While I doubt the writing team will be able to top what they did with the first game. The story in Bioshock 2 really was amazing. The first game sent you down into this unknown city of Rapture, having you learn about it as you go. It was amazing every step of the way. But by the time Bioshock 2 comes to light, you already know the city and it’s origins. This title has to carry itself on story alone, and they went the right way about it. Putting you in control of one of the hardest enemies from the first game and giving them back story.
You play the roll of Delta, the first “Big Daddy”. You wake up 10 years after you died with little to no memory. You only remember the girl you was supposed to protect, known as a “Little Sister”. You progress the game learning more about the characters responsible for what happened to you and your little sister, via radio transmissions from other people in Rapture and a mental connection to your little sister who is being held captive. Your goal is to save your little sister, but doing so wont be easy, Not with Lamb around.
Lamb plays the role of the main villain, she is also mother to the Little sister you plan on saving. She hates what was done to her daughter and despises you. She controls the people in the city and demands your head. There’s many twist and turns to be had with the story, moral choices and so on affect the outcome of the game. Leading to either an ending where your little sister is a kind hearted person looking toward her future, or a cut throat bitch who wants revenge on the world.
This game doesn’t pack the twist the first Bioshock did. But in return it gives you an emotional connection to characters you don’t want to see gone. It gives you hard moral choices (do you wish to pull the trigger on a man who begs you not?) and rewards or punishes you for your choices. It wont change the world like Mass Effect does but the added bonus of mild changes at the end is a nice touch.
Not too much to say on this if you have played the first game. You have an assortment of guns to play with but the main reason you would play this is for Plasmids. Plasmids are like drugs in this game, you inject them into your system and well, instead of getting high. You gain powers to shoot lighting, fire, swarms of bees and so on at your enemies.
Plasmids were a big selling point for the first game and the second doesn’t really do much to better them, they used up all the generic ones with the first game and are now lacking idea.
They added two great things to this second install of Bioshock. The first being the ability to duel wield plasmids and guns instead of having to switch between them. The second is being able to hack from a distance now, making it a hell of a lot easier to get things sorted out.
Big sisters are the newest enemy, and they are tough. Big sisters are supposed to be the little sisters from the first bioshock all grown up. The Adam starving bitches are still full of it and now claim many powers, add a suite of armour and you got yourself the big sister. The idea of them being able to appear at random was a nice selling point for the game. But it turns out every encounter is scripted, they appear at set moments in the game or when you have finished dealing with the last little sister of the area you are in. They are still a great addition to the series but it would of been nice to get jumped by one at unplanned moments while playing.
The graphics are typical fare, nothing incredibly special, it holds up strong with the other games being released right now. There are a few special moments to marvel at but not enough to make the game stand out.
Multiplayer is pretty awesome. It gives you one of five set characters to chose from and customise with headgear. You get your own little apartment to hang out in to customise load outs and so on before going off to fight. It’s set two years before the first game, meaning you get to play in many of the classic locations online.
It uses a level system much like modern warfare, the more you level up the better plasmids and weapons you unlock in game. Each plasmid and weapon comes with it’s own mini challenges to help better the weapon and unlock perks. The higher level you are the better your load out becomes.
The best addition is big daddies, at random while playing online the game will alert you to a big daddy costume appearing somewhere in the level. it’s at that moment everybody playing the game runs around trying to find the suit. If you’re so lucky as to get hold of it. You become the strongest person in the game, you can kill a person with two shots and throw proximity grenades out. The downfall being a set life bar that doesn’t regenerate and slow walking. If everybody teams up against you they will almost definitely take you out, but chances are that wont happen.
In all the game is incredibly enjoyable, the story drags you in better making it a lot easier to get into. While the story from the first game was more enjoyable I was a lot less connected to my character, thus I spent half the journey trying to get into it. Bioshock 2 fixes that and had me hooked from the start.
8/10
