(Includes spoilers, be warned!)

Synopsis:
Booker Dewitt is a man that gets sent to enter the flying city of Columbia, and retrieve the daughter of the prophetic founder and leader of the city Zachary Hale Comstock. Columbia was founded on American ideals and is a embodiment of the American dream. Booker soon realizes that he is the so called False shepherd that is seen as the one that will kidnap Elizabeth, its also revealed that Columbia isn't perfect and has a dark side to it. Booker meets with Elizabeth and gets access to her cross-dimensional powers named "Tears". The two try to find escape whilst getting chased by Comstock and his men, during the midst of a slowly commencing civil war

Story, characters and world building:
The story is overall good with interesting characters and with great themes accompanying it. The world building is detailed thanks to the use of visual and verbal storytelling and Voxophones (this game's audio diaries). Booker is a really fascinating person, with his backstory and character development he was a satisfying "Shock" protagonist for me. I love Elizabeth, her design and personality is so spot on, and her character development is great to. Starting as a naive innocent girl and transforming into a mature and tragic character. Comstock was also a nice villain, but he never comes close to being as great as Andrew Ryan, he is in another league of greatness. The games first two levels are overall fantastic. The intro is beautifully crafted, with the fair section being really fun to play through. The dreadful atmosphere of the city right after the scene with the interracial couple, the cult house, its so great. Soldiers field is also a great level. The ending levels in Comstock house and the zeppelin are also really good. The games various historical references and parallels to Rapture are also good. I really enjoyed the ending to, it was a bit convoluted but the emotion was spot on.

Let's now talk about actual issues in the games story, that stop the story from becoming perfect. The game felt like it had some really great ideas that fully never got realized, possibly because of development hell. Most of these ideas can be seen in better detail in the E3 trailers. The middle of the game and even some ending parts of the game is also quite rocky storywise, with a few plotholes (not game ruining necessarily), undeveloped story elements and characters and even a section in the Finkton level of the game, where there is a lot of back and forth. Essentially the story can feel messy in some areas. The ending as said can be convoluted, if you think to deeply about it, in certain ways the ending can be overwhelming and rushed. For me the strongest part of the story is its characters, primarily Booker and Elizabeth, and when the story hits, it really hits. So in my eyes the flaws don't bother my experience, but this doesn't nullify the existence of the lackluster parts of the story.

To describe what I mean about the stories messiness, Daisy Fitzroy, leader of the civil war against the city started as a good character, but could have had a longer and more complex character development.(Spoilers)I would have wanted to see her in Emporia instead of her dying so early on, there she could have started to develop as a character instead of her "snapping" being so abrupt. Seeing her just like in the E3 trailer would be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing. As her speeches echo over the chaos going on. There is so much more I could discuss, such as the underplayed roles of Songbird and the American themes that were more prominent in the E3 trailers, the scrapped characters, and much more! But I don't want to draw out so I will end it here.

Gameplay and environment:
The gameplay overall carries the core aspects of the prior Bioshock games. With various new additions such as the skyhook, skylines and various different new enemies to spice things up. The gun play and exploration is smooth and enjoyable, each environment is full of top notch detail and collectibles.
This games plasmids, named Vigors, are also really fun to use and their bottle designs are ten times better then the original BS1 to be frank. In this game they are so uniqe and perfectly describe the power they harbor, unlike the reused bottle designs in BS1. The skylines are a great addition and the new enemies are great to! I really adore Elizabeth's A.I in this game, all the various ways she interacts around the world and she is genuinely a helpful companion in combat, with her Tears and item tossing. Overall smooth as butter gameplay.

But just like the story there are flaws and this is where I will mostly talk about the E3 trailers. The game originally seemed to be a far less linear and more of a bigger game, with a lot of more emphasize on skylines, tears and many other stuff. Songbird seemed to be originally a bigger threat, rather then the final version of him that only appears in cut-scenes (Spoilers)During the final bits of the game you do get the chance to use him as a combat companion in gameplay, but that isn't enough to be honest. But him kicking the ♥♥♥♥ out of everything was amazing though. The Gear system (this games Gene tonics) where quite okay, could have been better but not the worst either, I would have preferred if you got to buy most of the Gear, because in the final game they are just collectibles. Instead, they could have made the more special Gear secrets to collect for those who had extra interest in Gears. A lot of RPG mechanics where also toned down making the game more of an action adventure bame rather then an fps RPG. One last thing I would mention is the smaller role some really great enemies types were given, especially the Siren and The Boys of Silence, enemies with such wasted potential. The game could have been much more like the older games in this regard.

Voice acting, soundtrack and visuals:
Infinite's visuals and soundtrack are unbelievably full of finesse and personality, the visuals truly made my jaw drop, especially the intro. The only thing that bothered me visually was the repetitive NPC models and a few models what looked to angular, aside from that, fantastic visuals! The soundtrack is beautifully composed ranging from great foreshadowing, intense emotion and awe-inspiring melodies. The song named "Elizabeth" is my favorite one since it perfectly portrays Elizabeth and all the tragedy in her story. The voice acting is full of emotion and dedication with great voice performances from Troy Baker, Courtnee Draper and many other talented people.

Final verdict: Overall a good package that offers a, although heavily flawed, impactful and emotional story with a lot of great character momments. With a jawdroppig art style and visuals, and with an good gameplay that keeps the game fun and engaging. The game could have been better, but is quite fantastic for what it is. I know people have criticized this game, for fair reasons that I understand and even agree with many ways. But personally, I will love this game for what it does right and excels in. The team once at Irrational games excelled in creating an riveting character focused story, with original and fascinating themes, art style, and twists.

+Good characters
+Fun and engaging gameplay
+Beautiful art style and graphics
+Great overall designs
+Great soundtrack
-Lackluster gear system
-Story that can be messy and rushed in some areas
-Gameplay could have been more like past games
-Visuals problems such as repetitive NPC models

Overall a flawed game, that's really good, but that if fully realized, could have been one of the most revolutionary games of all time. A flawed masterpiece.

E3 2010: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5it-pAYmKY E3 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WUt5dEMt_Y