BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea is a two-part single-player expansion to the first-person shooter video game BioShock Infinite. It was developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games for PlayStation 3, OS X, Windows, Xbox 360, and Linux platforms. Episode One was released digitally on November 12, 2013, followed by Episode Two on March 25, 2014. A retail version was released as part of BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition, and later included in BioShock: The Collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Burial at Sea is set after the events of Infinite, which spanned several alternate realities. Whereas Infinite takes place aboard the floating city Columbia, Burial at Sea primarily takes place in the underwater metropolis Rapture before the events of the first BioShock game. The game features Booker DeWitt as a private detective, and Elizabeth as a femme fatale who employs Booker's services.
Development of Infinites downloadable content commenced immediately after finishing the main game. Irrational was drawn to returning to the setting of Rapture and using Infinites gameplay systems to create a version of the city before its ruin in BioShock. Reception to Burial at Seas two episodes was mixed. While the return to Rapture was generally praised, the first episode drew criticism for its short length and a lack of differentiated gameplay. Reviews for the second episode were more positive, with multiple critics calling Burial at Sea a fitting swan song for Irrational's work on BioShock, as the studio reorganized.
Gameplay
Like BioShock Infinite, Burial at Sea is a first-person shooter with role-playing elements. The game is primarily set in the underwater city of Rapture, the setting of the original BioShock and BioShock 2. Gameplay mixes elements from Infinites sandbox and those of earlier games in the series. The superpower-bestowing liquids, known as Vigors in Infinite, are reclassified as plasmids, their Rapture equivalent. Also returning with different names are the skyrails and skyhook from the base game. Unlike Infinite, players can carry more than two weapons at a time, although ammo is much scarcer, and not all weapons from Infinite return. New additions include the Old Man Winter plasmid, which functions similar to the Winter Blast plasmid in the original BioShock, and the Radar Range weapon, which fires energy that explodes enemies.
In Episode Two, players assume the role of Elizabeth, and the gameplay shifts to emphasize stealth. Splashing in pools of water or walking across broken glass alerts enemies to the player's presence. A new plasmid, Peeping Tom, allows players to see through walls and scout ahead of them. Players are also equipped with a crossbow that can fire noisemakers, knockout gas, or tranquilizer darts. Episode Two includes a "1998 Mode" in which the player is challenged to complete the episode using only non-lethal methods of defeating enemies, a callback to Irrational precursor Looking Glass Studios' 1998 stealth title Thief: The Dark Project.
Plot
Episode One begins on December 31, 1958. Elizabeth asks the private investigator Booker DeWitt to investigate the disappearance of a young girl named Sally; Booker believes Sally is dead, but Elizabeth says she has information to the contrary. The pair confront the artist Sander Cohen, who tells them Sally is in the Fontaine Department Store. The store was sunk and cut off from the rest of the city by Rapture's founder Andrew Ryan to serve as a prison for the followers of his believed-dead competitor, Frank Fontaine.
Within Fontaine's, Booker and Elizabeth look for Sally, fighting their way through the crazed remains of Fontaine's followers. Booker finds Sally, but discovers she has been turned into a "Little Sister"—a mentally conditioned and mutated girl, trained to produce and gather the material that fuels Rapture's genetic modifications. Booker has sudden flashbacks to events he had previously forgotten. Booker once went by the name Zachary Hale Comstock, and was the founder of the floating city of Columbia. Childless, Comstock enlisted the help of the scientists Robert and Rosalind Lutece to steal the infant Anna (who would grow up to be Elizabeth) from a version of Booker DeWitt in an alternate universe, but Anna was accidentally killed. Comstock was shamed by his actions and had the Lutece twins send him to Rapture, where he lost his memories and reassumed his identity as Booker Dewitt. Realizing what he has done, he tries to apologize to Elizabeth, but she rebuffs him, and Comstock is killed by an armored Big Daddy.
