BioShock Infinite: in defence of graphic violence

[Jan]

I didn't even play Bioshock 2 because I read it was pretty bad, but Bioshock 1 was amazing.

I ended up comparing BioShock 1 to System Shock 2 way back when and concluded that it [BioShock] sucked, which in retrospect was a mistake. Irrational shouldn't have set up BioShock as though it was a spiritual successor to System Shock. Having played through BioShock Infinite without any expectations I think increased my enjoyment of the game.

She's skitzo with the way she deals with it. They don't deal with her aversion in any decent way at all in my opinion. She one minute is scared of you and runs away because you are violent, and the next minute she is chucking you ammo and applauding you for murdering people.

This I also want to agree with. Her 'acclimatisation' to violence is very poorly handled, just like Lara in the new Tomb Raider. One moment she's running away, the next you say a few sentences to convince her you're good and then suddenly she trusts you fully.

That's not how it goes down at all; at least not for me. I've cut together a video to show what happens the first time Elizabeth sees you kill - it's embedded at the bottom of the article. You don't convince her you're good.

*MILD SPOILER ALERT - only a smidge more than was in the article to begin with*

After this there's a moment of calm on the boardwalk before the Columbia police are deployed to your area, at which point it's completely understandable that you might fight back since they shoot first.

She does trust you for awhile after that, though, and why shouldn't she? You're out there getting stabbed, beaten and shot for her, so that she might escape. You give her this false dream of Paris which one might argue gives her hope, focuses her on what future might be and on just getting through the present.

* END MILD SPOILERS *

This:

Goes into more depth about the violence thing as well as other great points.

Given enough time I'd love to go into more depth. This piece was written in my "spare time", however, as a reaction to the commentary coming from respected quarters about the excess of violence in Infinite and not as a detailed bookstudy-like analysis of the game.

That said, I do agree with what the guy in the video said: there's much to love in BioShock Infinite, but it is far from a perfect game (if there is such a thing).

Where I do disagree with him is that the violence and combat were out of place. I can understand how it might seem that way to some folks (to each his own, after all), but I thought it worked well in the context of the rest of the game.

I really don't see the "mediocre gameplay" people are complaining about. I loved the gameplay about as much as I loved the story and the world. I thought the Vigors worked well and the two guns (carbine & hand cannon) that I upgraded worked pretty well for the whole of the game as well. IMO the combat is much more refined than that of Bioshock 1 and 2. Sure the gunplay is not as fluid as say CoD or Borderlands 2, but it's not supposed to be IMO.

I also actually really enjoyed the battles.

That's in spite of the frustrating overly simplified mechanics, though. Either let me manage how much ammo I carry for a particular weapon, or make it play like a scene from The Matrix where you carry maybe two spare clips and have to pick up guns from your slain enemies.