BioShock: Infinite - Burial at Sea: Episode One Review

Written by: Ice Cold Tabasco

After playing it, the only way I can sum up the entire experience is IMMENSELY disappointing.

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Oh dear god…

Look, I have a deep love for the BioShock franchise, with the first nearly ranking as my favorite game of all time. I even picked up System Shock 2 a few days ago and I’m having a ball with it. So I went into the first episode of Infinite’s Burial at Sea optimistic. I had high hopes that it would invoke the same sense of mystery and intrigue, all wrapped up with Infinite’s solid combat in a two to three hour experience. 

Presentation is everything.

After playing it, the only way I can sum up the entire experience is IMMENSELY disappointing. While it does manage to sustain interest early on, giving you glimpse of what the writers had in mind for the DLC. It is swiftly buried under the frustrating play styles it attempts to blend into a coherent whole, being the more old school BioShock (being a resource management shooter) and Infinite's more modern style (more tactical;ammo aplenty). So you are able to carry more than one weapon, akin to the first BioShock. I quite like this approach, having all your weapons at your disposal is virtually always a good idea, but has the habit of over powering the player.

So to compensate, ammo is scarce, alla BioShock. While this can benefit the challenge of a game, here it is just unfair. Playing on the hardest difficulty, Burial at Sea will bend you over repeatedly, as running dry on a murder frenzy is inevitable and infuriatingly frequent. There is no Dark Souls-esque challenge here, it’s ones futile attempt to try and swim through a sea barbed wire. You might gain some ground, but the accumulative blood loss will stop you every, FUCKING, TIME. 

Having only three bullets to take out the opposition happens more often then you'd think.

There is no strategy, there is no way around it, you will possibly suffer brain hemorrhage from how often you will die. If you’re going to endeavor to pick this game up, putting it on Medium difficulty might lessen the frustration, but I wouldn't place any bets on it.

The story is also a dribbling mess, with a more mature, grown Elizabeth essentially seeking revenge on what is supposedly the final Comstock, the antagonist of the main game. The whole thing is just dull, with the twist at the end only invoking the question, “Why was any of this necessary?”. While, yes, it might as well be required that the first part of something have a cliffhanger,but, it's so poorly done here that the only satisfaction that you receive is from finishing the bloody thing.

So yeah, Episode One a complete mess with little to bring to the table narratively, and delivers broken combat ontop of it. I even found it to be a tad on the short side. Ultimately, just skip it, and spring for the second episode. Which is HOPEFULLY, proper compensation for this wreck 

Verdict

3/10

Just Plain Bad