When comparing Bioshock Infinite vs Rise of the Tomb Raider, the Slant community recommends Bioshock Infinite for most people. In the question“What are the best singleplayer games on Steam?” Bioshock Infinite is ranked 17th while Rise of the Tomb Raider is ranked 50th. The most important reason people chose Bioshock Infinite is:
Touching on themes of classism, racism, the power of religion, propaganda, and even delving into the metaphysical, Bioshock Infinite delivers a compelling story that will have you engaged till the very end.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great story
Touching on themes of classism, racism, the power of religion, propaganda, and even delving into the metaphysical, Bioshock Infinite delivers a compelling story that will have you engaged till the very end.
Pro The world is amazing
A city floating in the sky with quantum physics set in the early 1900s with gear propelled robots and powers brought on by tonics are awaiting you in the city of Columbia. Bright colors and amazing vistas that are populated with floating islands that house full carnival resorts, giant memorial statues, along with deadly enslavement camps and prisons bring Bioshock’s world to life.
Pro Intense fast-paced gameplay
Continuing the super-powered gameplay from the first two Bioshock’s this installment in the series refines the fun and fast formula. Use tonics to launch fireballs, ravens, or electricty at your foes, or make them fight by your side, as long as you have enough salt that is. Then to liven things up get help from Elizabeth’s “tears” to bring in more guns and tin-men from another time/dimension to aid you in your fight!
Pro Great Add-On content
With the main game being so great you just want to keep playing. So Irrational Games came out with four DLC packs: Columbia’s Finest, Clash in the Clouds, Burial at Sea Episode 1 and Episode 2.
Pro Challenging but fair optional puzzles
In Rise of the Tomb Raider there are 9 optional tombs that serve as large scale environmental puzzles. They all rely on you reading the environment carefully.
For example, one of them is a wooden ship frozen vertically on the wall of an ice cavern. The puzzle is reaching the treasure at the top of the ship.
It might seem really hard at first, but if you carefully look at the environment you'll find a path. Solving one of these puzzles is really fun, especially because you get an upgrade from them.
Pro Jaw dropping graphics
Rise of the Tomb Raider has phenomenal graphics and a very great attention to detail. Simple things like the snow moving as you step into it or how Lara's hair moves in the wind. This gives it a feeling a of polish most games don't have.
The character models and animations are also phenomenal. Each of their movements and facial expressions look real, creating a movie like experience.
Pro Rewarding exploration
Each level is large, so there is quite a lot to see and do in each one. You'll be rewarded for exploring as there are many hidden items, weapons, and beautiful views to be found. This gives you an incentive to fully explore each location.
Pro A variety of weapons to keep the gameplay fun
There are over 20 weapons to choose from, including handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, and bows. You can also craft special ammo or explosives such as nail bombs. This keeps the gunfights interesting since you can switch to a new weapon whenever it gets dull.
Pro Replayability through unlockables
Once a level is competed, you can to complete unfinished or new objectives. These will unlock new outfits or other items. This gives you plenty of goals to strive for outside the main story. Trying to complete all the optional objectives can be quite addictive.
Cons
Con The ending is very unclear and open to interpretation.
After multiple twists that logically link from one to another, the end doesn't completely follow any reasoning or logic, it seems out of the blue, confusing and open to interpretation. As someone who played the game for the story, a huge disruptive disappointment.
Con Story and Gameplay can give mixed tones
A high story concept mixed with super bloody battles threw off some people’s experience of the game who site ludonarrative dissonance as the problem.
Con Overused and overly familiar plot
The gist of the plot is that Lara is searching for the key to eternal life. This plot has been used in other franchises such as Indiana Jones and Uncharted. It seems kinda lazy, especially because both of these franchises are also about treasure hunters. You won't be able to shake the feeling that you already know the story, which somewhat ruins the enjoyment.
Con Very linear
Most of the time you'll be forced to move along a single path. There are occasional quick-time events and simple puzzles, but every situation only has a single solution. This makes it feel more like an interactive movie than a game since you're never really given any freedom of choice.
Con Focuses on action too much
Rise of the Tomb Raider doesn't have many puzzles or slow-paced sections, so you never really feel like a treasure hunter looking for artifacts. There are just way too many gunfights and high intensity moments one after another. It would have been nice to see more puzzles to balance out the action.
Con Stealth seems pointless
While there are stealth takedowns and you can be stealthy in many areas, there is no real incentive to be stealthy. You can easily take out most enemies in an open confrontation and you won't ever feel like you're truly in danger.
Con Difficulty spikes late game
During the latter half of the game the gunfights will suddenly become a lot harder. While they're not impossible to beat, the sudden difficulty spike will take time to get used to. This may cause some frustration and worsen your overall experience.