There really isn’t a review tagline that I could use for this review which wouldn’t spoil the DLC or the main game, so I opted to use a Queens of the Stone Age reference to make it easier. Anyway, I digress. BioShock Infinite was a pretty fantastic game, and if I arbitrarily ranked all of my favourite games of 2013, Infinite would be around third. I was happy to purchase the season pass after the reveal of Burial at Sea, knowing what I’d be getting, and after enjoying Burial at Sea Episode 1 and not really playing Clash in the Clouds at all, I was very excited for the next episode of Burial at Sea. It also deserves to be called out as Irrational Games’ final ever release, so let that linger around.
Burial at Sea Episode 2 begins immediately following the events of the first episode, sort of. It’s hard to explain without ruining a pretty awesome segment, although it doesn’t really affect the overall story in any way, so we’ll just leave it at that. You take control of Elizabeth, the first female playable character in the entire series, as she goes on a great adventure filled with death, horror and weirdness. It’s basically what you’d expect if you played the main game for more than twenty minutes. Anyway, one of the biggest factors in this DLC is it’s story so I do not want to go into any specifics, as minor as they may be, so I’ll just say that players of the whole series will probably appreciate the DLC a bit more but new players will be brought up to speed with a rather helpful ‘Previously on BioShock’ video.
Okay, so now I’ve finished the incredibly undetailed synopsis of the frankly quite brilliant story of Episode 2, let’s get into the meat of any video game, the gameplay. Now, I liked BioShock Infinite’s gameplay, although it certainly had issues. Being limited to two weapon slots is pretty much terrible, especially in a fairly unrealistic game, and aside, from any skyhook-based battles, it felt like a bit of a generic arena shooter. However, Episode 2 does quite a lot of things to get rid of most of the issues. Much like in Episode 1, there is a weapon wheel that stores every weapon, which is just fantastic and helps change-up the gameplay a bit more than holding onto only two guns at once, one of which is probably explosion-based. Also, the overall combat system definitely favours using stealth, and the new Crossbow weapon helps that, with various bolt types to help stay hidden or get out of a bit of bother silently.
Also, the game introduces two new vigors, although I don’t want to explicitly state their function. However, I will happily say that one of the new vigors stayed as one of my equipped vigors permanently, while the other was a cool gimmick that I didn’t find all too useful. You can also find vigor upgrades in hidden areas rather than having to buy them, which is a change I rather enjoyed as a significant boost in a vigors capability should be something that you should discover by exploring, rather than being something you just buy at any old ‘Veni! Vidi! Vigor!’ machine. I think one of the upgrades could be considered gamebreaking as it does make the combat significantly easier, but I don’t think it is too useful when you get found so it’s pretty much fine.
Apologies, but I am out of non-spoiler images. Anyway, the story and gameplay are both pretty damn good for this piece of DLC, I’d even say fantastic. It should be getting a nine or possibly even a highly prestigious ten. However, there is one quite major thing that prevents it from getting the fabled perfect score, and that’s the fact it runs on the PS3 like if the PS3 used the GameCube’s GPU. In one fairly major section I kept getting massive lag spikes, constantly, and it completely destroyed any chance of getting through a combat scenario stealthily. I don’t know what it was like on 360, and PC performance is basically on you, but it’s absolutely unacceptable. Yes, the game is very pretty for seventh-generation hardware, but the main game didn’t have drops as major as those. It left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth, so it’s a good job the DLC is overall really damn good. My final score for BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2 is an
8/10
Sorry if I seem to be turning into Eurogamer, but with its performance issues on the PS3, it is impossible to give this a nine or above, and the DLC is too good to get a seven or below. Performance issues aside, Episode 2 is completely worth your time with its gameplay improvements and it’s amazing story. It brings tremendous closure to the series, and I would like the thank Irrational Games for bringing us two fantastic games and two fantastic pieces of DLC. I hope Levine’s next project is as special as this saga.
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