Bioshock Infinite - most overrated game of the year so far?

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Originally Posted by Fuzzy Skinner

Much like Tomb Raider (long time fan since the original) I was both amazed and disappointed by Bioshock Infinite.
Overrated? Perhaps, but in all honestly it's a damn good game and the best one of the year.
I will admit it's current content (until the dlc comes around) is a bit more slim than I would have hoped. To break it down, here is what I liked and disliked about the game.

Liked -

Combat. The combat was solid. If you played the game on any difficulty except hard you might have missed out on how good it could be. Required a fair amount of strategy and planning to defeat enemies especially tougher ones like Patriots and Handymen.

Graphics and over all aesthetics. It was amazing to look at, few can argue with that.

Storyline and themes. Over all it was an interesting tale. At times I felt that the alternate reality stuff was a bit much, but by the end of the game it came together nicely and avoided being the mess I thought it would. Add that with the religious, social and racial themes and was a story that definitely got you thinking, something rare in games.

Adding the original Bioshock with the game. I didn't get to play much of the original and I'm sure I'm not the only one, so adding the original Bioshock along with Infinite was a nice bonus. Wish more games would be so generous.

Disliked -

SPOILER ALERT!!!!



The lack of a serious final boss. Through out the entire game I was anticipating a final show down with Song Bird, what you got instead seemed like a bit of a cop-out. I don't understand the decision to deny us a real battle with such a cool enemy.

No multiplayer. I'm a big fan of Bioshock 2 and still consider it the best in the series, and perhaps this is why. In Bioshock 2 there was a surprisingly enjoyable multiplayer. With the combat and themes of Infinite you could of had an amazing multiplayer experience but unfortunately there wasn't. I still have a sliver of hope that they will add a multiplayer in a add-on, but I doubt they will. Side note, it's odd that Tomb Raider gave us a lack luster multiplayer that was unneeded, and Infinite denies us one that is sorely needed. It's like game devs hate us.

Combat was damn good, but lacked the level of strategy and depth of the first two games. I remember in other Bioshock games having to seriously set up turrets, bots, traps and the right combination of weapons and powers before I would have a chance to defeat a Big Daddy or Big Sister. While you had to be on your toes and use all available resources to win in Infinite, it still didn't have the depth of the first two. I also miss the amount and variety of plasmids we got in the first two games, Infinite was a bit slim in this department.


Anyway, that's what I think. It could have been better, but it's still a damn good game and the best game to come out so far this year. I'm currently hyped for Last of us and especially Dead Island: Riptide, hopefully those live up to expectations.

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100% agree with you on all counts!

I'd just like to add that I really enjoyed the story and I believe its all of the Call of Duty kiddos that are complaining about its "confusing" ending. It was a brilliant story, fun game, amazing art direction.

Elizabeth didn't feel very useful, except for when she threw stuff at me, which got pretty annoying (kind of reminded me of the pawns in Dragon's Dogma, except less annoying). Her ability to open tears was actually a cheap mechanic to make her seem more useful. Everything is scripted to be somewhere, health, salts, weapons, etc. are already there, she just needs to tear them into our existence. It's a smart move by the development team but when the game takes you out of the experience as much as this game does, you just can't get lost into the mythos and believe that she's opening things (the same way she can't die, that really takes me out of the game, or how I just end up where I was when I fall. But her not being able to die really bothers me, why hide or take cover if you could do that? Why not just break your way out of your tower and fall to your 'life' because you can't die? Why not help Booker out a bit and beat up some bad guys because they can't hurt you at all? She probably wouldn't do the last one though.)

*SPOILERS*
The story was okay, I've seen alternate universes and I smelled the whole "You're Comstock and Elizabeth is your daughter" from a mile away. I did like how the alternate universes thing and all of the themes of morality played out but you have to admit, the Booker/Comstock thing wasn't a twist by any stretch. My biggest problem, though, was pacing. This was one of the games that would have been better if it was shorter (or if I played on easy instead of hard because it felt like it was paced horribly to me, so maybe it was just because fights took too long and felt like obstacles in front of my next piece of story, and fights shouldn't feel like that). I wouldn't mind the fights if the game wasn't repetitive though.

And boy was the game repetitive. Shoot that guy, maybe a few vigors here, change up the vigors so you don't get bored, still bored from vigors, change up weapons, these weapons suck because I didn't upgrade them and they're not very fun to use, time to go back to my normal set of weapons, low on health/ammo/salts so open up tear, ride around on skyline to get away from enemies, repeat. Maybe I'm just bored of shooters?

And Columbia was a big step down from Rapture. Once you get used to the city being in the sky, it just loses it's flavor. It just feels like a city with a few twists here and there. And the art direction was uninspired for me, it looked like the 1910's but the 1910's didn't have much going for it anyway. Rapture had that glamorous 50's feel and the city just felt chaotic, whereas Columbia felt like it was going through a revolution sometimes, and others it just felt like a floating city. And it would've looked better with a few steampunk tweaks.

So my biggest problems are that I've played too many shooters and some of the story seemed uninspired to me because I've seen too many movies and played too many games... So to sum it up for a second or third time, the problem is me and my cynical self :( I wish I could've liked this game more.

Not gonna write some long review, but I will confidenty say it's my favorite game of all-time, just ahead of Dishonored and the Mass Effect trilogy.

Most overrated? Psht... not even close. Mass Effect 2 on the other hand...

Bioshock Infinite is GOTY hands down.

i don't think its overrated and i'm not even a FPS fan. lets look at the categories shall we:
graphics= outstanding, i used 45 minuts of my 1 hour trial on PS+ observing my suroundings. explosions, characters, scenery it all looked great
Sound= great voice acting and dialogue, the symphony of gunfire was pleasurable
gameplay= point and shoot for the simple FPS fans to enjoy with a serving of strategy that can satisfy those of us with more than 1 brain cell(only kidding don't go all "rambo" on me)

thats all i got who do i look like IGN

I wasn't blown away with it like many others seem to have been. It was a solid game with few glitches. And the story line was somewhat entertaining, which can't be said for 90% of videogames released these days. Also, I should say I've never been a big fan of any of the bioshock games. I didn't play the first two until I found them for $5 each in a bin, and they were well worth the price. However, I feel like I could've waited for infinite to be the same way because $60 for 12 hours worth of content leaves me with a small amount of buyer's remorse.

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Originally Posted by K A S H I H A R A D

Most overrated? Psht... not even close. Mass Effect 2 on the other hand...

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Did you read the topic title? "Most overrated GAME OF THE YEAR so far?". Mass Effect 2 is three years old.

Sorry but it is overrated to me, i dont blame the fans though, I blame the media. it is their job so to speak to say good things to get people to buy products. Is this really a good product when you strip away stuff from the other games in the series? (Such as, not having a weapon limit and choice, although they took choice away for a really good reason! I hear/read vigors arent as effective as EVE was or whatever they called it either) To me it is not. I praise Ken Levine and Irrational for putting out a stellar product even if i didnt buy/play it. I guess i prefer Fallout, i dont know. The bottom line is, it is a good game. But not one to praise as the end all be all. To me anyway... <.< >.>

I was blown away by the whole game, it's one of the best games I've played this year and definitely should be GOTY. Although Elizabeth did my head in so much throughout more or less the whole game, just kept getting in my way, and wasn't really much use. Could bring a vendor or turret in sometimes but she was more or an irritation.

It's not what people (Or the media) were making it out to be though. I finished the story on hard in 9 hours and that was doing most of the collectibles too, 1999 mode isn't even that much of a step up from hard either, and now I have limited things to do on it and will probably be finished with it after a few more hours gameplay. Defiance on the other hand, it might be glitchy but it's not been out of my xbox for 2 weeks and I absolutely love it so it really depends on what you'd class an amazing game as.