Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Episode 1 is the first story based DLC from the hit game developed by Irrational Games and takes place in the underwater city of Rapture.  It opens up with Booker receiving a visit from Elizabeth in his office about a missing girl but this Booker has no recollection of Elizabeth, let alone who she is to him. He was having some kind of dream or vision of him saying “give me back my daughter” until Elizabeth knocked on his door and woke him up. He’s a private investigator and she states that she has a case for him regarding a missing girl. When she shows him a picture of the little girl he recognizes her and says that she’s dead and is one of many little girls that end up that way in Rapture. However Elizabeth is adamant that the little girl is not dead, just missing, and she tells Booker to name his price, although she says she feels that he’ll take this case pro bono, implying that she knows more about him than she’s letting on. Of course Booker follows her (or else there wouldn’t be a game) and you’re introduced to Rapture, a city that is decadent in almost every way yet beneath that facade children are abducted or end up missing because they’re valuable for some nefarious reason. Is it too late for Sally, the girl Elizabeth wants Booker to find, or is there still hope for her? And what’s Elizabeth’s connection to this little girl any way? (Some Bioshock Infinite spoilers ahead)

GAMEPLAY

Bioshock Infinite was one of my favorite games this year and I thoroughly enjoyed it as expressed in my review. So of course I’ve been looking forward to the story-based DLC to see how the story would continue, to be able to see the completely rebuilt city of Rapture, and I loved the gameplay mechanics from Bioshock Infinite. Within the first minute I noticed a big difference and I was very intrigued as to why this was the case, and that was Elizabeth’s character.

She’s much darker this time around and not just in appearance, even though it was surprising to see her smoking. Her tone is different and her actions reflect that. Her nature is very mysterious this time around. The events that take place in Bioshock Infinite can explain some of it but not all of it and that’s part of the intriguing story line this time around let alone how Booker is even alive and in Rapture. Gone is the naive girl who just wanted to visit Paris.

As soon as you follow Elizabeth out your office you can explore Rapture to some extent and it does look incredible. It’s not as visually stunning as a city in the clouds, but visually it’s not disappointing and the time and effort spent building Rapture from the ground up shows clearly. And I’m the type of player that has to visit every single corner to take in as much as possible and it was interesting to see how Rapture looked before the events in the first Bioshock, and it’s possible to see how some of the elements in that game originated. So when I saw a group of little girls being trained I didn’t think of how cute it was, and instead thought of what they would ultimately become. And you might as well take in the sights because you’re going to have to visit different locations in order to follow Elizabeth’s lead in tracking this little girl. There’s no combat involved in this part at all. The trail ultimately leads to an eccentric artist by the name of Cohen but in order to get into his party and interrogate him you have to search Rapture for a mask to be allowed entry. You can choose in the objectives menu which location to go to first or you can just walk around until you encounter these locations. It was interesting to see Elizabeth’s role (and hear her dialogue) as the two of you try to acquire a mask from one of these stores. I was enjoying this to the extent that I didn’t realize there was still no combat let alone an idea of what would actually be available to me combat wise.

Of course this couldn’t last forever because even though Rapture was beautiful to look at, the potential secrets of it fascinating, and the nostalgic feel of the pairing of Elizabeth and Booker (or as she insists, Mr. DeWitt) was a good feel, Burial At Sea wouldn’t be enjoyable if it was just a sight-seeing tour of Rapture. The game play does pick up after visiting Cohen, who hints that there’s a darker side of Elizabeth that Booker isn’t aware of, and the action finally starts. The gameplay mechanics are basically the same except the names have changed (constants and variables). Vigors are called Plasmids and the Skyhook is now called the Air Grabber. I played on the hard difficulty setting so I only started out with 2 Vig…Plasmids, Possession and Devil’s Kiss, and a hand cannon with 3 bullets. Plasmids are replenished with EVE, which is basically this world’s form of salt. The regenerating shield is also back as well as various gear scattered around to give you different perks. One major difference is you can carry more than 2 weapons and that’s a much-needed improvement. Unfortunately there’s only one new Plasmid and a huge part of the story is to acquire this Plasmid so you won’t even be able to use it for much of this episode but when you do it’s pretty cool. The vendor machines are back where you can purchase upgrades for Plasmids, weapons and ammo. And I recommend purchasing ammo because scavenging trash cans and bodies don’t give you much early on. Elizabeth still recovers ammo, health and salt for you during battles but her ability to open tears is not available for much of this episode either. So part of what made combat unique in Bioshock Infinite isn’t available until late in the episode and some of the combat early on starts to feel redundant due to being limited. And the enemies you face are all Splicers, humans whose bodies and minds have been deformed, although at this stage the only difference between them is some have guns and some have melee weapons. It’s still fun because the controls are solid, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of using Possession on one enemy and watching the group start fighting each other. But there is no true variation in the enemies you face or the combat scenarios so this part of the episode is not as enjoyable as it could have been. I’m not stating it’s not enjoyable, just that it wasn’t as enjoyable as Bioshock Infinite. And when you add the fact that enemies respawn in locations you have to revisit (one actually respawned on me) then it suffers even more.

It does become better when Elizabeth starts to participate in battles and you acquire a new Plasmid but you still have to revisit some areas and deal with respawned enemies. I admit it did help that I enjoyed looking at the city of Rapture (and using the Radar Gun), and some parts were very brutal, but I’m still not a fan of endlessly respawned enemies. The good thing is the story is still intriguing and there are times when Booker has visions of another life, which deepens the mystery of everything that’s going on. This is just episode one so there’s no way I can judge the story in its entirety until I see how it concludes but I definitely enjoyed it and with the way it ended I cannot wait to play episode two.

SUMMARY

Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Episode 1 is an enjoyable start to the story-based DLC, and even though it doesn’t quite achieve the same level as Bioshock Infinite, it’s still an enjoyable game. The combat starts slowly since you can’t use Elizabeth’s tears for some time and there’s no real enemy variation, but it’s still solid and picks up towards the end of the episode. Rapture is a visually stunning city and the tone of the story line, which takes place in 1958, fits perfectly with what one would associate with Rapture. I wondered how the story would fit into the context of everything that occurred in Bioshock Infinite and it not only explains how it fits but creates a mystery that has me anxiously awaiting episode 2. The length of the episode felt decent to me but again, I’m one that explores every single corner so that factors into the number of hours it took me to complete. So I’m glad I can say for now that overall revisiting Rapture was worth it and if you enjoyed Bioshock Infinite then I recommend you play Burial At Sea.