Bioshock Infinite game - first look

Gaming is sometimes a better alternative to our boring real life. The game Bioshock Infinite is one of the most amazing looking new games to arrive in the series of Bioshock Games, and has broken new ground in gaming. Despite some annoying hype to the contrary, it’s not a game that happens underwater, (Thanks to the start of the amazing trailer to this game!) but instead - tied to Zeppelins and floating in the sky all around the world, thousands of feet in the air. PC Gamer said of it - "It’s not a secret, dilapidated cool kid’s club, it’s a spectacle of American achievement with the same agenda as the moon landings." It's not always that we get a game about American Imperialism with satire. So how should we respond to this. It's a first person game, with action and adventure and some crazy ideas, and to play it you need a head for heights. Okay, just breathe slowly, remain calm and have a glass of milk.

Some well known names to people in the gaming universe are here. Ken Levine is back, and heading this BioShock project, which takes gameplay skywards in a very new and original way: so the game is set in the early twentieth century, and it involves this psychic lady and "evil steampunk cybullies", and that you probably shouldn’t fall off the edge of this colorful universe, as it's a long way down. The whole game happens high above ground level, affording fantastic views in every outdoor frame. Your character has been sent into this "rogue 1900s Death Star" to locate and recover a woman called Elizabeth. She’s at the center of some sort of oddball freaky conflict, and she has magical powers that give her nosebleeds, and you’ll need to work some great solving skills to survive and escape. It’ll have more of the same consequence-driven story, although we’ve not sure what those choices will be. (Where's Deus Ex 1 when you need it?) Okay, I know, I am not allowed to have all the details, cos they are afraid I am not going to buy the game and play the lil' thing on my console! As if!...

As with previous Bioshock games, there is nothing too predictable here. (Mr Levine was not around for Bioshock 2, as I recall, but he has returned here) Game characters are a challenge. Apparently when you run into rooms, you have no idea how game characters treat you, nicely or monstrously - they are monsters graced with human voices. It all feels like those old wild west frontier moments when the hero walks into the bar, but with one hand covering the holstered pistol, just in case. Edge of seat stuff. Mr Levine has done the title proud here, and it's going to be immersive and satisfying. The game satirizes American Imperialism in new ways, and here the setting is in the sky. So no change there then. Games are best when they feel new and try new things and change the formula a bit. Bioshock Infinite is such a game, and has to be played. If you are a fan of the previous games, then this is a bold step forward.

It has been about 5 years since the first Bioshock game came on stream, and this game is no less imressive. Made by the same team, and with some nice twists, we start the game no longer in the setting of "Rapture", but takes place in Columbia - located as a floating place in the sky. (Could have called it Columbia High, maybe?) From lost city undersea, to floating lost city hovering skyward, where judgment is crucial and balance is not really needed - just a strong stomach, this new Bioshock will impress many when it is released in 2012, and will be on Playstation and XBox platform. It could be described as a game about an America that never was, and perhaps hearkens back to a golden age in science fiction. We must be patient. Irrational Games have done an excellent job here. Now watch the video of the trailer, and start saving those pennies.