Developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games, Bioshock Infinite is the newest installment to the Bioshock series. This is a first-person shooting game in which the player travels through clean, sun-flooded streets, teeming with wealth and humanity, to the dark, mechanical underbelly of Columbia’s shanty town. The player fights hordes of diverse enemies, from guards to giant automatons, using a multitude of weapons and powers. The player can combine these to create deadly effects.

Way up near the heavens, on top of the clouds, the floating city of Columbia appears eerily peaceful. The year is 1912, and Booker DeWitt is sent on a mission to capture a girl named Elizabeth and bring her to New York to repay his debt. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, everything is not as it seems in the floating city, for the brightest light casts the darkest shadow.

Story: 10/10 – The main story of Bioshock Infinite is filled with plot twists and moments that make the player’s jaw drop as the mystery in Columbia slowly unravels. While there is very little in the way of side quests in the game, the long and constantly developing plot keeps the player interested while he or she fights to escape from malevolent factions, looking to control Columbia through the chaos.

Graphics/Scenery: 9.5/10 – While Bioshock Infinite has award-winning graphics and scenery, the reason for the .5 reduction was the graphics compatibility with game consoles. On the PC, the graphics are amazing, arguably best yet of new games. However, for Xbox 360 and PS3, the graphics appeared to be a little washed out and fuzzy because game consoles do not have the ability to run such high level graphics yet. The screen can often be drowned by a flood of sunlight whenever DeWitt walks outside.

Performance: 10/10 – Bioshock Infinite is a first-person shooter, role-playing game. With few to none glitches to speak of, the only noticable performance issue is button lag, when the game does not recognize movements on the controller as fast as it should. For experienced players, this might be a minor issue when playing on hard, but for the average gamer, this should be no problem.

Gameplay: 10/10 – Players just joining the Bioshock series can play Infinite first, it’s all right: Infinite is not a sequel or prequel to Bioshock or Bioshock 2. The controls themselves are easy to learn, but are unlike those of standard first-person shooters, so adjusting to them can be difficult and frustrating at times, especially during combat. However, the strange controls allow a player make more complex moves later on in the game. The player will need to learn to survive, because foes will become increasingly harder to defeat as he or she advances.

The game costs $59.99 in stores and is playable on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and on your home computer.