BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode One Reviews
Burial At Sea tells an interesting tale with plenty of twists, but it doesn't have enough substance on the gameplay side of things to back it up.
I wasn't too impressed by Burial at Sea Episode One, mostly because it just doesn't add a whole lot to the overall franchise outside of the last 30 seconds, and it's simply not compelling enough. While it's quite possible that Episode Two will tie everything together in a neat bow and blow us all away, Irrational Games has yet to make a legitimate case for a return to Rapture.
A criminally short opening chapter that nonetheless offers a glimpse of Rapture at its opulent heights. The noir intentions are dispensed too soon, so the Booker/Elizabeth relationship and familiar combat have to see Burial at Sea through to its disturbing, perplexing climax.
If you can look past the relatively high price tag and short running time, then BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 1 is a satisfying, if underwhelming, addition to the canon.
Burial at Sea has a real pacing problem, stemming from the very literal segregation of its narrative and combat sections. It makes you finish your meat before your can start on your vegetables, where the metaphorical meat is the talking and the vegetables are the shooting. As a digested mush in your tummy, Burial at Sea is a beautiful brown ride through gaming's most iconic city and a compelling return of two remixed and much loved characters. On the plate however, its two very different games struggling to find a common ground, and both doing themselves a disservice as they try.
Burial at Sea Part I: great fan service, but not quite a 'must'.
Just as you are feeling this amazingly bizarre city, you're tugged away into some typical BioShock Infinite gunplay before being splashed with loads of reveals at the end. People are here for the story, that's fine, but the price seems high for the admission, especially after the bargain that was Minerva's Den, and the short length makes the story feel handicapped compared to fuller experiences we've had in the BioShock universe.
Overall, BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 1 is solidly OK. In the end, it's much more of what we have come to expect from BioShock Infinite, awesome pieces of story broken up by uninteresting sections of combat. It's not a reimagining of the series. It's not a grand departure that examines BioShock's past. It's really not much more than some more BioShock Infinite with a Rapture coat of paint slapped over it. If that's what you are looking for, then the 15-dollar price of entry isn't bad. For everyone else, there is always BioShock 4.
BioShock Infinite's mechanics don't play nicely with the underwater city of Rapture in Burial at Sea - Episode 1.
The production values are cracking, with outstanding voice work and some great dialogue, not to mention an ending that flips the script nicely and sets up an intriguing sequel. But sadly the first part of Burial at Sea flounders in its attempts at nostalgia, mashing different parts of the Bioshock legacy together in an easy hybrid that lacks the atmosphere of the original game and completely fails to capitalise upon the expansive vision of Infinite. Half-hearted fan-service at best.
The first narrative addition to the BioShock Infinite delivers everything it promised – it's an affectionately crafted homage to the first game, retroactively building on the grim story and Ayn Rand-ian themes, galvanising them with a fresh perspective whilst simultaneously tying Rapture more wholly into the Columbian narrative. It's intelligent, indulgent and nostalgic in equal measure, left dangling on a transfixing narrative hook. It's everything we love about BioShock, condensed.
There's a sadness to that as much as there is to our limited time with a fully-operational Rapture, but at the same time Burial At Sea is extremely effective at posing big, gnawing and dramatic new questions to a riddle we thought answered. I am so very hungry for part two, but I do hope it gives us more Rapture-in-light as well as answers, self-reference and metatextuality. Burial
The first half of Burial Sea is that rare bit of DLC that manages to add to an experience without feeling like it was stripped out of the original game.