I've just finished the Bioshock Burial at Sea Part 1 DLC and it's a mixed bag I think.

For those not in the know, it's a DLC to Bioshock Infinite that takes place in Rapture at a time when it was a thriving underwater metropolis rather than the gloomy ruin we all know it as. There is a justification for why Booker and Elizabeth are in Rapture and it is revealed near the end of this bite size DLC.

Since story is key in this game I'll refrain from posting any spoilers about Infinite itself and the additional content.

Burial at Sea is basically one third slow exposition: a fun romp through a Rapture before the fall and fun call backs to characters from the original game - the remaining two thirds of the content are basically combat with bits of story introduced along the way much like Infinite did it through ambient conversation with Elizabeth-noir. I was never a fan of combat in these games and to me Burial is quite bad as ammo seemed to be extremely scarce throughout each area. There was one new weapon I came across that seemed to microwave enemies until they exploded which was really fun but apart from that it was the same arsenal from before. Also since obviously this is Rapture and not Columbia, there aren't many skylines for you to ride along, or a sky for that matter - making most of the levels feel cramped compared to what we got used to in Infinite. You get tears with multiple options, including one new amusing ability to warp in a samurai. Overall because you're still being constantly accompanied by Elizabeth throughout this adventure and so many of the same weapons and assets make an appearance it's hard to ever feel like you're REALLY in Rapture, but rather in some weird fan made mod of what Rapture would look like if rendered in Infinite. Eventually when the shooting starts you will come to explore a leaking and decrepit Rapture with twisted splicers to boot - and the justification for this seemed a little weak and too simple. Maybe it's because we're playing as characters from the original game, or maybe it's intentional, but everything seems kind of fake and I never quite got the feeling that I'm "there."

Overall it took me around an hour and a half to beat I'd say. The ending is interesting and I'm somewhat excited to see what happens next - especially since from what I understand you will get to play as Elizabeth. I'm curious how they will initiate that change, since in part 1 she still cowers and hides whenever combat ensues, not taking a more aggressive role in the slightest. We can only hope it's not 2 hours of sneaking segments.

That said, this was a fairly long wait for what is not an especially long, or as of yet, meaningful piece of content. A lot of new art assets had to be made, and I won't pretend to know anything about game development to discuss if this is how long it should have taken them to make it - but I do know that enough time has passed where I wasn't as entranced by the story anymore. Also since Burial at Sea connects with the story of Bioshock Infinite (everyones favorite twins make an appearance) the intricate details of that ending which tie into the DLC weren't as crystal clear to me anymore.

What did you guys think?

This will be three parts, right? There's really no way I'm buying it at $15 a piece. Will wait for a sale and the total package.

@artisanbreads: I got it for free as part of whatever deal I took part in when buying the game so I'm not sure what the price is. I beat the entire thing from start to finish in one sitting, although I was getting a bit tired near the end. Is it worth $15 for JUST this? I'd say no, maybe for both parts if the next one proves to be just as long. This feels like a typical Bioshock game in that you have the combat-less exposition before you're killing mindless splicers or what have you. It's fun to see people talk about Rapture and it's key figures in a different light, but at the end of the day despite everything you still end up in the same Rapture we've already seen which is a shame.

Yeah I can understand... I wouldn't be surprised if it does some really cool story things over the length of the whole package so I still have interest in it overall, but for $15 for like an hour or two or three... I don't think I'd be down.

If I can get it all for like $20 or something on a Steam sale down the line that's what I'll look to do.

Thanks for the impressions though.

@artisanbreads: I think the season pass is/was 20 dollars, but I'm not sure if it's still available.

I didn't believe you at first but looked it up and you're right. That's some very odd pricing. $20 for both episodes and another piece and $15 for each piece of Burial at Sea.... weird.

Burial at Sea is only two parts though, to my early question about it being three. At least according to the online pass.

The third piece of content is the wave based Horde Mode DLC that already came out.

ha! I know I had to do a double take earlier when I saw it.

My Elizabeth, you sure have grown.

[Warning- My impression has spoilers!]

I loved the starting areas of openly civilized Rapture, but particularly disliked the idea of going to three shops to find a mask. I had already explored every inch of the place as I always do before I get told I need to backtrack and then I suddenly understood the weird lack of music in those particular stores. But it looks great and I love the way Rapture looks out the windows, with music, when it's not all so goddamn eery for no reason. And the dancing scene immediately brings to mind all the weird thing about the plot of the original game, where you're (unless they pull some kind of fast one) dancing with your daughter, and swaying to the music in a way that is stylish but loaded with maybe a little too much context for the noir feel.

Taking the bathysphere down to Fontaine's is GREAT and when I suddenly realized that was going to be the DLC, I was so hyped. It doesn't disappoint either, as wallowing through those chambers with little ammo but lots of scavenging made the relatively upbeat and paced combat of Columbia melt away, and I just started BEATING DUDES UP. It was primal and wonderful, and it was something that I never really felt outside of small moments in Infinite (like the anti-Lincoln crow building or the museum with all the Indian and Chinese stuff.). The ambience was great, the gear was genuinely useful (as it has to be, I'm theoretically not playing this for very long) and the audiologs were, yet again like the original BioShock, scary and awesome. I'm not sure that the gameplay and weird, labyrinthine spaces that get you turned around so much would be particularly interesting to those who just played Infinite and never had gotten very far in the first two, but for what I ended up playing I enjoyed it, and I can't wait for the second piece, although it probably should have been just one.

All that said, what is with games like this splitting DLC stories into multiple pieces? Dishonored did it with so much space between the two that I had already forgotten most of what happened, and it just seems like these modules should be self-contained and not spread out. It's like really half-assed, 2-to-3 piece episodic content that I assume has much more to do with the dev-time and resources than the actual merit of the piece itself. It worries me that Burial at Sea might end up being a better piece of DLC than Minerva's Den, but won't capture the zeitgeist that it did because all people can talk about right now is how short this episode is.

I pulled the trigger on the season pass so I have it downloading now.

@varrosanon: I really liked the atmosphere of the first Bioshock and was excited to dive into this DLC, but past the slow area ,the remainder of what you explore didn't really do it for me. The level design itself is quite well done, but a lot of the places felt inconsequential. Also as I pointed out, I was never a fan of the combat, didn't think Infinite really did much to alleviate the problems that I personally had with it, and Burial at Sea does nothing to help either.

Also I'm not quite sure how I feel about story DLC that leaves off on a cliffhanger of sorts until the next story DLC comes along. To me DLC was always a self contained narrative inside the game. To have additional content be further subdivided into episodes doesn't sit well with me.

I thought I'd offer up a review.

A Rapturous Return

Burial at Sea takes you back to the underwater city where the series all began, with the familiar sound of fine shoes clunking against wooden floors and a giant blue whale passing just a few metres away oblivious the political turmoil going on nearby. This time around, though, the titular character isn't a sweater wearing puppet or a hunking armoured guardian, but rather one Booker DeWitt, who is as always joined by a curious Elizabeth (who will henceforth be referred to as "Elizabeth"). It's an interesting premise, and one that by the end has generated many more questions than answers. It would be wrong the evaluate the strength of the narrative whilst only knowing half of the tale, but suffice to say that if you enjoyed BioShock: Infinite's deep rabbit holes then you will not be disappointed by the end of Part One.

If you've played the latest entry in the franchise (you probably should have if you're reading this) then you'll feel right at home from the moment you take control of Booker. Much of your arsenal returns, both in terms of weapons and vigors, and Elizabeth takes a supporting role alongside you once again, throwing you helpful items when you're about to take a dirtnap and tearing open portals at your command.

However, your return to Rapture is not just a superficial one; many of the design ideas from the original make a return and do a surprisingly good job of complementing the more action oriented features of it's younger brother. The environments that you'll roam around feel distinctly Rapturian, promoting the frequent exploration of side paths for extra goodies and voice tapes. It's an enjoyable throwback, and one that I hope Irrational brings back in a more permanent fashion. What's more, the steel corridors and water logged stairwells provide a much fairer and funner combat experience compared to the multilevel mayhem of Columbia.

Some new (or rather returning) features include the ability carry all of your weapons at the same time, with their access governed by the weapon wheel, which is mapped to the "E" key by default. It's a small addition, but goes a long way to alleviating some of resource issues that plagued Infinite's combat. There are also a couple of new weapons and vigors, although they largely feel like reskins of some of the original game's content and don't offer a huge amount of tactical variety.

By combining the original Bioshock's level design and atmosphere with Infinite's storytelling and combat, Burial at Sea Part One manages to a create a unique middle ground that feels both fresh and familiar. While the whole package might seem a bit more cohesive once Part Two arrives, it is still a very compelling evenings worth of entertainment. Just try not to stare too deeply into the abyss.

http://www.giantbomb.com/bioshock-infinite/3030-32317/user-reviews/2200-26699

I've been really enjoying it! I can't help but spend too much time exploring/watching and have noticed that the npc's definitely have more than one bit of dialogue to spout when you approach them.

Also, the gentleman on the left of the screenshot is most definitely Ken Levine's voice, and when I say his voice I mean his regular speaking voice.

My cynical mind could easily cut this first part of the dlc into bits, but I enjoy the atmosphere and art assets of Rapture too much to care. I've skimmed a few reviews where the reviewer would single out the fact that it's Infinite's combat system in Bioshock 1's world as a negative - which I do not understand.

I should say I'm playing in 1999 mode though, so scavenging and taking each bout seriously is a necessity for me.-

I still wish there was some actual story DLC in Columbia... from the game set in Columbia. That world is breathtakingly beautiful, but was sort-of glossed over in later sections of Infinite. Some meaningful exploration in racist sky-land would have been a perfect addition to the main game.

@joshwent: I would really enjoy some more time in Columbia as well. I hope these DLC sell well enough for even the slightest chance at more.

Thanks for the heads-up. I bought the season pass and I had no idea that this came out.

Just finished it. It was okay, even got a little intense towards the end. Even though I seem to be one of the few people who really enjoyed Infinite's bloody fast-paced combat it was really cool to see a return to Bioshock's more slow-paced, conservative combat with frequent breaks explore and scavenge for supplies. After the ending I'm left really curious what they're going to do in part 2 since the story seemed to be pretty much concluded.

My interpretation of the ending

I finished this about an hour ago and for the most part I enjoyed it. I think anybody that enjoyed Infinite would probably enjoy this. The new weapon and the new tear were both pretty cool too.

Just like Infinite, the best part of this content is the time spent exploring the environment. That first half hour made the whole DLC worth it. Once the shooting started, things got a little annoying. I'm not very good at shooters, and was playing on 360, so I don't know if I should blame the game so much. Regardless, I was having trouble seeing enemies in the environment, dying a lot, and generally failing to capitalize on opportunities to do the cool things I had in mind with the weapons/plasmids/environments.

I did have two genuine gripes with the gameplay though. Did anyone else notice how frequently and predictably the enemy drops were? Every little switch you hit that even remotely progressed the plot was met with enemies spawning in the room, or the one before you. Instead of enjoying the story, I found myself getting all "video gamey", and systematically prepping up for fights before doing anything, and double backing to clean up the bad guys after.

Second is the boss... What made fighting Big Daddies so much fun in Bioshock was the strategy. I liked taking my time to set up traps, get my weapon selection the way I like it, and figuring out the right time and place to strike. Just throwing a Big Daddy at me from out of nowhere is just giving me a generic boss fight with a lot of scrambling. It wasn't all that fun.

OK, now for narrative stuff...

I loved seeing Sander Cohen again, as he is (or should be) everyone's favorite Bioshock character. A little bit bummed he was already in full blown super villain mode, but his entire section of the game was great.

The ending twist did not have a whole lot of impact. The poor Little Sister in the vent got more of a reaction out of me than anything, frankly. I felt like they really wanted this swerve or moment, and just wrote everything around it backward from there. I felt this way a bit for Infinite, but even more here; especially knowing Elizabeth could have killed you at any time made the whole thing feel a bit pointless. Speaking of pointless, why is any of this happening? Wasn't the ending to Bioshock Infinite supposed to mean killing Booker before he chooses baptism erases any timelines from that point forward including Comstock/Columbia/tear technology? That's why all the Elizabeths disappear.

I understood Elizabeth not killing you from the get-go to just be simple cruelty. She wants to draw it out and make it emotional as well as physical. I mean, looking at her crazy blood-covered face at the end, it's hard not to see some of that in her. I found an interview with Ken Levine to read after I finished it and he said something along those lines, that the DLC was basically about how Elizabeth has changed as a character, maybe for the worst, as she's grown into an adult.

As for why there's another Booker that escaped the Bookercaust, remember the Booker at the end of the credits in infinite? There's reasons to believe the two are not the same person, but that establishes that for whatever reason other Bookers are possible.

@achaemenid: My theory is that...

The Elizabeth in Burial at Sea is the Elizabeth you have with you in the main story, due to the fact that she references scenes and events from the game as well as our Booker. This Elizabeth, which I will call Elizabeth Prime, has now decided to use her new god like powers to get rid of or change every Comstock. She was there on that side of the rift because she was trying to get Comstock to stop. She failed, that universe's Anne got beheaded, and she was determined to get back at Comstock. That's my interpretation anyways.

Maybe, but, I think we should have all seen it coming. ;)

The samurai tear was great. I first saw it and out of my peripheral spotted a group of splicers, and I thought it was just a turret or something, but nope, full on samurai dude jumps down and lunges at splicers with his sword. It was great.

Also my favorite moment (that I can immediately remember after beating it) is actually the Big Daddy fight if only because it was the one time you could call in a patriot tear. I loved in Bioshock Infinite when you bring in a Washington Patriot and a Lincoln Patriot comes down the gondola and they start wrecking eachother, it was one of my favorites. So to have that moment here was great too, since calling in a Handymen would've been a bit overpowered.

Overall I enjoyed this DLC, even with the pre-cognition that it was short. Still took me around 3 hours.

I am REALLY curious how the next DLC will even play. You are Elizabeth, so..... will there even be combat?

@jeanluc: I finished the episode a few hours ago and I've come to the same conclusion. The way that Elizabeth tries to distance herself from this Booker was a pretty big tip off to me. It makes sense that this is Beth Prime tying up loose ends post-Infinite. After all, our Booker's timeline got reset and he got his second chance with Anna. The biggest question I have coming out of this episode is whether or not Beth Prime feels gipped about that. Booker got his happy ending, and the original version of herself did as well, but here she exists out of time and space. While she's practically an omnipotent god, I wonder if maybe her... revenge? Clean-up? Whatever it is, I wonder if maybe it's not motivated by jealousy in some small way.

I'm definitely interested in finding out more.

Due to the nature of infinity, isn't Elizabeth's "clean up" an impossibility? If there is still one Comstock out there, there must be an infinite amount. The intention of killing Booker accepting baptism was to "pull out the root" of Comstock. That's why they did it there, and not when Booker was being conceived or anything like that. If she was wrong, that's kind of weird and inconsistent; as she was basically god, and said she could see everything by that point.

Despite myself not being able to get over this, I'm still looking forward to the next episode, and don't regret spending $10

WTF?!? Has this thread been taken over by the NSA?

Really, I do appreciate all the SPOILER BLOCKS. Well done duders!

I enjoyed the DLC and I think I enjoyed it more then Infinite's Core gameplay and story. It's much more tighter design helps to really build something. And I'm amazed I still want to know more about rapture even after 3 games later.

Here's some text inside a spoiler. I haven't played the DLC yet, but I will enjoy it when it comes, hopefully. I actually kind of regret buying the season pass, but I guess if I didn't back when the game was fresh in my mind, I doubt I would have now.

i feels empty.. looks pretty, but it doesn't hold the wonder I thought I see/feel

it was ok ... too short... not really worth getting...

This would seriously piss me off if we get episode 3 in 10+ years.

The one thing that irked me the most was the sudden switch from quiet to loud.

I really enjoyed the quiet part, seeing Rapture how it was, or rather how it was in this version where Ryan came out on top. Being able to walk around and take in the sights, eavesdropping on conversations and reliving the feeling of wonder from years back when we first set foot in this underwater utopia was great. The entire justification for being shoved back into the leaking, busted up Rapture full of manic splicers was really weak though. "Ryan put all the crazies into this department store apparently easily accessible by bathosphere - ok start shooting." On one hand I thought the decrepit style looked better than ever. The limited light sources casting atmospheric shadows all over the place looked great, and seeing splicers again was a treat as they're easily way more entertaining than any of the enemies I've encountered in Infinite. I also got a small chuckle out of bringing in a Metal Patriot and seeing it duke it out with the Big Daddy at the end of the DLC. That said, it all feels so incredibly convenient and video-gamey that it all felt completely out of place in what is an otherwise really interesting story. Even the fact that it's one central building connected by two trams is such a tired cliche of forcing the player to jump through hoops. I wish they took greater care in masking those hoops in story or gameplay. I get that it's DLC and as such things needed to get condensed into the ~2hr runtime but still.

Elizabeth noir looked great though, although she definitely got a "curves" facelift. Then again it is unclear how old she is during the events of Burial at sea.

I didn't like the voice acting in the DLC. There is a weird thing they're doing that, I think maybe, is supposed to resemble 40's era noir film dialog. The characters timing is extremely clipped and someones one character seems to start talking before the other one is finished. The problem is, niether Booker nor Elizabeth deliver their lines with that classic, clipped New York accent, so, if that's what they were going for, the effect is lost.

If it's NOT what they were going for, then... well... why do they keep over-talking each other for no real reason?

2 HOURS = $15.00

8 HOURS = $60.00

I...did not enjoy it, did not even finish it. I hate to be the one naysayer, but let me explain why.

I cannot play the first Bioshock as I suffer from acute claustrophobia and the oppressive weight of Rapture combined with creepy environments is just too much for me. However, I enjoyed Infinite a great deal, the brighter world and open sky made it easier to play and I liked the story very much. Enough to make me buy the season pass. Of course, I should have waited: but I bought the season pass on the strength of 'I want to spend more time in Columbia'. When they announced Burial at Sea, I knew I probably wouldn't be able to play it and resigned myself to having squandered $20.

However, I gave it a go and the opening section wasn't bad at all, being well-lit, but as soon as I went down to Fontaine's I knew the game was up. I persevered, but the oppressiveness, combined with the scarcity of resources just made it too stressful to get through. I hated being hit from behind, losing my bearings constantly and never having any ammo to get through it with. It highlighted the weakness in the Infinite formula in a very stark way. The combat gets worse the more you constrain the player. Based on some comments here, it seems a throwback to the first game, and I recall Jeff saying on the bombcast that he got through the whole thing with wrench/electricity, so maybe that's what they were going for?

The DLC seems like self-indulgent wank to me, and whereas at the beginning of the year, Infinite would have cracked my top 5 easily, I doubt now whether it will make the list at all. Even in the course of a few months, so many superior game experiences have come our way that I have to wonder if Infinite will make the lists of any of the GB staff.

Okay, straight up, where do you go to find the bucking bronco?!

The gene bank sold upgrades for it that were mechanically new and sounded awesome, and I never stumbled over the vigor in my whole time playing the DLC, that was a real heartbreaker.

@foxillusion: It's in an electrified pool of water in the main room off of where you get the oven-heatray-gun. I just finished the dlc and realized I hadnt snagged it. :(

It's in that main circular area, with one of the vents in the center, right before you get the Radar Range. When you first get there, there'll be a big puddle of electrified water(with a big 'Electronics' sign in it) to the right. Bucking Bronco will be in the middle of that. Should be easy to figure out what to do next from there.

I never got it either. Burial at Sea made the same mistake that Dishonored Knife of Dunwall did. In a game where you accumulate a vast amount of powers and abilities, they bring you back to square one in the DLC. There is no need for introducing each power slowly to the player anymore, just give me everything from the get-go, don't make me re-earn every single plasmid and upgrade. The ice power I get, but the other ones? The combat isn't satisfying enough on it's own and the powers go a long way in making it a lot more interesting.

Also for a short DLC outing the scarcity of ammo even on medium was confounding. I was constantly out of ammo and the fact that weapons will only carry up to a certain amount of bullets was always just bad design in my opinion. Especially since the game aggressively spawned in new groups of enemies after you accomplished any minor task - the biggest offender being the area near the bookshop that spawned in a new group of baddies each time you walked through that "hub."

Oohhh, good call, I walked right past the electric water like a dummy. Okay, that makes a lot more sense.

I had the same ammo scarcity problem... maybe they realized how easy it was to find enough ammo in Infinite and they tried to tone it down a bit?

I have mixed feelings on the DLC.

@humanity: Oh dear god the bookstore! I made the mistake of entering another "zone" and re-entering the area outside the bookstore and immediately ran dry on ammo. I completely agree on the ammo count being ridiculously low, as I often found myself hiding in battle until the "Booker Here!" support.

As far as unlocking the abilities up front for the dlc - I think I agree, as I definitely would have had more fun throughout the first half with a wider array of abilities. But this dlc is surely unbalanced in ways that bring that to the forefront.

I missed ONE damn audio log......

I really liked it, the sound design in particular was fantastic and I'm fascinated to see where the story goes from here. Only problem I had was during the last encounter with the Big Daddy for some reason the game glitched and I couldn't pick up weapons so i had to just kind of skyhook around while the patriot dealt with him. Underwhelming but the actual ending more than made up for it.

At the beginning of that area I found the audio log about the Microwave gun and really wanted to get it. I thought it would definitely be in the appliances section so I headed straight for that instead of into the diner, where the microwave gun actually was. So I walked back and forth through the area around the bookstore several times trying to locate the weapon, made it all the way to the gas valve and had to backtrack to the very beginning of the entire section so I could close that one hatch which was by the new gun.

It's facinating how much you can mine from Rapture. Like bioshock 2 had some pretty bad flaws, because it took place 10 years AFTER the events and there's still Andrew Ryan audio logs in the main lobby. But like Minerva's Den was such a fascinating view of seeing this old 1950's technology, those walls of just vacuum tubes and wires and just seeing different types of nerd splicers. I feel more disappointed with Infinite's Columbia you can't have that much depth then just "swash buckling action." Because in Infinite even if I am fascinated by what I see Booker is just going to go "Meh" to everything he reads out loud. I play a different type of game then Booker talking over me, I enjoy like walking around the mannequins in this DLC that were beside the stove one of them had a kid inside it all chard up.

I also never found the Bucking Bronco plasmid. I saw the pool of electrified water, but I couldn't tell what item was in the middle so I just ignored it. I also died around 4 times on medium. I only died a single time during the main game towards the end. I constantly found myself out of ammo and eve to use my plasmids. I remember during the main game I was able to use my plasmids without worrying about running out. It didn't help that I kept running into new spawned groups of enemies due to all the exploring and backtracking I did. I think it took me around 3 hours to beat the game and I still somehow missed an audio log.

I enjoyed the story though I was hoping for more. I thought the ending took place during the Comstock purge. It was always my interpretation that Elizabeth drowning Booker during the baptism was more symbolic and less literal than it seems. There were an infinite number of Elizabeths taking out the Comstocks in her multiverse. Burial at Sea was just one of those scenarios.

Ken Levine is the M. Night Shyamalan of video games

Loved it.

Revisiting a still living Rapture was the main draw for me, and I got exactly what I wanted. I really enjoyed exploring that entire first part, listening to people, watching the scenes, listening to recordings, watching the propaganda, seeing the plasmids in use by people going about their business (that waiter was funfuckingtastic). I loved Rapture so much more then Columbia and seeing it before the fall felt great.

I liked the scarcity of resources, just wish there was more time to play around with combos and plasmids. Plus I am a scrounger by nature, so I found everything. You can rush through it pretty quickly, but by taking the time to explore everything thoroughly I got lot out of it.

The ending made neat sense to me. (on that I posted in a separate spoiler thread)

This was infinitely better then the lackluster Minerva's Den for me. And it's not over yet.

When I saw the first trailer, channeling pure noir, I was 100% onboard. When that trailer was extended out and it became clear that Elizabeth wasn't a femme fatale but more of a hard-nosed bitch, I was 100% over it. Just didn't seem like they had the tone right for that sort of story after all.