Well, I just finished Bioshock Infinite. Some probably not very well-formed thoughts, plenty of spoilers, and a question for those who’ve played it, under the cut...
The ending felt a bit like swallowing a giant exposition capsule. I can’t help but think they could’ve conveyed the key ideas with a bunch less extraneous lighthouse stuff.
Overall, I enjoyed the game and I’m glad I played it, but it really seems like a mess - the worldbuilding and the narrative both seem to come in fits and spurts (and somewhat at each other’s expense). For a while the game seems to be aiming at social commentary, but then partly through (right around the time it dispenses with its one major character of color *cough*) that seemed to fall by the wayside as the multiple-universes plot took center stage.
I probably would have figured out whose daughter Elizabeth was faster if I hadn’t taken a break in the middle to play a bunch of Diablo 3. but I’d kinda forgotten some of the earlier dialogue when that became relevant. Had not guessed that DeWitt = Comstock and that still seems like a hand-wavey and pretty much unnecessary revelation.
In both gameplay and narrative, it feels like they just kept throwing ideas at a wall to see what stuck, and no one told them that they probably had enough stuff on the wall already. (Clio, who was intermittently watching me play, theorized that was because Ken Levine was the one throwing stuff at the wall. I would not rule out this possibility.)
So... some interesting things going on, some unexpected character moments (Elizabeth and Lady Comstock - man), I loved Booker and Elizabeth’s relationship so much, gorgeous visuals and an amazing soundtrack - it’s too bad the whole thing is a mess.
Have any of you played “Burial at Sea” (the DLC)? I know it retcons some of the storyline of Bioshock (and maybe this one too)... if any of you did play, did you find it worthwhile?
