BioShock Infinite

In 1912, former soldier Booker DeWitt travels to the floating city of Columbia to find Elizabeth, a young woman held there since childhood. Their escape draws them into the conflict between the city’s ruling Founders and the Vox Populi, while Booker fights through its districts with firearms, Vigors and the Sky-Hook.

BioShock Infinite is a first-person action game set in Columbia, a city built among the clouds and presented to the outside world as a prosperous American showpiece. Booker DeWitt arrives in 1912 with a debt to settle by bringing Elizabeth back from the city. She has been confined in Columbia since childhood, and their attempt to leave puts them in the path of the authorities and the people resisting them. The Founders uphold the city’s hierarchy around Zachary Hale Comstock, while the Vox Populi grows from the grievances of those excluded from that order. The player sees these tensions in public ceremonies, storefronts, propaganda and sudden street battles as Booker and Elizabeth cross the city. Their route gradually shifts from sightseeing through an unfamiliar place to escaping a conflict in which each district has its own dangers and loyalties.

Columbia’s vertical layout shapes both movement and combat. Booker explores streets, interiors, rooftops and suspended structures on foot, searching rooms and containers for ammunition, money, health supplies and useful equipment. Sky-Lines, the city’s rail network, connect elevated platforms and allow quick movement between parts of a battle space. Booker uses the Sky-Hook to latch onto a line, ride it, change direction at junctions and leap down onto a platform or enemy. Booker can fire while riding, making the rail a route for repositioning as well as transportation. Enemies also use the lines, so a fight can shift between cover on a platform and motion overhead. The Sky-Hook doubles as a close-range weapon, giving the player an option when an opponent gets near or when a moving attack is possible.

Gunfights combine conventional firearms with Vigors, drinkable substances that grant supernatural abilities. Booker can use weapons such as pistols, shotguns and rifles, but he carries a limited selection at once and must adapt to ammunition found in the area. Vigors spend Salts, a separate resource, and each offers a different way to interrupt or damage opponents. Devil’s Kiss throws fire, Shock Jockey sends electricity through targets or conductive surfaces, and Bucking Bronco lifts enemies into the air. Some Vigors can be set as traps before foes arrive, while direct use can create an opening for gunfire or a Sky-Hook strike. Combining crowd control with weapons makes a fight about timing and position as much as aim. A regenerating shield absorbs incoming damage before Booker’s health, so withdrawing briefly can restore the shield while he changes position or waits for a safer attack.

Elizabeth is more than the person Booker has been sent to retrieve: she travels with him and can help during combat. She searches the environment for useful items, then tosses Booker ammunition, health or Salts when he needs them. Her ability to open Tears lets her draw objects from alternate versions of Columbia into the current fight. A Tear might provide cover, a weapon, a supply cache or a turret, and only one can be active at a time; the player chooses which available object best suits the immediate situation. This turns some arenas into tactical spaces that can be changed during combat, rather than fixed rooms with one obvious route. The choice of a defensive position or another source of firepower can matter when enemies press from several directions, and Elizabeth’s support links the story’s partnership to the encounter system.

Exploration also builds Booker’s capabilities through purchases and equipment. Silver Eagles found in the city can be spent at vending machines to buy supplies and purchase upgrades for weapons and Vigors, so investigating side rooms can provide useful money as well as supplies. Because cash and upgrade opportunities are gathered along the route, the player chooses which weapons or powers to develop. Infusions found along the route raise one of three capacities: health, shield or Salts. Equippable Gear occupies slots for items such as hats, shirts, pants and boots, with each piece providing a passive effect. These choices let the player emphasize survivability, a preferred weapon approach or movement around Sky-Lines, without changing Booker into a different class. Checkpoints and chapters carry the main journey forward, while the changing mix of enemies, equipment and available Tear objects asks the player to revise tactics as the city’s conflict escalates.

Lockpicks add an optional exploration tool to the city’s storefronts and side rooms. Booker can collect them during the journey, and Elizabeth can use them to open certain locked doors. Those rooms may contain equippable Gear, useful supplies or other discoveries, giving the player a reason to search around a main route and decide whether to spend a pick now or save it for another door. Elizabeth’s lockpicking sits alongside her ability to open Tears during combat: one changes access between encounters, while the other can alter an active fight. The base campaign remains set in Columbia. Burial at Sea is a separate add-on that takes Booker and Elizabeth’s story back to Rapture, with its own episodes and mechanics; it is not part of the base game’s Columbia journey. The base campaign also has unlockable 1999 Mode, a harder difficulty setting; Clash in the Clouds is separate downloadable challenge content.