Bioshock Infinite - Excited or Not

[KaOTiK]

The problem is if a person doesn't like the game, playing more is going to change the review. He was pretty upfront about how much he played, so there's nothing wrong with it in my opinion. If a game only gets good in the last half of the game, that seems to be a major design flaw.

From what it sounds like though, he didn't even get far enough in to start experiencing some of the bigger parts of the gameplay (when you are going for the shock/jolt power, that are when Elizabeth starts playing a larger role in what she does for you)

 

[blackened23]

From what it sounds like though, he didn't even get far enough in to start experiencing some of the bigger parts of the gameplay (when you are going for the shock/jolt power, that are when Elizabeth starts playing a larger role in what she does for you)

Exactly. And like I mentioned earlier, story and atmosphere are such huge parts of Bioshock games. Not experiencing the game on a fairly complete basis doesn't lend itself to a review. While I love the combat of Bioshock Infinite, that is only a very small part of the equation in terms of what makes the game good.

Like I said. Immediate gratification type games such as BF3 or COD will let you get a full impression quickly. Bioshock is NOT like this. There are many single player games not like this. Atmosphere and story are everything, and you just don't experience that fully 30 minutes into the game.

I can definitely state that most of the assassin's creed games are prime examples. My favorite installment - Brotherhood - now if I had reviewed that game even 1 hour in, it would have been a horrible review. The game simply builds on the intro and is a great gaming experience. You can't experience some games fully in a matter of 30 minutes to an hour......character development, atmosphere and story are huge aspects of games like this and bioshock.

 

[Childs]

It depends on the depth of the game. Certainly this may be true of straightfoward corridor shooters, but other types of games? Not so much. Remember story and atmosphere are large parts of bioshock games and that isn't an immediate gratification type of deal - you have to play and explore to experience it. Therefore a 30 minute review would be rather worthless. Actually, completely worthless IMHO.

For instance, I loved assassin's creed: revelations. Absolutely loved it. But it took me a few hours to really get a feel for it and get involved in the story. I loved the atmosphere and music in AC: revelations, and the story was awesome. There's a MAJOR twist at the end that AC fans will love. It wasn't "love at first sight" If I had made a review based on 30 minutes it would have been a bad review, because the intro is all about introducing the player to the universe and making them accustomed to the controls. It's not representative of the game as a whole.

30 minutes is kinda low, but I think Zeze was a few hours in. It would be hard to continue playing if you didnt feel the game was going anywhere. Now, the first 30 minutes of Infinite are pretty spectacular, and if that doesnt pull you in, I dont think anything they do after that is gonna help.

 

[Phanuel]

I got two hours in last night before I realized it was 12am and I had to actually show up at work the next day. I had 3 powers and 2 guns, I can't even see myself as having scratched the surface of the game yet. I haven't even seen Elizabeth yet, not sure how he can post an honest review of any rating at 2 hours in. :/

 

[Zeze]

30 minutes is kinda low, but I think Zeze was a few hours in. It would be hard to continue playing if you didnt feel the game was going anywhere. Now, the first 30 minutes of Infinite are pretty spectacular, and if that doesnt pull you in, I dont think anything they do after that is gonna help.

This is what I'm trying to say. Yes there are insta-gratification games like CoD, which I never play. Like most of you AT, I'm drawn to depth, strategy, and nice action that complements them.

Game that focuses on sheer strategy:
A game like Dota has an incredible learning curve & depth (probably the most in current games). It's outright overwhelming to get into it as a new player. But I recognized how rewarding it could be and played on. It became FUN rather quickly and continues to be so after 6 years.

Game that focuses on story:
Something like Chrono Trigger comes to mind. It's 100% story driven. And the game is immediately FUN.

Bioshock Infinite:
Story driven, but it's not quite fun yet. I've stressed numerous times I LOVED the art direction. I probably spent more time than anyone here in the town and square just absorbing the sheer beauty.

The game is pretty much generic guns + secondary fire (Vigor). Even the 'stupid' Crysis 3 offered more fun with stealth killing, juggling with stealth meter, head-shotting, hacking, strategically killing enemies, etc. Again, this comes from an anti-mainstream gamer.

Yes, I will continue to say that my verdict of the game is premature. But you can't ignore investing first two hours into the game and not being able to get hooked.

Now, as I've stated before, I WILL go back to the game and play further. So far I'm not impressed.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

This game is awesome, it's an insanely well crafted singleplayer experience, it looks beautiful, the story sucks you in immediately and leads you by the hand constantly from one interesting plot turn to another. The combat is satisfying when you learn to mix the vigor powers with your weapons and use them against your enemies and their environment.

I'm loving it and can't wait to play more tomorrow, i'd recommend this to anyone who likes story driven FPS games.

 

[JamesV]

The game is pretty much generic guns + secondary fire (Vigor). Even the 'stupid' Crysis 3 offered more fun with stealth killing, juggling with stealth meter, head-shotting, hacking, strategically killing enemies, etc. Again, this comes from an anti-mainstream gamer.

I think the combat is pretty good, even though on the surface it seems a 'generic' gun and vigor combat.

The enemy AI might stay far and fire, or rush you, and they do flank. Using a combination like Bronco trap behind you, as you fire with a long and then shorter range gun to your front, alternating taking control of people and having Elizabeth toss you ammo... far from generic to me.

Add in the fights where you can use the rails, and you can drop with a firestorm effect, etc. Just play longer til you get past the casual introduction areas.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I meant to mention this earlier.

Spoiler

On the beach after you break Emily out did anyone else notice that the song that they play is a polka version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? This is 1912?

 

[gorcorps]

I don't want to be "that guy", but I'm actually a little disappointed in both the graphics and performance. I want to make sure you understand that I like the overall visuals and art style, but some of the basic graphics are kind of distracting... especially shadows. There's a very distinct line between good and bad shadows, and that line is much closer to your face than I remember seeing in other games.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/867215320824197805/DF0E7A9EE70486C2338E904DD81D36C94BEBDB51/
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/867215320824195760/D9E00D115CF1AE4EC7F6B1F964877125F308B3C3/

Take a look at those screens, and you'll see that there's a window where the shadows clear up. Now I'm sure this is necessary to keep the game running smooth, but I made sure to switch to ultra to see if that distance increases and it didn't make any difference. The odd thing is that this doesn't even affect all shadows.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/867215320824238314/FEEF6DFE5589D00E0E5E33EC96A34B18AA6E8999/

If you look at that screen, you can see the shadows from the rail above me that are clear and then get fuzzy at that same line. However the other shadows in the foreground of this shot don't do this and because of that actually look better overall because they're consistent. If this was a fast moving FPS I would have never noticed, but since I was taking my time and soaking in my environment this stood out quickly. Has anybody else noticed this?

It's not a gamebreaker it's just something I noticed. With all the praise about the visuals and such I guess my expectations were higher. I wonder if this can be tweaked in an .ini file somewhere.

 

[motsm]

It's not a gamebreaker it's just something I noticed. With all the praise about the visuals and such I guess my expectations were higher. I wonder if this can be tweaked in an .ini file somewhere.

I don't own the game, but the below .ini settings are common to other UE3 games, and I believe all 4 deal with the way shadows are rendered. Setting the minimum shadow resolution higher would be a brute force way to eliminate the issue if it's still relevant in Infinite, raising the others might be a more performance conscious way of doing it. Look in *????*engine.ini if it has one.

MinShadowResolution=
MaxShadowResolution=
DepthBias=
ModShadowFadeDistanceExponent=

 

[sze5003]

I played for 1 hour 30 minutes today. Set everything on ultra except the shadows and the ambient occlusion. I seem to get around 100+ fps in almost every area. Definitely liking this game more than the other bioshocks. Yeah game play is generic shooting but the effects and vigors make it great.

The story is awesome too this time. I got up to the tower so far. I agree some of the visuals could have been better but the environment is not drab like the other games. Definitely worth the purchase so far.

 

[CrystalBay]

I'll give it a 89/91 or somewhere there, Concept, Art and Story are excellent so far, 5 hours in on hard difficulty. The execution of gameplay mechanics is suffering a bit. lighting and shadows are pretty um ,how shall I say it DX9 console. I'm knocking off points mostly for the UI , hard coding "Enter" wtf , lighting and Input/ FOV settings.

 

[thm1223]

I meant to mention this earlier.

Spoiler

On the beach after you break Emily out did anyone else notice that the song that they play is a polka version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? This is 1912?

That's hilarious. I didn't realize that at all.

 

[Phynaz]

10 hours in today. Wonder if I'll be able to chill down enough to sleep.

 

[MrSquished]

i just have an aversion to single player games for the most part. i only enjoy the challenge of playing fellow humans, primarily in FPS (BF series) or in an RTS (AOE:II). i find single player campaigns just kinda stupid. that being said, Bioshock 1 was the only single player FPS style game I ever played for more than a little bit besides the first Far Cry, which was mind blowing, for the graphics, and Halo, because of Co-Op.

this looks to be even better. may have to pick this up.

 

[ImpulsE69]

about 5-6 hours in now and the game has opened up considerably. You have many variables to kill people other than running and gunning, although that's probably the easiest. For instance though:

Spoiler

Waiting for the gondola, the multiple rocket launching airboats, you had to grab onto the rails to go high enough to reach the poles on the goldolas so you can jump onto them and kill the RPG shooters. OR you can spawn the patriot gunners and they will blow them out of the sky for you, there were a few other methods I noticed as well ..

As for graphics. WOW i get tired of that complaint in games. It's like people only play games so they can complain about the graphics. I get awesome performance on ultra and really have not noticed anything bad. Of course, the key here is I'm playing the game and admiring the overall scenery, not examining pixels looking for things that don't look up to snuff. I don't think I've stood still long enough to worry about it. God forbid a game concentrate on something other than looking pretty, but the thing is it DOES look pretty. I agree that you can tell there are things they touched on more than others, but for the most part, I'm impressed. Anyway, enough ranting.

 

[gorcorps]

As for graphics. WOW i get tired of that complaint in games. God forbid a game concentrate on something other than looking pretty, but the thing is it DOES look pretty. You can tell there are things they touched on more than others, but for the most part, I'm impressed.

Visuals can make or break immersion, so graphics will always be discussed. If you don't like it then don't participate in a discussion forum as it will ALWAYS come up. There are a lot of things that are opinion based about the visuals too, but are still worth discussing. I in particular have always disliked a lot of bloom, and this game has it in spades (as did the first bioshock so that was expected). That might not be a negative for a lot of people but that doesn't mean people can't talk about it. I wish there was an option to tone it down a bit like other games have offered in the past.

 

[Childs]

Minor spoiler, but I'm curious about something:

Spoiler

When first use the rails, you jump off and the soldiers are praying. Is there a morality system in this game? Earlier on, I cam across a chest that I needed a key to, and the owner of the home was looking at me, so I killed him thinking the key would be on his body. Felt a little bad about it. It looked like I could kill the praying soldiers, but I didn't want it to turn out that I am ruining my karma or something.

Like that frickin nun in the cockpit. Left her alone and she backstabbed me, although I think that was probably going to be scripted no matter what. If there was a normal save system, I would just find out, but its not worth repeating 20-30 min worth of gameplay.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Minor spoiler, but I'm curious about something:

Spoiler

When first use the rails, you jump off and the soldiers are praying. Is there a morality system in this game? Earlier on, I cam across a chest that I needed a key to, and the owner of the home was looking at me, so I killed him thinking the key would be on his body. Felt a little bad about it. It looked like I could kill the praying soldiers, but I didn't want it to turn out that I am ruining my karma or something.

Like that frickin nun in the cockpit. Left her alone and she backstabbed me, although I think that was probably going to be scripted no matter what. If there was a normal save system, I would just find out, but its not worth repeating 20-30 min worth of gameplay.

Spoiler

I've been curious about this too. So far it doesn't seem so, however there is a part where you can be busted for stealing so be aware of that. Who knows though there could be some twist at the end, however you would never get enough money to do the things you need if you weren't breaking into things. You'll find out more about the locked stuff further in the game.

Speaking of the save system. It pisses me off the most. I wanted to show my wife a few parts of the game so I tried starting a new game, but it wanted to delete my current game...ffs this is 2013 people. Whats with the 90's style save systems.

 

[Childs]

Speaking of the save system. It pisses me off the most. I wanted to show my wife a few parts of the game so I tried starting a new game, but it wanted to delete my current game...ffs this is 2013 people. Whats with the 90's style save systems.

It does look like you can load up chapters you already played, but I dont know what that does to your current save.

So I finally met up with Elizabeth. I love the Disneyesque feel about her, but her constant hovering around kinda makes me feel like I shouldnt be searching every nook and cranny on the level. Its kinda interesting that people like her and didnt really like the Princess in that Prince of Persia reboot.

 

[KaOTiK]

When you look around for stuff Elizabeth will look around also. She will say hey there's a lockpick here (which has helped me quite a few times as I missed it and she goes to check an area out I was looking at and moved on and she finds something) and the same with cash, she finds the stuff I look over. I like her as a companion, she keeps herself busy instead of just standing there with a duh look on her face all the time.


I'm still holding judgement till the end because the story has potential, but so far I can't agree with all these super crazy high scores like 95% of reviewers are giving the game, it is a very good game, but it isn't at the level they make it out to be imo (at least not yet, I think I have like 1/3 of the game to go).

 

[CPA]

When you look around for stuff Elizabeth will look around also. She will say hey there's a lockpick here (which has helped me quite a few times as I missed it and she goes to check an area out I was looking at and moved on and she finds something) and the same with cash, she finds the stuff I look over. I like her as a companion, she keeps herself busy instead of just standing there with a duh look on her face all the time.


I'm still holding judgement till the end because the story has potential, but so far I can't agree with all these super crazy high scores like 95% of reviewers are giving the game, it is a very good game, but it isn't at the level they make it out to be imo (at least not yet, I think I have like 1/3 of the game to go).

I like how when you start running, she takes off in front of you like she knows where you're headed. lol.

 

[sze5003]

I like how I'm much more inclined to explore in this one rather than the last games. Anyone know where the key to that one door goes ? It's the area before you fight the crow guy.

So bored at work now.

 

[pontifex]

Beat the Crow guy last night and played a little further. Game is a lot like the other Bioshock games. As much as people talk about the graphics, I don't really seem that impressed. Saw some pretty poor textures even at Ultra settings.

One thing I can't seem to nail down is the mouse control. It's really bad and I can't get good precise aim with it. Don't recall having any issues with it in previous games. It's almost like I'm using a console controller but not nearly as bad.

At first I thought maybe my graphics settings were too high so I lowered them a bit but that didn't change it. Tried adjusting mouse sensitivity and turning off/on mouse soothing but that didn't help either.

Any ideas on settings?

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

There's an apartment back where you first use the magnet-hook. The chest is in there, two floors down.