To Rapture and Back Again!

Time to splice up again!  Raptures vacant halls void of the little brats that carry delicious ADAM and genetically enhanced psycho-civilians, get a jolt of life.  Little sisters begin to repopulate along with the splicers that hunt them. You reawaken after a bad ‘accident’.  Subject Delta, the original Big Daddy (alpha series).  Sure your suit is not as great as the other Daddy’s but with enough ADAM and a good arsenal of custom weaponry no one would stand in your way.

Now that you’ve been introduced to the monster beyond the controller, let’s see how this sequel stacks up next to it’s predecessor!

***this review encompasses the story mode play only, no spoilers***

Weapons:
As I mentioned, in Bioshock 2 you are Delta.  A Big Daddy.  The entirety of Bioshock 2, you play out as this Big Daddy using only weaponry that works for a Big Daddy (the drill, rivet gun, machine gun, nade launcher).  When you kill splicers you can pick up their ammo; however, their dropped weapons are useless to you.  Who cares, being a Big Daddy is fun and it’s a great change.  Upgrading weapons remains the same, find the Power-to-the-People machine and upgrade any weapon to a max of 3 times.  The drill > everything!

Plasmids:
Splicing up is really great in ‘2′, you get the usual line up of plasmids, of which I think none are new.  But how you use them is completely different.  You can now use your weapons and plasmids simultaneously!  This allows for some unique combos for dealing out damage to your enemies.  The upgrade system for plasmids has been… upgraded.  For example, say you have Winter Blast (one of my favs) — Winter Blast 2 will let you charge up that plasmid and release to not just chill your enemy, but freeze em in a block of ice!  They cannot get out.  Even better, Winter Blast 3 makes every regular Winter Blast cast into the Winter Blast 2 without chargeing, and when you charge WB3 you shoot a continual ray of Ice enveloping every enemy in its path in a block of ice.  Add your drill charge (a special ability learned throughout game play) and they shatter like glass.  This allows for some pretty cheap or easy gameplay.  I won’t give away all of the neat new plasmid upgrades but most fall along the same lines.  Oh, and Bioshock 2 really wants you to take advantage of your gene tonics.  There are a lot of unique ones used for combination with plasmids.  And you can socket up to 18 gene tonics now!

Game play:
Other than what I’ve mentioned, you will find Bioshock 2 playing A LOT like bioshock 1.  At least this isn’t a bad thing.  They added a few minor changes here and there… but for the most part Rapture is still Rapture.  A couple new mobs have been added to the line-up, ‘Brutes, Alpha series Big Daddies (an older model than those of Bioshock 1), and the Big Sister.  Of which the best of the best is Big Sister.  If you play on hard difficulty good luck… She’ll have you spraying ammo up and down walls and expending ever last health kit you have.  Luckily you know when she’s coming by her 3 loud screeches after either completely rescuing or harvesting all the Little Sisters on the level.  Yeah, the little sister’s role is the same, mostly.  Without giving too much away, I can say you still have the choice of saving or harvesting which along the plot lines will affect game play.

Mini games? GONE!  No more turning tubes to hack those turrets/cameras.  Bioshock 2 lets you take care of those pests with a ranged radio hacking device.  Shoot it at the machine and you get a frequency dial bouncing left to right, land it in the green or blue zone and it’s hacked.  There is no pause in game play with this change so you can get hacking done much quicker but also, you can be hurt while trying to hack.

One HUGE let down for BS2 was the lack of bosses…  I wouldn’t really call any chapter ending fights, boss fights.  Even a few I missed up mixed among other splicers I happen to mow down with my drill.  The finale didn’t end with a super-splicer, just a mass of splicers swarming you preventing you from reaching your goal in time.  I guess it’s not really horrible when compared to the halo endings… but it could have been done better.

Story:
As I’ve come to expect Bioshock 2 comes with its nice amount of plot-twists.  The main one related to your choices regarding little sisters.  I really enjoyed where they took the game once you realized the effect your actions have made.  Your journey then becomes less of a solo mission and you get some company, for the sake of saving your ass a few times.  *NO SPOILERS*

The setting of Bioshock 2 takes place 10 years in the future.  A lot of talk was that the game expanded from the past and also future game play.  There really isn’t any part where you travel Rapture pre-Bioshock 1.  That being said they do a great job of bringing back a few memories from the first game, in a deja vu kinda way.  For example the antagonist seals you off in a dim lit room with a few TVs and starts taunting you then releases some splicers to attack the protective glass in front of you.  There was also a cool part in the first underwater segment.  As you travel along the path to reenter Rapture if you take a good look around (up) you will notice the tail portion of the plane from Bioshock 1.

A majority of the game you spend hunting down a little sister who is genetically linked with you.  If she dies, you go into a coma.  There is no pressing time to rush as the little sister isnt as openly invulnerable to the maniacs of rapture being that she is the daughter of the antagonist, Sophia Lamb.  Sophia Lamb is a psychiatrist hell bent on bending the minds of Rapture civilians to take on her tasks.  It seems as if she has come to replace Andrew Ryan in the hearts of the citizens and replaces Fontaine heckling you over the short-wave radio.  She seems to seek control through a sort of religious propaganda, claiming to unite Rapture as a family.  Her lackys through-out the game will also make some calls to you with some unnecessary name calling. Tin daddy, tin shitcan…. why do they have to call names T_T…

Overall:
I definitely recommend to anyone who has played Bioshock 1; to play Bioshock 2!  It is a admirable sequel that stands well on it’s own; however, if you haven’t played the first installment you’ll miss up the parts they put in solely to remind you of your last adventure.  But if you havn’t beat Bioshock 1 yet, it probably means you don’t have a console or were stuck under a rock for past few years… go to your local game store and pick it up for $25 used!

Between 1 & 2, 1 is still better.  But Bioshock 2 is still a MUST PLAY.  For that reason and because I can I’ll give Bioshock 2 – 8.5 out of 10

Related article:
Bioshock 2 Multiplayer Review