Bioshock Infinite | PS4 Bioshock The Collection Review

*SPOILERS*

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Irrational Games
PS4 Review

I'm a huge fan of the Bioshock games, the first one will always be my favourite and recently since properly giving Bioshock Infinite (also known as the 3rd game) it comes in second place for me. The reason I didn't really want to give it a chance was because it wasn't set underwater where rapture in the first game took place, but silly old me should have looked into the game more because it's set years before the first Bioshock and explains the events that lead up to the rapture taking place. When it first came out I wasn't exactly good at games and not keen on how this one looked so I was ignorant towards which I wish I never did look back on it now. For those of you who are in the same mindset as me, you will come to find that Big Daddy is in fact in the DLC's for this game which was a great little surprise for me as I love the Big Daddies even though they scared me at times.

The game starts off with you in a boat playing the role of a man called Booker DeWitt, it's the year 1912 and you're in a boat with the Lutece twins who you will be seeing a lot throughout the game. They are rowing you to a lighthouse which is off the coast of Maine, DeWitt who you play as has taken on a mission, he must retrieve a girl in order to wipe away his debt, what did he have to lose? Once inside the lighthouse, DeWitt is transported to Columbia to search for the girl, whilst doing so someone realised that the AD burned into his hand is the sign of the false Shepard, what this meant was the prophecy that Comstock came up with would be coming true, he believed that the false shepherd would corrupt Elizabeth which would destroy Columbia. I will explain more further down about who exactly Comstock is and why he is so important in this game. But for now we will talk about Elizabeth, she is the girl that DeWitt must retrieve in order to wipe his debts, but in doing so he is faced with a lot of problems and people/a monster) who want to keep her for themselves but DeWitt is determined to get Elizabeth to Comstock in order to wipe his debts which will come with a shocking revelation for him. 

Because of the AD branding on DeWitt's hand he has now become a wanted man who alot of people want dead, DeWitt pushes forward and reaches Monument Island where he finds Elizabeth being held in a tower, he goes through a number of doors which lead to rooms with mirrored glass where people could watch and film Elizabeth which was pretty creepy to say the least, when he finally reaches the room where Elizabeth is being held, Songbird rips open the tower and tries to attack DeWitt, he and Elizabeth frantically start trying to escape the tower and get away from Songbird, they make it out and watch Songbird destroy the monument which acted as the tower that Elizabeth as trapped inside her whole life. At this point it was pretty clear that Elizabeth had some trust in DeWitt even though she was cautious with her, he tells her that they need to get out of Columbia and agreed to take her to Paris in an airship, they eventually reach the aerodrome where the airship is located and DeWitt sets the ship to New York, not Paris, Elizabeth isn't clueless, she had read a fair few books in her life and knew that this wasn't the right code for Paris so she hits DeWitt over the head and knocks him out. When he comes around, he finds that Elizabeth has run off and someone else was in charge of the airship, a woman named Daisy Fitzroy who controlled the Vox Populi, she made a deal with DeWitt, he has to bring them a shipment of weapons and in return he could have the airship back, that seems like a pretty easy deal to me seeing as the airship is massive.

Elizabeth has lost all trust she had in DeWitt at this point and when he finds her she kept running away from him she shows DeWitt a cool power she can do, she can open tears in time which help her manipulate time, she is able to go through the tears to different place and parallel worlds, but doing so can alter things in time and have big consequences. Each time she opened a tear it would have an effect on Elizabeth, it was obvious it was taking it's a toll on her which was heartbreaking. One thing I really enjoy about this game is the fighting system, I'm able to hook myself on skylines and shoot from them and slide from one rail to another to avoid enemies and with the help of Elizabeth using her tears to open up I can use things to my advantages such as a tear opening up a wall for me to stand behind to shield me from gunfire or a tear opening up so I can use Patriots against the enemies helping make an escape. I'm usually terrible at firing a gun so being able to use my hook made it that much easier for me.

Elizabeth and DeWitt get the airship back after Elizabeth opens a tear that ends up disastrous for Fitzroy, in this world that the tear has opened up they learn that DeWitt had become a martyr for the Populi cause which first started as a protest group but grew more militant over time. Whilst DeWitt and Elizabeth are in this world war has started between the Vox Populi and Comubias founders, Fitzroy believes that DeWitt is weakening the Vox Populi cause and turns her people against him, poor Elizabeth has no choice but to kill Fitzroy after she threatens to kill the son of one of the founders. I get such a loving feeling from Elizabeth and her having to do this, she is a good person no matter how much is thrown her way and she is so forgiving towards Dewitt even though he betrayed her, she knows he is her best bet and surviving. Songbird has been searching everywhere for Elizabeth and wants her back, somehow it is able to track her down like they have some kind of connection and of course, songbird turns up as they are trying to get away by airship, they crash due to Songbirds attack I feel bad for Songbird in a way, it's just there to protect Elizabeth as that's all it knows. The design behind Songbird is beautiful and always left me thinking of how much it reminded me of Big Daddy and how he protects the Little Sisters.

After all this, they soon learn the truth and why Comstock needed Elizabeth, you see Comstock adopted Elizabeth when she was a baby, Comstock was born Booker DeWitt, which means that Booker is two different people within this game, it sounds a little confusing but basically, Booker DeWitt gets baptized and finds a new cause in Christianity and eventually changes his name. DeWitt doesn't know he is Comstock and we see a scene where he gives Elizabeth to him as a baby, this baby was actually called Anna whose name was later changed to Elizabeth, when DeWitt realises the deal he has made in another timeline, he runs after the twins who he handed Elizabeth too who walked into a tear, this tear is to another time where DeWitt had changed into Comstock, Whilst trying to pull her back the tear starts to close and Elizabeth's finger is cut clean off, this is the reason she wears a thumbnail in the game and the reason that she is stuck in both realities. Comstock needed Elizabeth in order to prosper Columbia but this was made difficult because of her powers so the twins constructed Siphon in order to control her.

When Songbird attacks once more, it takes her back to the Comstock mansion so that they could take her power and get her back under Comstock's control again, DeWitt is somehow in the future and tries his best to follow but ends up seeing an older Elizabeth, she has gone through a lot and has inherited Comstock's cause and decides to wage war against the world after years of being tortured. She tells DeWitt that he can have control of Songbird in order to stop the world she is in as an older lady happening and he agrees. Whilst in Comstock's mansion you have to fight a number of enemies, two of them being the most annoying Patriot's ever, I found myself hiding from them, I'm not the best at shooting and the jump scare didn't help. After this we see DeWitt is back in the present and rescues Elizabeth, they both go after Comstock who is on his airship, I loved playing through this part I found it fun going up each level killing a bunch of enemies and then pursuing Comstock. 

When they finally catch up to him, Comstock tells DeWitt to tell Elizabeth the truth, he tells her to explain Elizabeth's past and what happened to her finger. DeWitt has no idea what he is going on about, how could he? This was a whole different place to him. He realises that he must know but he just has no recollection of this and takes it upon himself to destroy the Siphon so that Elizabeth can use her powers fully in order to learn the truth but they can only do that with the help of Songbird. They get Songbird under both DeWitt and Elizabeth's control and they are able to fight off the Vox Populi with the help of Songbird, DeWitt orders Songbird to destroy the Siphon but because it's been destroyed Songbird tries to attack him, Elizabeth thinks fast and opens another tear which takes all 3 of them underwater where there is a city, Songbird is trapped in the sea and because of the pressure under water it is crushed, DeWitt and Elizabeth remain safe inside whilst looking out on Songbird, that scene was really sad because it's whole life was to protect Elizabeth.

Now comes the weird bit, the sea of doors, I found myself so confused until Elizabeth explained, she says they are one of an infinite amount of possible realities (that's why this is called Bioshock Infinite) each of these realities are much the same but at the same time very different due to the choices that have been made. She shows him one reality one that I spoke about before, this is where DeWitt agrees to give his daughter to one of the twins on behalf of Comstock to wipe away his debt and we learn the AD on his hand is, in fact, Anna DeWitt, his daughter's name. Robert (one of the twins) has had enough of how Comstock treats Elizabeth and his betrayal towards him and his sister that he convinces his sister Rosalind to help him bring DeWitt to a reality where Columbia exists so he can rescue Elizabeth. I feel like these twins should have thought about their actions long before this, they helped Comstock be the man he is now when he could have remained DeWitt and brought Elizabeth up as Anna and have a happy life.

The last bit of the game was so sad and left me emotional (yes I know it's just a game), Elizabeth tell's DeWitt that no matter what he does against Comstock, Comstock will still live in at least one of the universes from the sea of doors we saw, the twins have tried their best to get DeWitt from different universes to help destroy Comstock but nothing has worked. There is only one way to stop it and that's to stop Comstock being born, now we know Comstock only came about when DeWitt chose to be baptized as Comstock so in order to stop that happening Elizabeth is the one who must drown DeWitt, before this happens we see different versions of Elizabeth crowd around him and as he is being drowned one by one they disappear and then it cuts to black and ends. So, in the end, his own flesh and blood who has been through so much torture and hurt stopped the one man who caused it from trying to do so again. It all comes down to one man's selfish need to rule and find a bloodline to make Columbia prosper and because Comstock was made sterile due to exposure of using the tear machine his only hope left was his own daughter from another universe.

In this games you use Vigors, these are drinks that give you powers, there are eight in Infinite that you can collect and use to your advantage if you have played the first Bioshock you will realise they are basically plasmids but in fancier bottles, the ones you can get in Infinite are:

• Bucking Bronco - Makes enemies elevate, rendering them helpless.
• Charge - enables DeWitt to ram into an enemy from a distance to damage them.
• Devil's Kiss - You can throw fire at enemies which affects any others that are near, damaging or killing them.
• Possession - Turns machines on the enemy.
• Murder of Crows - sends a group of crows to attack enemies damaging and distracting them.
• Shock Jockey - shocks the enemy leaving them stunned and makes them take on more damage.
• Undertow - grabs the target and moves it to the front of you so you can throw it using water.
• Return to Sender - creates a temporary shield which blocks any gunfire.

My favourite Vigar to use would have to be the Devil's Kiss, I love setting the enemies on fire it seems the quickest way to kill them when I'm low on ammo or have run out of it, Using Possession also allows me to get money from vending machines so I can buy more ammo. I really enjoyed using the machine guns and, the pistols, I guess I like getting up close to an enemy rather than running and hiding from them (except the Patriots, those things are brutal). Overall I think you can tell how much I loved this game, it isn't as great as the first Bioshock but it's pretty close to hitting the mark, you are able to play the chapters back through again to collect anything you missed and to try and get the trophies again and there is a super hard mode called 1999 mode where you have to play the whole game through without purchasing anything from the machines, you can unlock this mode by finishing the game or by doing a series of buttons (up, up, down, down, left, right, left right, circle, X). With the Bioshock Collection edition, you get both the DLC's included in this game which I will write up about at a later stage. Elizabeth has become one of my favourite female characters lately and would have loved to of seen Bioshock carry on with her in this series but unfortunately that couldn't have happened. If you're looking for a fun adventure game to play this is your go too if you're not a confident player it does have an easy mode, some may say that's boring but who are they to judge when you're having fun. I know there may be a few people reading this that will want to pick it apart because I missed some stuff out, but remember it's from my point of view, I give this game 5/5 stars, a big score I know but I loved it:

Elle May

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