Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 86: Bioshock Infinite

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Todays game is Bioshock Infinite. How would you rate the story on a scale from 1-10?

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Previous Results:
Planescape: Torment - 9.83 (12 votes)
Omori - 9.67 (6 votes)
Outer Wilds - 9.6 (21 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 9.18 (34 votes)
The House in Fata Morgana - 9.14 (7 votes)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 9.1 (14 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9 (8 votes)
Steins;Gate - 8.94 (9 votes)
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward - 8.89 (19 votes)
Persona 3 - 8.85 (19 votes)
Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.85 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 8.83 (6 votes)
Umineko When They Cry - 8.82 (11 votes)
Xenogears - 8.71 (23 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.67 (31 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.67 (27 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.65 (23 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask - 8.56 (27 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.56 (16 votes)
Undertale - 8.45 (42 votes)
Chrono Trigger - 8.41 (38 votes)
What Remains of Edith Finch - 8.41 (19 votes)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 8.4 (5 votes)
Mass Effect 2 - 8.38 (28 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.37 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.35 (55 votes)
Final Fantasy VII - 8.28 (37 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 8.17 (18 votes)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 8.17 (21 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.15 (40 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.13 (35 votes)
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.06 (18 votes)
The Wolf Among Us - 8.04 (14 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7.94 (27 votes)
Spec Ops: The Line - 7.9 (17 votes)
Bloodborne - 7.88 (20 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.85 (31 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.81 (25 votes)
Bioshock - 7.64 (23 votes)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.7 (30 votes)
Celeste - 7.62 (25 votes)
Skies of Arcadia - 7.62 (13 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.47 (29 votes)
Mortal Kombat (2011) - 7.46 (13 votes)
Mass Effect - 7.35 (28 votes)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 7.26 (29 votes)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - 7.25 (12 votes)
Tales of the Abyss - 7.24 (28 votes)
Red Dead Redemption - 7.23 (11 votes)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - 7.17 (24 votes)
Mass Effect 3 - 7.16 (21 votes)
To the Moon - 7.07 (7 votes)
Super Paper Mario - 7.05 (22 votes)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - 7 (5 votes)
Hollow Knight - 6.98 (21 votes)
INSIDE - 6.93 (15 votes)
Gone Home - 6.91 (17 votes)
Death Stranding - 6.73 (13 votes)
Chrono Cross - 6.69 (16 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All - 6.67 (31 votes)
Firewatch - 6.65 (10 votes)
Dark Souls - 6.62 (20 votes)
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - 6.61 (28 votes)
Valkyria Chronicles - 6.5 (16 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - 6.5 (13 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 6.31 (35 votes)
DOOM (2016) - 6.15 (13 votes)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 6.16 (14 votes)
Star Fox 64 - 5.8 (25 votes)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - 5.72 (9 votes)
Final Fantasy IV - 5.78 (30 votes)
Metroid Prime - 5.67 (24 votes)
Kingdom Hearts - 5.59 (30 votes)
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - 5.26 (28 votes)
Final Fantasy XIII - 4.79 (29 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 4.83 (12 votes)
Fallout 3 - 4.76 (17 votes)
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty - 4.72 (9 votes)
Fallout 4 - 4.43 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy - 4.24 (19 votes)
Resident Evil 6 - 3.74 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 3.69 (13 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3.46 (15 votes)
Starcraft II (overall) - 3.4 (5 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates (overall) - 3.32 (11 votes)
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void - 2.83 (6 votes)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - 2.66 (16 votes)
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm - 2.57 (7 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation - 2.33 (9 votes)
Tales of Zestiria - 2.14 (7 votes)

You can still rate previous days games if you missed them, just write <game name><rating>. If you want to change your rating you can just specify that you are changing your rating. Nominations for future days are also welcome, nominate as many games as you like and I will get to all of them.

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3/10

Fart-sniffing crap

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Nominate Portal 2

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6.5

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Very interesting one to rate. It definitely has AMBITION. The locale, the plot twist, the social racial commentary, all make for a memorable experience. You even have a Disney princess with parallel timeline powers.

Yet it doesn't really come off as cohesive as the original. A few elements like the songbird feel woefully underdeveloped. The MC is a very generic shooter guy that probably could have worked mute since he says nothing despite talking. (Props though that it works with the story. But it's not super fun along the way.)

7/10, maybe a replay can bump it up.

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8.5

The twins rule.
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6.5

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8

Mainly for the ending. The way it sort of recontextualizes what the whole series is about makes for something quite original.

I need to play the DLC. It was supposed to be really good, right? Pretty sure it came with the version I have on my Xbox (think I got it in a remastered collection of all three games).

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Never played BI. Still have the PS3 version in the wrapper

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10

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3

I have only soured on Bioshock Infinite over time. The performances are great and I enjoyed it when I played it, but the more you think about the actual plot and writing the worse it gets. It really is only good on a superficial level.

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god I remember when the gaming world couldn't shut up about praising this game's absolutely mediocre story. faux intellectualism at its finest.

5/10

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8.5/10 I really really enjoyed it

StartTheMachine posted...

I need to play the DLC. It was supposed to be really good, right? Pretty sure it came with the version I have on my Xbox (think I got it in a remastered collection of all three games).

First one is decent, second one is really really bad if you liked the story of the main game.

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Another game that everyone squealed and clamored over like a schoolgirl during release but then proceeded to cast it aside like a leper after a certain amount of time passed just like MGS4.

I'm in the same boat as I am with MGS4. Which is I loved those games the first time and still do. Infinite's story, characters and even the setting is better than the original BioShock. The element of mystery was also just as good. I experienced a whirlwind of emotions throughout the game and peaked with the ending. The twist was done so well and although not the first one to do something like that, it was how it was delivered that stood out for me.

One of the all time greats in video game stories without question for me

10

8.5

It's good, but was ultimately overshadowed by TLOU, which came out later that year.

The hype monsters/content creators that need to either scream that things are the best or the worst for clicks turned against it on a dime. It was really interesting watching that process unfold.

Will never 100% understand the haters, but to each their own.

The story was solid, lacked plot holes, and was unique for a AAA game, even if the whole thing could have been shorter.

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On an unrelated note. I'm about to start Fire Emblem Fates in a few days but seeing that those games just straight up lost to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Resident Evil 6 in story is really giving me a motivation crisis. And those are three full blown RPG plots so it is a huge time investment.

So I ask the people who played those games, are those just hyperbole hate bombs for ratings or is it worth investing my time in those games? I'm generally a gameplay > story guy but those two aspects are very close so story does matter a lot in a game to me.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

So I ask the people who played those games, are those just hyperbole hate bombs for ratings or is it worth investing my time in those games? I'm generally a gameplay > story guy but those two aspects are very close so story does matter a lot in a game to me.

gameplay-wise birthright and conquest are fine. birthright's story is in my opinion not that bad, but a 5 sounds about right honestly

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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

On an unrelated note. I'm about to start Fire Emblem Fates in a few days but seeing that those games just straight up lost to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Resident Evil 6 in story is really giving me a motivation crisis. And those are three full blown RPG plots so it is a huge time investment.

So I ask the people who played those games, are those just hyperbole hate bombs for ratings or is it worth investing my time in those games? I'm generally a gameplay > story guy but those two aspects are very close so story does matter a lot in a game to me.

I don't like the gameplay or story of them frankly but that's kind of a hot take. A lot of people like the gameplay, especially for Conquest. Lots of FE fans will call that the best gameplay in the series, even!

the story and writing are irredeemable tho

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IMO just play Conquest and skip the rest. Even just playing Birthright and skipping the rest would be okay. There being three games is a big thing that holds it back (as someone who likes Fates).

Also if you do play both of the first two don't play Revelations because it's just bad. In every way.
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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

On an unrelated note. I'm about to start Fire Emblem Fates in a few days but seeing that those games just straight up lost to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Resident Evil 6 in story is really giving me a motivation crisis. And those are three full blown RPG plots so it is a huge time investment.

So I ask the people who played those games, are those just hyperbole hate bombs for ratings or is it worth investing my time in those games? I'm generally a gameplay > story guy but those two aspects are very close so story does matter a lot in a game to me.

the story is terrible and the more you think about it, the worse it gets. The main characters that get speaking time in the plot are Corrin, Ryoma, Xander, Azura, and Garon. All of them are terrible characters and that's a large part of why I don't like Conquest. Conquest Corrin in particular is completely frustrating.

I typically like playing FE for supports and cast. Even FE9 I think gets maybe a 6/10 for the main plot but a 10/10 for its support and cast. Conquest's is good. Not great, but not terrible. Elise in Conquest is one of my favorite FE characters and I typically do not like "the innocent young sister" archetype at all.

The gameplay in Conquest is the clear highlight. If I ever did a full FE chapter ranking, Conquest takes 3-5 spots in my top 10. When it's good, it's really good. Personally, I played Casual/Normal and I generally avoided resets until the endgame maps, which really don't fuck around. I had a really good time with the game. I just can't say that it has a good story.

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6/10

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Oh yeah, ratings.

Persona 3 - 8/10
Chrono Trigger - 8.5/10
Bioshock Infinite - 4/10

There are moments I like that Persona 3 has that 4 and 5 don't. But those moments take a long time to build up to. Chrono Trigger's interesting. It's one of the few games where the middle is the best part. Magus's Castle up to Black Omen is really, really good. The sidequests are also really great and flesh out the world and characters. I just wish the sidequests open up throughout the game's pacing as opposed to at the very end. It kinda slows the momentum to Black Omen.

Bioshock Infinite has a lot of good ideas, but it's handled pretty poorly. The blueprints for this game has a 8/10, possibly a 9/10 story, but the game I actually played is definitely more bleh. That said, I really love what I saw of Columbia. The worldbuilding is what gives this game all 4 points.

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8/10

Utterly bizarre and boundlessly creative. Like many games from the era, it primarily wrestles with the very idea of choice, but it examines our choices on the multiversal scale, terrifyingly infinite but yet small, predictable, and unavoidable choices to make nonetheless. It directly asks the player "What makes us good, and what makes us evil?" It may seem simple, but casting us in that role and then exponentially showing the results makes us question at every turn if what we're doing is really the right thing. Like Spec Ops: The Line, there's definitely a whole "Heart of Darkness" thing going on here. It also has ambitious themes of racial injustice and American Exceptionalism throughout the game. For the most part, it is handled well, deftly offering subtle critique while also presented in-universe as the norm, so to speak. It offers something more grounded for the player to ponder away from the other wise grandiose science-fantasy of the main plot. I agree with others that some parts are undeveloped, like the Songbird, and I think they could've leaned into the choice aspect even more, but it's an otherwise excellently executed story that gets the exact points across that it wanted to.

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8/10

9.5 for the base game

7.5 if you count the DLC

5

Difficult to rate.

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Don't think I'll rate this one. I absolutely adored it at the time, and have soured on it somewhat in the years past when becoming more aware of its glaring flaws (most notably how everything with Daisy turns out), but I still think of it somewhat fondly. It was at least trying to do something.

I never did get why people turned on it so severely and so abruptly, but whatever.

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andylt posted...

I never did get why people turned on it so severely and so abruptly, but whatever.

A lot of reasons imo. Even at the time of release, people weren't too high on its gameplay compared to the original game and other shooters. Infinite came out in 2013 when FPSs were moving away from single-player campaigns, but Wolfenstein (2014) and Doom (2016) revived the genre pretty soon after.

In terms of story I think the DLC played a significant factor because the reviews for that were VERY mixed compared to the base game. It starts to turn there, and then there's just been so much critical analysis of the game that's built up over the years since. That's what did it for me. It simply hasn't aged well for me. It tried something and kinda failed, but doesn't fail in (good) interesting ways. You mention the Daisy thing and yeah, that's just a massive turn-off that taints the message of the entire game.

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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

A lot of reasons imo. Even at the time of release, people weren't too high on its gameplay compared to the original game and other shooters. Infinite came out in 2013 when FPSs were moving away from single-player campaigns, but Wolfenstein (2014) and Doom (2016) revived the genre pretty soon after.

In terms of story I think the DLC played a significant factor because the reviews for that were VERY mixed compared to the base game. It starts to turn there, and then there's just been so much critical analysis of the game that's built up over the years since. That's what did it for me. It simply hasn't aged well for me. It tried something and kinda failed, but doesn't fail in (good) interesting ways. You mention the Daisy thing and yeah, that's just a massive turn-off that taints the message of the entire game.

Yeah that's fair, I just remember it becoming hated and mocked so quickly. TLOU probably had an impact too, though weirdly enough I much prefer the fast paced fun shooty gameplay of Infinite over TLOU's slow cover stealth style, even if it ran counter to the game's themes.

I imagine if I played it today I might be really turned off by much of the writing, I remember a few years ago thinking that the story would be thematically much stronger if Elizabeth was black. I wonder how the series would have evolved by today if it hadn't died back then...

The best part of Infinite was all the old style covers of more modern songs, anyway.

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7/10

There were some really good parts to the story-- the Lutece twins were delightful whenever they showed up to tease at aspects of story, and the game did some really interesting things relating it to the rest of the series.

But the plot point of taking the revolution leader and suddenly making her try to kill a child as some sort of "everyone is bad once they get a taste of power!" message still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And then they somehow went and made it worse in the DLC.

Also if anyone is asking, do not play the DLC if you care about the story.

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