Rapture Rewound--BioShock: Infinite--Burial at Sea Part 1

One of the difficult questions that I often ask myself is "do I buy the DLC?"  In general, DLC is usually overpriced for the amount of content you receive and sometimes can turn out to be quite disappointing.  I enjoyed BioShock:  Infinite, but felt wary about investing in the season pass.  So I waited for all the content to be released, read the reviews, and then snagged it the next time it went on sale (FYI--it goes on sale very frequently, so keep your eyes peeled).  I can happily report that investing in the DLC was worthwhile.

Burial at Sea offers players a new storyline that features some old familiar places (and faces).  The story opens in Booker's office--or, it at least seems like Booker's office--but immediately things seem slightly different.  You're not floating up among the clouds in Columbia anymore, but are at the bottom of the ocean in the beautiful city of Rapture.  There's a knock on the door and a mysterious woman is there, wanting Booker to take on a job.  She's nothing but a darkened silhouette, but her voice is very familiar.  She asks for a light....and then you see her.  It's Elizabeth!  She's not the girl that you remember though--she's all grown up and there's a certain kind of haunting maturity behind her eyes, like she's seen some things.  She wants Booker to help her look for a little girl who has gone missing--one little girl in a string of mysterious disappearances...all little girls.

A more mature Elizabeth seeks out Booker's help.

Pros:

--The absolute highlight of Burial at Sea is the very brief glimpse that players are given into the world of Rapture.  Rather than navigating creepy, splicer infested ruins, you get to see what the city of Rapture looked like in its heyday...and it's quite beautiful.  Streets are filled with shiny, happy people living in Andre Ryan's utopia.  Sea life floats serenely by giant windows as diners sit at a cafe and sip coffees.  It's nothing like the Rapture that you experience in BioShock.  You also get the unique opportunity to see how the chaos all started--in an apartment store that was filled with spliced up undesirables and sunk to the bottom of a trench.  Then you get to see the Rapture of BioShock.

--New/old plasmids.  A large part of the storyline is trying to locate the "old man winter" plasmid that gives you the ability to freeze enemies and allows you to freeze flowing water to create bridges to different areas.  The freezing plasmid was featured in BioShock, but didn't make it into Infinite.  There's something really fun about freezing and shattering enemies.

--New weapon.  The radar range gives players the chance to fry up a splicer and then explode them into little meaty chunks.  Also, oddly fun.

--Story ends with a twist.  I won't spoil it, but yeah, probably should've seen it coming.

Cons:

The story is fairly short--you might be able to stretch it to 3-4 hours if you really try to explore every place that you can.

There's a good chance that you'll feel slightly let down by the way that the first episode resolves itself.  It ends in a way that doesn't seem to have the ability to tie into a second part.  Oh, but it does!  So, even if you're feeling a little frustrated with the first part, it's definitely worth it to keep playing.

I would recommend Burial at Sea:  Part One even with its short length.  The story isn't especially great, but the ability to catch a glimpse of Rapture at its best is definitely worth it.  The second part of the story is much better...and it would be weird not to play the first part.