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Mind rewind: Which was superior in gameplay/story, Bioshock Infinite or The Last of Us?
- Thread starter TissueBox
- Start date
OP
OP
Waver not, I have Infinite-leaning days when it comes to one finale over the other myself. It's hard to place for me. They're both two sides of a mesmerizing coin. Even if TLOU has much stronger footing.
Uncharted 2 is still the magnum opus of their cinematic era. If Left Behind was a full game, it would be a mile ahead, however.
Bioshock gets real messy with its story the second it gets into the Vox Populi shit. and tries to "both sides" Columbia's setting. I enjoy the time-travel, parallel universe craziness, but man is it couched in some real shitty politics.
And on the gameplay front, the gameplay loop gets pretty tired as it goes. I was mostly fine with the gunplay, but it never mixes it up, and the new abilities don't open any meaningful possibilities. The rail system is undercooked compared to what they promised, and there are some long annoying stretches.
Last of Us may have been less ambitious and certainly less surprising, but it was far more reliable and consistent.
And on the gameplay front, the gameplay loop gets pretty tired as it goes. I was mostly fine with the gunplay, but it never mixes it up, and the new abilities don't open any meaningful possibilities. The rail system is undercooked compared to what they promised, and there are some long annoying stretches.
Last of Us may have been less ambitious and certainly less surprising, but it was far more reliable and consistent.
Columbia is the very definition of a both sides situation. At no point in human history has siding with socialist revolutionaries against an oppressive regime ever been a sane idea. That is a one way ticket to being murdered by the delusional people you were dumb enough to give guns.
I am interested on hearing more about your opinion here.
I loved Left Behind but I dont see how it is better than the main game
The idea that the revolution doesn't eat its children is the revisionism. A striking number of people have this childlike nostalgia for bloodthirsty nightmares with phrases like "the terror" and "the great purge" attached to them. They like to convince themselves that THEIR socialist revolution against the forces of tyranny would totally end differently to all the other socialist revolutions.
If you were to give guns to an organization like the Vox, your only hope of survival would be to get the hell out of there before they topple the evil regime and proceed to install a jaw-droppingly worse one like all their predecessors. What a tweeeeeest. Who saw that coming? Also, socialist revolutionaries killing the heroes of the revolution because they're inconvenient isn't even a TWIST anymore. It's like sunrise. If it doesn't happen, that's the amazing twist. The cop-out happy ending.
Gameplay wise, how can you go from bioshock 2 down to infinite in just one game, in the same series?
This is going to be extremely onesided considering people here downright hate Bioshock Infinite's story and gameplay.
I like both, but TLoU does everything better.
I like both, but TLoU does everything better.
Bioshock Infinite shot for the stars and landed on the moon. TLOU stayed more grounded. One had great ambition but suffered because of it, the other was humdrum but better executed. It's a tie.
TLOU suffers from the problem most story-driven third person games of this type suffer from. You are not Joel. Joel is not you. You spend a lot of time watching Joel do things. Bioshock: Infinite blurs the line between player and protagonist. You accept the baptism. You flip the coin. You are responsible for your sins past, present, and future. TLOU doesn't really utilize the interactive nature of videogames as a medium in a meaningful way, which is probably not surprising considering almost all the cutscenes/story sequences are pre-rendered videos. TLOU could have been a movie. It wants to be a movie. It has a movie adaptation in limbo. Bioshock: Infinite, much like Far Cry 5 which is a spiritual successor of sorts, tells a story in a way that only works in videogames, plays to the inherent strengths of the medium. A story that hinges upon characters forming a relationship with, and speaking to, the player by looking them in the eye.
Infinite was unfortunately the mechanical endpoint for the erosion of System Shock 2's mechanical complexity in the Bioshock series. It's a pale shadow of games like Prey mechanically.
Infinite was unfortunately the mechanical endpoint for the erosion of System Shock 2's mechanical complexity in the Bioshock series. It's a pale shadow of games like Prey mechanically.
They're both games that star Troy Baker escorting and/or betraying a young woman.
I think Infinite owes a great deal to Ubisoft's King Kong. In that game, you felt like Jack Black's character was really Jack Black standing beside you, making conversation, tossing you weapons, etc. The first person cutscenes with highly animated limb acting drove immersion and player/protagonist overlap. The Last of Us has a more Resident Evil 4-esque approach to companion characters and storytelling in general.
Same series, different devs. Bioshock 2 has a competent team with a coherent vision behind it, whereas Infinite was a mess in every regard due to "auteur" Levine being given full reins until near the end of the project.
Bioshock Infinite's gameplay sucks and the story doesn't make sense. No, I'm not too stupid to understand it. I understood the story they told and it doesn't work within the constraints they set.
TLOU is far better in both story and gameplay and I don't even like TLOU.
Bioshock Infinite ever and still being held in any sort of high regard is baffling.
Bioshock Infinite ever and still being held in any sort of high regard is baffling.
Bioshock infinite is up there as one of the most over rated games of all time, the only thing it had was an interesting setting and they didn't do anything with it.
Well, I can't say for sure cause I can't remember anything much from the game, except that feeling afterwards of disappointment that I wasted my time and money.
It was that forgettable.
Well, I can't say for sure cause I can't remember anything much from the game, except that feeling afterwards of disappointment that I wasted my time and money.
It was that forgettable.
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They both have some of my favorite stories in gaming.
Last of Us has some of the best gameplay I'm gaming though.
Last of Us has some of the best gameplay I'm gaming though.
Bioshock Infinite is deeply flawed in both story and gameplay. I ended up despising it, so there is no contest, and I don't even like TLOU.
Story:
-Fuck this game for trying to pull a "well, both sides did bad things..." during a fucking slave revolt.
-The badly planned and self-contradictory time travel bullshit. It's not deep, it's just stupid.
Gameplay:
-The 2 weapon system where you can choose to either bring a boring weapon or constantly run out of ammo. Not even balanced in the slightest.
-The brain dead bullet sponge enemies
-The completely broken Lady Comstock Boss battles
Story:
-Fuck this game for trying to pull a "well, both sides did bad things..." during a fucking slave revolt.
-The badly planned and self-contradictory time travel bullshit. It's not deep, it's just stupid.
Gameplay:
-The 2 weapon system where you can choose to either bring a boring weapon or constantly run out of ammo. Not even balanced in the slightest.
-The brain dead bullet sponge enemies
-The completely broken Lady Comstock Boss battles
Whilst on the topic, whatever happened to Ken Levine? Seems like he just vanished after Infinite's release.
Bioshock Infinite has been long forgotten, and even in 2013 it was forgotten really fast after TLOU and GTAV launched. TLOU is one of those special games that come once every few years and is still talked about regularly.
Also, people forgot how bland Bioshock Infinite was between the opening levels in Columbia and the end chapter, everything in between was just meh and repetitive, it was mostly ugly and people never will post screens past the opening level
Both were mediocre.
TLoU was better, but it still wasn't great gameplay-wise.
The original BioShock was better than either of them.
TLoU was better, but it still wasn't great gameplay-wise.
The original BioShock was better than either of them.
TLoU won GOTY for a reason. People fell on Bioshock Infinite hard. I was the same way, I was blown away at launch, but overtime the faults and downgrades became more obvious.
In terms of ending, I loved Bioshock's ending and it's twist ending is one of the best in gaming. But TLoU's ending was perfect as well, although its effect may be ruined with Part 2. I think they'll both go down as the best endings in gaming.
In terms of ending, I loved Bioshock's ending and it's twist ending is one of the best in gaming. But TLoU's ending was perfect as well, although its effect may be ruined with Part 2. I think they'll both go down as the best endings in gaming.
If anything is pretentious its this useless condescending strawman post.
I can't tell if this is sarcastic or not, but I sincerely hope it is! I replayed Bioshock Infinite a couple of months ago and oh my lord the story is even worse than I remembered it.
I completely agree here. The lesson you are supposed to take from a reading of the major historical revolutions (French, Russian, etc) is that the cure was as brutal as the disease.
The zeitgeist lately has been trying to anti-"both sides" Infinite, but its analysis on the nuanced tragedy of armed revolution was correct. Trump's America isn't actually an analogy for a violent revolutionary situation, thank god.
Infinite's story is pretty bad but it also gets crazy. Last of Us' story isn't anything special but has good VO and facial animations.
Gameplay wise infinite is a step back from 2 in many ways, TLOU has satisfying gunplay but tedious non-puzzles and annoying zombie sections.
In the minority that prefers Infinite's story and TLOU's gameplay I guess.
Gameplay wise infinite is a step back from 2 in many ways, TLOU has satisfying gunplay but tedious non-puzzles and annoying zombie sections.
In the minority that prefers Infinite's story and TLOU's gameplay I guess.
BioShock Infinite has an awful upgrade system that doesn't fit the basic gunplay of the game, and is a tedious corridor shooter with a midling encounter design, so Last of Us wins in the gameplay department.
BioShock Infinite tells an overly pretentious story that doesn't say anything and that only vaguely works because of dumb and meaningless twists. So yeah, LoU wins once again.
BioShock Infinite tells an overly pretentious story that doesn't say anything and that only vaguely works because of dumb and meaningless twists. So yeah, LoU wins once again.
Infinite took dumbing down the 'Shock' legacy to an extreme as far as gameplay goes. As someone playing the games since System Shock 1, it was kind of insulting. On its own, it was a solid, smooth playing, linear FPS with a unique setting. The Last of Us, despite being criticized for being a cinematic game, had deeper play than the Uncharted games before it. The stealth had actual strategy to it.
Story-wise, I don't think either is anything special but TLOU works well for its theme. Infinite tries to tackle mature themes but doesn't do so with any real depth.
Story-wise, I don't think either is anything special but TLOU works well for its theme. Infinite tries to tackle mature themes but doesn't do so with any real depth.
Infinite is the worst of the Bioshock trilogy. Its own DLC is better than the main game. The Last of Us is far superior imo, and Left Behind makes it even better.
Now if the question were between TLOU and the original Bioshock, that would be a very hard choice for me.
All of this to a T:
The first half of Infinite is mesmerizing, mainly due to the visual design, but once we get to Finkton it just breaks down and gets progressively worse.
Now if the question were between TLOU and the original Bioshock, that would be a very hard choice for me.
All of this to a T:
The first half of Infinite is mesmerizing, mainly due to the visual design, but once we get to Finkton it just breaks down and gets progressively worse.
The game literally states that the slaves have it better in Columbia than anywhere else for that time period. Booker says that to himself after encountering slaves. (He also says that Daisy and the slave uprising is the same as Comstock and his tyrannical rule) So it's not being remotely historically accurate nor using (the Americanized version of) slavery as anything other than a backdrop. I don't know why you're bringing history into this then. You don't need to "both sides" anything, the game does it itself.
I don't think you two understand what the "both sides" debate means to be honest. There's nuance in telling a story about a culturally revolutionary being the next in line as a dictator to continue the cycle of oppression, but that means having that nuance. RDR does the whole thing with the 'Mexico' segment and does it more nuanced than Bioshock Infinite.
But if you're going to use history, you don't get to use what seems to a connection to the Haitian Slave Revolts (IE child murdering) without showing the pure brutality of chattel slavery. It'd be hard to make a statement about 'both sides' with that though.
Also what's funny is that they use ALTERNATE DIMENSION MAGIC to show the violent revolution. So... There was a dimension where it was violent but not overzealous? And one where it was peaceful? In the end their own message is pretty pointless. The fucking thing makes no sense.