#Bioshock infinite pc review free

We’re knocked out, and when we wake up we’re introduced to the Vox Populi – a rebel group attempting to start an uprising and overthrow Comstock. We break her out of her tower and – after some convincing that killing so many people is a necessity that doesn’t make us evil – she joins us in a failed escape attempt. Held captive and under observation by Comstock, Elizabeth is quickly established as having a supernatural power to open “tears” to other worlds. Things get properly interesting when we run across Elizabeth – the girl DeWitt’s debtors have apparently been demanding.

I was a bit worried at this point that the sum of the game’s story would be a lazy “religion is bad and racist”, but Infinite has more up its sleeve yet. The shooting begins and the racism bubbles to the surface as your travels take you through areas branded with slogans like “Protecting our Race”. From that moment, you’re on the run.Ī switch is flicked here, and the game becomes a lot more violent both literally and figuratively. Your reward, it turns out, is a chance to hurl a ball at a pair of lower-class citizens in stocks, but before you can do anything DeWitt is recognised as the “false shepherd”. These eventually come to the surface when DeWitt wins a raffle, the prize for which is presented by “the loveliest white girl in Columbia”. Unlike Rapture, the city is thriving when you arrive, and it initially seems rather idyllic until you begin to notice certain undercurrents. The parts of Columbia you are shown carefully construct your impression of the city over the first hour or two. The brief opening sees you take a row boat to a lighthouse, and essentially only fills you in that you’re a man named Booker DeWitt who has travelled from New York to settle his gambling debts.

This time out, our setting is Columbia – a flying city of interconnecting platforms that was established by Father Comstock, a religious leader who is seen as the ultimate authority and God’s right-hand man. The most fundamental difference between BioShock Infinite and the two games that came before it is that the iconic underwater city of Rapture is no more. And at its most fundamental level, as a piece of video gaming entertainment, it’s interesting to notice the ways in which the BioShock formula has been tweaked to paper over some of the shortcomings and criticism of the first two games. The potential readings into what the designers and writers meant by it all are interesting.

The core premise and story itself is interesting, including how it entwines itself with the series’ universe.

#Bioshock infinite pc review free

The switch from my beloved Rapture to Columbia demoted this one to my “to play” list, and once the initial hype died down so did any urgency I had to pick it up - until, that is, it went free on the Epic Games store a few weeks ago.īioShock Infinite is a game that can certainly be described as interesting on several levels. Next in line is BioShock Infinite - the 2013 follow-up to two fantastic games that I hold among my all-time favourites. I’m on the war path in 2022, finally playing through all sorts of games that I probably should have completed years ago, but for one reason or another passed me by.