BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode One

Burial at Sea, Episode One is good but not essential - the only piece of BioShock story content you could say that about.

Burial at Sea is a worthy return to Rapture, but by the end you’ll wish you could’ve spent more time absorbing the sights and sounds of the city’s unspoiled areas. The grand tourism of the game’s opening versus the constant combat in the rest of the DLC creates a disconnect that makes both halves feel underdeveloped. Hopefully episode two will mend the tear of Burial at Sea’s two disparate parts.

The wax-figure-like NPCs and mostly uneventful story, however, dampen a lot of the fun. It’s possible that once both parts of the two-episode Burial at Sea series are out, the story issues will evaporate. That’s just not the case right now.

A promising start? A rather cautious one. The return to Rapture evades déjà vu feelings, but it doesn't deliver more than a spark of curiosity for its fans.

As much I enjoyed seeing Rapture rendered by BioShock Infinite’s engine, Burial at Sea offered nothing new. In fact, it is nothing more but a re-tread, a 2-hour long fan service for the most loyal followers.

You might have been to the city before, but in Burial at Sea, it remains as alluring a creation as it ever was.

While the combination of frustratingly underdeveloped combat and a short length weigh the experience down, there’s definitely enough worth seeing here, at least from a visual and narrative standpoint.

The story is stunning, as we’ve come to expect, but it doesn’t quite scale the heights of the main game’s campaign.

It's a gorgeous, haunting two-hour tour of a world I can never get enough of, and if you're willing to judge Burial at Sea solely as virtual tourism, it's beyond reproach.

Practically oozing fan service from every pore, Burial at Sea is both as glorious and as imperfect as Rapture itself.

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.

Though Burial at Sea Episode 1 may be a short vignette next to Infinite’s novel, it’s still one you aren’t likely to put down for the brief time it lasts -- and it’s priced accordingly at $15.

This first DLC for BioShock Infinite keeps its promises: the return to Rapture is absolutely great for the fans... Too bad it takes less than two hours to finish... At $15, it's quite expensive, especially as you will soon want to pay again for the second episode. You should opt now for the Season Pass.

Part One of Burial at Sea is predicated on so many constants and variables that it will undoubtedly prove divisive. It feels all too brief, even as half of a two-part whole, but it delivers a rich storyline that builds to a suitably stunning climax.

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 1 is an excellent expansion in its fundamentals. It offers a new location, a completely new story and new things to discover. Especially returning to Rapture is e pleasant experience. But then, after ninety minutes, your presented with an ending.

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.

Burial at Sea – Episode One’s most welcoming addition is seeing Rapture in a state of normality. Given the circumstances we saw the underwater city in previous games; this is actually really exciting to see. But the problem is the game is far too short to make the player care enough.

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.

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.

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.

The high price and lack of polish make this one to avoid for now. For art-deco die-hards only. [Jan 2014, p.93]

Burial at Sea is a DLC package that trades on the fan love for Rapture and little else, with nothing new to add to that place — and what’s more, it feels a bit lazy and a bit messy. Maybe it’s time this undersea city was left buried, finally.