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Why the hate for Bioshock Infinite?

VertigoOA

Banned
I enjoyed the first game. Didn’t care for the second because it felt like more of the same.

So far I think infinite is great. Much prefer not playing as Big Daddy and the setting is pretty as hell even by today’s standards. Great art direction and atmosphere.

And above all else... the shooting is actually excellent. Even without today’s ADS standard ... the shot gun feels great. All the weapons do really. They definitely nailed it with the last game.

Is it because it’s a Marxist’s wet dream? Even then... I don’t care too much because you can tell a shit ton of passion was put into this so I can’t hate.

Like is all the negative stuff I’ve glanced just because of narrative? at this point it might be my favorite game in the series ... and to be honest it would be nice to have a linear and narrative driven fps experience like this again... I’d argue Resident Evil 7 was the last one of its kind.
 
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Kacho

Member
Always thought people hated it because it was less an immersive sim and more a corridor shooter. I liked Bioshock 3 but remember being disappointed at how linear it was.

Been meaning to play it again. The shooting was good and plasmids were interesting. Plus it’s fun as hell zip zapping around on those rails.
 
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MiguelItUp

Member
Honestly I think it's because of all the previews and demos that came before it. Some showed scenes and content that never made it in. I believe quite a bit of footage we prerendered too, but I could be wrong, it's been awhile. So a lot of people weren't fans of that.

I'm a big Bioshock fan and I still really enjoyed it for what it was, albeit it's my least favorite of the three.

In the end, I think the footage that was available before release painted a much larger picture than what went gold. What we got was more "watered down" according to a lot of folks.
 
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I did not enjoy the Bioshock gameplay loop being shoehorned into a linear map. It clashed.

Infinite also threw subtlety out the window and it wasn't like the first two games were all that subtle.

Lastly, the competition was fiercer by the time Infinite came out in 2013. The first Bioshock had the advantage of being one of the first next-gen shooters with almost nothing to compare. Deus Ex and Dishonored both came out prior to Infinite and greatly improved upon the "foundation" (lol) laid by Bioshock at the beginning of the generation. It's not really Infinite's fault that Dishonored and Deus Ex both outclassed it but it was a factor in my experience with the game.
 
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LordOfChaos

Member
I loved the story and it was one of only a handful of games that left a lasting impression that way. The second time I tried to play it I didn't get through it, lots of repetitive area defense. But that doesn't take away my first time experience with it and I'll never hate it. I didn't know it got much hate.

Courtnee Draper followed me on IG which was random!
 
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#Phonepunk#

Banned
it's pretty rad. art design is top notch and the combat is decent. i love the steampunk aesthetic.

at first the story bugged me but after replaying a few times, i have grown to like it. even the heavy handed racism stuff i think was done very well here. had they made this game just a few years later, that element might have been overdone. thank God this game was made before 2015.
 

ROMhack

Member
I liked it but it felt like a bit like a Disney movie - complete with the princess who just wants to break freeeee*. The first, and to a lesser extent the second game, were smarter IMO.


*Nothing about strong female characters or anything. Both Booker and Elizabeth were kinda cliche.


Edited slightly.
 
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VGEsoterica

Member
It was a super fun game. If you look closely at the plot it may fall apart a bit under scrutiny. I def enjoy Rapture more as an environment than Columbia, but I had a great time with each
 
The final product was a downgrade to what was shown before and it showed in gameplay, characters and the story.
Gameplay, for sure.

Storywise? Very hard to see that since Ken Levine is a perfectionist.

I would say that Infinite's DLC is essential to play because they make the entire BioShock franchise come together in a beautiful labyrinth bow 💙
 
Are you doing that thing again? If not, I'd kinda like to hear your thoughts. Maybe I missed something.
Long story short: Ken Levine created a masterful labyrinth of a story that spans across two games and the final game's DLC. It is arguably the most ambitious videogame storytelling ever produced and that will inevitably lead to a few minor flaws in execution since videogames are inherently difficult to tell a story with, let alone a story with same weight and ambition as BioShock.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I liked it but it felt like a Disney movie - complete with the princess who just wants to break freeeee*. The first, and to a lesser extent the second game, were smarter even if the narrative was similarly contrived.


*Seriously, both Booker and Elizabeth were so cliche it was unreal.
Definitely agree with that, Elizabeth doesn't act the way she was raised, it felt like they trying artificially make her "likeable" so we would care about her.
 
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brian0057

Banned
I mean, where do I begin?
  • Further removal of RPG elements from the series.
  • A ridiculously linear level design.
  • Two-weapon limitation because apparently we're playing Halo.
  • A time travel story that makes no sense.
  • As soon as a gun fight breaks out, every NPC magically vanishes.
Wanna play a linear FPS with interesting mechanics and a companion that's worth a damn? Play Half-Life 2.
Wanna play an FPS/RPG hybrid with unique level design and dashes of horror? Play System Shock 2 or the OG Bioshock.
I honestly don't understand the praise.
 
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sircaw

Banned
As someone who recently completed all 3, over the last month, i can say for certain that Bioshock infinite was a major disappointment.

Only being allowed to carry 2 weapons, why.
The plasmids or vigors felt uninspiring and dull, needed more areas like the ice ring in the dlc where you could actually use the plasmids to manipulate things, like water to make an ice bridge.
Ended up using the possession vigor for the fast majority of the game.
Boring level design, what the hell did they do to exploration, Point A-B, drop of at c maybe, only to get her to open a safe with the usual 200 eagles in it.
cloth system... why why why.
Lost the feeling of atmosphere, discovery., panic
Run and gun, so much for the slow, tactical approach of thought and traps.
BOOKER DEWITT and his human dispensing side quick, yawn.


Positives

Stella Artwork
Touches like possessed turning their weapons on themselves
Rifts, good and bad, could of been given more thought.

Bioshock 1 10/10 revolutionary
Bioshock 2 10/10 many much needed changes, combat better, hacking better
Bioshoock Infinite 7/10--1 step forward.. 3 back

I can not express how much of a disappointment this game was to me, i struggled to finish it, their were times when i considered should i bother loading it up just to complete it.

If they make a 4th i hope they don't go this route.
 
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S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Gameplay, for sure.

Storywise? Very hard to see that since Ken Levine is a perfectionist.

I would say that Infinite's DLC is essential to play because they make the entire BioShock franchise come together in a beautiful labyrinth bow 💙
It was about the lack of choices if anything and how it sets itself up to be something but then it just says fuck it. The first 10 minutes has you make a choice only to tell you that you never have a choice to begin with. It never revisits the topic either and it later makes a poor attempt at showing you classism. Only for it to just say fuck it to that as well and added time travel because well you know why.
 
I dont necessary hate it, but I had so huge expectations towards it so I was pretty let down of the original release. If I remember right it just didn't feel "Bioshock" enough and it was almost just like a regular shooter compared to the previous titles.

I really should play it on PS4 with a fresh mindset. I originally played it on PC.
 
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It was about the lack of choices if anything and how it sets itself up to be something but then it just says fuck it. The first 10 minutes has you make a choice only to tell you that you never have a choice to begin with. It never revisits the topic either and it later makes a poor attempt at showing you classism. Only for it to just say fuck it to that as well and added time travel because well you know why.
Yeah, no. :p

I would suggest to read the story analysis that I've personally read to understand why that choice in the beginning is there.

BioShock infinite is NOT an RPG; it's a meta-analysis of videogames in the context of Post-Industrial Western Culture.
 

brian0057

Banned
Yeah, no. :p

I would suggest to read the story analysis that I've personally read to understand why that choice in the beginning is there.

BioShock infinite is NOT an RPG; it's a meta-analysis of videogames in the context of Post-Industrial Western Culture.

cmvbEhU.jpg
 
The gameplay in 1 is janky and simply not that fun. Bioshock Infinite is great if not perfect. And it's rated overwhelmingly positive on Steam (actually slightly higher than the first game) so normal people agree with me.

d5zlnpb-b4e35988-5c7a-49a5-b79e-d1e90651dd0a.gif
 
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LordKasual

Banned
Dunno, but the year of Bioshock Infinite was also the year of Last of Us

and the dawn of the "dude fights with vulnerable yet capable sidekick"

that eventually lead to that fucking God of War reboot.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
The gameplay in 1 is janky and simply not that fun. Bioshock Infinite is great if not perfect. And it's rated overwhelmingly positive on Steam (actually slightly higher than the first game) so normal people agree with me.
Show me these normal people from Steam.
 

The Alien

Banned
I loved the first 2 Bioshock games. I think B2 is vastly underrated. I was excited for B:I.

I def am NOT a fan of Infinite. I know it had a high metacritic score, but I think it isnt a title that has withstood that score.

Why the Infinite hate IMO?

First, the initial E3 featurette featured gameplay that both looked awesome and then never appeared in the released game.

Next, what we got was a repetitive loop. Go into this section. Kill. Go to next section. Kill.

On top of that, the first 2 games did a decent job of balancing gunplay and abilities/plasmids. Infinite, could be played as a straight up shooter.

Lastly, tension is needed...Elizabeth alleviated any tension. If u ever got low on ammo or health, she was right their to throw u a bone.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Can someone explain to me how can she be this cheerful and social when she stuck in that tower all her life with no one to interact with other than Songbird?
She has powers like Kat. Duh.

:angryfakefrenchnoises:
 

Fbh

Member
I really liked it when it launched and I still really like it now.

I think a lot of the hate comes from the fact that it just didn't live up to the original gameplay showings they had, and I agree that the world and concepts in it had the potential to be more than just a decent shooter with nice visuals and a fun story.
 

stickkidsam

Member
I thought it was a fun game. I lost interest towards the end though because the story just kind of goes nowhere. Felt like waste of what was building up to be a really sweet time travel story.

The fans of gameplay think the game is a downgrade from the nice and strategic combat of Bioshock 1. The fans of politics hate Infinite because panders to the centrism that is ripping our country apart.
Wat
 
Not gonna lie, I got tired of the gameplay but loved the story and characters, so overall I'd say that I loved it even though by the end I was trying to get through the actual parts of the game as fast as I could to get to the next chunk of story. Shit had me hooked that bad.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Can someone explain to me how can she be this cheerful and social when she stuck in that tower all her life with no one to interact with other than Songbird?
when she was stuck in that tower she could open tears to infinite places across the multiverse. at any point in her captivity she could open a tear to a place with nice people and go hang there.

also, narrative convenience.
 
Hmm i'm actually planning on playing this next via XB1X BC after I finish Batman Arkham Knight in a long backlog list.

I loved Bioshock and Bioshock 2.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
when she was stuck in that tower she could open tears to infinite places across the multiverse. at any point in her captivity she could open a tear to a place with nice people and go hang there.

also, narrative convenience.
She did but not long enough hang out and talk to other people in multiverse.
 
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