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It was already slop. I still can't understand to this day how they managed to spend this much money on what was essentially a less interesting Bioshock at every level. Especially after they managed to make 2 so good.
Those admittedly pretty graphics must have really been the bee's knees, because the gameplay was shite (it could neither commit to being an immersive sim or a proper FPS so you get bulletsponges and exploration that amounts to fiddling in trashcans), the story was shite (multiverse time travel is hard to write about: railroading character development edition) and even the philosophical underpinnings are shite (we went from a legit interesting deconstruction of objectivism to facile decolonial criticism of american exceptionalism whose only reedeeming quality is admitting that communism is bloodthirsty).
Fuck that game. It's the poster child of watering down everything interesting about a videogame franchise. The fact that its only notable contribution to art entirely revolves around pornography is a fitting end.
It was endlessly rewritten during production, with ideas being constantly implemented only to be scrapped because Ken Levine kept changing his mind. I'm pretty sure it's been talked about extensively, but I don't remember where.
You can even tell from the finished product, how the story doesn't make much sense in many points and how even the powers of Elizabeth are inconsistent (the first time you meet her she's opening a portal to another town but later she's only able to open portals to alternate dimensions of the place she's in).
Pretty common failure mode.
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Hah. I knew people had some strong opinions around it. Interesting to encounter them in the wild.
I remember loving it and being totally along for it's ride when I first played it. Second time I tried to play it years later, I found it profoundly boring. But I also felt that way about Bioshock as well. Never tried Bioshock 2. One thing that always amused me about criticism I saw of Bioshock Infinite, was that it was a worse Bioshock. But, IMHO, Bioshock was just a "worse" System Shock 2. But that all depends on what you were trying to get out of those games. I thought Bioshock had more imaginative world building than System Shock 2, even if the RPG systems were largely removed. It also had a lot better action. Infinite leaned even harder into action and narrative. There were trade offs.
Maybe it is just me (I rarely ever replay games), but the Bioshock games do genuinely seem like they're the least-replayable ImSims ever.
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I'm an immersive sim aficionado so I feel strongly about these in particular. Especially since infinite killed the genre for years so I've had to scrounge up indie jank like EYE and Cruelty Squad to scratch that itch ever since.
Bioshock was a definite step up from System Shock 2.
One can quibble about the writing, most people prefer Rapture, but I always thought SS2 had underrated worldbuilding.
The gameplay is just strictly superior. SS2 suffered from this old adventure game syndrome of softlocking you if you made reasonable but wrong choices. You could end up having to start a new save if you didn't upgrade the right skills and there's no obvious logic to what you need. Compare Bioshock which actually lets you engage in different playstyles without punishing you if you don't do it the intended way, and you can tell that there was a Deus Ex in between.
Pacing is also vastly improved. Bioshock is one of the best written video games I know in terms of pace, you're always engaged in the story from the beginning to the end, whereas people tend to forget that the last chapters of SS2 were a slog.
If you've never played Bioshock 2, I recommend it. It's probably the best in the franchise, the story is surprisingly nuanced and the gameplay is a more mature version of the first one in a way that makes Infinite's level design feel amateur in comparison.
Yeah, I can't disagree too strongly with any of that. But I think it's relative to where you put your high water mark. For you it's Bioshock 2, for it's writing and gameplay. For others it's System Shock 2 for climbing to the top of the hill Ultima Underworld discovered, with it's inventory management, statistics, skills and all. I think by the time we get to Bioshock Infinite, it's bifurcated, it's a distinctly different genre than what Ultima Underworld and System Shock were. But circa Bioshock 1, that wasn't clear yet, they were just beginning to go their own ways. So people might look at one or the other and say "Clearly this one is better" depending on whether they wanted a narrative action game or a first person RPG.
Fair enough, but I always thought of immersive sims as their own genre where the exact blend of RPG and action has to serve the context.
For instance, Deus Ex's aiming mechanics, despite being a bit weird in hindsight actually made logical sense, guns don't hit harder if you're more skilled, they're just easier to aim. And so forth.
But there's definitely a point where RPG and action game touch and on either side is something different. I personally believe that point is Morrowind.
Deus ex guns did do far more damage with skill btw
Shit you're right! Can't believe I never noticed that.
I guess the location modifiers just overwhelm it so much I never felt like I couldn't kill something with a low skill weapon. I guess I'll have to look for it next playthrough.
I remember checking as a kid when I ran out of pistol ammo and tried going rambo with the assault rifle at untrained. Turned out the gun inexplicably does no damage anyway, even with the skill boosts.
Like it's so weak the 1st skill gives no extra damage because 3x1.2 = 3
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Bioshock Infinite has to be the first video game I ever played where the story kept getting in way of the actual game.
I consider Bioshock 2 superior.
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Yeah it was way worse than BioShock 2. I don't think it's a good high water mark for the video game industry.
IMO Oblivion was the last truly great game.
I would say Arkham Asylum.
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I would have said Witcher 3. But you can already see the bland creeping in by that point. Oblivion's own horse armor DLC is a good "beginning of the end" moment.
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Wasn't it similar to the recent Disney thing of making a movie and then essentially remaking it in post? That way you can spend essentially any amount of money and come out with something lackluster at the end.
Well, looking at this early trailer you can see that almost none of what is presented to you ended up in the final product. I believe there were also a few early in-game footages with events that apparently also got cut down, so rewrites happened during production. On one hand you can say "eeh, it's created for commercial purpose no big deal" but on the other side it is still funny that Cyberpunk got crucified for "lying in the promotion material" according to very online gamers.
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