BioShock Infinite is a major work with Columbia, the floating racist libertarian city, splendid and terrifying. Elizabeth is the generation's best companion character. An ending that upends everything.
Your verdict
Category
First-Person Shooter1 player18+
Description
Third entry breaking away from Rapture for the floating city of Columbia in 1912, where Booker DeWitt must rescue Elizabeth, gifted with supernatural powers. Published by 2K Games and developed by Irrational Games, released in 2013 across Europe, North America, Asia and Japan. Vigors replacing plasmids, traversal along aerial Skylines, Elizabeth as an intelligent ally opening dimensional tears, American steampunk aesthetic.
BioShock Infinite review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
MAX
Story
★★★★★
"Masterful"
A flying city bathed in light, dazzling colours and utopian architecture: Columbia radically contrasts with the depths of Rapture. The contrast between luminous beauty and latent violence composes a striking identity. This art direction, vast and inspired, masterfully extends the series' legacy.
Still signed by Garry Schyman, the music surprises with its anachronistic covers of modern hits arranged in 1912 style, from gospel to barbershop. This temporal vertigo, disturbing and brilliant, bathes Columbia in a fascinating strangeness. This sonic daring, unique of its kind, remains one of the most memorable of the medium.
Sent to retrieve a young woman in a flying city given over to fanaticism, a fallen detective is caught in a vertigo of parallel worlds. The tale takes on racism, redemption and determinism with striking conceptual boldness. Its overturning finale and unforgettable duo made it an object of passionate debate.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first minutes"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Riding Columbia's sky-lines while alternating gunfire and supernatural powers sets up a frantic rhythm that the beauty of the world and the twisting plot elevate further. Combing every corner for money and upgrades keeps the exploration going. The gunplay sometimes lacks bite, but the fascination of the setting and the urge to crack its mystery push you forward relentlessly.
The trilogy's close, leaving the seabed for the floating city of Columbia, one of the generation's most praised and debated titles. Sold in volume, it stays everywhere and cheap. Its desirability is that of a great auteur game to own for its narrative aura, not for scarcity, its colossal run ruling out any high price.
Is BioShock Infinite still worth playing in 2026?
BioShock Infinite remains a striking work, carried by Columbia, a light-bathed floating city whose beauty masks a racist, oppressive ideology. The contrast between this sunlit setting and the darkness of its themes still hits hard. Elizabeth, a companion of rare intelligence and presence, stays one of the best-written characters of her generation. The gunplay and the tear system still divide, judged a step behind the narrative ambition, but the dizzying ending keeps haunting. An experience to be had for its daring and its evocative power.
