Burial at Sea Episode One

I could tell from the first few minutes I was going to enjoy this DLC. It starts with a real classic film noir opener. Set in an alternate reality where Booker is a PI in Rapture, your office is the stereotypical PI’s office with an almost black’n’white color palette and Venetian blinds cutting the light up. Then the Rapture version of Elizabeth walks in, a little older and the very image of a femme fatale. All of this noir goodness is then toned down as we get some more Rapture fan service.

The first half of this DLC sees us exploring a town center of Rapture, much like the beginning of Infinite with Columbia. It’s nice to see Rapture in its prime with all its glitzy 50s sheen. Most of the NPCs have some funny conversations you can eavesdrop on and you get a little fan service to the first Bioshock with familiar locations being mentioned. It is extended when you visit the art gallery of Sander Cohen. He happens to know where a girl you are searching for is. One thing leads to another and you end up in the department store of Frank Fontaine’s, which has been turned into a makeshift prison for Fontaine’s men.

The real gameplay starts here and is a good mix of styles between the classic Bioshock stealth and Infinite’s action focus. You can carry more than 2 guns, which is nice, but ammo isn’t quite as plentiful. It’s not super scarce, but you are better served to start off stealthy and go loud when the situation arises. If you start shooting willy-nilly, you’ll chew through ammo quick. Half way through you can start to use Elizabeth’s power to pull in things from tears, this helps even the playing field and adds some more action to the mix. Most of your vigors from Infinite return along with a new one that allows you to freeze people. All of the enemies you fight are splicers, Big Daddies don’t show up until the ending.

The story of this game feels like a continuation of Bioshock Infinite (spoilers ahead). There’s even some shared story beats, with the middle of this DLC’s story involving a detour to find a special vigor, like finding the Shock Jockey in the Hall of Heroes. This Elizabeth is much more cryptic and calculating, as she seems to have an ulterior motive to finding this missing girl that Booker had adopted. 1950 Booker is also having flashbacks to his life in Columbia. In a neat twist, it is revealed this Booker is actually a Comstock whose attempt to retrieve an Anna DeWitt went horribly wrong and he escaped his guilt and heartache by fleeing to the future in Rapture. Elizabeth has made it her mission to hunt down all the Comstocks and put them down. I think that idea would be a good set up for a Bioshock 4, Elizabeth travelling through time righting wrongs. Anyways, she toys with Booker to force him to remember the past he tried to forget and once he does, he gets iced by a Big Daddy.

All in all, this is a proper DLC expansion with a good story, like New Vegas’ Honest Hearts. It has a good mix of influences pulled from both the classic and Infinite Bioshock. It fits into the story of Infinite without getting too confusing with time travel.