The game won over 85 pre-release awards for its display at E3 2011, including Best of Show from the Game Critics Awards. At release, BioShock Infinite received critical acclaim, with praise particularly directed at its story, setting, and visual art design, and is often regarded as one of the best video games of the seventh generation of consoles. According to review aggregator Metacritic, it was the third-highest rated video game of 2013. Within two months of release, it sold over 3.7 million retail copies, and has since sold more than 11 million copies overall. It won year-end accolades, including Game of the Year from several gaming publications. It was re-released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 13, 2016, as part of BioShock: The Collection, alongside its remastered predecessors.
Synopsis
Setting
BioShock Infinite is set in 1912 and takes place in a fictional steampunk city-state called "Columbia"—named in homage to the female personification of the United States—which is suspended in the air through a combination of giant blimps, balloons, reactors, propellers, and "quantum levitation". The city of Columbia was founded by self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Hale Comstock, who used his connections in Congress to have the American government build the floating city. The government intended Columbia to serve as a floating world's fair and as a display to the rest of the world of the success of American exceptionalism. The city was launched to much fanfare and publicity at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and was later dispatched to distant shores, travelling from continent to continent.
Initially seen as the pride of the United States, tensions eventually rose between Columbia and the American government. In 1901, against the government's wishes, Columbia brutally and violently put an end to the Boxer Rebellion in Peking. This event revealed the floating city as a heavily armed aerial battleship, capable of unleashing devastation across the world. The American government subsequently demanded Columbia's return to sovereign soil, and, in response, Columbia seceded from the United States and disappeared into the clouds, its location soon lost to everyone else. Free from outside influence, Comstock now had complete control over the city, transforming it from a floating world's fair to a theocratic police state.
Under Comstock's rule, Columbia became a militant pseudo-Christian utopian society that worshiped him as a divine prophetic figure and the Founding Fathers of the United States as religious icons. Despite Columbia's apparent utopian exteriors, it is soon revealed to be a hidden dystopia. Institutional racism and elitism are widespread in the city, with white supremacy of the upper and middle classes heavily enforced by the government as law. Despite the drive for racial purity in Columbia, people of minority races are purposely brought into the city to exploit as a source of cheap labor. They are the underclass of Columbia, and commonly serve as indentured servants. As a result of this subjugation, minorities are largely relegated to menial and hard labor with no obvious opportunity for upward mobility. Racial segregation is also heavily enforced within the city, to the point where interracial couples face the risk of a public stoning.
By the time of the game's events, racial tensions have risen to the point where Columbia is on the verge of revolution, instigated by the insurgent "Vox Populi" against the government institutions and the counter-revolutionary "Founders". The Founders, led by Comstock, are the prevailing political faction in the city, and are the rulers of Columbia. The city's ruling class, they are the racist ultra-nationalists who seek to keep Columbia's privileges purely for White American citizens while denying the same right to foreigners. The Vox Populi (Latin for "Voice of the People"), led by Daisy Fitzroy, are a rag-tag anarchist-communist resistance group who fight to give the rights of Columbian citizenship to people of all races and religions. However, years of bitter struggle have driven them to fight the opposition more out of blind hatred, resulting in more violent and brutal methods.
Gameplay
Like BioShock and BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter with role-playing elements. In contrast to the limited spaces of Rapture in previous BioShock games, the expanded environment of Columbia provides for more dynamic combat challenges in Infinite. As Booker, the player must fight their way through Columbia using weapons and a variety of tools in order to complete objectives. The player may carry only two weapons at a time, and can collect other weapons and ammunition either from defeated enemies or from random locations around the city. In addition to his health, Booker is also equipped with a shield. When damaged, the shield regenerates after a few seconds, while health can be replenished with medical kits or food. Should Booker die, the player revives in a safe area but loses a slight amount of money; Booker regains partial health and is granted additional ammunition, while local enemies are also partially healed. Players can still recover from death should they lose all their money.
Booker gains powers and abilities through Vigors, Gears, and Infusions, all scattered around Columbia. Vigors, the equivalent of BioShock's Plasmids, grant activated powers such as creating shockwaves, releasing bolts of electricity, and machine/human possession. Vigors require Salt, the equivalent of magic points or BioShock's EVE, for powering their abilities. Salts can be found throughout Columbia, and are also granted upon death. Wearing Gears grant passive abilities that can improve the player's strength or damage resistance, similar in function to BioShock's Tonics. Each piece of Gear attaches to one of four specific slots: Hats, Shirts, Boots, and Pants. Only one piece of Gear can be affixed to a slot at a time; any extra Gear is stored in the player's inventory. Infusions grant the ability to permanently boost the player's health, Salts or shield meter by one stat; they also fully restore whatever is being boosted.
