Its a stormy night in the middle of the sea you approach a light house and inside you find some notes along the way you make your way to the top of the tower and find a machine that does not look like its from the same world……. wait…. yep, the next second you find your self in a weird and wonderful world ….. wait is this correct… yea it’s right.

Man they are so close

Finally I have been able to get my hands on Irrational Games Bioshock Infinite and to be quick I @#&!ING love it. Now Infinite is set in the new city of Colombia a city devoted to the 20th century American beliefs such as jingoism, extreme nationalism and racism Infinite makes it clear that they don’t mind showing the real post civil war America, I praise the developer for making such a bold move and showing this subject that is usually kept away for movies and books, because of this stand we see first hand the racism that was cast upon the Blacks, Irish and the Asians even though you don’t get to kill any.

On top of the atmosphere the art direction and the detail that has gone into this new world is bordering on the insanity and this is not just for the large areas all rooms have such a great amount of detail that I found my self just wondering around aimlessly because I wanted to see what lay in other rooms. But this game is in no means an open world and for those who have played the original Bioshocks will should expect similar pacing, you will find yourself pacing back to some locations but it never feels repetitive you might stumble upon a piece of gear you missed the last time. Colombia feels like a real living world, citizens go out and shop or stop for some ice cream and sit on the beach, there are a million other things they can do …. but now is not the time to discuss them.

The leader of this sky high utopia is Zachery Comstock this mysterious prophet glorify’s the founding fathers but doesn’t mind having a few titan size statues in his own honor, in comparison comstock and Raptures Andrew Ryan are very different Ryan celebrates the individual but Comstock would rather preserve the nation. This difference also goes for the main protagonist Booker DeWitt he moves away from the old by actually speaking, right from the start Bookers intentions are clear “Give us the girl, Wipe away the debt” this translates to rescue Elizabeth a doe-eyed young girl from Colombia I’m going to leave it at that.

Ain’t she lovely to look at

Sometime the story will make your head hurt a bit here and there.  Booker and Elizabeth are mostly together she may make the game seem to be a over glorified escort mission but the more she interacted with the world the more I began to see that without her the game would feel incomplete her relationship with Booker can be compared with Half-Life 2’s Alyx and Gordon, and she can be a literal life saver as the game gets more and more intense, bigger guys with bigger guns I found it comforting that she could throw me a gun or health when in a tight spot this makes her more of  a guardian angel rater then a nuisance.

The games Storytelling is only matched by its gameplay there are some very memorable moments in the game like the first time you combine two vigors (Colombia’s version of Plasmids) or the first kill whilst on the Sky-lines yes their here and they are a hell of a lotta fun.

Sometimes the fights do get quite out of control but when Elizabeth brings in a automated automaton it can give you a opportunity to flank the enemy this differs from player to player depending if they want to go in guns a blazing or fighting smart. My only problem with the combat is that the enemy’s have “Hive mind” this doesn’t give many stealth options.

So does Bioshock Infinite live up to its predecessors journey in to the lighthouse?

The way I see it, surpasses its older brother and does it very well the original Bioshock was a near perfect game but Infinite succeeds by perfecting the pacing and engaging game play but lets not forget the story, sure the game has a few niggles with it but these little things never made me want to stop.

Irrational has delivered upon its original intentions and has provided one of the best games I have ever played but now whats next… this game will sit in history as one of the best storytelling experiences.

9.9/10