Bioshock Infinite

Not a review, just a quick opinion I need to let air out because I just finished the game.

Bioshock Infinite is so good, but not because it does any one thing better than anything else.  I say anything else, because to call it only a game does not do justice to the experience.  I'm not attempting to be overly romantic about it all - these are just the appropriate words.  I didn't "play" Bioshock Infinite, I experienced it.

I've developed a concept over the years... In the context of narrative based gaming, players do not want free choice and freedom, but the illusion of it.  It's why choose your own adventure books were always incredibly anti-climactic, and why we go theaters to see stories where the perspective and plot is well thought out and chosen for us, i.e. film.  Irrational Games proves this theory right. By putting all the appropriate pieces where they need to be, creating an enriching enough story with enough twists to fit into this narrative model, and making the 'game' aspects of the experience as solid and familiar as they could be, the player becomes a part of the world, not just a passive participant.

I can't even begin to go on without spoiling the ending, so I won't.  You owe it to yourself to experience Bioshock Infinite.