MovieChat Forums > BioShock Infinite (2013) Discussion > dishonored much better than bioshock inf...

dishonored much better than bioshock infinite yet the score

posted 11 years ago by narva24
23 replies | jump to latest

is much lower.

Curious, isn't it?

Personally, I find it rather surreal.
The world and the story is by far better realized in dishonored than it is in B.I., but the masses give 10 to BI and 7 to dishonored. I suspect that masses love fps - which is why people prefer BI over the more varied gameplay in dishonored. Furthermore, the story - BI's story is quite pretentious in its delivery and in the final twist (as ill thought out as it may be), thus its players give it higher marks, because it makes them think in order to figure out what it all means. The story in dishonored is told in a logical and coherent way, where its players do not have to think too deeply on its meaning and/or how it is told, hence they give it a lower score.

In the end, we are witnessing another example of the Batman/Inception phenomenon. Overhype on a major scale.

[–] BadgerBollocks 11 years ago

I completely agree, Dishonored is a much better game than Bioshock Infinite. After loving the first two Bioshock games I found Infinite to be a tad disappointing, it's not a bad game, it just fails to achieve the standard of it's predecessors.

[–] djs-p52 11 years ago

You have got to be kidding me, the story in Dishonored is better, yeah right. The story is a revenge story that isn't original at all. Bioshock Infinite has a wildy original story.

We are cancelling the apocalypse

[–] GorillazButter 11 years ago

The gameplay in Dishonored is easily better, and for that reason alone I think the critic scores should be higher.

It's fine if critics love the story of BI (I didn't but whatever) but to acknowledge the gameplay is mediocre and still give it the game a 9.5-10 is absolutely ridiculous. I hate what passes for a "game" nowadays.

I know I know, games are evolving blah blah blah. Bioshock Infinite would've made for an interesting movie or book, and instead it's a lackluster game.

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I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire.

[–] djs-p52 11 years ago

At least Bioshock Infinite tried to do something different. Dishonired was just your typical stealth game.

[–] GorillazButter 11 years ago

Not for me, the combat in Dishonored was unlike anything I've played before. Infinite had creative ideas to work with but nothing interesting was done with them (Tears, Skyline). I thought Dishonered's combat was more focused, as in the dev's actually knew what they were doing right from the get go and took the time to craft it.

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I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire.

[–] djs-p52 11 years ago

They had worked on Infinite for 5 years. They obviously didn't rush anything. My major gripe with the OP is saying the story is better in Dishonored. Dishonored has a generic story.

[–] GorillazButter 11 years ago

5 years doesn't mean the game wasn't rushed. They weren't able to do a lot of the things they originally set out to do and as a result people that worked for 4 of those 5 years (IE: Nate Wells) left the company and didn't receive any credit on the final product. You don't pick up and voluntarily leave 4 years into a 5 year product (scrapping your hard work) unless something goes horribly wrong. Ken Levine makes things up as he goes along and as a result a lot of his own team doesn't even like him. The game kept getting delayed because they needed SOMETHING to put out and at a certain point the company won't make money unless they release a product.

This is a big reason for why I don't like the story. It was them trying to cover failures. The whole "meta" angle with little choices, corridor linear gameplay etc. That was never the original plan and if they had told people the game had changed so much pre-orders would've been cancelled left and right.

Speaking as someone who looked forward to this game for years (since 2010) I can sincerely say they dropped the ball and the final product was unfinished. And as for the storyline, BI might be different from other FPS games, but to me that doesn't equate to better. It wasn't told as well as Dishonored IMO.

Sorry for the rant. But I still can't get over how much potential this game had and how much they butchered it. Forget GOTY, this could've been Game of the Decade had they stayed focused and honed the ideas (tears, skyline, etc.).

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I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire.

[–] djs-p52 11 years ago

If you listen to Ken Levine talk you know that they didn't rush anything. They pushed it back more than once because they wanted to refine the game. They took their time. Nobody can say Dishonored has a better story. It isn't presented well or anything special. I enjoy Dishonored I own it but Bioshock Infinite is way better. The story actually has layers while Dishonored is like congratulations you killed someone important now go and kill somebody else important.

We are cancelling the apocalypse

[–] Slogutis 11 years ago

I can't wait to go kill someone important.

[–] djs-p52 11 years ago

That concept in video games was original back in the 90's.

Gentleman, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

[–] GorillazButter 10 years ago

If you listen to Ken Levine talk you know that they didn't rush anything. They pushed it back more than once because they wanted to refine the game.

I know you wrote that awhile ago, but sorry that's not the truth. What you call "refining" is bringing in a professional from a different company just to ship SOMETHING. The game was a mess in 2012 and all they still had were concepts. Putting in a combat system in October 2012 after the original guy got fed up and left? Once again that isn't "refining". People were quitting left and right not just due to the games unbalanced state, but Ken is a jerk and hard to get along with. Plenty of articles on it. They "pushed it back more than once" because they literally had no game to ship.

Specifically there's an article on Polygon that spells out exactly why IrrationalGames was shutdown, not "voluntarily closed by Ken" or whatever company PR he has to say. Ken Levine is a charlatan, he says what gamers want to hear, that's it.

If Ken were HONEST about the development of the game, why people left his company, and his overall demeanor rather than putting his "spin" on it I'd have a lot more respect for him. He once said "cynicism will kill the gaming industry" which is again another spin on him dodging the issue of false advertisement, companies putting out fake trailers with labels stamped on like "THIS WAS ALL MADE WITH IN-GAME FOOTAGE" or just all around being deceptive.

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I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire.

[–] benmasta 10 years ago

jeez why do people think the BI story was so unique and original? I had worked out the ending like half way through the game. Mainly because the information you get in the game is too broad, and it unfolds in an obvious way.

I mean... why the hell was booker even there? When you are talking about rips in time and space, and he was just some random dude someone hired to check out a flying city? How obvious is it that booker is integral to the story and would be related to elizabeth in some way? They were obviously not lovers... so it became pretty obvious.

Anyway, at least in dishonored, there was lots to explore and you werent limited to a linear, boring, and choiceless story. I mean, even the most basic games these days come with game-altering choices. BI was about as linear as it gets, and i did not feel like a replay was warranted, even a little lol.

Black Rectangle

[–] djs-p52 10 years ago

To me it just sounds like you are complaining about the fact that you don't have choice which is stupid. Choice in gaming is overrated because it's just makes the endings to games with choice bland and uninteresting. Whether you like the story in Bioshock Infinite or not at least it's endings had the balls to have a real ending. Dishonored had a boring ending because it had to balance the good and bad Corvo.

I'm the Son of Rage and Love

[–] lepunkdigitale 11 years ago

It really does frustrate me when people protest about having to think about the meaning of a story, be it in a game or a film. Why are we living in such a spoon-fed world, where people want to have everything coherently explained to them? Bioshock Infinite has a Kubrick style edge to it's story, where we have to think in order to understand. I find this method of storytelling to be far more compelling and re-playable, compared to a story where everything has been drilled into you, and you're left in no doubt about what happened. And it's not curious when one game achieves a higher user rating than another, it means the majority of people preferred it. At the time of writing, Bioshock Infinite has a rating of 9.6, compared to Dishonoured's rather low score of 6.9. The people have spoken, which isn't curious at all.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] robrocker74 11 years ago

My problem with both games is that the worlds seemed "dead", and what little interaction there was with NPC's, were uneven. Both games felt like moving through scenery as oppose to a living world, and for me, Dishonored was the bigger dissapointment because of that.

[–] StoicBlade 11 years ago

I was actually disappointed with both games. Dishonored had better game play. However, if you want the "good" ending, your combat choices are severely limited...just tranq darts and choke holds. The game play became very repetitive for me. And some things do not make sense...like, why can't I throw guards through the electric gates without the game punishing me? There are no bodies (just ash), so no public discord. Also, it doesn't spread the plague, so again, it should be allowed without affecting your chaos level.

Bioshock Infinite on the other hand (although it had an amazing story and Elizabeth is one of my favorite characters now) totally tossed out all of the game play from the first 2 Bioshocks and became an arcade shooter. In the first 2 Bioshocks, you could bump into desks and knock objects over, hack turrets, cameras, and security bots, make the environment work in your favor, use photography to learn enemies' weaknesses, upgrade your weapons, build your own ammo...the list goes on and on. Yet, all of that was totally removed from Bioshock Infinite. You just ran from battle arena to battle arena fighting hordes of the same enemy. There was a lot less variety in the enemy types. Also, a rechargeable shield??? WTF? This is not Borderlands or Halo. So, in terms of maps, environments, and game play...Bioshock Infinite is the weakest of the 3.

And what the heck is up with all of the G@ddamn forging and scavenging in BOTH games? In Dishonored, people are starving and poverty-stricken, yet there are cans of food everywhere. And in BI, I am on a lively beach with hot dog and cotton candy vendors....and yet I am still digging through the trash for food? That is so stupid. And they made the coins so small and they put them everywhere. In the first 2 Bioshocks, money was in logical places and a lot easier to see. In BI, they are these little coins scattered everywhere and you need every one if you want to buy a couple of upgrades. Seriously, I am in this beautifully realized world and I spend 90% of the game staring at the floor looking for coins and lock picks.

In the end, Dishonored was pretty good. I just wish I could have used different approaches to combat and all of the cool weapons I had, and still have gotten the good ending...instead of just choking everyone out. The story was good, but unoriginal.

Bioshock Infinite had an amazing story and a lot of cool elements (albeit, underused). However, gameplay was repetitive and boring compared to the first 2 Bioshocks.

[–] drivenbyseclusion 11 years ago

Comparing Bioshock Infinite to Inception and Batman is a poor use of an analogy.

Both Inception and Batman have distinctly clear and linear story lines. However, Bioshock infinite is much more ambiguous, abstract, and ambitious in its story telling.

"...In the next 10 years, there will be an earthshaking Citizen Kane of games.” (Guillermo del Toro)

I think both Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite (notice how I didn't include bioshock 2) have met this standard.

However, I do agree that it is not a perfect game. It is clear: the story, the aesthetics, and the visual appeal of Bioshock Infinite take precedence over the regressive game play. What was initially a promising start with the game play in the first Bioshock became too reductive and overly simplistic in Bioshock Infinite. Oh well, I can't have everything I suppose.

Thank you for the interesting points and conversation everyone.

Robert Cortes
[email protected]

[–] narva24 10 years ago

When I compare bioshock to inception/batman films - I'm really talking about the hype that went along those films. The hype for this game is very similar - a supposed masterpiece, if there ever was one - and rated as such by critics and fans alike.

Yet, when I tried bioshock infinite (btw - I haven't played the first two parts), given the hype, I was very much let down.

Now - the story - when I said that the story in dishonored was better, I didn't say it was more original. It was a better story that was also told more coherently. There is no doubt that BI's story was more original in its presentation, but originality does not make something better, just different - yet in this instance originality was equated with greatness which is plain wrong.

Otherwise, someone stated that my main gripe was with story and not the gameplay - that's not true. The two go hand to hand together in this instance - and yes, the gameplay in dishonored was much more varied and interesting than it was in BI.

Both games do have something in common though - and that's great visual presentation.

[–] djs-p52 10 years ago

My biggest problem with the story of Dishonored is that nothing would have happened if Corvo would have frickin spoke. But because this is a video game we need a silent protagonist just so the story would happen. The only part of Dishonored that I truly enjoyed was the Lady Boyle assassination. It was the only mission I replayed. I disagree about Bioshock Infinite's gameplay. Yeah maybe Dishonored has more options but I didn't use half of them because all I needed was the blink power. I have played Bioshock Infinite again and again using different weapons and vigors and constantly found different results. I could use Elizabeth's tears in different ways as well. So while maybe Dishonored's gameplay was more complex I found it to be uneven.

I'm the Son of Rage and Love

[–] Monk_Drunk 9 years ago

Bioshock and BI being the Citizen Kane of games? Haha that's hilarious.

[–] jacob_barreiro 9 years ago

What does "Citizen Kane of games" even mean? That a young and ascending auteur will make a massively hyped and controversial game assembling all of the modern techniques known at the time into a work that's snubbed at award shows but is then recognized as a landmark in the medium for decades to come?

What would that game even look like?

For what it's worth, I'm about 3 hours in bioshock infinite right now and have considered not even bothering to finish it. The introduction was nice. Rocketing into Columbia and getting accustomed to its local color was pretty fun. But as soon as the baseball incident happened, it was one "here's some guys, shoot them all in the *beep* face" sequence after another. The story isn't bothersome to me, but nothing special, and certainly nothing that's going to make me want to run around absorbing bullets and jamming the trigger button for hours upon hours.

[–] iburningman2099 11 years ago

This is one great thread! I'm getting a kick out of listening to the different views on Bioshock Infinite and Dishonored. As for me, I played and beat both games (note: I also played and beat Bioshock 1 & 2 - brilliant games). Both were fun games, but Bioshock just struck more of a cord with me. I've even mad a replica Devil's Kiss vigor bottle. I did, however, enjoy the options Dishonored had, that could effect your ending.

The most interesting thing I noticed is that a great deal of the people that hated Bioshock Infinite had also seen the earlier demos. Based on the 2010 and 2011 demos, they were expecting more. I hadn't seen the demos so I loved the final product. After having seen the demos, though, I feel like some of the best ideas they had were lost (like the massive bar battle or the attack on the zeppelin while fighting a ton of skyline enemies).