When the cover art for “BioShock Infinite” was revealed a few months ago, it produced an outcry from fans. They felt the straight-ahead image of a muscular man holding a gun, looking no different from the cover template of mindless shooters like “Call of Duty,” didn’t do justice to this brainy, beautiful series. Little did they know how fitting the cover would prove to be. “Infinite” is as good an action game as you’ll play all year, but the thing that makes the series so special — its thought-provoking and miraculously unannoying exploration of politics — is all but missing this time around.
2007’s BioShock and 2010’s “BioShock 2” took place in Rapture, a secret city at the bottom of the ocean. This gleaming, Art Deco metropolis surrounded by water was the creation of an Objectivist who wanted freedom from God and government. The first “BioShock” looked at a society built on radical individualism. The second, taking place after Rapture is under new management, so to speak, looked at a society built on radical collectivism. “Infinite,” a prequel set in 1912, and infused with the aesthetic of the era’s World’s Fairs, takes place in another secret city, this one not below the sea but above the clouds.
