I was absolutely hyped for this game when I was 13 years old. I had been Atlus-pilled in 8th grade when I played Persona 4 and that became my favorite game ever for a while. It sounds kind of funny, but I thought Persona 4 was the peak of storytelling in video games and I was so excited to see what the Persona team could deliver next that would push the boundaries of game narratives. I remember pushing my parents for several days to let me get this game, insisting that this wasn't smut but a mature story about complicated themes and I was ready to handle it. And I was, I don't think this game was too much for me, but that's not because of my actual maturity and more to do with how Catherine is surprisingly immature.

Vincent "just some guy" Brooks is our protagonist and he kind of sucks. Like, I can't think of a positive characteristic of is, he mainly plays stupid games and wins stupid prizes by dancing around communication with his girlfriend Katherine and his affair Catherine and then acts shocked that the delicate situation he's in continues to deteriorate. He's a frustrating character, and he's always outmatched in charisma by whoever he's talking to. I do actually like a number of the barflies, Vincent fails at developing chemistry with them but their stories are still memorable enough that I would say it's the part of the script that stands the strongest despite not directly involving themselves in Vincent's plight.

At this point, I'm going to disclose that I'm asexual, and thus my understanding of this part of the story may be biased. But I still can't wrap my head about how much the story tries to excuse Vincent for his irresponsibility, like he's some dumb kid dealing with hormones and not 32 years old. Yes, I get that magic is also brought up as a reason for Vincent's adultery, but that only highlights just how badly the game tries to cover for Vincent and also raises some very uncomfortable questions about whether Vincent is even capable of giving consent which the game swiftly ignores because that would actually be a tricky subject.

The game is far more interested in exploring a binary alignment system between Katherine, who represents monogamy and commitment, and Catherine, who represents polyamory and hedonism. Instead of actually being respectful to how people want to make different decisions on how to live their lives, characters repeatedly slam what Catherine represents as immature, and tout marriage as the end-goal for all "good" relationships. Hell, the narrative even sets up Vincent to be leaning towards Katherine regardless of where his alignment actually lies until the ending, where he jerks over to Catherine without much buildup if you end up on one of her endings.

Catherine is not a debate, it is a moralizing lecture on the virtues of traditional romantic relationships, and what infuriates me above all else is that it pretends it's not. Whenever Vincent is addressed about having multiple partners, it is always referred to as cheating, and ethical polyamory is never explored because the writers see polyamory as inherently selfish. I'm not saying a polycule would resolve this conflict, Katherine has the right to ask for a monogamous relationship and end it if Vincent strays, hell my own relationship desires lean far more towards Katherine's. If you want a game about conflicting views on monogamy vs. polyamory that actually is considerate of both sides, go play "You and Me and Her: A Love Story".

Despite being made increasingly aware of the many faults Persona 4 has in its writing, I still can't help but feel a lot of affection for it, even if it's definitely not my favorite game ever anymore. The same can't be said for Catherine, which I initially ate up but found even harder to reconcile its issues as I grew up because they were far more integral to what the game was going for. I can't even bring myself to try the remake with how much the original has soured on me over the years.

P.S. Oh yeah, there's gameplay. Not much I can really say about it, I think it's decent enough but I never really craved the box-pushing either. Definitely served as a means-to-an-end to buffer out the story sequences.

Woof. From a design and gameplay standpoint, what we have here is a betrayal of nearly everything that was great about the first two Bioshock games. What makes this game truly execrable, though, is its politics, which only appear worse in the post-Trump nightmare zone that is the USA in 2021.

I admit to being befuddled by the praise this game received as a gameplay experience, because it seems to me that it’s a pale shadow of what came before. One really obvious change is that there are basically no longer any true immersive sim elements here. The first two Bioshocks were really only loosely connected to that tradition, but those connections were what made Rapture feel like an actual place. All of that’s gone here. Columbia looks great at first, sure, but we’re missing so much about how it actually functions as a city. Remember how the tonics you found in the first two Bioshocks actually helped flesh out the world and told you something about how people lived in Rapture (in addition to allowing for a multitude of builds)? Remember how the audio diaries told short stories about the areas you were exploring and actually were placed in logical spaces (in Infinite, by contrast, you will find recordings of Comstock discussing his evil plans in a drawer in someone’s random apartment)? Pretty much all of that is tossed out the window in this game, for reasons that I can’t begin to fathom. What we’re left with is simply an extended corridor shooter with bullet sponge enemies in a setting that looks cool but never feels alive and coherent in the same way Rapture did.

How did this happen? My honest guess, based on what came out about this game’s troubled development, is that the devs spent a chunk of their time building Columbia as a fully developed, immersive sim-style successor to Rapture, but then switched focus midway through to incorporate the many-worlds plot. If so, the end result is that neither element reaches its potential. I like Elizabeth well enough both as a character and as a gameplay feature, and some of the more mind-bending aspects of the alternate realities plot are admittedly rather clever. But on the other hand, there are a lot of things about the many-worlds aspect of the story that straight-up make zero sense (indeed, considering her vast powers, it seems like Elizabeth could’ve skipped Booker past a lot of this trouble).

All of these issues pale in comparison to the repulsive and cynical handling of the political issues in this game. This is a game that shamelessly exploits the historical trauma of minority groups in America for cheap shock value…and that’s just in the first 15 minutes. In a grotesque display of cynicism, this is a game which suggests that exploited minority groups suffering under the yoke of a cabal of racist ultra-nationalists would be just as bad as their oppressors if they were in power. Seriously, it’s mealy-mouthed, ‘both sides’ centrism at its very worst.

As an avid fan of the series, I had high expectations for Infinite. Alas, it completely falls flat for me, both as a sequel and on its own terms.