What began as a disappointing follow-up to an amazing adventure has redeemed itself with BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2. This second and final chapter atones for all of its predecessor’s mistakes, including its brevity. Over its five hours, it’s subtler in its story execution than the first Burial, far more focused thanks to a change to stealth-driven gameplay, and deftly manages to feel as much like closure for BioShock 1’s story of Rapture as it does a conclusion for Infinite’s Columbia tale.

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The first thing Episode 2 does right is to flip you into Elizabeth’s shoes instead of Booker’s. Oh, he’s still involved… sort of… and you’re still desperately searching Rapture for a Little Sister named Sally, but the way the plot unfolds from Elizabeth’s perspective gives the whole thing a weight that affects the stories of both BioShock 1 and Infinite.Elizabeth doesn’t have much of a health bar compared to Booker, and she’s without her tear-making powers as well (you’ll see why). She feels vulnerable, and Episode 2 uses this to its fullest advantage by turning this final expedition through Rapture into a challenge of stealth. Delightfully, you can complete this chapter of Burial at Sea without killing a soul. Evasion, melee attacking unaware foes, and the new Peeping Tom plasmid that lets you see through walls enable successful stealth, but the real sneaky fun comes from the new crossbow. Arm it with distracting noisemaker darts, silent sleeping darts, or mob-mollifying gas darts and you can really have a ball tiptoeing your way through Rapture. I found the stealth twist to BioShock’s typically loud and violent gameplay to be both welcome and invigorating.This chapter of Burial at Sea is also paced infinitely better than the last one. Whereas Episode 1 seemed to be in a rush to get to the end credits as quickly as possible, Episode 2 mixes in long stretches of pencils-down non-combat sections, taking you on expositional journeys that bring the BioShock story full-circle, and giving the tale proper time to breathe in the process. Stealth gameplay is a natural fit for the story, whether by design or accident. And because Burial at Sea Episode 2 goes back in time to before BioShock 1 began, it enables clever backstory fill-ins for the original game. That’s taken full advantage of, with more info on the origins of the Big Daddies and background on both BioShock 1 and Infinite’s gallery of villains.My primary complaint is that Burial at Sea Episode 2 often suffers from Fetch Questitis. No task ever drags on too long over the DLC’s five-hour runtime, but when one job turns into a three-part scavenger hunt, it is a bit eyeroll-inducing. That, and considering how long it’s been since Infinite came out, even with the appreciated “Previously on BioShock” video to help jog my memory, I still kinda wanted Creative Director Ken Levine to magically appear on my couch and explain the whole thing to me after it ended. You might want to check out an in-depth plot refresher before diving in.