BIOSHOCK INFINITE Review

Bio-Shock Infinite aims so damn high – fittingly, since its alternate-reality 1912 city of Columbia literally floats atop clouds – that it’s a wonder it successfully hits any of its lofty goals at all. Rank-and-file bad guys you’ll be shooting at? Some of them seem borderline comical, like the Patriot robots modeled after George Washington, who Columbia’s residents revere as a god. Then there are the Handymen -- intimidating 10-foot-tall proto-cyborgs who freaked me out the first time I thought I'd escaped them but, in fact, hadn’t. They’re much more agile than they look, even if they’re essentially bullet-spongy Big Daddies on P.E.D.s. Elizabeth successfully wields a key role in both the narrative and game-play.

Given that this is a single-player-only game, is that one play-through all you should expect? I'd say not – the 80 plot-buttressing Voxaphone recordings and other lore-lifting collectibles offer Bio-Shock Infinite at least one more run worth of exploration, optionally while playing in 1999 Mode. Unlocked after completing the campaign on any difficulty, 1999 ups the challenge exponentially by severely reducing the amount of money available (and thus the number of times you can pay to revive when killed in combat), notably slowing down your shield’s recharge time, and of course making enemy attacks hurt more.

On the way out, I'm forced to seriously question which is the better game. In total, Bio-Shock Infinite is a brilliant shooter that nudges the entire genre forward with innovations in both storytelling and game-play. It trips over itself in a couple of spots, but not in any way that should keep you from embracing it with your utmost enthusiasm.