Review for Bioshock Infinite Episode 1: Burial at Sea
This review will contain as little spoilers as possible for other
Bioshocks (there will be none about Burial at Sea however), but it is
impossible to eliminate all of them
So with the new episode of the
add-on for Bioshock Infinite announced and the trailer released. I thought now
would be a good time for me to revisit Rapture and review Burial at Sea. I went
into Burial at Sea with having played all of the previous Bioshocks and loving
all of them from Bioshock through Infinite. While not loving every aspect of
the game the thing that keeps bringing me back to Bioshock is the atmosphere
and Burial at Sea is the best of the series at creating a living and breathing
world that you just want to explore every corner and every line of dialogue. While
I do like this episode for its atmosphere, there are plenty of other flaws to
point out and let the reader decide if Burial at Sea is right for him/her.
The Ease of Entry will not cover
how easy it is to get into the genre of shooter, but how easy it is to under
the game without playing the previous Bioshocks.
Background
Burial
at Sea takes place in Rapture, before the fall of the city in an alternate
universe, similar to how Infinite worked. Burial at Sea starts out with Booker
DeWitt hired to look for a little girl, with unknown reasons, and as the
reasons starts to come together the reasons for this girl get darker and
darker.
Gameplay
The
game play is an Infinite clone, with a few minor changes in the city of
Rapture. So if you have played Bioshock Infinite you will be used to the
combat, the styling of the UI, and the overall flow of the game.
The only major difference is that
you can no longer only carry two guns at a time. You now have access to a
weapons wheel that allows you to scroll through all the weapons in the game and
see how much ammo you have for each weapon. This allows you to choose the right
gun for each situation and never have to worry about not having the Rifle when
you need it in a long range shootout or the SMG when you are in close quarters.
However, this has the drawback of making Burial at Sea way too easy. This is
because you never worry about which gun to bring, so you are never really
caught off guard with the wrong gun for the wrong situation, and that was half
the fun of Bioshock. The “Oh Sh*t, Sh*t, Sh*t!” moments of Bioshock where you
only have 5 Rifle bullets and you are trying to aim at the heart of a Handyman
were what made Bioshock different and exciting to play through.
Burial at Sea also adds a new
Plasmids (or Vigor as they are called in Infinite) which is called “Old Man
Winter”. The Old Man Winter Plasmid, as you can assume, uses ice to freeze
enemies and the environment around Booker. This is obviously very similar to
the Winter Blast power used in the first two Bioshocks. I’m personally glad
they brought this Plasmid/Vigor back into the game because I loved the freeze
then headshot with the Rifle/Pistol combination; the shattering of enemies was
very satisfying. However, in Burial at Sea the Old Man Winter Plasmid can be
use to alter the terrain to get to new areas of the map as well as progress
through the story.
This exploration is pretty new to
Bioshock at least at this level of exploring where there are areas of the map
that Booker never has to step foot onto. While Bioshock has always had some
level of minor exploration the level that Burial at Sea takes it to is pretty
great and I hope they continue it throughout the DLCs *crosses fingers* and other
Bioshock games.
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| A picture of the newly added Weapons Wheel |
Ease of Entry
The
Ease of Entry is pretty high for fully understanding the game, the inside jokes
and hidden material. A perfect example of this is the first 30-45 minutes of
the game where you and Elizabeth are running around Rapture trying to find a
ticket to get into Sander Cohen’s party. If you have no idea who Sander Cohen
is, why he does crazy parties for the rich of Rapture, or why he himself is
so…. interesting you probably will not enjoy the experience of wandering around
Rapture looking for a ticket for 30-45 minutes. Even along the way of finding
the ticket you go into different stores, each with their own reference back to
Bioshock. But I had a great time and the build up to actually seeing one of
Cohen’s parties that was so heavily mentioned and referenced to in the first
Bioshock made the experience enjoyable for me.
Style
The
style of Burial at Sea is what really makes this game worth at least one play
through. This is especially true for people who have played the previous
Bioshocks. Seeing a living and breathing
Rapture made Burial at Sea worth the purchase. All you see in the first
Bioshock were Plasmid insane humans obsessed with getting their next fix, and
the only glimpse you see into the regular life of people of Rapture is that of
the audio logs that were scattered throughout the game. Now however you get to
talk to people that are there, hear people’s views of politics, society, and
their views on life in Rapture directly from them.
Also
seeing Rapture in the updating graphics of the Infinite game engine is amazing.
While the first Bioshock never looked terrible, and still holds up well in
modern games, seeing the brightness and the reflections of the city instead of
a darker and gloomier Rapture really kept me looking throughout the city just
to see more.
The
only thing that drew me out of the game was the lack of movement from the NPCs
throughout the city, especially in the beginning of the game. The NPCs would
just stand there and say their lines without moving much of their body. I would
have liked to see a bit of walking around, ordering food in the restaurant,
moving from shop to shop just to make the city feel more realistic and
lifelike.
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| From when you first walk out of Booker's |
Writing
The
writing in Burial at Sea is good, however there isn’t too much of it. The game
is pretty average for DLC with about 3-4 hours of gameplay to complete the
story and do a bit of exploring. Plus writing in an Action/Shooting is not as
needed in other games such as an RPG. While the writing in Bioshocks in the
past have been amazing, Burial at Sea did nothing to blow me out of the water.
I don’t know if this has to do with my higher expectations I set for this DLC
because of the previous Bioshocks or if the writing itself was that much worse.
Either way the writing did its job and explained the story, and kept me
playing. I never felt that a character said something that was out of his/her
realm of possibility.
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| Characters discussing Rapture politics |
Conclusion
In
conclusion if you have played the other Bioshocks and understand the story you
will thoroughly enjoy this game. However if you have not, the game play is
acceptable as a shooter and you will enjoy the game, but you will feel utterly
lost in the cut scenes and the hidden Easter Eggs will not do the work that Irrational
Studios put into them worthwhile for you.
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