2. Bioshock Infinite
Though hindsight might not have been as kind to it as other games, one can’t deny that Bioshock: Infinite was commendable in what it did with the Bioshock series.
Departing completely from Rapture for its base game, the title saw players travel to the flying city of Columbia as private investigator Booker Dewitt. Tasked with taking a girl named Elizabeth back down to Earth, he ventures into the metropolis, only to discover that it is far from the utopia it appears to be at first glance.
What follows is an adrenaline-fueled shooter full of fast-paced gameplay, story revelations and mind-bending concepts, all while Booker and Elizabeth slowly grew closer as their adventure together progressed.
Where Bioshock 2 failed to stray too far from Bioshock’s shadow, Infinite leaps out of it into something almost unrecognizable. Save for a few gameplay mechanics like flinging elemental abilities akin to plasmids, the game has its own identity that gamers still couldn’t help being drawn into.
As a result though, it was all the stronger for it. The quality acting put on by its lead characters in cutscenes; its jaw-dropping reveals both at the beginning and climax of the story; and the commitment to exploring difficult themes all made it feel like its own title while still carrying on the spirit Bioshock was known for.
It lost a bit of this with its Burial at Sea DLC, but even then, it still stuck to its ideas and concepts enough to keep from being entirely overtaken by the original Bioshock’s reputation.
As for flaws, most of its shortcomings stem from the risks it took. While its tackling themes of racism and classism, and its character-driven storytelling, were impressive for their time, other games have come along since that handled it much better. This makes it all the harder to sit through them now, and even make some moments incredibly cringeworthy.
Still though, it did what it had to as a sequel to a legendary game, and set the stage for great things to be done with the next entry in the series.
