You’d be hard pressed to find a game slated for release in 2013 – other than say, Grand Theft Auto V – that gamers are more eager to get their hands on than BioShock Infinite.

It’s not just that the reveal footage and demos have made the game look positively lip-smacking – this is the first game from Irrational Games since 2007’s critically lauded BioShock, a game that broke the mould for storytelling in shooters and even managed to take a pop at respected – at least in some right wing circles – author, Ayn Rand.

However, punters have seen very little of Infinite since it was last demoed at E3 in June this year and the news that’s emerged about the game since then hasn’t exactly been promising.

First, its release date was pushed from October 2012 to February of 2013 – and has since been moved to March 2013. Then a string of high profile departures at Irrational took place – in the space of two months, the game’s Art Director, Product Director, AI Lead and Combat Design Director all left.

Most recently, the game’s Creative Director (and one of Irrational’s co-founders) tweeted that the game would have no multiplayer. From the outside looking in, it began to appear that Infinite could be well on its way to becoming vaporware.

BioShock Infinite: Plot & Characters

After a recent hands-on with the game in Los Angeles this week, we’re happy to report that this isn’t the case. Irrational’s latest shooter is very much alive and kicking and after five or so hours at its controls, we can confirm its shaping up to be one of 2013’s most enticing prospects.

In Infinite, which is set in 1912, players take on the role of ex-Pinkerton and gun-for-hire Booker DeWitt who has been tasked with rescuing a woman named Elizabeth from a religious zealot named Comstock.

Seems straightforward enough until you factor in the reality that Elizabeth’s prison cell is in a floating city called Columbia, and Comstock holds sway over the population there as its nominated leader.

While the set up seems pretty rudimentary, you’d be a fool to think all need be considered is the surface detail. Indeed, there are indications that Irrational is playing with the player’s expectations right off the bat. As they guide Booker through the beautiful cityscape, they’ll begin to notice things that seem out of place in its admittedly outlandish environment.

A young upper class British couple pop up at certain intervals – and it seems only Booker can see them. Booker is also prone to flashbacks in which a woman named Anna in continually mentioned.

And occasionally, musicians around Columbia can be heard playing covers of songs that hadn’t been written by 1912. This, by the way, is before the game even broaches the subject of trans-dimensional warping.

BioShock Infinite: Gameplay

Yes, you read that correctly: trans-dimensional warping, which plays a in both the plot and the gameplay mechanics. Elizabeth, as it turns out, can peel apart the fabric of reality at certain points – known as ‘tears’ – opening the way to parallel dimensions.

While she can’t step through these ‘tears’, she can warp through useful items such as weapons, turret guns and ammo packs, which is quite useful in a firefight. She can also scrounge up guns, bullets and ammo while the player is blowing enemies away.

Booker, for his part, also has magical abilities, although they’re tied to Vigors – potions which grant him supernatural powers. These include Devil’s Kiss, which allows him to lob molten lava at foes, setting them on fire and Bucking Bronco, which allows him to briefly suspend enemies in the air and then fill them with lead.

On top of his Vigors and guns, Booker is armed with a device called a Skyhook, which allows him to latch onto the system of rails that link Columbia’s floating city platforms. Not only is it his primary mode of transport, the Skyhook is a rather nasty melee weapon, capable of ripping through an enemy’s face or neck when the player activates it in a hand to hand fight.

BioShock Infinite: Verdict

That having been said, though, on the evidence of our hands-on, players do spend an awful lot of time scrounging, shooting, fighting and listening to audio diaries – much as they did in the first BioShock. But if Irrational’s track record is to be trusted, and everything in the game serves a purpose, this familiar gameplay may be part of the game’s ruse.

BioShock Infinite plays with its own realities and the player’s expectations simultaneously, promising one of the best stories in gaming of 2013. If it delivers, we’ll be standing in the presence of greatness.

BioShock Infinite release date: 26 March 2012

BioShock Infinite price: TBC