Godot's Game of the Year Review

[Godot]

we are almost into week 2 of 2014

i was planning on posting a "whats your game of the year?" Topic... and i thought... why not do a belated review of my GotY?

well what is it?

Bioshock Infinite

by 2K Games

so where do i start.... how about...

The Story

Without spoiling anything, the game is about Protagonist Booker Dewitt and his adventure to New Columbia. The city is quite literally in the clouds. You venture there in search of a young girl named Elizabeth and deliver her to a mysterious client. I don't want to spoil to much about the story, but the ending will blow your mind a little bit.

The Characters

You have 3 important characters in this game and tons of random side ones... lets cover the important ones!

First off we have the main protagonist, Booker Dewitt. He is a surprisingly not silent "hallow" protagonist with a decent amount of personality who doesn't overshadow the morals and choices of the player. Booker is a protagonist done right, he is simple and easy to relate to, and doesn't overshadow the rest of the cast in the game. And what I mean by Hallow is that the player is supposed to insert their personality into Booker himself.

Next we have the main Supporting Role Elizabeth. Elizabeth is an easy to like character, which honestly kind of surprised me. She is enjoyable to talk to, filled with personality, and more importantly, doesn't get in your way in Combat. I will get into that later. A lot of people I talked to about the game believed that she was the lifeblood of the game, personally I was won over by the atmosphere, but i will touch on that later as well.

Lastly we have Comstock, the main Antagonist. Comstock rules over New Columbia and has essentially created a new religion with him being God. Comstock isn't the best villain i have ever seen, but he did leave a lasting impression on me. it is interesting how he has built up New Columbia in his favor.

The Presentation

The Game's Overworld and artstyle is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen in a video game. First moment you set your eyes on New Columbia, you mind will be blown by it's visuals.

Another fun thing about New Columbia is that the world isn't post apocalyptic like how some other games in this genre. The city is full of life and is doing fairly well. When you first arrive, you will notice that your in the middle of a "county fair" time of year. Another thing this game does well is provide good cinematography. Most games don't aim for those kind of things. The Developers goal is to "Wow" you and well... they sure Wow'd me.

The Last thing I want to cover is the music in the game. there is alot of good stuff in here, ranging from the "oldie" tunes you hear on the radio, to the more Dynamic Music heard in the climatic moments in the game

the music is a real good mood setter.

The Gameplay

Last and most important part of any Video Game is the Gameplay itself. This is a First Person Shooter, your provided with many "Steampunk" Era guns in one hand and super power esque abilities in the other. The guns are pretty straight forward and get the job done, but the abilities make the game so much more fun. Some abilities are more powerful than others, but that doesn't alter the experience in many negative ways in my opinion. Some aspects of your abilities are easy to take advantage of unfortunately.

As stated before how does adventuring with Elizabeth impact your adventure? She is quite helpful actually, she has the ability to open rifts in time to summon forth special help to assist you in combat. She will also occasionally throw you ammo when you need it most... which is a slightly broken and manipulative mechanic. It can be possible to go through the game with the most powerful gun you can find using this feature.

You also have the ability to ride Skylines to maneuver around Columbia, which is a lot more fun than it looks. My only nitpick revolving this overworld is that it is linear compared to other "shock" games. Which I didn't mind, I was more, meh towards it.

The last thing I wish to highlight is the enemy design. besides the normal boring "human" enemies, you had quite a few interesting "boss" or "miniboss" type monsters that were quite interesting to fight. the game didn't have any of the "best bost fights ever" for me, but the overall experience of these enemies were quite enjoyable. My personal favorites were the "Patriots" which were Iron Mechs maded to look like America's Founding Fathers such as George Washington and Abe Lincoln.

The Verdict

Like I said, this is my game of 2013 and don't have to many bad things to say about it. I just had a problem analyzing the game without spoiling the story for you guys. The point of a review is to alert the readers of a good game so that they can tempted to go out and try it out for themselves. (and if you have PS+ you will be getting the game for free soon)

The Story will haunt your everyday life, the Characters will stick with you, the Environments are beautiful, the music fits the mood so well, and the gameplay isn't my favorite, but It is hella fun... my overall Verdict iiiiiiis.....

A 9.5

my personal nitpicks revolve 2 things...

1. manipulative game mechanics.

2. Boss fights didn't really Wow me, even though the game was really well thrown together

what was your Guy's Game of the Year? inb4 pokemon x and y

here is my list of Runner up games

10.Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (Ubisoft Montreal)

9. Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus (Sony/Insomiac)

8. DmC: Devil May Cry (Ninja Theory/Capcom)

7. Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies (Capcom)

6. Soul Sacrifice (Comcept/Sony Japan)

5. Pokemon X and Y (Nintendo/Creatures Inc/Gamefreak)

4. Sly Cooper: Thieves Through Time (SCEA/Sanzaro)

3. Guacamelee (Juicebox Studios)

2. Fire Emblem: Awakening (Nintendo/Intelligent Studios)

[Sylvan Nephilim]

Hey there. What I found interesting about Bioshock Infinite is that the main villain ends up being the protagonist! Comstock isn't a villain so much as an example of what can happen to people through some cruel twist of fate. Though I didn't agree with the final conclusion of the plot. Even if the Elizabeths drown Booker to make sure Comstock never exists, wouldn't there continue to be a timelines where the Elizabeths don't drown Booker and where Booker still becomes Comstock? Bioshock Infinite had amazing production values, the art, the voice acting, everything, was pretty amazing! It did seem to be a game where the story gets in the way of the gameplay, however. It was almost more movie than game! The game seemed to have a strong theme of "destiny", because it would present you with choices that didn't matter at all in the end. Like what brooch to give Elizabeth, or which guns to upgrade. No matter what you chose, the story would end the same way.

Godot- Trying to avoid Spoilers here bro XD

though i agree, the ending did surprise me, and appartently all morals in the game are pointless XD

Edited January 11, 2014 by Dominus

[James-Sensei]

Needs more RPG lovin', a pretty generic choice if ya ask me (I was joking about the RPG thing sort of), I would have picked an underdog, or hidden gem or something like that. Other then that your review is pretty solid. But doesn't really make me wanna play...maybe I'm just being lazy, cause I pretty much just woke up, like a half hour earlier.

[Gyaradoskiller]

Hmm..... I thought you would pick GTA V.

[Godot]

It took me a while to write this review, but I do want to do another belated review on Guacamelee, sly4, and Soul Sacrifice. I also want to do a review on a game that barely missed being on my top 10.

My roommates and I also need to get around to finishing super Mario 3d world

[Magus]

Good review and Bioshock was one of my favorite games this year, but I like the Last of Us a little bit more, but good review. It is obvious that you took your time in writhing this.

[Greed_Demon]

Do the worst game of the year!

[Godot]

i didn't think of that one yet... mayhaps later

[Code: PIRULUK]

Kancolle for GotY~~~

Moe battleships >>>> everything