Bioshock Infinite
It’s a testament to Bioshock Infinite’s addictive gameplay that I’ve gone back to it night after night, forced to replay the same missions over and over again, due to an auto-save glitch. The glitch being that it won’t auto-save past a certain point if you don’t manually set the time and date before starting the game (or have the console hooked up to Live). I turn on my XBox every-time I want to play it. I only hook it up to Live if I’m going to play online. My Xbox is pretty much stuck in thinking it’s 2005. And this works for every other game I have ever played, but not Bioshock Infinite.
The first night I played Infinite, I turned off the Xbox when I had finished playing, as I do with most games. The second night after discovering that the auto save, hadn’t, I exited back to the main menu after a night of gaming, with the warning that it would have to revert to a specific auto save. This sent chills down my spine, but what choice did I have? After exiting to the main menu I decided to see just how much gaming I had lost. My entire nights gaming was gone.
The following day I jumped on the forums to find out what the issue was.
Now I’m having to manually set the correct time and date before playing and everything is working fine. I’ve had to rescue Elizabeth three times, but I’m now at a point where I’m back to playing missions I haven’t yet played. With any other gam I would have probably thrown in the towel. But there is something about Infinite that keeps me coming back for more.
I’ve not played the previous two installments of the series, some I wouldn’t even know if my character Booker De-Witt has had to visit other steampunk worlds.
The game begins with you visiting a lighthouse and being reminded that you have to get the girl to pay your debts. When you get to the top of the lighthouse things get weird, weird like someone just slipped you some LSD without you realising. The sky changes colour and the lighthouse turns into a rocket and you’re transported to the floating city of Columbia, I vibrant city of islands connected by rolleroaster styled skylines. The city seems like the perfect place to live, everyone is happy, there is music and, well, something just doesn’t seem right.
And of course, when you scratch the surface, things aren’t as they seem and you’re soon enemy number one, with both the police and religious zealots after your blood.
Combat is fairly simple, with melee and two guns, but add to this an increasing arsenal of Vigors – supernatural skills that require salt to energise, will help you out no end, and will be essential to progressing through the missions.
Once you’ve rescued Elizabeth you’ll get to see one of the best companions in computer games history. Not only does she stay out of your way during combat, but she’ll find you ammo, health and salts, just in the nick of time, and throw them to you. Nice. Even better , Elizabeth has a supernatural ability to tear a window in the fabric of time and space and bring stuff to you – like a machine gun turret, some cover or a new weapon.
Now having had to replay the first part of the game numerous times, I’ve not progressed through the game nearly as much as I would have liked. I’m about two thirds of the way through and it still seems like the game has plenty to offer. The storyline, the twists and turns and the unique world of Columbia all combine to create a game that is engaging, encourages exploration and has the frenzied action of a FPS. It’s a game that not only insists that I finish it to find out just what will happen, but also a game that makes me want to go out and buy the original so I can play that as well.
In short, Bioshock Infinite is amazing.
