Bioshock Infinite Retrospective
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Way back in 2013, Bioshock Infinite blew a young Austin's mind and remains one of my most memorable gaming experiences. Now 10 years later, I revisited the game to evaluate how well it holds up, divorced from the hype. Full spoilers ahead, but after this much time I expect that is of little concern.
This is the 4th video in an ongoing Bioshock retrospective series, so I'd recommend you check out the prior videos I've done as well. Or don't; this video will work perfectly well standalone too. Please don't hesitate to leave your feedback, both on my video but also your unique take on the game itself. Enjoy!
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
3:48 Welcome to Columbia
10:45 Elizabeth
16:19 Environmental Design
19:50 Midgame
32:31 Extensive Combat Rant (Skip if you want)
51:47 Endgame
59:08 Closing Comments 
Игры
I haven't had the pleasure of watching yet, but wanted to leave a comment to express how happy I am to see you back.
And I want to express how happy your comment made me! Thank you so much, that means a lot
I for one have always liked how the gear forces us to imagine Booker stopping in his tracks to change his pants or try on a new hat
It is admittedly a hilarious mental image haha
Fellow Pathologic enjoyers around here
I agree with your thought that it’s hard to draw a coherent opinion on this game. Certain aspects of the game are genuinely first class, and others are a huge letdown when considering how they compare to Bioshock 1 & 2.
As always, I greatly enjoy your videos and hope you do more in the future.
That’s my feelings on Infinite exactly. Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed and I’ll definitely continue to release more videos!
I actually think the similarities between Elizabeth in Infinite and Eleanor in Bioshock 2 (story function, appearance, everything) are very deliberate. Constants and variables across the universes. Delta and Eleanor are “the man and the girl” in their universe.
I'm not 100% convinced it's deliberate but it certainly seems like it with the constants/variables. The only thing holding me back is the lingering question on if Ken Levine would really take such liberal inspiration from Bioshock 2, I just can't picture it. Regardless, even if the parallels do make sense with the alternate universe story being told, I think it's a little too similar to the point of making Elizabeth and Booker's story feel less exciting up until all the time travel shenanigans. Thanks for sharing your perspective!
This is a really nice walk through the game.
It reminds me what I like about the game, what I didnt like and mostly what I forgot about it.
The city still looks amazing to me. Learning that it´s wealth was founded by opression and slavery was a real bummer.
Elizabeth is a character that I liked from the beginning. The main reason I continued the game after learning that the combat is really stale to me, was to bring her to Paris. That Booker betrayed her and thought only about his dept was quite shocking to me.
The worldbuilding is cool and the story is interesting, even though I didnt get much of it.
Other things, like the gunplay, was pretty ok, but nothing to write home about.
The leveldesign is pretty forgotable, just like the enemies.
That the skyrail was so hyped up is something that I do not get even today. For me, it is just boring to glide on the rails. But it is a good representation of Infinites design.Just go where you are supposed to, there isnt much in the other directions anyway.
28:55 that is one of the few things I remember pretty clearly. You should have mentioned why this child is afraid and hiding in the basement.
The friendly guitar player just slaughtered everyone upstairs without flinching and the girl who sings tenderly about ending violence did not try to stop him, she encouraged him by throwing ammo to him. 30 seconds later they are coming your way. They give you an apple which they just take from a shelf and sing a song for you.
Then they leave to kill more citizens, but never coming for you.
The other thing I ask myself in many games like this, who the hell is Booker owning money?
I mean, he is on a rampage through a city, killing trained men a robots. Sure, he has some help from Elizabeth and has a few powers later on, but even without it he can easily defeat anyone with a simple gun. He probably could kill anyone he owes money to easily, but prefers to slaughter people who dont even know him.
Good video, really nice work! Thanks :)
Thanks for sharing! That’s a good point about the guitar scene although I don’t think that was the intent haha
excellent thoughts i agree 100%
I remember talking with a friend of mine about Bioshock. We are both white guys with black wives but are both very different politically (he is more of a progressive where I guess you could call me a libertarian). We had many deep conversations about how Bioshock handles themes of objectivism and collectivism. Then he asked me about Infinite. I told him about that initial walkthrough of Colombia and thinking “Wow! This place is great. A capela singing my favorite Beach Boys song! Old timey festivals! I could live here… until I got to the raffle and realized…. Oh… I can’t live here 😂”
Infinite was announced to be released around my birthday. I was so excited I picked up 1 & 2 and braved my fear of the ocean to properly dive into Rapture. Over the course of...maybe a week I played through 1 & 2, then happily picked up Infinite a few days after it's release.
I have never felt so disappointed in a game (until Starfield). Bioshock 2 is my favorite due to the relationship between Delta and Elizabeth. I was personally motivated if only because I really enjoy that type of character dynamic. Booker rubbed me the wrong way, the very early and very very racist inciting event icked me bad, and there was not nearly enough of Songbird in the game. There's a lot I don't like about this game, and I really feel like you got a lot of the points I felt.
Bio2 is my favorite as well! However I wasn’t disappointed with Infinite right away, I was in love with it on my first time and then subsequent playthroughs without all the hype brought its shortcomings to light.
A new austin post, and its about bioshock? Hell yeah, i know what i'm watching tonight
I’m flattered haha, hope you enjoy!
I thought you wouldn’t tackle infinite due to how different Infinite was but it was a nice surprise notification ! I agree with having such conflicting feelings but loving the game, no other one like it
Yeah it’s hard to separate my personal love for the game from the objective reality of its shortcomings.
yes! I've been waiting for this
Sorry for the long wait! Definitely will be a shorter gap between videos moving forward. Hope you enjoy!
perfect
I needed something new to fall asleep to
Good work dog
Ah he's back
Thanks for your patience!
Could not agree more about the missed potential. I remember feeling so disappointed that the story just went nowhere.
I was in the hype mood when they this game first came out. Me and my sister even cosplay Booker and Elizabeth Summer Supercon in 2013. At the time I kinda ignored the second half of the game and focus in the first half, so that might be what made me overlook the game's problems with the story. Overtime, as I look more critically at the game I feel less incline to like it that much. There's just too many problems, especially the ending. It felt like the first and second half of the game's stories (and styles) were two different game stories merged, going from the protagonist who saves the damsel in a racial-rationalistic setting filled with fun aesthetics to becoming a tragic time travel story with a plot twist and less interesting aesthetics.
I was a die hard infinite fan when it first released as well, but that passion has slowly been tempered with time as I’ve reflected on it more and more. I do still really like the time travel story overall though!
Good takes all round, though I personally am even more critical about some aspects of the game. Namely, the level design and progression & combat system, it's one of my least favorite games in general. Ayyyy Majora's Mask is next, as I said before I will be looking forward to it!
Thank you for watching! Wow one of your least favorite games? Is that just for really disappointing you? Surely there are far worse games you’ve played.
@@AustinAshworth There are worse games but it's definitely in my bottom 20%. The disappointment doesn't play a major role, I just didn't enjoy the game one bit and the main & side narratives didn't lift it up much either for me. Also the dlc didn't help much... If you decide to cover those in the future I will be praying for you.
@@axeldeeker5644 Interesting perspective, never heard of anyone disliking the game to that extent. Even those who were disappointed usually at least still like it. Thanks for sharing! Burial at Sea is definitely in the cards, it’s the low point of the Bioshock franchise for sure but even that I’m able to find some enjoyment. It is a bit rough though.
THX for the video, enjoyed it very much! As a shooter Infinite never really worked for me..
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed!
Well I know what I'm doing tonight
Comment for algo etc. Great analysis man
Thank you!
Awesome! Will there be more Zelda retorspectives?
Absolutely! Majora’s Mask is up next.
I’ll say I love Infinite. They put the soul in the game. Played it twice but adored it no less. Yet found some drawbacks. It annoyed me that booker could reload while using skyhook. It’s just unnatural. I’d say shooting RPG in the air is stupid too. The game lacks a bit of realism in combat. I wish I was forced to use light weapons like pistol or hand cannon to lower the recoil and spread
No stealth. Well, they made it in Burial at Sea, why couldn’t they in main campaign. All that unstopping shooting is stale. I felt no excitement doing so in the endgame. Vigors... From shitty to OP. They needed to balance them a little better. Return to Sender is OP, Murder of Crows, Shock Jockey, and Bucking Bronco do almost the same
The had had a potential to make a combat system worth replaying, but they failed. Well the game doesn’t encourage you to change the gear. I played with pistol and machine gun and felt no trouble. Elizabeth is the diamond, I agree with the idea they should’ve made her abilities more balanced, I really wish they’d made it more hardcore in good way. The did so in Burials. I enjoyed these two DLCs more that the main game. They force you to make your choice, to fight carefully, to choose the battle to fight
I really loved how they handled Elizabeth. She isn’t as strong as Booker, she’s subtle. She force you to be careful. I really had chills playing as her, knowing that two splicers could kill me when I’m low on ammo. It’s a shit when Booker kills dozen of enemies in 10 seconds. It’s annoying, I wish it was smarter
I loved the characters, the way they made, but that shit with multiverse is bothering. It leaves to many holes. Like why wouldn’t there be a Comstock that hadn’t gone mad (like imagine Comstock that become a pastor and had kids and wife in New York, living a normal life), why should Liz kill Booker from Burial at Sea. He was Comstock, but Booker of the Infinite isn’t much better man. Liz acts as a cold-blooded bitch which is questioned in Second Episode. Why could Liz see it before? Why should she die? Why could she not wait until a Big Daddy kills her? Fatalism doesn’t suit the Infinite, to my mind. If Jack had choice, why Booker doesn’t? I don’t get the message, it is too baptist- or calvinist-like. Might have been intentionally
I personally much prefer the main game to the Burial at Seas, but I can see where you are coming from. In my opinion, the story gets so messy in the DLCs and messes too much with the established Rapture story. Bringing Infinite's gunplay and mechanics into Rapture just didn't fit well either. Nice to hear a different take on them though, thanks for sharing!
@@AustinAshworth well, I liked how combat worked in Burials. No need to drop guns, no ‘go and kill’ a horde of enemies. They managed to make a smarted gameplay using the same engine. I wish Infinite was less linear (in level design and combat design), they made an attempt to do so in Burials, which is awesome. I loved the gameplay, it was fresher than it would be if they just copy n pasted Colombian patterns
Though I find your idea of 6 (or 7) weapons a little too much (I agree, that Vox weapons are trash). Well, I found it easy to beat the game with basic weapons. It’s the customization that sucks (much better designed in the original Bioshock as you said). Well, I think they could’ve make 2 basic weapon slots and 4 for vigors and extra one to open for coins. Personally I feel OK with 2 slots, but weapon design doesn’t feel real. It’s better in Burials, especially the second part
I really didn't like this game, it had so little exploration compared to 1 and 2, and those in turn had so little exploration compared to System Shock 1 and 2. It had its merit obviously and I was so excited to play it, but it played like a contemporary CoD campaign except with bullet sponges
If exploration is your main draw to the franchise I can definitely agree Infinite didn’t have much to offer you
One of the best game words ever
The first few hours in Columbia are so magical!