NOTE: this review will be as spoiler free as possible, but may hint at the ending to the previous episode and plot lines from the main game. Consider yourself warned!
The game starts nice enough
So we come to the final part of Booker and Elizabeth story. Burial at sea gives three for the price of one by concluding Bioshock infinite, Burial at Sea a few gaps in the original Bioshock story line. So don’t play this unless you want all those games spoiled. It starts simply enough, you in Paris, playing as Elizabeth, you know this as within a few seconds an artist shows you a portrait of you with your name on it, and also most NPC talks to you by name.
#
You know it Paris cause there an artist…
…and accordions….
…and freaky clowns….
…and a silly dog, all we need is a guy on a bike with onions and we have every French cliché in one section
But within a short space of time your back in rapture shortly after the event of the previous game. And running into another familiar face in the form of atlas. And due to another convoluted set of actions you end up working for him. I cant say any more about the story without spoiling it. But I can say its good and does give a proper conclusion to what was started in infinite.
Atlas, way and more of a dick in this game.
Gameplay wise, its wants to be played as a stealth game, but it can be run a gunned if you really want to. Enemy’s now have icons above their head showing their alert status, similar to Dishonoured, allowing you to sneak around quite effectively. You can also do sneak attacks on unaware enemys (although you could do that somewhat in the first games). Dispite this being tacked on it does work quite well and i managed to make my way around the levels pretty easly.
The bars fill up as guards become more aware of you
You also get some new tools and toys the add to the new gameplay. The crossbow returns, this time loaded with tranquilliser darts (but it can also take different types) which allows you to quietly take down enemy’s from a distance. You also have a chance to retrieve the arrows off fallen enemy’s so it actually quite hard to run out of ammo, I rarely had to re-buy new darts, which is a nice touch.
Every game should have crossbows in it
There are a couple new plasmids, one I found useful, one I barely used. The first is the peeping tom plasmid and basically ties in with the whole stealth system. Just using it allows you to see enemy’s through the walls, and holding it allows you to turn invisible. Initially it does not last to long, but soon after you get an upgrade (which are now found in canisters instead of being brought, this does mean if you miss one and go to a different level you lose it forever), this allow you to see enemy’s and remain invisible indefinitely using no eve as long as you don’t move. This does make the game a bit of a cakewalk but allows you to be a proper stealth predator. It very similar to the gene tonic you get from researching Houdini splicers from the first game.
The peeping tom plasmid really helps with stealth
Plasmids are now upgraded using canisters
there is the new lock picking game. It pretty simple. A cutaway shows you the inside of the lock, your pick moves randomly across all the pins, the goal is to hit the blue or the white pins, doing so will unlock the door, and if you hit a blue pin you’ll get a noise maker arrow for your crossbow. A red pin will set an alarm off alerting enemy’s to your position, but nicely the door will still unlock meaning you cant waist lock picks and get stuck.
The new mini games is one of the better lockpicking game I’ve played
Combat is pretty similar to the previous game, there are no more of the silly pneumo-lines from the episode 1 that turned rapture into Columbia. you also some across a few places where enemy will fight each other representing the start of rapture civil war. A few guns return from the previous episode, but I found myself sneaking my way through most combat and not having to run and gun. but overall it still fun and a lot of the environments and really interesting to fight over.
overall, Episode 2 is an excellent ending to the bioshock series (and it does semi end the series). if you’ve played the other part then I would differently purchase this.
