Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea: Part 1 Review

This is really Elizabeth's story.

Infinite Spoilers Ahead

     Burial at Sea Part 1 sees our already known, but slightly older Elizabeth (confirmed to be the one from Infinite) paying a visit to a new version of Booker DeWitt in what could very well be one of an infinite number of slightly varied versions of Rapture- which would explain things like the difference in how the Plasmids are used.

Rapture Revisited

     My initial complaint about this game is that we don't really get to explore the pre-ruin Rapture.  Anyway- our view of pre-fall Rapture is severely limited, and it feels very small and underpopulated.  Wasn't this supposed to be a flourishing undersea paradise?  Where the hell is everyone?
     There are small conversational bits you can overhear about people questioning Andrew Ryan's choices.  Familiar name drops, seeing the already disturbed artist Sander Cohen beginning to crack, and the start of the populace becoming suspicious of Ryan only adds the slightest touch of depth that Rapture once held.  It just isn't enough to be as immersive as any of the main games themselves.  This particular piece of Rapture, be it the original or a slightly different one, just feels empty.

     That leads me to my next thought- why would Ryan sink Fontaine's building when it was so devoid of people.  There are so few splicers there that it makes me question why bother?  Just send in one or two people to mop up a few mad splicers.
     Or- if he could see what was coming, why wouldn't Mr. Ryan gather up these human foreshadows into one place- a large group of them and then cut them off?  We get to witness only a couple dozen of the first to crack- why haven't some of the ones displaying signs get herded into the mix?

     As for the combat- it is sadly disappointing.  The rarity of finding ammo and salts is still around.  There are now respawning enemies,which should be a nice addition, but there just aren't enough to go around.  And while I thoroughly enjoy using the new Plasmid Old Man Winter and then microwaving splicers into exploding with the new weapon-Radar Range- it's disappointing because there's barely anyone to use them on.  There isn't enough salt or enemies to effectively lay traps and have a good time with the fighting.
     Then there's the Air-Grabber the renamed Skyhook from Infinite.  Because this section of Rapture we are confined to is so sparse it feels shoehorned in.  They could've given us a giant building to explore with a massive Skyhook system linking all the floors together, but no, we are given a couple of tiny enclosed areas where the rails are almost useless.  Such as the last battle- good luck using the rails there- out of the 5 times I hopped on to get away, I was snagged off immediately 4 of them.  Even with a Motorized Patriot as a distracting piece.

     Burial at Sea's biggest problem is brevity.  I spent a lot of time roaming and looking at all the posters and listening to conversations, and I still beat it in under 3 hours.  We were led to believe we would get a grand look at Rapture before the fall, and the scope we got was so small it's not really worth it.

Is Elizabeth Becoming a "Comstock?"

     The ending of Burial at Sea is extremely telegraphed.  If you paid attention during the game for Infinite, the clues are all placed well in advance in a heavy handed manner for this DLC.  What starts as a promising noir detective story ends with a predictable and sloppy twist.  This might as well have been called- The Infinite Failings of Booker DeWitt.
     With Bioshock Infinite's multiverse ending opening the door into endless possibility, why did we get another version of Booker as the bad guy?  When will we see him as the hero- in a role of redemption instead of a target of vengeance.

     Maybe we can find out why Elizabeth spouts off about morality, leads Booker on a chase to find Sally, then helps kill him.  Why not just walk in and kill him, we've seen that tears can be used to kill, so why the run around?  Sure she wanted him to remember his actions, but why not just make him remember by telling him?  For Booker it would've been a giant slap in the face to remember all this right at the end- trying to save one little girl and then recalling his abhorrent actions.  The purposeful misleading of the voice actor- being Booker instead of Comstock- doesn't help either.  Comstock wanted to leave his mistakes behind and start a new life, then he gets hunted down by an alternate version of the daughter he accidentally killed while attempting to not let her get taken by an alternate version of himself.  That's some messed up stuff on it's own.

     Perhaps the next part of Burial at Sea will give us a more in depth perspective of her actions.  She pretty much planned a murder in her quest to eliminate the Comstocks of the multiverse.  I'm also curious as to where all the evil versions of Elizabeth are.  This DLC definitely gave her a distinctly darker tone.  We are given the barest of glimpses into what Elizabeth may become- and that's it.  Maybe we can see a Booker/Comstock hunting an Elizabeth that is committing acts of wrongful violence.  What if she is killing the Booker's that start on the path to Comstock, but haven't had their chance to repent and fix the mistakes made and thus alter their futures.
     When will we get a perspective that paints her as a villain she is on the way to becoming?  Will she see that becoming a force for vengeance might be a bad thing?  Maybe a different Booker and Elizabeth pair might show up together and change her path.  Or how about the Luteces?  We know they are up to strange business, as usual.
     Elizabeth has unlocked near infinite power, and needs to learn the cost of wielding it.

     All in all, I can't wholly say Burial at Sea Part 1 provides nothing of true substance to the Bioshock namesake- but I feel a bit ripped off after paying for the Season Pass, as this content was as minimal as could be.  Now mind you, I don't "not like it," it's just I felt there should be more content to this installment.  One can only hope that Burial at Sea Part 2 will fill in the emptiness and justify the lack here, give us a compelling reason to complete Elizabeth's story.  If Part 2's story is good enough I wouldn't mind it being as short as this one.