"Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt," the story begins. You play as Booker DeWitt, a semi-alcoholic Pinkerton detective who is sent to find a young woman named Elizabeth, a Disney princess-esque young woman of indeterminate age who is being held in a tower in the middle of the city. In this case, the city is Columbia, a chain of interlinked flying islands that float above the world. Columbia was launched by the US around the time of the World's Fair of 1893, but by the time the story begins (I think in 1912), it has broken off to become its own independent nation, led by a man named Comstock, the Prophet.
Columbia has a unique and fascinating personality as a setting. It's sci-fi and a throwback to the past all at the same time. The city is torn by internal conflict between those in power--Comstock and others, known generally as the Founders--and the oppressed lower classes, the Vox Populi. Against this civil war, Columbia has plenty of room for fascinating story telling. There is a deep sense of religion--regard for Comstock as a prophet, for the Founding Fathers of the US as demigods, etc. You can only enter the city through baptism, and the religious elements return throughout the story in some really fascinating ways.
One of the ways the city works so well as a compelling setting is because the art is so beautiful. It's an amazing place to walk around, even on my medium-end pc. Light, shadow, fog, cloud, and more all play across the city in beautiful and surprising ways. Unlike the original Bioshock (which is fairly unconnected to this world), Columbia is bright and cheerful, full of sunlight and blue skies. And the music. I don't think I've played a video game before where the ambient sound of the environment was so creative. Rounding a corner to hear a barbershop quartet version of "God Only Knows" (originally by the Beach Boys) is one of the most memorable video game experiences I've ever had. You see Columbia is not just a floating city. It is also a city riddled with "tears" that connect it to alternate worlds and alternate times. Elements of those worlds have seeped through, particularly in the form of music. It creates a unique and fascinating sense of place.
Elizabeth, the Prophet's daughter, is held against her will in a giant tower because she can control (to a limited degree) these tears in reality, opening and closing them at will. Elizabeth's growing understanding of who she is and why she can do this becomes a major theme throughout the game, as do Booker's own reasons for his quest to protect her. Elizabeth has another protector/captor as well in the Songbird, a huge birdlike creature--somewhere between a living animal and robot--that keeps her in her tower and occasionally appears to hunt her down. The source of this creature is not fully explored (or if it was, I missed it) in this game, and I hope that some of the DLC will deal with the Songbird's origins. I suspect, as with all other elements of this game, that there is more going on than meets the eye.
As a game, Bioshock: Infinite is successful but full of problems. I got tired and bored with examining every trashcan, crate, and bag for items, and after a while I stopped noticing the amazing set design because I was looking for searchable items. I'm not sure if that's my fault or the games, because you do need those items, but the search pulled me out of the game. Similarly, the combat (while fun) does tend to get a little repetitive. Again, that might be a lack of imagination on my part, but even as I got much better, I did not always grow to enjoy it more.
Still, the setting and story--including themes like guilt and innocence, redemption and salvation--all resonate so well it's hard to find fault. The game took me around 19 hours to beat (I'm slow; other websites I've looked at reported doing it in 10 or so), and when I wasn't playing I was thinking about it. Like last year's The Walking Dead, my fascination with the characters and the story really overwhelmed the tediousness of some of the game play--enough so that I'm considering replaying it in 1999 mode (the hardcore mode) just so I can explore the world again. We'll see. I've considered doing that with games before and rarely do so.
What can I say though? I want to go back to Columbia.
No comments:
Post a Comment