So I finally got my GPU back. Actually, MSI said my GTX 770 couldn’t be fixed and instead offered an upgrade to a GTX 970 for a small fee which I quickly accepted. Since I’d been working my way through all of the BioShock Infinite DLCs even my GPU conked out, so I went back to that.
Clash in the Clouds is a pretty standard arena-style combat-only DLC, so there’s not much to say about it. I did surprise myself by actually being able to finish it, albeit not with good scores. I remember being totally rubbish at The Protector Trials DLC for BioShock 2. But the larger arenas and greater mobility in BioShock Infinite made it possible for me to cheese out victories. Being able to quickly traverse large expanses using the sky-lines makes all the difference for me. I wasn’t expecting to have much fun with this but I did.
Both parts of Burial at Sea are more substantial adventures that take place predominantly in Rapture just before its collapse. The first one has yet another version of Booker DeWitt as its protagonist while the second one, more intriguingly, has you play as Elizabeth. I have to say that I really enjoyed getting to walk around a version of Rapture in its prime with Elizabeth in tow. But once the fighting started, I found the first part of Burial at Sea completely forgettable. It doesn’t help that it basically tries to be BioShock Infinite-style combat in Rapture, complete with shoehorned in skyhook and sky-lines.
The second part is more interesting because at least it tries to do something different. The idea is that since Elizabeth is smaller and weaker than Booker, she needs to get by with stealth tactics. This means a lot of crawling around vents and sneaking behind people to knock them out. She can even skyhook up to the ceiling and hang on for a short time, giving the game a bit of a Batman vibe. Her gear also takes on the stealth theme, with a silent crossbow being her main weapon, plus a plasmid that allows her to see around corners and even become invisible.
It’s a cool way to change up the gameplay a bit and I even appreciated the fact that you’re mostly listening to Elizabeth’s thoughts now. Unfortunately once you realize how powerful the Peeping Tom plasmid you’re given is, the game becomes a bit too easy. You can go invisible and walk straight up to guards to knock them out. Even better, you can note where everyone is for no EVE cost by seeing through walls and simply selectively activate invisibility to get past all of them. I liked the cool cutaway graphics for the lockpicking minigame but it’s still really simplistic.
As for the story, well, I’d read one person comment about how it manages to shit up not just the story of BioShock Infinite but also the very first BioShock. I have to say that this person was right. The fact that there is one more Comstock invalidates Infinite’s ending which suggested that Elizabeth had dealt with all possible versions of Booker / Comstock once and for all. I also hate how it retroactively changes our judgment of what kind of person Daisy FItzroy was.
It also changes the story of the first BioShock by basically asserting that Elizabeth was the real reason why Rapture fell. Originally, the idea we were supposed to take away from the first game was that Andrew Ryan was a genius with feet of clay and that his Objectivist principles couldn’t sustain an actual society, so Rapture was always doomed to fall. This DLC however shows that Ryan had actually succeeded in putting down Frank Fontaine’s rebellion, until Elizabeth came along and undid all of his work. So yes, Elizabeth indirectly saved Sally, by arranging events such that Jack would eventually return her to the surface, but she also caused the deaths of the untold thousands of people who lived in Rapture.
But the saddest thing about this is that it ends with both of the BioShock Infinite main characters dying ignominiously, having accomplished nothing much of consequence. Even the protagonists of the two previous games, sad their fates were, had satisfying endings. It’s like Ken Levine saying goodbye to all of the fans with a final “fuck you!” I had to play through because I’m a completionist, but most people are probably right not to bother.
