, and unsettling in equal measure. They are the kind of characters you want to see more of, even though you are never quite sure what they want.
Technical Rough Edges
It would not be honest to ignore the flaws. BioShock Infinite had a troubled development, and it shows in places. The game has loading times that feel long, and there are occasional frame rate drops, especially on the PlayStation 3 version. The PC version is the best way to play, but even that has some rough edges. The game also has a few sections that feel unfinished, where the pacing stumbles and you are left wandering through a space that feels like it was meant to have more content.
The game’s politics are also a point of contention. Some critics felt that the game was too heavy-handed, that it hit its points about racism and nationalism with all the subtlety of a hammer. That is a fair criticism, but it is also a choice. BioShock Infinite is not interested in subtlety. It is a game that wants you to feel the ugliness of its world, and it does not trust you to get the point without being shown. Whether that works for you is a matter of taste.
Lasting Impact
BioShock Infinite was released to near-universal acclaim in 2013, and it won a host of awards. It was praised for its story, its art direction, and its ambition. It was also criticized for its combat and its occasional technical issues. The game was a commercial success, and it has been rereleased on multiple platforms, including the PlayStation 4 and modern PCs.
It is a game that tries to do a lot, and it does not succeed at everything. The combat is not as sharp as it could be, and the pacing drags in the middle. But the story is something special, and the world is unforgettable. It is a game that will stay with you after you finish it, and it is a game that rewards a second playthrough. There are details you will miss the first time, and there are moments that will hit differently when you know the truth.
“There’s always a lighthouse. There’s always a man. There’s always a city.”
That line is spoken near the end of the game, and it sums up what BioShock Infinite is about. It is a game about patterns, about the way history repeats itself, and about the choices that make us who we are. It is not a perfect game, but it is a remarkable one.
If you have not played it, it is worth your time. BioShock Infinite is a flawed masterpiece, and it is one of the most important games of its generation.
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