In his reviewofBioShock Infinite’sfirst DLC, Chris Carter says thatBurial at Sealasts “a solid hour or so, and you can tack on another hour or two… if you want to explore everything.” For a first episode, that seems fairly reasonable but of course some folks aren’t happy. Speaking to Eurogamer, Irrational Games head Ken Levinedefended the length of the episode.
“If you zip through it then it’s not a hugely long experience,” Ken explains, “but if you dig deep it’s probably three hours plus, if you really dig deep. But it’s not the longest thing in the world.” He points out that the easier option would have been to set the game in Columbia and simply re-use assets from the main game. In Chris’s review, he noted the return to Rapture and the noir setting counted for little when actually playing the game, sans the conclusion, which is a shame as I really liked what the setup shown in the trailer.
Of course there’s still a battle to convince a lot of people, that the length of a game doesn’t necessarily correlate to its quality. In recent years, I’ve started to really enjoy fairly short, self-contained games, so the idea of exploring Rapture again even for just a few short hours, is appealing. “I’m very respective of people’s time and money,” Ken says. “…I don’t read people’s household budgets and I can’t tell them what they should buy. We chose quality over quantity.”
Ken Levine defends BioShock Infinite Burial At Sea episode 1’s length[Eurogamer]
