Be warned, there isn’t any option to avoid spoilers for Bioshock Infinite when discussing this DLC. In the event you haven’t finished the campaign (and don’t wish to be spoiled), back out now.

It’s been a very long time coming, however the DLC that fans of Bioshock Infinite’s mind-bending conclusion were watching for has finally been revealed. Later today, you’ll be capable of get the world-style Clash inside the Clouds add-on. Those folks desperate for more of Levine’s storycraft can be waiting a short time longer, though. Thankfully, from what I’ve seen thus far, our patience can pay off.

Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea could be delivered in two parts, and may comprise the rest content for the game’s season pass. The trailer we were shown occurs in Rapture, before the autumn. The year is 1958, and Booker DeWitt is a personal investigator in Andrew Ryan’s city under the ocean.

He meets Elizabeth, but not as we’ve known her. She is older, wiser, and more confident than the lady we meet in Columbia’s tallest tower.

“We kicked around a variety of ideas for what to do, and we ended up determining essentially the mostsome of the most complicated and dear one,” Levine said of the way Burial at Sea came to be. “I have this image in my head of Elizabeth dressed like a femme fatale entering Booker’s office in Rapture. Well, how will we get there? plenty of people have asked us to inform a narrative about pre-fall Rapture. To me, it wasn’t really interesting, because it’s the midichlorian problem. We already told the tale within the logs, so it’s going to just be demonstrating that, and that’s not surprising or interesting.”

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The first component of Burial at Sea occurs in two halves. In a departure from the ancient Bioshock gameplay, the 1st segment is with out combat. Investigation and exploration are crucial, as players learn more about how Ryan’s faithful followers lived and worked in Rapture. Familiar characters will make appearances, and Rapture’s most terrible menaces, the large Daddies, haven’t yet been converted from maintenance drones right into a protection detail for the little sisters.

I asked Levine why he decided to come back to Rapture after putting the city’s story to bed. Rapture isn’t the “main character” it was in Bioshock, instead taking a backseat to character development. “I think it was just a little confusing in that Infinite wasn’t as much about Columbia because it was about Booker and Elizabeth,” Levine told me. “I think it remains that. In Bioshock, we learned a good deal about Rapture, but here’s more in regards to the characters and about their evolution.”

During the journey, Booker and Elizabeth discover they have to visit Rapture’s makeshift prison. In an act of aggression against Fontaine, Ryan has sunk his nemesis’ department store, trapping most of the “business man’s” associates. Once there, the heroes find the familiar splicers that plagued players in Bioshock and Bioshock 2.

In an effort to offer protection to me from spoilers, Levine demurred on more detail, but he did tell the gang of journalists present at an earlier presentation that the second one a part of Burial at Sea shouldn’t put players in Booker’s shoes. Instead, we’ll be controlling Elizabeth, and we’ve been assured that she plays very differently. This is still a great deal her story, and neither she nor Booker have changed much despite Andrew Ryan’s philosophical influences.

“Neither of them are particularly ideological,” Levine explained “Their whole quest relates to children. Children are a theme in the entire games, and the effect of society on children like little sisters. Little sisters are very central to the tale.”

Creating Burial at Sea, that’s about to enter beta testing, was no small feat for Irrational. Only a few assets from the unique Bioshock were used, with most of what players will experience being produced from the floor up. And no, in the event you were wondering, the hacking minigame should not make an appearance.

Between a want to put the DLC within the hands of the team that made Bioshock Infinite (instead of farming the duty out), and the necessity to build an intricate recreation of Bioshock’s Rapture, the recent story content has taken more time than fans would have liked. In accordance with what we all know of Burial at Sea though, the wait was worth it.

Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Part One could be out later this year for $14.99.