BioShock Infinite preview [Xbox 360/PS3/PC]

Posted January 12, 2012 by Yuliya Geikhman.

Preview: BIOSHOCK INFINITE takes to the skies later this year. Will it be the roller-coaster ride of your life? Will we ever stop with these awful BioShock-themed plays-on-words? Read on to find out…

The name BioShock used to evoke images of a vast underwater world where an untouched society grew to power, then consumed itself. In BioShock Infinite, developers Irrational Games say goodbye to water and instead look to the sky for inspiration. But despite a new setting, new faces, and new issues to face, BioShock: Infinite promises to retain the distinct feel of a BioShock game.

Whether it’s set beneath the deep waters or in the vast skies above, BioShock features a distopian society built in a place where humans are not meant to live. Irrational Games were careful not to make BioShock Infinite look too much like ‘BioShock 1 in the sky’. The floating city of Columbia, like BioShock 1 and 2′s Rapture, was built on supposedly pure intentions that went wrong thanks to greed and conflicting ideals. A Civil War rages between the Founders and the Vox Populi that is literally ripping the city apart.

It is in this very charged political atmosphere that you will lead Booker DeWitt on a quest to protect his companion Elizabeth. While the main character remains vaguely mysterious (in true BioShock fashion), much is already known about Elizabeth. She was raised in captivity by a large mechanical bird called the Songbird. Like the Little Sister and Big Daddy of the two previous games, Elizabeth and the Songbird have an intricate relationship that will be emphasised through their interaction, and the Songbird’s silence.

Complexity

Irrational Game’s Ken Levine revealed that Elizabeth is at least partly based on a woman who had been abused. Elizabeth is “conflicted,” Levine has stated. “And I think conflicted characters are way more interesting than characters who act with a certainty.” Elizabeth won’t be just another damsel-in-distress character. Instead, she’s created to be real and credible, with depth, emotions and a strong personality, despite her exaggerated appearance. A good female character in a videogame is so rare that Elizabeth alone is reason enough to look forward to BioShock Infinite.

Elizabeth also happens to have some special powers that will prove useful on your adventures – that is, if she can control them. She can manipulate objects, the weather, and windows into other worlds, known as tears. Booker and Elizabeth make a unique tag-team in a world where everyone wants to hurt, kill or capture them. While Booker will do the actual fighting, he can call on Elizabeth to conjure up train cars, ammunition, or even a doorway that can help or hinder you.

Of course, there’s always the chance that these powers will only be novel for a while, and the actual fighting will revert to good old guns. But the previous BioShock titles demonstrate how deftly multiple combat options can be utilised. If Irrational Games find a good balance, the volatile nature of Elizabeth’s powers could create dynamic fighting sequences that players can adapt to their own fighting styles.

Navigating Columbia

But perhaps the most important character in the game is neither human nor mechanical: it’s the world itself. Levine has expressed regret about not using the underwater environment of BioShock 1 and 2 as a bigger part of the game experience. “We failed in giving you a sense of that city underwater,” Levine said. “We felt we could go so much further with that.”

BioShock: Infinite aims to remedy this. One of the most striking additions in BioShock Infinite is the Skyline, a series of rails that spans the entire city. Using an arm-mounted Skyhook, Booker can ride the Skyline like a roller-coaster, using his free hand to attack anything and anyone that gets in his way. You can jump from one rail to another, or even leap onboard floating zepplin to take it down. The setting of Infinite is high above the ground, and the game plans to make as much of that as it can.

Despite all the action, though, BioShock Infinite will be a story-driven game. Interestingly enough, Ken Levine has spoken out against both using cutscenes and using dialogue to tell a good story. It’s no surprise, then, that BioShock Infinite will instead rely on your interactions with NPCs, Elizabeth and your environment to create an experience that is unique to you. How characters react depends on how you act towards them, and even how they act towards each other. This constant shifting aims to put you in control of your game, instead of letting take you along on rails as if the whole experience were a single Skyline.

So BioShock Infinite is definitely a BioShock game, but it isn’t BioShock 3. It is its own game, taking the first two titles and pushing to create an even more novel experience. All the separate elements are there, but the question is whether Irrational Games will successfully stitch them together into a cohesive experience. Past form and current signs point to an enthusiastic ‘yes’.