Here at Enemy Slime we don’t assign number scores to incomplete episodic releases. You may have noticed this while you read Lucio’s thoughts on part 1 of Burial At Sea. This review is going to take into account both part one and the recently released part two of Bioshock Infinite’s story DLC so keep that in mind if we tread into similar territory.
Burial At Sea sees Booker and Elizabeth united once more after the events of Bioshock Infinite. We first arrive in the shoes of Booker who can be found scraping by as a private investigator in Rapture. He’s having a fine time drinking away the last night that the city could be considered inhabitable when who should show up at his office but Elizabeth asking him to track down a missing little girl.
Bioshock’s particular brand of magic has always been steeped in exploration. Rapture and Columbia are both incredibly unique settings, and in some cases they’re more interesting and better detailed than the characters residing in them. A lot of folks cite the opening of Infinite as their favorite part in the game, just taking in the sights and watching the world operate is an incredible experience. But as the game went on that magic started to fade away as thrilling vistas were replaced with claustrophobic corridors, don’t get me wrong, I still think Infinite had a lot to offer, but I think it was at its best when it was beating you over the head with its amazing scale.
I think Burial At Sea suffers from a similar but perhaps more severe issue. The best exploration you’re going to get in the game comes within the first twenty minutes or so when you experience Rapture in its prime before everything went to hell. It’s a form of the world you’ve never seen before, and it really taps into that feeling of wonder and discovery that Bioshock can deliver so well.
But by the time combat rolls around things get ugly. The battlegrounds of Rapture simply aren’t terribly interesting, flooded corridors look the same, the set pieces are all very small in scope, I know it’s DLC and all but there’s really not a lot to look at in either chapter. Part 2 sees Elizabeth journeying back to Columbia but aside from a blue patch of sky or two most of your time is spent indoors where you’d never even realize you were in a different place.
While the action in Booker’s chapter is a relatively ordinary by Bioshock standards part two has you controlling Elizabeth and makes some dramatic changes to how you play the game. Elizabeth is substantially weaker than Booker, taking only two or three hits before she’s out, and for some odd reason her weapons are less powerful as well. This means that you’ll spend most of your time sneaking through the shadows and lining up careful shots with your tranquilizer crossbow. The change is interesting but I always find myself pushing back when non-stealth based games try to implement stealth mechanics, especially in the case of Burial At Sea where they have 4-5 hours worth of the stuff.
Being spotted is similar to Dishonored in that even if an enemy sees you they will take a minute to wonder who you are before finally tripping into a full on alert mode. Once spotted it’s not hard to run away and hide before attempting to sneak through an area again. Unfortunately sneaking around just isn’t all that fun. Bioshock has never been known for its incredible combat system but I had a lot more fun dispatching of enemies with plasmids as Booker than I did sneaking up on them and cracking them over the head as Elizabeth.
Another notable thing about Elizabeth’s chapter is that there’s nobody around to revive her should she fall in combat. This means that if you die you simply revert back to the last checkpoint, instead of traditional Bioshock gameplay where you just get up again and pick up right where you left off with little to no penalty. I sometimes felt like the distance between checkpoints was a little too long, but aside from that this mechanic increased the difficulty in a really sublime way and definitely made this the most challenging Bioshock experience I’ve had so far.
Burial At Sea is a lot more connected to Bioshock Infinite than you may expect going in. If you were a fan of the original game’s twisty narrative there are definitely some surprises in store for you here, not to mention some really solid tie-ins to the first game. I don’t want to delve too far into spoiler territory but let’s just say there we some things in Bioshock Infinite that I raised an eyebrow to or attributed to sloppy writing that Burial At Sea takes steps to fix. I don’t know if it was the plan all along but it does manage to acknowledge some of those things and provides fairly satisfying explanations for them. I actually think the best thing that can be said about the DLC is that it improved my opinion of the core game.
Burial At Sea is tough to score because if you’re a fan of Infinite it’s pretty much a guaranteed purchase, and you likely already did purchase part one last year. Part two does change the game’s formula pretty dramatically but at the end of the day it’s really just not all that fun. It’s Bioshock’s sloppy combat mechanics with none of the spectacle and grandeur that made the full game so exciting to experience. The story beats are nicely done and definitely worth experiencing if you’re a fan of the series but if you weren’t a big fan of Infinite’s core then there’s nothing here that will change your mind.
