All good things come to an end. Ken Levine (Ken Levine) leaves Irrational Games, and with him goes the whole… No, let’s abandon the farewell-tragic pathos that has hit the entire gaming community. There is no one to bury: the developer is already working on a new project, and BioShock will certainly continue to exist. Still, the rights to cult series, like manuscripts, do not burn – they will definitely end up in someone’s hands. But almost everyone is sure that the series will never be the same again. Nevertheless, they don’t make plans for the future, but you need to have time to enjoy the present. Fortunately, there is a worthy reason for this: Ken Levine I didn’t leave in English, but said my farewell words, which turned out to be the second plot addition for BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea – Episode Two.

Kindly admire

BioShock – one of the rare series in which the story and setting are of paramount importance in relation to the gameplay. Studying the environment here is much more interesting than shooting and fighting. And this is not at all because the shooter component is weak. Simply thanks to the incredibly detailed script and deep atmosphere, the world draws you in, inspiring exploration. This has even given some reason to claim that Infinite would look more organically in the quest format. Still, shooting and simultaneously resolving the quantum paradoxes of space and time in your mind is not an easy task.

It seems, Ken Levine I liked the role of the great hoaxer. Plot omissions that leave room for the viewer’s imagination are intoxicating and attractive no worse than the most spectacular action. To achieve commercial success, "mystery" series have a proven path: questions must be answered with questions, and it does not matter whether there is in fact a final explanation for the events taking place. The main thing is to maintain intrigue. Screenwriters from Valve have mastered this skill perfectly. But, unlike them, the creators Burial at Sea: Episode Two still not deprived of conscience and honestly answered most of the questions that interested fans.

The second episode picks up where the first ended. Booker is dead, Elizabeth somehow suffers from memory loss and can’t use her powers. She is driven only by the desire to save the girl Sally, who is in the hands of Atlas. Yes, the expansion takes place in both legendary universes. Moreover, the plot affirms their unity and interdependence. Along the way, we’ll visit both Rapture and Columbia, meeting iconic characters from both cities, and discovering unexpected connections between them.

Thesis, antithesis, synthesis

However, to detect them Burial at Sea – Episode Two will require the user to have an extensive gaming background. To understand the numerous dialogues and subtle references, you need to have a good knowledge of the content of all previous parts of the series. Otherwise, the addition will seem like a surreal nonsense, full of wonderful scenery and incomprehensible conversations.

Level designers Irrational Games this time they outdid themselves. All details, be it notes on boards, posters, monuments or books and magazines, are not randomly scattered throughout the levels, but complement and clarify the main storyline. Things have their own history, they are not silent decorations: they have their own language, in which they try to convey a certain meaning to the player. No one will bring you a ready-made version of what really happened on a golden platter. You’ll have to put the puzzle together yourself. Whether you can do this depends only on your powers of observation and imagination. But every reference seen and mystery solved gives some kind of discoverer’s joy. And that’s all BioShock.

First of all, we are playing with our own imagination. Burial at Sea – Episode Two, on the one hand, it solves existing mysteries, and on the other, it answers questions that we didn’t even know about. There is a lot of information, and in endless attempts to correlate the known old and the unexpectedly emerging new, you will spend the last hours on the final chapter of Elizabeth’s adventures. But, as we have already said, with all this Ken Levine put an end to his departure. Beautiful and quite unambiguous.

The circle of the great series is closed: Burial at Sea – Episode Two in a sense, can be considered as a prequel to the events of the first part. It’s unlikely that during the creation of the first Bioshock Levin I had already thought through his backstory, but the events of the second episode fit into the narrative organically and appropriately. Let sometimes tirades about constants and variables look forced and artificial – Infinite It’s hard to imagine without them. However, in addition to pseudoscientific speculation, the basis here is a human drama – the story of the troubles and suffering of Elizabeth, sacrificing herself in the name of a higher goal.

Burial at Sea – Episode Two infinitely beautiful. The artists managed not only to recreate the original flavor of Rapture and Columbia, but also to surpass themselves, making the new world sparkle with new colors. This is a rare case when, out of several hundred screenshots taken, there are almost no unsuccessful ones – I want to share every angle, every view encountered in this world.

Goodbye Booker

Most of the time professor-wins-casino.co.uk we’ll just be wandering around Rapture, exploring the surrounding area. BioShock it is customary to blame the monotony of the shooter component. Now this argument from ill-wishers is not entirely true. This time the reproach for the monotony of local stealth will be more relevant.

The main character has the skills to move quietly and quietly eliminate opponents. The enemies’ vision is poor, so there is no trace of Garrett’s “shadow” games here. Everything is much simpler: we hide behind cover, wait until the enemy turns his back, sneak up and stun him. Splicers are not particularly observant, and even if we get into the mutant’s field of vision, we can hide or brazenly run up to him and puzzle him “head on.”. In general, stealth looks somewhat primitive due to the stupidity of artificial intelligence.

Traditional “plasmid-gun” methods have also not been canceled. But in this case, you will inevitably have to face some problems. The arsenal has been greatly reduced: Elizabeth has only a shotgun, a revolver and a crossbow with sleeping darts at her disposal. The ammunition that the girl once regularly tossed to Booker is now in short supply – open firefights with large groups of opponents are far from the best option. Among the combat plasmids, the most pacifist ones remained, such as freezing and subordinating the will of the enemy. True, some of them expand the heroine’s stealth capabilities. So, Elizabeth can see through walls, and when the plasmid is improved, she can become invisible.

The villains for the most part are also not very varied. Only monotonous splicers roam Rapture. Some of them carry buckets on their heads, making them difficult to stun. You will also meet Big Daddy, who, however, cannot be killed. The character leveling system was also removed from the DLC as unnecessary. Everything has become somewhat simpler, but thanks to the strong surroundings of Rapture, the “lightweight” mechanics are perceived calmly, and the expansion is completed in one breath.

Burial at Sea: Episode Two quite short. A couple of hours is enough to go over the heads of your opponents before the final credits. But this is not at all the way creation should go through Irrational Games. To understand its charm, you need to completely surrender to all your perceptual and intellectual abilities: look, listen, notice details, put together scenario puzzles and simply enjoy the fact of being in the world. In some ways the second episode can be compared to a contemplative Dear Esther: half of the action takes place on the screen, and the second – in the fantasy and imagination of the player, who completes and interprets the story in his own way.

Pros: complex and multifaceted plot; abundance of “talking” details; amazing design.
Cons: shooter options are limited and stealth mechanics are too simple.

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea – Episode Two

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Burial at Sea: Episode Two is quite short. A couple of hours is enough to go over the heads of your opponents before the final credits.

O_o
I walked for four hours. At the same time, I still didn’t search through all the nooks and crannies to the end, I didn’t find several diaries and several improvements for plasmids.
And I would also put the disadvantage of the addition that for some reason it is trying to connect Columbia and Rapchur more closely than it should. Because I don’t know how to start playing the first Bioshock now, knowing what a big role Elizabeth and quantum physics played in its events with all sorts of gaps, but about which there is not a single hint in Bioshock 1. And Levin practically put an end to Bioshock 2, as if it never existed :/
I still really liked the addition though. For such a price it turned out to be a very solid and fat piece of the game.

Of the examples about HL, only the competitor Black Mesa is suitable, because all the other listed events take place much after the events of the first part. But Aperture didn’t have as close a connection to Black Mesa as Elizabeth from BaS did with Rapture, because all of BaS turns out to be a prequel to Bioshock 1, and a pretty solid and influential prequel at that.
And here the problem of trust in the story being told comes up. Competent authors and screenwriters leave themselves clues for future plot changes and some drastic global events. A good example is Harry Potter, where Harry’s godfather is briefly mentioned in the prologue of the first book, so in the third volume he does not look like a piano in the bushes. That is, we clearly know that Rowling came up with the character ahead of time, he existed in this universe from the very beginning, the author did not try to write him in backwards. And in Bioshock, it feels like Levin didn’t even think about any parallel universes during the first part, so his attempts to rewrite Rapchur’s story seven years later look fake, because he didn’t leave himself any clues for this.
Plus, again, Levin completely denies Bioshock 2, which also affects the integrity of the game universe. Tea, not some kind of spin-off, but a full-fledged second part, albeit from other people.

Well, actually, it’s like that in everything. If you play the first Half-Life, you will not find the slightest references to the Alliance, the totalitarian regime, City 17 and the rival laboratory from Portal. On the contrary, I even like it. Because when we played the first Bioshock, we could not even suspect which way the plot would go. It seems like a complete story – but no, it is acquiring more and more new details and nuances, and the world is opening up more and more.

This shows the situation of a “Lion with a Thorn in His Paw”. This topic was revealed in detail by the plot 😉 The gist is this: a certain Leva (Daddy, Nightingale, etc.).n.) destroys/breaks everyone, but he also has a weak point (Adam for Daddy, unconnected breathing block for Nightingale). Allegory – a paw caught in a splinter. So the one (Sisters, Elizabeth) who will pull out this “thorn” (will help Daddy with the necessary substance, or connect a special.Nightingale block), that Lev will protect. If I’m not stupid and don’t remember anything, then this idea was described in the same Mowgli. He seemed to pull a thorn out of someone’s paw (either Akela or Balu), and they joyfully called him a blood brother. Something like this.

After finishing the game, nothing fit in my head, I had to sit and think, just like in Infinite, what happened and how. Of course it’s a pity that such an amazing series ended, but it ended brilliantly. It’s bad that you can count such games on one hand.

You all went a little into the wrong steppe)):
In the finale of Infinite, Booker is drowned BEFORE he has made his choice: to be baptized or not. Thus, both the path of the Prophet and the path of the False Shepherd are “cut off”. This DOES NOT MEAN that the reality of Comstock and Columbia, as well as the fact of the sale of Anna, are erased from the space-time continuum. Remember the words of Lutes: “He lived, he lives, he will live. Died, dying, will die."; "What’s done is done. What’s done… will be done."Also to quote Levine himself: "The main problem is that when you try to explain game mechanics from a linear point of view, things get very confusing. Timeline gets confusing. As Einstein said, “The only reason for the existence of time is that all events cannot happen at the same time.”. “This is the way we perceive reality.“That is, you make the mistake of imagining time and cause-and-effect as a straight road: behind is the past (cause), ahead is the future (effect), where you stand is the present. In fact, neither the past nor the future exists, and ALL EVENTS HAPPEN AT THE SAME TIME. People are simply limited by the narrowness of their three-dimensional perception, so they don’t feel it. That is, by drowning Booker the Sinner and preventing him from turning into either a Prophet or a False Shepherd, Elizabeth DOES NOT DESTROY REALITY, but only CREATES another one, completely free from Booker and his legacy. There also remains a world where Booker did not go to baptism at all and, thanks to Elizabeth, got a chance to live his life differently.

So you say where the Elizabeths and Bookers came from in the second episode. In my opinion, everything is as simple as a door: the ending is looped, that is, the events of bioshock returned to the first part. This means that this whole story has turned into an eternal cycle, so as not to influence the normal development of other Universes (yes, there are a lot of them here). You ask: “What does the series have in common with the latest Elizabeth and Booker?”? The answer is also simple: Lutes. These gentlemen with their car got into places they didn’t need to, opening many Universes. When they realized that they had done something wrong, they clearly needed to fix it all. It was then that they decided to stage this truly grandiose performance with gaps and time paradoxes. Their task was to loop all their jambs so as not to disrupt the normal development of other Universes. But they couldn’t afford to build 9,000 cars, so they decided to use a serious combination to create a certain Elizabeth. Or rather, take a certain person and force him to be in two Universes at the same time, so that he (this person) can independently travel through the Universes, arranging a certain order there. Let me remind you that when Lizzie was a baby, a closing portal cut off her finger, leaving him in another Universe. Why do the Lutes need Elizabeth?? The fact is that she is Booker-Comstock’s daughter, that is, someone, and he will trust her most of all. The booker itself is a kind of universal point for all Universes. More precisely, not he himself, but his baptism. In short, the Lutes had to invite Booker to Columbia under any pretext, because getting a girl out of there would be more difficult than giving a job to an alcoholic and a gambler. Let’s skip the minor events of Infinite, moving on to its ending: there Elizabeth killed all the Bookers, but. (It’s time for quantum physics). So yes, the Universe is not deterministic, that is, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applies: it is impossible to predict the future of the Universe, knowing its beginning and development. In the episodes it was stated that there was one door that Elizabeth could not look into. For her it was something like the event horizon. And it was precisely this last door that was the last link in that huge cycle that the Lutes stirred up. Their task was to bring the girl to this previously inaccessible Universe, where they had to kill Booker, and! *time to sigh dramatically* and Elizabeth herself, so that she doesn’t reveal too much. At the beginning of the second episode, both Elizabeth and the last Booker were killed. Everything would be fine, only in this Universe there existed an ordinary Elizabeth – without supernatural abilities. And this is the “ordinary” one we play for. Her task is to complete the cycle. This was clearly the most dangerous part of the cycle for the Lutes: if Elizabeth had died ahead of time, the cycle would not have closed; if she had died later, a kind of space-time spiral would have started. But the Lutes clearly managed to correct what they had done, they looped history, getting rid of the tools with which they acted: Elizabeth and Booker. Well, and on this occasion, they truly trolled both of them throughout the entire adventure in Colombia and in the episodes where they needed to push them to the right decision. For they would never have been mere observers, otherwise their plan might have failed.
You ask: “Addict, what kind of plan is this?? How do you know this?"I will say: "I stoned I thought about what the Lutes actually forgot about this whole story, and why it ended up being cyclical.”. After taking the necessary substances, I thought that my version dots the “i”s quite well. And no time paradoxes. They are stupidly unnecessary. How phlogiston or ether was not needed =)

I understand your, on the one hand, righteous indignation about the absence of some important references to Infinite and Burial At Sea in the original, but still this is really a common thing for sequels with similar twists. In 2007, Ken Levine clearly didn’t even have an outline of the current plot of Infinite, so he didn’t have time to hide the pianos in the bushes. As for a similar situation in Harry Potter, Rolling wrote the first part long before its publication, it was just a fairy tale for a child relative and did not contain many moments similar to those you mentioned. And only when she realized that she would continue the story and make preliminary sketches, she began to simultaneously adapt ready-made material for them. Irrational Games did not have such privileges; as soon as they completed development, the game went into print. I think if the gap between the final build and the release was as impressive as that of Rolling, then in the original Rapture one could find mention of gaps, flying cities and girls from restaurants. In Half Life, Kleiner and Eli also do not appear as independent characters (only later they were tied to two passable extras), and Alex and, more importantly, Brin, the Alliance and the Advisors do not appear at all in the original, and yet it is on them that the sequel is built. These are ubiquitous problems with sequels that had not yet formed as such at the time of the original. There’s nothing you can do about it. And the last word from me in defense of the authors – if the original does not leave any clues for a continuation, then at least it does not contradict it and fits very organically into the overall picture. And as for the second part – she is a bastard, born not at the will of the creator of the original, from other people, from under carbon paper in order to “skim off the cream”, moreover, she is a filler from the point of view of the storyline of the original and Infinite.

I could go on and on about how much I adore bioshock and how episode 2 has been depriving me of nights right from the moment it came out, but alas..

It’s sad that Levin answered almost all the questions. Where it’s strange, where it’s great, where it’s a little incomprehensible… but the icing on the cake in bioshocks was that bioshock gave you questions, many of which you could find the answer to yourself, if you just really tried. Alas, after this I was left with a feeling of, excuse me, “not being fucked”. It’s as if you were deprived of all the sweetest things, but it was so good that your head says “that was wonderful,” and your heart “you’ve been deprived of that “sweetest” thing that made us think about bioshock for weeks without a break.”.

Well, Levin has untied his hands with the ties of a publisher and a major studio, so I’m just waiting for his new project. And I wish 2K not to disturb bioshock. All the best things must end on time.

I liked the second one. Perhaps not as original as the first one, and there are almost no new plasmids, but it’s still nice to be back in Rapture again.

No, when in the finale they killed the nightingale, moving into rapchur, the phoenix, how could I say it, screamed, and in the first bioshock one could hear just the cry of the phoenix, exactly. This is awesome. A small detail, but it makes you think that in the first bioshock, Elizabeth and Booker teleported to you, with a phoenix.

I think when she died because of Daddy who killed Booker, all versions of Elizabeth died. And we are not playing as Elizabeth (there is no way to open gaps and there is a little finger). T.e. Elizabeth with a Little Finger is a collection of ALL Elizabeths without little fingers, and, accordingly, when she died in the end, then ALL Elizabeths died. It’s the same with Booker, at the end of the original Infinite all the Bookers were killed, and a “United” version of the Bookers appeared, but he is Comstock, who repented and went to Rapture, and… Damn, Comstock is an offshoot of Booker, and cannot be the “Gathering”! I’m confused myself. What if they simply divided by zero?? 😀

the first scene in Paris is so amazing that I probably spent about an hour there. each object is positioned so competently that no matter how you stand, no matter where you look, you get a great picture everywhere.
I filmed a bunch of videos and recorded them for dream scenes

I think this is some kind of convention. Roughly speaking, we were shown the general concept, but the fact that someone artificially forced the girls to save their daddies or someone like the woman who took care of the sisters did something else – we have to figure that out ourselves

Still, the rights to cult series, like manuscripts, do not burn – they will definitely end up in someone’s hands.

Well, I’m talking about Suchong in general, but the screenshot with Elizabeth is also quite good. For those who haven’t played it yet, the impression of what they see will certainly subside a little in intensity.

The addition turned out to be strong in terms of pressure on the most acute feelings of fans – nostalgia and curiosity. The intensity of the game on information remains. There is a lot of it here. But still not enough. Because not all questions are answered. And the ending was most likely not an attempt to surprise or confuse even more, but a forced measure, the conditions of which were created by the last game and the previous addition. Although it is not without charm, like the starts of both additions, but after the bright Paris-dream-girl-damn-I-want-to-go there too, to see what she came to – it’s tough. But it was inevitable. Crap! Yes, one could have guessed, because
No, really – Booker dies at the end of the game, right?? Comstock is executed quite vividly at the end of the expansion. Even the mountain of the first part dies down in the final video)))
The result is Game of the Year Addition of the Year. Because the gameplay is also good, although there are some holes in the balance. For example, you can simply bludgeon everyone from invis when you find both modifiers for the spy. Salts are not consumed by standing still. All! You stupidly wait for your opponents to turn yellow, hit the closest one, and back into the darkness. Although the shooters may be filled with bullets, they can move a little, though?