The first Bioshock Infinite DLC: A Clash In the Clouds, is a combat simulator with 60 waves of combat  scenarios in 4 different arenas. There is no story line to follow so this is for the fans of the action in the game as you will be required to fly through the air using skylines while avoiding Handymen, or use cover to allow your shields to recharge before facing the horde of Comstock soldiers. But you’re not alone as you’re joined by Elizabeth once again, so you have at your disposal all the advantages of her abilities to aid you. And you’ll need it too because you’ll have to think quickly, and not just to survive but to also complete unique challenges in each wave. And the hard work pays off as you’ll be rewarded with Infusions, cash, gear, and access to your own museum that contains never before seen artwork and behind the scenes footage, including auditions. And if that’s not enough then maybe the insightful tidbits left behind by Rosalind Lutece will satisfy your curiosity about Comstock’s rise to power. Can you survive all the waves of enemies, complete each arena and unlock the surprise waiting at the end? Or do you just want to dominate the leaderboards and show off your combat expertise to your friends? Either way, your trip back to Columbia won’t be like your last.

GAMEPLAY

A Clash In The Clouds opens up with you and Elizabeth standing in a showroom, which will eventually be your starting point to access all the different aspects of the DLC. You have no weapons and no vigors, but no worries as a pistol and vigors are left for you as samples to use. If you’ve been to Columbia before then you know how that’s not such a rare occurrence. You start off with no currency so the only thing you can do at this point is start the first arena because everything else has to be unlocked with the currency you earn.

There are 4 different arenas, The Ops Zeal, Duke and Dimwit Theater, Raven’s Dome and Emporia Arcade. You don’t have to complete one to unlock another and after doing a few waves in the Ops Zeal you should have enough money to unlock the other 3 simultaneously and complete them in any order you want. Since this is a combat simulator the goal is simple enough: Defeat all enemies in the wave. And you can do so using any weapon or vigor except you have to make this choice in between waves, and the number of vigors you can have at once are limited. Of course you can pick up weapons from downed enemies but it’s so much easier to select from an arsenal without anyone shooting at you and no time limit. Another reason to do that is because there are Blue Ribbon challenges, which give you bonus cash, for each wave and sometimes the requirement is to kill all the enemies with a particular weapon. Not all the Blue Ribbon challenges are that easy (and sometimes that isn’t easy) and can be as interesting as stopping the siren from resurrecting enemies at the start of a wave. Of course each wave gets increasingly difficult but the rewards increase as well. If you died in the campaign mode you was automatically brought back for a fee. You can pay to be resurrected during a wave but you can only buy one resurrection ahead of time and if it’s used, the price of purchasing another one later goes up. If you die you won’t get sent back to wave one but your score for the leaderboard won’t continue to accumulate unless you choose to start over from wave 1. The good thing is after you complete a new wave you will get an upgrade of either an infusion (your choice of health, shields or salt) or gear. With that being the case, I decided to complete all the waves in the first area to keep upgrading and then try to go through them all without dying and get the highest score I could. It’s not easy to defeat two Handymen and a Patriot at once so trust me, you’ll need to keep upgrading Booker for the best chance to succeed without dying twice. You can leave an arena in between waves without completing it but it won’t save the last wave you completed, just the amount of cash and upgrades you purchased.

Even though some of the Blue Ribbon challenges require you to use the environment to defeat enemies, either skyline attacks or environmental hazards from tears, you won’t survive unless you use the environment to your advantage and that’s more than just using tears. And not only is each arena different but each wave uses a different part of it sometimes and so it’s not enough to memorize the tears because they change each wave. The first arena, the Ops Zeal, was fun, however A Clash In The Clouds became more enjoyable after unlocking the other 3 arenas. They felt more massive and as a result allowed for more maneuvering and I don’t have to stress how important that is when facing a Handyman. The maps were well-designed and never felt stale and that’s even after 15 waves on each map. With the different tears on the map, different weapons and vigors available, and different scenarios, there were plenty of things to keep the waves feeling fresh. And the arenas aren’t superficially different, they’re fundamentally different. One arena is very heavy with airships so instead of using skylines to navigate you have to travel between airships. And since you’re getting stronger after every wave, matches become longer and you have to use strategy. I enjoyed the combat in the campaign so I can’t stress how good it was for the controls to still be very responsive, the maps to be well-designed and the enemies to be varied enough to be interesting.

The currency you earn can be put to more use than just being upgrades for weapons and vigors. There’s a Columbia Archaeological Society Museum and it’s great fan service. There are kinectoscopes that have very interesting movies, including the first audition with Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper. There are music tracks, 3D models and art that can be purchased. There’s an interesting tear that leads to voxophones by Rosalind Lutece that gives a little more insight into the history between her and Comstock. I actually enjoyed unlocking everything and it wasn’t as if I had to keep doing waves endlessly in order to get the money to unlock everything. I actually appreciated that. And there’s a nice surprise after completing all the waves that I won’t give away here because…it’s a surprise. As one who thoroughly enjoyed the game, I did enjoy the touches in the museum as fan service.

SUMMARY 

The Bioshock Infinite DLC: A Clash In The Clouds is a solid combat simulator and takes everything that was enjoyable about the action in the campaign and keeps it fresh throughout 60 waves of combat. The availability of all the weapons and vigors, as well as the well-designed arenas led to hours of enjoyable gameplay. Not being able to equip all the vigors at the same time led to what felt like unnecessary juggling between waves to try to complete the Blue Ribbon challenges but aside from that it was seamless. The Columbia Archaeological Society Museum was a nice touch in terms of fan service. If you weren’t a fan of the combat in Bioshock Infinite then this DLC isn’t for you. I enjoyed the overall experience of Bioshock Infinite, which includes the story, but this is just combat.  However if you were a big fan of the combat or enjoyed the action, vigors or enemies then I highly recommend A Clash In The Clouds. Completing the waves was a satisfying feeling and one you don’t want to miss if you enjoyed fighting your way through Columbia.