BIOSHOCK INFINITE REVIEW

After leaving a special closed-door demo of BioShock Infinite at E3 this past year, I heard a fellow member of the gaming press describe BioShock Infinite to one of his co-workers. He said, "It looks really cool, but this game has no business calling itself BioShock." I have to agree with this sentiment. Though the game is quite possibly the best thing we saw at E3 this year, if you are expecting an experience similar to that of the original BioShock, you will be in for a rude awakening. This game has very little in common with the underwater world of Rapture.

Instead, BioShock Infinite takes place in Colombia, a flying city that was originally created to promote American idealism around the world. However, after an accidental attack on an unsuspecting country, Columbia was disowned by the Americans that made it and was left to its own devices. The people of Colombia became entrenched in a deep civil war between two main groups: the Founders and the Vox Populi. The Founders are right-wingers who want to keep American ideals and capitalism alive in the floating city. The Vox Populi, on the other hand, wants to bring communism and egalitarian ideals to the people of Columbia.

The world of BioShock Infinite is dynamic, and is itself a character in the game's narrative. The demo opened with several panning shots of people running through graffiti-strewn streets. Impromptu "trials" being held, with executions following swiftly after. The one thing the two rival factions seem to have in common is over-the-top ideals and a bloodlust that can't be satisfied.

In the middle of all this strife is a young woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth is reminiscent of a typical Disney heroine, and has been kept in a tower for the past 13 years. Like all women in captivity, Elizabeth knows nothing of the outside world once she breaks free. But she is not to remain free. You play the game as Booker DeWitt, who is a mercenary fallen on hard times. He is tasked with fetching Elizabeth, but something goes wrong, and they both end up on the run from Elizabeth's captor: a strange creature named Songbird.

Songbird is definitely one of the most interesting parts of the game, and is the one of only things you could use to draw a parallel to the original BioShock. Songbird is a giant mechanical guardian who has formed an incredibly tight bond with Elizabeth during the 13 years they have been together. Songbird reminds me a lot of the Big Daddies from the original BioShock and the theme of a mechanical creature forming a close bond with an innocent creature seems to be the emerging trope in the BioShock universe, which isn't really a bad thing. There's a lot to explore there, and as long as the story stays creative, I think exploring the same type of core relationships across the different entries in the series could be a creative way to tie everything together, at least in a very loose way.

Once we were introduced to the world of BioShock Infinite, it was time to see what the actual gameplay was about. Our main man DeWitt got a little too embroiled in a conflict on the street, and it quickly escalated into an all-out firefight. After some pretty standard shooting, we were able to see one of the game's extremely interesting features in action: the skyline. This is a floating railway system that DeWitt can roll along on with his grappling hook. When DeWitt uses the skyline, it allows him to travel extremely fast on a roller coaster-like track. Though it is effective as a means for transportation, it can also be used in combat to gain the upper hand and shoot adversaries from above. The result is fast-paced and dizzying combat, which is something that will certainly set BioShock Infinite apart from other shooters currently available.

But the biggest surprise of the demo came from the reveal of Elizabeth's powers. The reason she was being kept in a tower all those years was because Elizabeth has some kind of control over space and time. Of course, this wasn't fully explained, but during a scene in the demo where Elizabeth was trying to revive a dead horse, she moved time around the animal, and then it was suddenly 1980 around us, completely with a Revenge of the Jedi movie marquee. It was extremely jarring, but as a game device, it worked sublimely, and I can't wait to see how these jumps in time play out in the game's overall plot.

Our time at the presentation was certainly enlightening, and though there's a lot left to learn about the world of BioShock Infinite, it's presented in a way that feels fluid and natural. Trust me when I tell you the world of BioShock Infinite is like nothing you've ever seen before.

The game is still fairly early in the development cycle, and will be released sometime next year (my guess is a fall release). It's hard not to be a little depressed that we have to wait so long to experience this game in its finished form, but beauty can't be rushed, and I'm confident that BioShock Infinite will be something magnificent.