Bioshock Infinite has really odd pacing, though I may be using that word incorrectly to describe what I'm about to say.
The start of the game is fine; Booker arrives in Columbia during a fair, gets found out as a possible threat to Columbia and starts butchering the cops and militia that get in his way.
He finds out where Elizabeth is kept and sets out to Monument Island. He frees her, learns of her giant bird protector, but in turn Monument Island is destroyed and the two find themselves on an air island modled after beaches.
Booker gets found out while there and continues to kill through Comstock's henchmen. We find out that the beach island is connected to, or is part of a fairground island with ice creams shops, parlours, etc.
From here Booker finds out he can reach the aerodome to get an airship off Columbia, problem is, the gondola that would take them to the aerodome requires him to first turn on a switch that is power by an electric Vigor.
This is where the pacing comes off; you will spend the next hour or 30 mins. depending on difficulty, going through a building that tells of the various wars that Comstock and Columbia were involved in just to get said electric vigor, which turns out to be held by a former general that Booker fought with, Slate.
Booker fights his way through Slate's soldiers and finally gets the electric vigor from him.
Why the heck did I go through all that just to get this one particular vigor? Non of the prior or later vigors become necessary for game progression and yet this one vigor is given focus? The dang thing deals low damage and only becomes effective once upgraded in order to stun lock enemies and cause their heads to explode when you shotgun one of them.
Anyways, Booker and Elizabeth manage to charge up the switch that summons the gondola and eventually board the air ship. During the cutscene, Elizabeth knocks out Booker and escapes from him.
When next Booker wakes up, Daisy and her Vox Populi have taken over his airship and task him with finding a weaponsmith to help her cause. Booker is dropped at the airship docks which happen to be part of Fink Manufacturing, meaning the docks are part of a larger air island where various devices and products used by Columbians are made in.
Booker is found out, shoots up some more enemies then...finds Elizabeth. She just gets dropped off at the air docks by some workers who think she's a stray or stowaway.
Was there going to be a section or chapter where Booker has to try and look for her but was dropped?
Fink Manufacturing is also a very odd location; its center area works as a hub to go to specific areas and battle enemies in.
Was this location made during early development to function as a hub from which Booker would go and clear specific missions? This is the one hub area in the game.
It also brings up something odd; the hub area writes the names of its linked areas in large fancy letters on doors that lead to them
Uhhhhh why; why would you write the door to your poor district this fancifly for?
This is why I wrote that this section felt like it was among the early developed parts of the game that got reworked. I should note that going to any of the other areas will have the game load that area. Thankfully on PC it's only a few seconds load time.
Progressing we get to one of the game's most controversial themes, namely Daisy's rebellion going into full swing.
I'm getting ahead of myself here, and should go into more detail first: Booker and Elizabeth use tears to 'jump' to another reality based on what the duo needs; the weaponsmith being alive and the weaponsmith's tools not being confiscated by the police.
Before I continue I should mention something I just now realized; The weaponsmith's workshop is smack in the middle of Fink hub area and is near to a police station. Why the heck is his workshop so conveniently close to every necessary area you need to go through to get Daisy's task done?
The progression and overall mission here is conflicting with the predefined purpose of the areas in this hub area, as they shouldn't be so close together.
Another thing this section of the game brings up is that the Shantytown is the player finally seeing the dark underbelly of Columbia by seeing the poor and downtrodden, whom Fink has taken under his wing for his own desires.
This makes one wonder just how big and how many air islands does Columbia consist of? If there was a map of Columbia shown earlier in the game, I must've missed it, but a map detailing the structure of the islands would've really helped, something like this (from McGee's Alice 1)
Anyway Daisy goes full on kill mode with her Vox Populi, Elizabeth ends her and the two finally recover the airship and try to leave Columbia, but once again the Songbird stops them and the two conveniently manage to find themselves in Emporia, being the living area/island of the top elite and rich of Columbia which is being sieged by the Vox and with everyone trying to evacuate.
Emporia also happens to be close to Comstock's residence.
I stopped at this part of the game and looking back at it, the team tried to tie stuff together as much as possible but the electric vigor and Fink hub section are really odd game design decisions.
The game really comes off as going through the motions.
Timespinner is pretty cool, it feels a lot like a lost SNES game... the atmosphere is just right from this era.
Doesn't seem to be too much SotN for me though, it's more of a DS-like Castlevania, the orb system is almost ripped off from the glyphs of Order of Ecclesia, and it makes combat surprisingly good and varied, it's quite satisfying to switch around your weapon sets to hit weaknesses (it's a hell of a lot more important than current Metroidvanias).
Weird Chrono Trigger vibes from the story too, I just regret that it has almost no puzzles involving the timelines, it's pretty linear; even the levels are quite flat and just spread horizontally. But a great soundtrack, it becomes very Super Metroid-y at some point.
It's just a tad weaker to explore than it could be, not unlike Axiom Verge.
The quest design and the NPC interactions are WAY, WAY better than its competitors though. After Bloodstained (which is definitely a stronger game all around); it's cool to have more dialogue and lore rather than another random ring and "KILL THOSE MONSTERS DEAD"!
Also, I can see why some gamers would have a meltdown playing it, fantasy black people with different countries, multiple LGBTQ characters, hell even polyamory, and nazi bad guys?
Yeah, that would do it for some.
Dang I need to get timespinner.
