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[Mrhappyface]

I say 6/10 because it's a better than average shooter. However, it says a lot about a game when the best part of the game was before there was any combat or Elizabeth. Eleanor in Bioshock 2 was shown to be more of an interesting character and she has only has a small amount of screentime. Heck, even SHODAN was more sympathetic a character than Elizabeth!

[hemmingjay]

Honestly i really don't understand how this game is so highly praised.

I think because it knows exactly how to push the publics buttons.

"Do you want to do this needlessly cruel act for a different ending, or do you want to do this heroic act for more of a reward much later on?"

Look! a moral choice! GENIUS!

Paid reviews. Half the metacritic user scores for the game were created on the day the game came out and are all 10/10. Plus many awards were given for the game based on beta builds of the game. Most of the stuff in the beta trailers were never in the game.

Do you have a source for this "paid reviews" claim? This is illegal in the two big countries that run game sites and would cause an entire organization to lose it's press credentials which is valued much higher than the potential revenue from a paid review or even an ad campaign. I believe most of the 10/10 were from diehard fans and those who are impressed with the world crafted and the high degree of polish. I believe the game to be a 7.5-8.5 based on the genre and rational application of expectations and reason. I personally feel that anyone who played the game and rated it below a 6.5 or above a 9.5 is either delusional or bearing a grudge.

[Neonivek]

As well often these arn't paid reviews but what I call "Surface reviews"

A lot of games can seem great if you play them only an hour.

[nenjin]

I personally feel that anyone who played the game and rated it below a 6.5 or above a 9.5 is either delusional or bearing a grudge.

I agree with this. I enjoyed just as much as every other Bioshock (I enjoyed 2 the least.) Which was a solid 7 to 8 in my book, if I have to give it a number.

[dragonshardz]

Someone needs to buy me this damn game, yo.

As for the reviews being inaccurate...I personally distrust any review site that assigns a game an arbitrary score, since the quality of a video game is pretty subjective once you get past mechanical stuff (graphics, control responsiveness, etc.) and into story/themes/characters. Plus there's also the plethora of "give us a high score for an early review" deals that go on as well as paid positive reviews (which aren't illegal but are definitely the antithesis of journalistic integrity).

I mean, if you look at Spec Ops: The Line from a mechanical point of view, it was very bland and uninspired - typical gung-ho shooter for the majority of the early game but the themes it dealt with - white phosphorus, anyone? - were excellently done and made an otherwise average game into a great one.

The same is true with the entirety of the Bioshock series - the point of the games is to be art, to criticize multitudinous forms of extremism within the context of fictional worlds. Bioshock criticized Randism and its impractical, often self-destructive nature. Bioshock 2 criticized Communism's frequent practice of creating equality by toppling those who stand tall (the same theme, BTW, is present in the first season of the Legend of Korra). Bioshock Infinite criticizes the people who take religious and political beliefs that should be positive and turn them into tools for oppressing others. It is those themes, dealt with maturely, that make the game what it is.

[nenjin]

Bioshock Infinite criticizes the people who take religious and political beliefs that should be positive and turn them into tools for oppressing others. It is those themes, dealt with maturely, that make the game what it is.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Except in Bioshock Infinite, these themes are really just smoke screens for the core plot. Hence why I'm honestly not a bigger fan of the story. It felt a little phoned in due to the lack of supporting details. (Like, for example, why Comstock turned into a racist tyrant with a God complex, or how he got richer than God.) The Boxer Rebellion and Wounded Knee...these are just kind of held up much like the cardboard cutouts from Soldier Field. They're 2d in the explanation and presentation. There's definitely a different tone to Bioshock Infinite's story and theme this time, like the eyes of the writers were drawn elsewhere the whole time, and it manifests as the setting feeling kind of clinical and formulaic, despite how richly detailed it is visually.

[Mrhappyface]

Sorry about the outburst earlier. I'm just upset that most of the other forums I go onto are constantly being bombarded with new threads praising Bioshock: Infinite as game of the decade or having the best story ever. I'm also upset that the game was nothing like the previous gameplay trailers (which the game won awards for that also are shown on the boxart).
Also, on the paid review subject. Reviewers aren't necessarily bribed in money. Many publishers invite game reviewers over to their studios and give them tons of free stuff like early review copies, game related paraphernalia, hotel reservations, plane tickets, etc. It's subtle, but they tend to only invite game reviewers they like and consequentially give their games good scores.

[kaenneth]

I'm wondering how the DLC will hook in story-wise; more men with more cities?

[MorleyDev]

So played it through in about 5 hours. Story is, naturally, amazing. The first and final thirds of the game are fun, the ending leaves you speechless, but the middle part starting where you

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

go to the timeline with the Vox rebellion and then ending where you going to the future (the future part is pretty awesome)

is weak in that the level design is fairly boring and linear (at least I didn't notice many side-paths to explore) and it's just "let's pump as many enemies as possible at the player".

I eventually dropped the difficulty to Easy during that part just because I was bored with the fights and just wanted to get to the next character scene. It needed more of everything plot and world wise that makes a Bioshock game fun, namely more interesting environments and lore-and-character developing audio diaries, and pretty much completely lacked both of those. Elizabeth only seemed to make comments when inside elevators during that part too, instead of the usual environmental comments, which just added to the poorer production quality feeling of the areas. Maybe I would of enjoyed it more if I just played the whole game on that difficulty...

They even do the cardinal sin of having a boss repeat itself with no real variations, and that particular boss is fairly bizarre and out-of-place in and of itself. I mean, really?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A ghost that summons more ghosts? Did she get summoned from the Diablo universe?

Also the existence of Vigors felt out of place. It seemed very "Bioshock did it with Plasmids, so BioShock infinite has too as well". They just didn't feel very well integrated into the setting.

But the game as a whole, both the parts I liked and didn't like, and taking the plot's general "awesomeness" and it's ability to make you care for Elizabeth into account...I'd give it an 8/10. Which I call a damn good score.

8/10 should mean exceptional.
9/10 should be near perfect and hit almost every note beginning to end. My lack of enjoyment of that middle part is all that stops Bioshock Infinite getting this for me.
10/10 is not only a 9/10 but also redefines a genre and/or brings something new to the field, and you'd only expect one or two per generation per genre. This is why I'd say Portal 2 is a 9/10, but Portal is a 10/10, but still say Portal 2 is all in all the better game (and Portal is all in all an amazing game).

[Enzo]

I'm wondering how the DLC will hook in story-wise; more men with more cities?

You forgot more lighthouses.

I can't imagine what kind of DLC they could add to make the $20 season pass worth it (I did not buy one for this reason). It's such a linear game with such a definitive ending, I don't see many opportunities in terms of actual content to add. New weapons, skins, MAYBE challenge maps?

[nenjin]

I think I had blocked out:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ghost Mom. The first part of that fight ssssuuuuuuucccccccckkkkkkkkkeeeeeeddddddd on hard in the graveyard. I died once I think and spent the last half hiding like a chicken shit in a tomb behind a coffin using Devil's Kiss, zero ammo, auto filling on salts when it killed guys. The other two encounters I just owned her with the sniper rifle.

The middle is definitely where it drags a bit, and where the story logic starts getting self serving. (Or is most self-serving.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You step into a Tear where Daisy Fitzgerald just so happens to be a ruthless, bloodthirsty psychopath, so you have to fight the Vox Populi for the entire last half of the game? And that's only because Chin Lin is dead, and because his tools were gone, in the reality that you went into to avoid his death...wait, what? AAaaaarrggggh.

I agree with the complaint that several things, despite how beautifully they were presented, felt tacked on because they're obligatory part of the Bioshock Universe.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And the ending explicit tells you that, in a moment of the writers schlong punching through the 4th wall to smack you in the fact. "There's always a man, there's always a city, there's always this thing that's like magic...." indeed.

[Mrhappyface]

I felt the story was rather mediocre. The TWIST was done much better in games like Nier or Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Even EYE: Divine Cybermancy's ending was more straightforward and clear.

[kaenneth]

Honestly, I think Borderlands 2 had a better plot.

[Neyvn]

The middle is definitely where it drags a bit, and where the story logic starts getting self serving. (Or is most self-serving.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You step into a Tear where Daisy Fitzgerald just so happens to be a ruthless, bloodthirsty psychopath, so you have to fight the Vox Populi for the entire last half of the game? And that's only because Chin Lin is dead, and because his tools were gone, in the reality that you went into to avoid his death...wait, what? AAaaaarrggggh.

Have a read of my post last page, not the start but down the bottom area, I kinda try and explain why they are all different...

[Domenique]

So like with most exceptional games I have encountered, everyone's polarized: some like it for what it is, some nit-pick and statet that it's "not that good at all!".