Bioshock Infinite

Irrational Games - 2013 - PC/PS3/X360

This, to me, was probably the most disappointing game I played this year. Nearly all of my friends and other people I spoke to who had played this game enjoyed it and the game was critically reviewed well, so I may be a bit alone here. I thought this game took a pretty big step backward in overall game design and pacing compared to the previous Bioshocks. There were large chunks of this game where I did nothing but shoot enemies, then there were large chunks where the game decided it wanted to tell a story for a while and just guided me around Columbia. But the chunks weren't mixed in throughout the game. They were just…chunks. It also took out the excellent level design that I loved from the first two games where upon entering a new area, you had to be aware of your surroundings and the enemies you were fighting and use the appropriate plasmids to lay traps and what not. Infinite mostly just had large open areas filled with enemies that you had to kill with… whatever. Again and again and again.

I didn't think Columbia had the charm, atmosphere and polish that Rapture did so well in the earlier games either. I also experienced some balancing issues with this game. I pretty much had my character maxed out in everything about halfway into the game and was mowing down anything in my way without much thought or effort.

Summary:
There’s so much more this game could have done with mixing up gameplay/artwork/music with their parallel dimensions theme too. A lot of lost potential. To its credit, the ending of this game was pretty cool though.