BioShock Infinite Review

Columbia arrives as one of the great openings in the medium: a lighthouse, a rocket chair, and then a sunlit city of barbershop quartets and Founder propaganda that curdles within twenty minutes. Irrational built a place with an argument, and the raffle scene lands the entire thesis before you have fired a shot. Elizabeth is the real achievement, a companion who scavenges for you, reacts to rooms, and never once needs escorting, which was nowhere near a solved problem in 2013.

Where it slips is the shooting. Two weapon limits, skyline rails and Vigors make combat busier than Rapture's without making it smarter, and the mid game arena spikes feel like a different studio's work entirely. The ending swings for something enormous, ties itself to constants and variables, and either overwhelms you or collapses under its own diagram depending on the day you play it. What is not arguable is the art direction, still the most confident thing anyone did with color that year. Flawed, gorgeous, impossible to forget.