It's a very long read that switches halfway through to a critique of modern game-reviewing standards. The author makes a lot of good points (all of which can be found in most serious reviews of the game), and dramatizes them. [quote]It’s an unjustified shooter without a single new idea. It’s a self-gratifying spectacle that confuses cunning with depth. It’s a craven, heartless game of false moral equivalencies that uses the suffering of oppressed people as window dressing, as theme, while it explores its own cold metaphysical conceits. For its lack of humanity, for its fake guilt, for its flat boring gameplay, for its 100 million dollar cost, for its cleverness, for its cowardice, BioShock Infinite is not just the worst game of the year. It’s the worst game I’ve played this generation.[/quote] [quote][Elizabeth] is otherwise invisible to the rest of Columbia, despite being its most wanted citizen.[/quote] [quote]This is all by design. Irrational head Ken Levine wanted the player to forge an emotional connection with Elizabeth but not have her be a burden. Because lord knows, relationships are never burdens. In an interview, he contrasted Elizabeth with a crying, needy Microsoft Word. Who wants that? And reviewers agreed, praising Elizabeth for ‘being useful’ and ‘not getting in the way’. (From a third-party review): “She is among the best AI companions I’ve ever had.”[/quote] [quote]Objectivity is very convenient for the straight white middle class male gamer. Videogame culture encourages him to see his own subjectivity as the standard, as objective. He’ll invoke science, economics, statistics, and all manner of folk wisdom to defend his little kingdom. He’ll decry any challenge as ‘politics’ or ‘bad business’ or ‘whining’ or ‘here we go again’. He never considers how often objectivity is a cover for a dominant subjectivity, for a subjectivity that stays in power by not being recognized as such.[/quote] [quote]For me, this is one reason the game is so disappointing. A beautiful, corrupt place that I can only see, not touch. That I can interact with in no meaningful way except to shoot or loot. That actively presents itself as fake, a theme park, but offers no mechanics to go behind the curtain.[/quote] Personally, my biggest criterion for whether a game was good is: "Did I enjoy playing it?" Bioshock had a lot of problems, namely, diluted gunplay and vigors, and disappointing linearity, but this game was a hell of a ride and kept me entertained for weeks even after I finished the story. The author's 2/10 score seems overly dramatic.