Bioshock 2 was a really good game--it improved upon the original's mechanics and managed to sort of tell it's own story without fucking up the original's or getting too convoluted. It's environments overall were a lot more interesting than Bioshock 1's(although none of them really compared to Fort Frolic--probably the single best segment of an FPS game out there).
Infinite on the other hand is a glorious mess. It's like, it has this upgradable gun system, but discourages the continuous use of a weapon through scarcity of ammo. It has a bunch of superpowers that all do the same thing(seriously, before Undertow, every single vigor is "attack with projectile or set up a trap with said projectile") so it's interchangable. It has this absurd gear system that I swear was added, like, a month before launch--there is literally no in-game way of checking what gear you have on at any time and all of the gear is boring(the only one that was cool was, like, the 'ignites enemies upon landing' which is hilariously broken in any skyrail fight) AND subject to RNG to get the damn things in the first place. You have this NPC that follows you around, sitting there being invincible(despite the game having an early pop up saying 'Yo, you gotta protect her!") and randomly throwing power ups with at(fun fact: just leave one enemy alive whenever you need more ammo/hp, then go hide in a corner for like ten minutes!). Like, goddamn, it's been a decade since Resident Evil 4 and
this
is the best they can think of? What happened.
The worse part of all that mess is that the different systems don't interlock at all. There is no synergy between the upgrades and the guns(all the upgrades are variations of +X% damage or whatever), there is no synergy between plasmids and guns, the gear is useless and all-around not notable, the tear concept is just there doing boring things like 'bonus cover'. It's all just a mess.
That's not even getting into the protracted nature of combat in the game due to fact every enemy has like six times the amount of health they should have(the only exception being the Handimen, who have this stupid pathetic AI that makes them a non-factor).
Then you get to the story, lol. The game manages to ruin most of it's most intimate moments through shitty game tropes
like when you go towards Comstock House and you think the story is moving towards a climax, but then you see a door that says 'MUST HAVE ELIZABETH TO LOCKPICK LOL', just ruining any dramatic tension that could happen due to being in an unfamiliar universe trying to save your daughter from an electro-rape machine
. The big reveals of the game(namely
YOU ARE COMSTOCK and ELIZABETH IS YOUR DAUGHTER IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE LOL
) are pure cheese. The supporting cast is pretty much non-existent(exception being the Luteces, who are the only interesting characters in the game). Then you get to the ending, which, like, is just dumb and doesn't fix anything. Or how about all those 'feels' moments throughout the game that are, quite frankly, laughably out of place(my favorite being
when you're in the slums and you see the kid & play him a song on the guitar--it was doubly funny because I had somehow aggro'd all the patrons in the bar so I murder what is likely his family, then give him a sentimental song--even if I hadn't, though, the whole scene is so out of place as to be comical
)?
But, the big joke is, it all works. Like, I was genuinely entertained through the whole thing, So, I can't fault the game too much, despite every bone in my body wanting to just absolutely hate this game.
