PC Game review - Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 1 - 14/11/13
(I try my hardest not to spoil any major parts of the plot)
My reviews are split into 4 sections that are rated out of 10, CONCEPT (The aim/idea/plot of the game), VISUALS (What the game looks like), GAMEPLAY (How the game plays and how fun it is), SOUND (The sound, funnily enough) and then given a final score out of 10.0 .
So here it is, my review of the highly anticipated return to rapture, which comes in the form of a 2 part DLC expansion for Bioshock Infinite.
Concept
For such a story driven game, it is so hard to review the plot without giving a lot away, so the concept section may be slightly bare, but it is for the best.
In Burial at Sea: Episode 1, you resume the role of Booker Dewitt, the controversial protagonist to Bioshock: Infinite's main game.
The year is 1959, and set in Rapture, before the fall. Booker Dewitt is working as a Private Investigator, when Elizabeth bursts into his office asking him to investigate the disappearance of a young girl called Sally.
Lets firstly discuss the characters. Booker is pretty much identical to how he is in infinite, but Elizabeth is much more mature, visually and in the way she speaks.
First impressions were that the game starts off mysterious and slow. You are not told a lot as to why certain things are happening and you basically just follow Elizabeth's orders.
I wasn't too bothered about this at first as Bioshock Infinite, started off fairly slow, and then gave you a gigantic climax of an ending that I personally was thinking about for weeks later.
As you can imagine, I was expecting another big twist at the end of this as well, and i was definitely right.
To help with the story, there is a terrific appearance from Sander Cohen, the creepy art magician guy from Bioshock 1. He gives a great oddity to the game, setting up a much needed strange atmosphere right before the action takes off.
The end to this DLC was good.
It was clever and it definitely makes me excited to play episode 2, however it was much more predictable than Bioshock: Infinite's, because it is obvious that it was going to share a similar pattern to Bioshock Infinite's story. It didn't make the ending any less clever than it was, however it definitely didn't have a similar impact on me, due to the fact it was much more predictable.
The worst part about this ending is, the DLC lasts for around an hour and a half, to 2 hours. It is ridiculously short. It doesn't give the game long enough to get you into the story line to actually really make you care about the ending.
Although it is the same Booker and basically the same Elizabeth, you dont yet care for these new Identities and Lives they have and therefore, don't particularly care for them when the twist at the end comes.
Overall the concept for Burial at Sea is very disappointing Especially when its living in the shadow of the Infinite itself, but that is one of the only things that kept me hooked. The links to Infinite that i was constantly trying to decipher, kept me interested in the story, but the unbelievable length and the predictable ending really does let the experience down.
Due to these reasons I give the concept a 4/10
Visuals
Visually, Burial at sea is stunning. It runs off of Unreal Engine 3 similarly to Bioshock Infinite and so you can imagine that Rapture looks amazing.
It is set in Rapture before the fall, so when normal people occupied the underwater city, and everything isn't destroyed and flooded. This makes rapture nearly unrecognizable as the city your used too, however there are certain things that will jog your memory back.
The colours are fantastic, they are very bright, but the dull background of the underwater is very effective and the lighting is superb.
There is one part where you are walking through Chohen's place called the Garden Of Muses and it is at first a brilliantly bright white room with no windows, and then almost transforms into a disturbing dark corridor with neon lights resembling a large rabbit.
You do eventually progress into a sunken department store where it takes a familiar turn. The store is sunk very low in the sea, and therefore is mostly flooded. It looks great and the splicers look better than ever, however the same atmosphere that rapture gave you in the first Bioshock, isn't really present here because Rapture is no longer a mysterious place to us.
This means that the game is not as atmospheric and doesn't deliver on the tension that Rapture visually used to give the player, because we didn't know its dark secrets the first time round, but now we do, the violence and disturbing scenes are not as intense.
The best thing about the visuals for me, is the things that are happening in the background of the city at the beginning.
Similarly to Bioshock Infinite, when you first arrive in Columbia, an there are so many different things going on in the background. I remember just walking around the city watching all these intricately designed scenes that were so lifelike and fascinating that I didn't progress for another hour or so.
Fortunately Burial at Sea does have a few of these moments, for example there is a queue of Little Sisters being taught something by a mysterious lady with a red paddle.
Then 2 minutes down the line, you see everyone watching a Big Daddy, drilling through a rock outside in the water.
These set pieces are clever because not only are they interesting to watch, but they bring the city to life, and make it feel more real to the player.
Unfortunately there are not nearly as many of these moments than in Bioshock Infinte, which is ashame, because they were a vital part of the introduction for me.
Overall the visuals are great, let down by some minor things, but only because we are used to Rapture, making the environments less exciting.
I give the visuals for this reason a 9/10.
Gameplay
As it does with visuals Burial at Sea makes up for its poor story-line and length with excellent gameplay.
The interaction with the environment with the Kinetiscopes and audio logs are obviously nice touches, but it is the inheritance of Bioshock Infinite's combat system that makes the game a joy to play. It is much more fast paced than the last time you were in Rapture which makes the game feel different, but this isn't a bad thing. Splicers are smarter than ever, and are always there when you need to get from A to B.
This is where the Tear system from Infinite makes a fantastic appearance. Similarly to Infinite, you are able to open tears in the game to help you, for example you may want to spawn some ammo when your running low, or (My personal favorite) spawn a Motorized Patriot to have a rivalry match with the Big Daddy that you are faced with defeating near the end of the content. It manages to fit in brilliantly with the claustrophobic environments of Rapture making the combat fast paced and difficult to utilize your surroundings with tears or escape routes.
Also Ammo in Burial at Sea is scarce. Even if you buy from the vending machines, it is back down to 0 in no time at all. This again makes you be smart in your approach, as you need to try and save your ammo and use stealth attack whenever possible, before you can frantically try and get a tear opened that will replenish your ammo.
For how long it is, you get a fair amount of weapons. You receive a Hand Cannon, Machine Gun, Carbine, Shotgun and some new radar gun that makes enemies explode.
It gives you a nice balanced selection of weapons, allowing you to take a more tactical approach to combat. it is also nice to see variety in what you can do to enemies, and plasmids obviously play a nice part in this.
You start with the Possession Plasmid and the Fire Plasmid. I then progressed to receive an electric plasmid and an ice plasmid. I believe you may be able to get the Bronco Plasmid, however I couldn't find it.
One other thing i really enjoyed about the gameplay is that you have to open certain doors that need lockpicks.
In Bioshock Infinite most of the locked doors were to secret areas that you didn't need to go into to complete the game. In Burial at Sea, there are a few times where you will have to lockpick a door to progress.
This forces you to find lockpicks in the environment, meaning you have to explore the location more in depth then you may have done without this option.
Overall Bioshock's Burial at Sea has pretty much flawless gameplay as you would come to expect with the an updated combat system from Bioshock Infinite.
It has great combat approach options and splicer AI is very smart making it a nice challenge. Also the return of the Big Daddy was a brilliant moment for me, and it was a tough battle, maybe even tougher than the battles in the first game.
AS I cannot fault the gameplay, I give this section a 9/10.
Audio
Audio is another one of Burial at Sea's strong points thanks to the amazing 1950's setting and expert voice acting.
Obviously Troy Baker (Last Of Us, Bioshock Infinite, Resident Evil 6) is fantastic.
He is probably one of the best voice actors that there will ever be. Every character he plays become so believable and emotionally attached to the player, so it goes wothout saying when I say that Booker Dewitt sounds unbelievably real and genuine in this DLC.
As Elizabeth is much more mature in this DLC, Courtnee Draper is able to portray a much more gruff voice, which makes the more mature Elizabeth really come across brilliantly, as it is obviously hard to change a characters visual appearance and keep up with a suitable voice.
Sander Cohen is also voiced expertly by T Ryder Smith, who thankfully reprized the role from Bioshock 1. Also the splicers are perfectly sinister and disturbing with their amazingly scripted dialogue and even better execution.
Thanks to the 1950's setting, the jazz and rockabilly-ish musical style fits in with the stylish theme of Bioshock. It sets the scene perfectly and helps immerse the player brilliantly which is well needed due to the disappointing story.
Overall the Audio is a masterpiece. Without a doubt I can give it no less than a 10/10.
Bioshock: Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 1, is a short and surprisingly predictive story based DLC. Its concept is not great and is emphasized even worse with the fact that Bioshock has always had pretty perfect storytelling techniques which is a shame.
That being said, everywhere else, the game is truly stunning. The artistic style, wonderful combat system and believable voice acting, help this DLC from being a complete disaster, and instead actually make it very enjoyable and worth a go.
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