Parent's Guide: Burial at Sea - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Burial at Sea is a downloadable add-on for Bioshock Infinite that requires the original game disc to play. Set in the world of Rapture, the underwater paradise that had turned into a dystopia by the time of the original Bioshock, this is a peak at the world of Rapture before the fall, at its opulent finest.

Exploring the elegant Art Deco world, the game is split into two sections. The first half sees you searching for clues or pointers as you attempt to locate a missing young girl called Sally. With no guns or magic involved, you'll spend most of your time wandering the marble floors, staring in awe at the whales that come gliding past the huge floor to ceiling windows, as you eventually start to piece together what happens - and head off to the second part of the game, in Fontaine's Department Store. Here, things turn into more of a traditional first person shooter, only things are rather tricky. With enemies that can dish out a lot of damage, while taking a fair beating, and with ammo that's scarce to say the least, it can be something of a challenge.

Newer players may find the difficulty level somewhat off-putting, as the game can get quite tough - although you are instantly respawned, and plonked back into the world a short distance from where you died. Better yet, the enemies don't respawn, so you can progress through attrition. As a first person shooter, you'll have to be able to handle dual analogue controls (left stick moves, right stick looks around), while Rapture itself can be intimidating, or downright scary at times. Dealing with several adult subject matters, and with some rather violent deaths, parents will want to read the Questionable Content section to get the full picture about Burial at Sea. Sadly, only partial subtitling is available, as while all important dialogue (and many of the optional videos) are subtitled, the audio logs you collect, which further the backstory of the game, are not.

Set in a dystopian underwater city, Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea is a game that aims at an adult audience, and as such, takes in some rather adult materials.

While exploring the world, it's possible to pick up the cigarettes and alcohol you see lying around, and drink/smoke it. Drink too much, and your vision will go blurry for a few seconds, making it difficult to move around. Several characters make references to "going to bed" with other people, and one man is renting women as "companionship", but any references towards sex are so minor as to be non-existent. Swearing, too, is similarly rare, with the worst the game has to offer being the use of the word "b**tard" on a poster - "Don't let the b**tards see you sweat".

Violence, though, is another point. Proudly bloody and overtly violence, Burial at Sea is every bit as brutal as the Bioshock games that have come before it. You regularly come across mutilated bodies slumped in a pool of blood, and should you hold Y when a certain icon appears, you'll be able to use your sky hook to cut out your victim's throat, or snap their neck, as blood flies everywhere. One scene also sees a Big Daddy, the game's iconic baddies that have a drill for an arm, pierce the stomach of someone, with swirls of blood flying off their arm as the drill spins.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360