Disappointing DLC? (Potential Burial at Sea Spoilers)

[HahnSoloCup]

Was anyone else disappointed with the burial at sea dlc? Episode 1 was actually pretty awesome for what it was. It was a hybrid of infinite's gameplay with a little bit of the original bioshock's survival horror thrown in. The story was phenomenal and mind-bending as well. My only issue with it was how short it was. I beat the entire thing on hard in an hour and a half. Definitely not worth the $15 base price. Episode 2 is unbearable for me. The developers threw out almost all of the previous game's gameplay elements and replaced them with a seemingly copy and pasted stealth mechanic from numerous other games and a far too easy lock picking mechanic. Poor little Elizebeth can't take more than 2 hits before dying and enemies are horribly overpowered. A regular spicer took 6 shots of hand cannon and beat me to death in 1 hit at almost full health. I have the difficulty on hard, but thats just stupid. The entire story so far is just confusing. Elizebeth's dead, but not dead. She was in Paris, but not in Paris (maybe still is in Paris?) and keeps hallucinating Booker for some reason. She also has a huge need to save the the little girl, who she had no responsibility for and is probably better off with the Big Daddies anyways. The whole thing just seems like a bioshock interpretation of Alien: Isolation to me, down to the repetiitve part collection and vent crawling. I never even bothered to finish the thing. Is it worth finishing?

[exabezian]

Normal finish. Died one Elizabeth from many many worlds.

[Solarmech]

OP you missed something VERY important about BaS Pt2. Elizabeth is NOT uspposed to fight and kill everyone. She is supposed to use stealth, sneak up behind people and hit them. Use he crossbow. Possess someone and run if you have to. Figthing is the LAST thing Elizabeth should be trying to do. sm

[Ivlichnov]

The gameplay in Burial at Sea Ep 2 is kind of a tribute to the classic game "Thief."

And Elizabeth didn't like Bookers approach to combat, so she is trying to sneak through Episode 2 in a non-leathal and stealthy way.

Spoilers for the ending of BaS Ep 1.
Elizabeth used Sally as bait to draw Comstock to his final doom. So she feels responsible for leaving Sally in the sunken department store and must now save Sally.

[raphasauer]

Dude, you are playing on hard and complaining because the game is hard? Some game modes are never meant to be fair with the player, and Elizabeth is no war veteran, keep that in mind.

[gonzzCABJ]

I think they are both awesome and Episode 2 is even more awesome because it's kind of an hybrid between BioShock and Infinite. Also quite touching, at moments.

[HahnSoloCup]

Originally posted by Ivlichnov:

The gameplay in Burial at Sea Ep 2 is kind of a tribute to the classic game "Thief."

And Elizabeth didn't like Bookers approach to combat, so she is trying to sneak through Episode 2 in a non-leathal and stealthy way.

Spoilers for the ending of BaS Ep 1.
Elizabeth used Sally as bait to draw Comstock to his final doom. So she feels responsible for leaving Sally in the sunken department store and must now save Sally.

I understand what the developers were trying to do, and it makes sense, given that Elizebeth isn't a hardcore war veteran like Booker. I also realy enjoy stealth games, and Ep2 is an interesting twist to the game series, since stealth was never this heavily implemented. Its just disappointing to me because its not the traditional bioshock, and the mechanic is pretty wonky at times. Also, in other stealth games, like Thief and Dishonored, if you are spotted, you have the option to flee or fight. In Ep2 you just die. I have yet to survive being spotted. I do have it on a hard difficulty but come on, the hand cannon was a one shot kill on the hard difficulty in the base game and splicers can take a full clip in the dlc.

[Knox]

I got annoyed with episode 1, toward the end I had a hard time with so many enemies at once. I played a little just now to use the radar range and realize I should have gotten that first.

Episode 2 I found sort of fun, easy, but fun. I just stealthed around and one shot knocked every one out. If anything went wrong a dart would one shot anyone. I only used guns at the end when I had ironside to help tank, even then it was easier to stealth.

Once you get the stealthy tonic it becomes easy. If someone spots you just run, get into stealth and use it until they turn white. If I remember early on you get a modification for the tonic to not use eve when standing still.

[gman]

Originally posted by HahnSoloCup:

I understand what the developers were trying to do, and it makes sense, given that Elizebeth isn't a hardcore war veteran like Booker. I also realy enjoy stealth games, and Ep2 is an interesting twist to the game series, since stealth was never this heavily implemented. Its just disappointing to me because its not the traditional bioshock, and the mechanic is pretty wonky at times. Also, in other stealth games, like Thief and Dishonored, if you are spotted, you have the option to flee or fight. In Ep2 you just die. I have yet to survive being spotted. I do have it on a hard difficulty but come on, the hand cannon was a one shot kill on the hard difficulty in the base game and splicers can take a full clip in the dlc.

Did you get the peeping tom plasmid? I'm pretty sure dying is not your only option. I got away countless times using that plasmid.
I recommend playing 1998 mode, which disables guns and you can only use the crossbow, plasmids and melee.

[HahnSoloCup]

Originally posted by Knox:

I got annoyed with episode 1, toward the end I had a hard time with so many enemies at once. I played a little just now to use the radar range and realize I should have gotten that first.

Episode 2 I found sort of fun, easy, but fun. I just stealthed around and one shot knocked every one out. If anything went wrong a dart would one shot anyone. I only used guns at the end when I had ironside to help tank, even then it was easier to stealth.

Once you get the stealthy tonic it becomes easy. If someone spots you just run, get into stealth and use it until they turn white. If I remember early on you get a modification for the tonic to not use eve when standing still.

I got the tonic, yeah. I finished out Ep2 after I got the hang of the stealth. I'm still not a fan of what they did with the gameplay of the dlc, but man irrational games is phenomenal with the story telling. I got a massive overdose of nostalgia from the ending sequence and it was very well put together.

In full review of the dlc, I would probably give both Episodes like an 8/10, not just because of my preference in the gameplay, but also because of pacing and length of each of the episodes. Ep2 was significantly longer than the first, but I think that was mostly due to it having a much slower pace and stealth mechanics over the first one. In Ep1, the fast pace of the story made sense, since there wasn't much story to it anyways. The Elizebeth from the base game opened a tear into Rapture and joined Booker to find a missing girl who had been turned into a little sister after she was sent to the Fontaine's sunken factory. It was short, sweet, and nostalgic. Still not worth the $15 base price though.

Ep2 had some serious pacing issues. It started out very slow with the introduction to the stealth mechanics and part collection to fix the tear device. Once Elizebeth got back to Columbia, things really got interesting for me, since it overlaped with the base game's events and had lots of interesting backstory. After Elizebeth returned to Rapture, however, it seemed to just rush through everything. Atlas betrays Elizebeth and the rest of the 20 minutes or so of the dlc is like 3 hours of game story just thrown togather in a bunch of confusing cut-scenes, hallucinations, and Elizebeth walking around.

It also never gave any explanation for who the Elizebeth you play as is. The Elizebeth from the base game obviously was killed by the Big Daddy at the end of Ep1, and the playable Elizebeth didn't have the thimble on her finger, so it wasn't the same Elizebeth. Playable Elizebeth also had all the memories of the base game Elizebeth and none of her own, so that makes no sense. Playable Elizebeth also kept saying that she sent herself to Rapture, allegedly to save the little girl, but that also makes no sense because base game Elizebeth had no idea that she would've been killed by the Big Daddy and wouldn't know to send another version of herself to that time and place to save the girl before she died. Also, why was playable Elizebeth so oblivious? Booker, Ryan, and even Atlas himself said that she shouldn't trust Atlas to hold up his end of the bargain mutliple times before, suprise! Atlas betrays her... twice. Even if Elizebeth didn't care too much for her own well-being, the whole point of her quest and the dlc was to save the little girl. If Elizebeth died, Atlas would just happily harvest the girl for Adam like he was going to do anyways. What she was trying to accomplish by disregarding his betrayals makes so sense.

The DLC was still a lot of fun and it was really cool to get a lot of backstory on Columbia and Rapture. I just can't come to say it was entirely worth the $30 unless you are a completely die-hard bioshock fan and just want a quick fix.

[raphasauer]

Originally posted by HahnSoloCup:

Originally posted by Knox:

I got annoyed with episode 1, toward the end I had a hard time with so many enemies at once. I played a little just now to use the radar range and realize I should have gotten that first.

Episode 2 I found sort of fun, easy, but fun. I just stealthed around and one shot knocked every one out. If anything went wrong a dart would one shot anyone. I only used guns at the end when I had ironside to help tank, even then it was easier to stealth.

Once you get the stealthy tonic it becomes easy. If someone spots you just run, get into stealth and use it until they turn white. If I remember early on you get a modification for the tonic to not use eve when standing still.

I got the tonic, yeah. I finished out Ep2 after I got the hang of the stealth. I'm still not a fan of what they did with the gameplay of the dlc, but man irrational games is phenomenal with the story telling. I got a massive overdose of nostalgia from the ending sequence and it was very well put together.

In full review of the dlc, I would probably give both Episodes like an 8/10, not just because of my preference in the gameplay, but also because of pacing and length of each of the episodes. Ep2 was significantly longer than the first, but I think that was mostly due to it having a much slower pace and stealth mechanics over the first one. In Ep1, the fast pace of the story made sense, since there wasn't much story to it anyways. The Elizebeth from the base game opened a tear into Rapture and joined Booker to find a missing girl who had been turned into a little sister after she was sent to the Fontaine's sunken factory. It was short, sweet, and nostalgic. Still not worth the $15 base price though.

Ep2 had some serious pacing issues. It started out very slow with the introduction to the stealth mechanics and part collection to fix the tear device. Once Elizebeth got back to Columbia, things really got interesting for me, since it overlaped with the base game's events and had lots of interesting backstory. After Elizebeth returned to Rapture, however, it seemed to just rush through everything. Atlas betrays Elizebeth and the rest of the 20 minutes or so of the dlc is like 3 hours of game story just thrown togather in a bunch of confusing cut-scenes, hallucinations, and Elizebeth walking around.

It also never gave any explanation for who the Elizebeth you play as is. The Elizebeth from the base game obviously was killed by the Big Daddy at the end of Ep1, and the playable Elizebeth didn't have the thimble on her finger, so it wasn't the same Elizebeth. Playable Elizebeth also had all the memories of the base game Elizebeth and none of her own, so that makes no sense. Playable Elizebeth also kept saying that she sent herself to Rapture, allegedly to save the little girl, but that also makes no sense because base game Elizebeth had no idea that she would've been killed by the Big Daddy and wouldn't know to send another version of herself to that time and place to save the girl before she died. Also, why was playable Elizebeth so oblivious? Booker, Ryan, and even Atlas himself said that she shouldn't trust Atlas to hold up his end of the bargain mutliple times before, suprise! Atlas betrays her... twice. Even if Elizebeth didn't care too much for her own well-being, the whole point of her quest and the dlc was to save the little girl. If Elizebeth died, Atlas would just happily harvest the girl for Adam like he was going to do anyways. What she was trying to accomplish by disregarding his betrayals makes so sense.

The DLC was still a lot of fun and it was really cool to get a lot of backstory on Columbia and Rapture. I just can't come to say it was entirely worth the $30 unless you are a completely die-hard bioshock fan and just want a quick fix.

The playable Elizabeth is the base game Elizabeth. She lost only memories of the future, past or the present (because she was in an universe where she died) and lost the power to open tears. As for the Big Daddy, the foresight of Elizabeth isn't automatic, she need to put effort in it, and she didn't see the part where she is killed. And by dying she assured that Fontaine would have the 'code' to control Jack's actions, which would result, in some worlds, the downfall of Fontaine and Jack rescuing the Little Ones.