Ken Levine Defends BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea Length

[Andy Chalk]

Ken Levine Defends BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea Length

BioShock creator Ken Levine says the Burial At Sea DLC is meant to offer "a whole new experience" rather than a lengthy one.

In his review of the first part of the Burial At Sea DLC for BioShock Infinite, Paul Goodman describes it as "too damn short [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/10730-BioShock-Infinite-Burial-at-Sea-Review]," saying it clocks in at around two hours, "even if you do some exploration on the side." If you hustle, you can wrap things up even faster.

But Levine said it's about "quality over quantity," and while he thinks that players who "dig deeply" should be able to squeeze at least three hours out of it, he also acknowledged that it's not particularly long, and it's not for everyone.

"I think there are definitely people who are like, 'Well, I want hours and hours of gameplay'. I think if that is your primary metric, this probably isn't the thing for you," Levine told Eurogamer. "If you want to feel like, 'Wow, I just got a whole new experience' - that's what you get out of this."

Levine said Burial At Sea can't compete on length with something like Minvera's Den for BioShock 2 because while that DLC reused existing assets, Burial At Sea features a completely rebuilt Rapture. "[From early on] we knew we wanted to do something with Booker and Elizabeth and we had a sense that Rapture could be the thing. And probably foolishly we thought we'd go back in and 'kitbash' a load of BioShock 1 assets. Then we thought no, god, that's a terrible idea, that's not fair and it's not going to look good," Levine said.

"We have this new engine so we should take advantage of it. And, hey, let's make all the shops and build 3D scenes out of the window which we never had in BioShock 1. And let's put people in the world and make it all huge and shiny and build everything fresh - or almost everything fresh," he continued. "So yeah, we got carried away a little bit, I won't deny it. But, hey, I don't want to work on something that I feel is kind of a B in quality. You might as well go for it. The company is okay with it, so why the hell not?"

Still, two hours? That's pretty damn short. BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea [http://www.bioshockinfinite.com/burial-at-sea-ep1] comes out tomorrow.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-11-ken-levine-defends-bioshock-infinite-burial-at-seas-episode-1s-length]


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[Reaper195]

$15 bucks for two hours of something that probably should have come out about six months ago?

I'm fine with the length if the content is good. I'm not fine with the price, the fact that we're going back to fucking Rapture (Done with that place after the fetch quest cluster fuck the first game was), or the fact that as somewhat that bought the season pass, I'm fucking disgusted with having done so considering what's been offered...and it's the only time I ever thought buying a Season Pass wouldn't be bullshit.

 

[Ticklefist]

I'd planned to spend my day playing this tomorrow. Now I wonder if it'll hit at midnight so I can bang it out before bed.

 

[Frostbite3789]

its dlc. thats acceptable.
stop making mountains out of molehills.

Oh. Well it's just DLC, I guess it gets a pass. Guys, everyone calm down, it's just DLC.$15 worth of DLC. Nevermind I just finished Missing Link for Dues Ex: HR, which was like $10 maybe I think? And I clocked a few hours with it.

 

[deathbydeath]

its dlc. thats acceptable.
stop making mountains out of molehills.

No, it isn't (at least not at that price). You can purchase Bastion for just as much, which is three times as long (and presumably has far more actual replay value and possible experimentation than BaS) and far more unique and original than Burial at Sea.

OP: The ideas that Burial at Sea is "something we haven't seen before" is bullshit, and I feel comfortable saying that never having played Infinite or this DLC.

 

[tzimize]

God I hate DLC. I really REALLY hate DLC.

 

[Another]

I dunno. Maybe if I was getting both episodes for 15 dollars, I'd be onboard. But if part 2 is also about 2 hours, that's 30 dollars for four hours. That's not to say that if it's really high quality that it won't be worth it, but it better blow my goddamn mind at that price.

 

[BartyMae]

its dlc. thats acceptable.
stop making mountains out of molehills.

Oh. Well it's just DLC, I guess it gets a pass. Guys, everyone calm down, it's just DLC.$15 worth of DLC. Nevermind I just finished Missing Link for Dues Ex: HR, which was like $10 maybe I think? And I clocked a few hours with it.

go on.

and tell me if it has something to do with the fact that it came out on october 2011.

there are other games that were suprisingly good but short and maybe some of you didnt pick up the episode one in "the Burial at Sea: Episode One" title.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/10/25/bioshock-infinite-burial-at-sea-release-date-announced/
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/bioshock-infinite-burial-at-sea-ep-1-is-2-3-hours-long/1100-6415495/

Not entirely sure if it detracts from your point, but I was curious and went ahead and looked up its original price [http://web.archive.org/web/20110812132814/http://store.steampowered.com/app/107100/]. Still $15.

 

[Smooth Operator]

So you blew your budget on pretty and now we are paying for it... I think not, let us know once you got the complete game put together at a reasonable price.

 

[Story]

Jeez that 2 hour experience is seriously $15?!
Now I would understand if it was $5, like I first thought, but at $15 it can't really justify itself. Quality experience or no, sorry Levine.

 

[SlightlyEvil]

Hmm. Honestly, I'd be OK with this if the price were around $10, but $15 for 2 hours is kind of silly.

 

[TheCaptain]

Kinda feels like a goddamn waste, doesn't it? A "fully rebuilt" rapture should've significantly more to offer than being hurried through it within two hours...

 

[loa]

So they cut it short to make it shiny?
Is that what happened here?
Also "new experience", what does that even mean? Is there any replay value at all? Is the story any good?

I remember when "dlc" was still called expansion packs and added content that truly enriched the game instead of being fluff.
You know, the diablo 2: Lord of destruction and starcraft: Brood war times.
Shit that made you pick up the game again because of all the cool new stuff you could now do.
Whatever happened to that?
Why does most DLC have to be made with budgeted effort as if it was some sort of shitty mobile phone app nowadays?
Is that some sort of unspoken rule I missed?

DLC seemed like such an an exciting prospect when it first came up but what we got instead was horse armor.

 

[JarinArenos]

Seems a crying shame to build a living Rapture, then have it blow past without using it. I mean, if that "Episode One" tag meant you were also buying on to Ep 2 and 3, that'd be one thing, but value-for-time, this is about as expensive as normal entertainment gets.

Regarding Capcha: Progressive, your annoying ads have guaranteed that I will never buy your insurance.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

These guys claim that they cut out more than 75% of original Bioshock Infinite because it didn't belong in the final product. That game took roughly 12h to complete. They can make that amount of content and cut it out, but they can't make quality DLC that lasts at least 5h? I'm glad I didn't buy the season pass. I'm not installing Bioshock: Infinite again just so I could download a 2h DLC. I'll get it when it's $5. Quality is important, but so is quantity. 2h is too short for a $15 DLC. If this was released in the summer when nothing else is being released then I'd consider it. But this is the busiest part of the year. So many titles are coming out that gamers really want. I can't imagine a lot of people forking out $15 for 2h of content.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Hmm. Honestly, I'd be OK with this if the price were around $10, but $15 for 2 hours is kind of silly.

My thoughts exactly.

It might be a new experience, but quite honestly, there are a bunch of "new experiences" I can get out of that game, or out of many games alone, that are far less expensive than $15.

If some people are so scrapped for a BioShock fix, there are plenty of awesome BioShock LP's that give a unique perspective on it. Those are freer than $15, and probably last more than 2 hours.

DLC prices are inflated. It's annoying and it really detracts from the sincerity that the devs might have.

 

[lancar]

2 hours? Seriously?

I'm not likely to pick that up until at least a -75% discount on steam... so, I guess I'll "experience" this in a year or two, then. Or never, depending on how much I give a shit about Infinite by then.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Interesting, I only paid about $6.67 for it... and the first wave-dlc and the next one so, I'm not complaining. Its less than a movie would cost, and I get to replay it anytime I want.
I've heard arguments about how Diablo II had an expansion pack, but really it was one extra area and 2 classes for $30. That was in 2001. U can argue about that, but I paid just about $40 for diablo 2 when it came out and for ten bucks less I got 1/4 the game and 2/5 of the classes plus some rune-stuff that people would argue today "But that could be patched in for freee!!!!"
Now people complain about DLC that is around $7 (going by the season pass). How things have changed...

 

[Sight Unseen]

I dunno, man. Two hours? What kind of a story can you tell in two hours of videogame? Even Portal had three times that much.

Either the gameplay will be almost nonexistant or the story will be really undeveloped.

Wait... did you just say that Portal takes 6 hours to beat? I beat Portal in about an hour and a half to two hours on my first blind play through, and can routinely beat it in about 45 minutes now.

And it's one of my favorite games ever. So yeah... about that 2 hour thing? As long as it's a GOOD two hours, then it could be fine. Now for $15 I'm not sure I'll buy it straight away, but there's nothing wrong with a good, solid two hour story

 

[Grabehn]

So they cut it short to make it shiny?
Is that what happened here?
Also "new experience", what does that even mean? Is there any replay value at all? Is the story any good?

I remember when "dlc" was still called expansion packs and added content that truly enriched the game instead of being fluff.
You know, the diablo 2: Lord of destruction and starcraft: Brood war times.
Shit that made you pick up the game again because of all the cool new stuff you could now do.
Whatever happened to that?
Why does most DLC have to be made with budgeted effort as if it was some sort of shitty mobile phone app nowadays?
Is that some sort of unspoken rule I missed?

DLC seemed like such an an exciting prospect when it first came up but what we got instead was horse armor.

Making a quick buck, that's what happened to Expansion packs. Why would a company make an almost entirely new game content-wise, and charge about $40 when you can make a 2 hour-whatever and charge 15 bucks? *cough* CoD map packs *cough*

Can I have a whole knew experience that is reasonably priced? At 15 bucks that's $ 7.50 an hour. I don't pay that much to see a 2 hour movie, even in 3D! I'm all about Quality-Over-Quantity, but I can get both from games half that price.

Were do you go to the cinema? The standard ticket price near me is $18 and 3D is $23.50.

Who the fuck pays that much? Over here it's $7 for normal and $10 for the 3D stuff, with the freaking popcorn racking up to about $12. Fucking popcorn.