Burial At Sea > Bioshock Infinite Thread - Free Debate Community

When I first delved into Bioshock Infinite I was intrigued, wondering what I'd be introduced to next. The floating buildings perfectly floating from one point to another, the a capella group on that ship near the start, the jolly little song before revealing this place to be incredibly racist. But then that started to go away. I was introduced to some combat and more combat, reaching Elizabeth's tower and thinking to myself "that took a few minutes longer than I expected." Pretty much most of the earlier part of the game was decently paced, there was just enough divergence from combat introducing you to the world to satisfy the hunger for more lore that grew midst spats of combat. But then that went away.

There was less and less focus on the world and far much more focus on getting from point A to point B sometime in the earlier-middle part of the game. Combat suddenly consumed the story which by then really didn't make much sense to me, pretty much having to genocide half the floating city to reach point B. And I'm not even talking about lunonarrative dissonance, Booker's a violent man yes but I came here to see an interesting world not shoot people with lackluster guns and the same vigors from the previous games. The earlier part promised lore, story, interaction with the world that isn't just Elizabeth tossing random things I need at me. But that simply came to a halt at a point.

In the end sure it tossed a giant wad of information at the player but the previous few hours were practically a drought of pretty much everything but shooting baddies and getting to point C, G K, Q, or wherever the hell it is we're venturing off to. Sure, the story was great, I can't dispute that, I enjoyed the living hell out of the world, how it was presented in most instances if too few, and easily count it among the better stories I've ever played through. But that's just it, it was a good story.

Then Burial at Sea came along not too long ago, reintroducing us to Rapture and a new Booker. The beginning was a nice introduction to what it's like there when splicers haven't gone and destroyed the place and you get a general feel for how things flow. Elizabeth is still interesting but from another direction as you wonder what her motives are. The combat that you are eventually thrusted into in is far more gritty as you will sometimes actually run out of ammo and have to either mele or use plasmids to dispatch your foes.

What makes Burial at Sea simply better as a whole for me however is the fact that they didn't feel the need to constantly have you fighting from start to finish. You encounter a decent group of enemies who can kill you easily enough, sure but there isn't a horde of them and you don't have a mountain of ammo in your pockets, nor are they bullet-sponges. Between little spats of combat there's usually some interaction with Elizabeth to some end. In all its just outright better if not perfectly paced for what I feel Bioshock is, a story that uses a first person shooter as a medium to tell said story and to do it the other way around is a complete mistake.

Plus the end is just fucking awesome, especially so because I'm a terrible person.

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Everything has a purpose, the Emperor ordains it so.
We go where we wilt.
We slay who we wilt.

Let the Him judge the righteousness of our deeds.