From the Vault — originally published February 22, 2010. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.
It’s no secret that I was a huge fan of the original Bioshock. The story and mystery surrounding the underwater dystopia of Rapture was one of the most intriguing and compelling to ever grace a videogame. I was understandably very excited when I heard they announced a sequel but not too happy that development of the game would be split between a bunch of different studios. However when screen shots and gameplay videos started to emerge it seemed like Bioshock 2 was going to surpass the original in every way. The outcome is a little different. The game is good for what it is but it falters at not trying to further advance the genre in anyway and for the most part I just kept getting the seen it all before and more of the same kind of feeling.
The game again is set in Rapture 10 years after the events of the original Bioshock. The protagonist and player-controlled character is a Big Daddy, a being that has had its organs and skin grafted into an atmospheric diving suit. Among the first of its kind, the player-controlled Big Daddy reactivates with no recollection of the past decade’s events, and scours the city in an attempt to relocate the Little Sister that he was paired with. When it becomes obvious that Rapture’s new leader Sofia Lamb will become responsible for the city’s destruction, the Big Daddy attempts to overthrow Lamb and her army of Big Sisters.
If you played the original Bioshock you will have no problems with the games set up. The Big Daddy controls like the protagonist from the first game, only this time the developers have incorporated a melee button and the ability to dual-wield weapons along with the returning plasmids. This allows for some pretty great ways of finishing off foes. My favorite being able to freeze a splicer into a block of ice and blast him into a million pieces with a shotgun. It was always fun to do things like that. With the different variations of the plasmids you can collect, along with all the different weapons and ammo types you could spend quite a few hours deciding which ones suit your play style best.
The shooting mechanics in the first Bioshock was never it’s strong point. The aiming accuracy was always a little off and the developers didn’t seem to tackle this issue within the new game. You play as a Big Daddy so you would think he would be able to have a pretty nifty shot, but not really, don’t be expecting to pull off superb headshots within this game. It’s not that easy. It’s something that you can get used to though, just don’t go in expecting accuracy like you would find in a Call of Duty game. Plasmids return with all their different variations, with a select few allowing for the now familiar easy ways to take out a few splicers. See a splicer in a pool of water. Shock it with the Electro Bolt and watch that splicer fry. The incinerator sets foes on fire, and it also used to melt ice. Nothing spectacular here, but still pretty fun.
The Hacking mini-game is back although this time the developers have decided to ditch the water pipes that pause the game and instead have opted for a mini game to play on the fly that incorporates stopping a moving needle onto a green tile that varies in thickness and those with better reflexes can try and stop the needle on the blue tiles which will grant them bonus’ such as extra ammo, first aid kits or even money if what you have just hacked is a safe. I like this set up a lot better. The water pipe mini-game got a little too frustrating the more the first game progressed and I’m happy it was ditched.
Now along with playing as a Big Daddy and with this being Rapture you are going to encounter Little Sisters. Throughout the city you will come across other Big Daddies who are being led by the little sisters to gather Adam. You have to defeat the Big Daddies in order for you to then be allowed to either adopt the little sister, or harvest her. The latter grants you with a more significant amount of Adam, but effectively kills the child. Those who decide to adopt the little sister will have pleasure of scouring the environments with her in search of the “Angels” that hold the Adam. When you come across a corpse of this kind you place the little sister down who will then proceed to gather the Adam. However, whilst doing this you will be ambushed by all manner of splicers and other big daddies. You can either choose to have a major shootout or be more strategic and place down traps within the vicinity, using the available resources such as Trap Rivets, Spear traps and Mini Turrets. You can always hack security bots too that will come to your aid. Each Little Sister can only gather Adam from 2 Angels at a time before you have to decide whether you will save or harvest her yourself.
You have a new foe this time around called the Big Sister, she is more agile and a lot more stronger than all the previous Big Daddies you will encounter. You would be wise to have a stock of first aid kits and armor piercing bullets before you try to fight her. Killing the Big Sisters off though will award you with ADAM.
Quite a lot was made this time around about being able to venture outside the walls of Rapture and walk along the sea floor, and well to me it just seems like a waste of time and didn’t really need to be in the game. These sections of the game just act as a platform to move between buildings. You will not face off against anyone or do anything worth while during these parts, hence the reason why I believe it wasn’t needed.
Along with the combat elements the game does reward you for exploring the environments. Coming across the audio diaries provides you with the games narrative. I think it’s a nice touch that it’s up to the player whether or not they decide to fully immerse themselves into the games story or not. If they want to rush to the end and found out what happens, it’s entirely up to them. You are not forced to find the audio diaries unless it’s strictly a mission based goal.
As I stated at the beginning of this review, the game is good but there is many faults. The game just feels too familiar now. Rapture seems to have lost the mystery surrounding it. Even the Little Sisters have lost their creepiness. All the environments look the same and the game play is still fundamentally the same, whether it be the inaccurate shooting mechanics or finding audio diaries for story elements, we experienced the same thing 3 years ago when the first Bioshock was released. That is my problem with the game. When the first one was released it was unique, I had never played a game like it. They really raised the bar for the genre, where as Bioshock 2 does nothing to move the series forward as it just feels totally generic. The graphics engine needs a serious boost, it just looks dated. The game is buggy also, people have told me how the game has crashed on them on more than one occasion and on the PS3 copy which I played there was far too much slowdown and choppiness. At one point the sound even cut out.
Even the online component can not redeem it’s flaws. It was a bad idea. The online for me was horrible, the maps are small and generic and when you have all the players shooting and firing plasmids at each other all at the same time it just becomes a complete mess. You can hardly see what is happening. You have your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch in there, as well as a few others and it may be fun for a couple of days but that will soon start to wear thin. I did like the online hub you have which is like your own little space where you can customize your character and load-out, but other than that there is nothing there that stands out from the crowd and would make me want to play it over games like Modern Warfare 2 or Uncharted 2 multiplayer. They should have left the online out because the overall gaming experience has not benefited from it, and if that’s the case then it has no reason to be In there. I think more time should have been spent on the single player campaign. Working on the graphics engine and trying to move the series forward.
Overall I think that if you enjoyed the first Bioshock then you will enjoy Bioshock 2, I know I have slated the game a bit but I did enjoy it. It’s just disappointing that a game with so much potential has turned out to be nothing more than a rehash of the original and does nothing to move the series or genre forward. The original is a far better experience.
