Old Video Game Review: “BioShock Infinite” on PC — Just as compelling years later but much more fun to play than the console version
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Elizabeth is the best non-player character EVER to grace a 3-D shooter. She’s helpful, she picks locks, she finds ammo, coin, and health, and — oh yeah — she is literally a time-traveler who never gets in your way during combat. She also sings a nice verse of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” if you find the right guitar to play!
First, for the folks who don’t know, the original “BioShock” was an undersea adventure that played with your sense of right & wrong and confronted you with the prospect that everything you’d done during the game (also known as “a whole lotta killing!”) wasn’t what your character might have chosen to do if the game hadn’t messed with your perspectives about motivation in the way it does. I will not spoil it here if by chance you’ve somehow avoided playing it. It holds up well and I will be doing a review of the “Remastered” version in the future. “BioShock 2” was a prequel which placed you in the game’s underwater setting years before your character arrived in the first game, and put you in the literal boots of one of that game’s antagonists, a prototype “Big Daddy” (that monstrous enemy in the diving bell suit). It added a little to the original story but only in tertiary ways that didn’t affect the overall effect of the previous game’s storyline.
“BioShock Infinite” goes in a completely different direction and took quite a few turns that I didn’t expect the first time through when it was released in 2013. For starters, instead of being underwater you’re literally fighting in cities in the clouds. Instead of fighting deranged zombies with extraordinary powers, you’re fighting religious zealots and racists with extraordinary powers (although to be fair some zombies do show up in some parts, there’s a ghost at a couple portions near the end, and plenty of mechanical patriots which spew recorded twisted jingoism while trying to mow you down). BI’s story is also not related to the first two games at all, which gives refreshing motivations to your actions.
But this review isn’t about the game, rather the PC version itself. When it was first released I was a more casual gamer that I had been in my 20s and 30s. I had purchased a PlayStation 3 on clearance back in the days when Circuit City and the like were going out of business and worked my way through games such as “Half-Life 2,” “Portal 2,” and “L.A. Noire.” While I enjoyed “BioShock Infinite,” I found a lot of the combat to be quite a chore. There was a slowness to the game’s turning mechanics that I found somewhat displeasing but I was on a low budget at the time and couldn’t afford what would have been a modern gaming PC so I stuck with it to the end but I did not take another pass through at a harder skill level like I would have with games in the past.
With a more modern computer system in place in the fall of 2024, I found “BioShock Infinite” for free on Amazon Prime Gaming and it was a no-brainer for me to dive right back into it.
The nature of PC gaming means you’re usually sitting closer to your monitor, which gave the game a crisp resolution that also never jittered or skipped during combat. Not that the PS3 version looked terrible, it was just a little clunky with long load times and less sharp than my basic PC display running at 1080p appears.
Now, when it comes to actual gameplay?
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A MECHANICAL MOUSE AND KEYBOARD MAKES!
No longer do I feel like I’m slowly turning around to confront whatever enemy is shooting at me or launching rockets. I can zip the mouse right or left and face them within milliseconds. The game is a lot more fun to play with a PC and I was reminded of the snappiness of “DOOM” when it arrived in 1993. If you know “Bioshock Infinite” you’re well aware of what are called Skylines, transport systems you latch onto with one of your character’s arms while you try to shoot at enemies. On the PS3 I was constantly having to circle back to an enemy’s position because the game’s mechanics didn’t allow me to turn and face it. No such problem with the PC, and it made those portions a lot more fun to play than the experience I remember on the console version.
That’s ultimately what this comes down to, the PC version is superior to the console because it’s more fun to play with a snappy control system. The game’s battles are at least double the fun because of it. I even kicked the difficulty level up from “Medium” to “Hard” because of it! My only issue with the PC version is that focusing on the story alone adds up to about eleven hours of total gameplay. I’m not a completist like I used to be, I don’t need to search every nook & cranny like I used to and I’m sure doing that would increase the time spent in the game. But since I’d acquired the game as part of my Amazon Prime subscription, I felt no need to extend the life in that manner.
The game also came bundled with the add-on missions, one of which does take you as a player back to the underwater setting of the first “BioShock.” Interestingly, I have not felt the desire to play them. I may in the future but at this time do not feel the need to do so simply because I know the stories are just not as interesting as the main game’s. If I was new to “BioShock Infinite” I would probably find myself drawn to them but I’m more intrigued by the “1999 Mode” the game is offering. IF, that is, I wasn’t currently in the process of working through the South Park game “The Fractured But Whole.” But that is a review for another time!
“BioShock Infinite” for PC — RECOMMENDED for repeat players who found the console version annoying due to load times or slow controller issues, and definitely recommended for folks who like shooters but haven’t come across this one yet.
