BioShock 2

The Good
So, here I am, having just finished BioShock 2 when people are still playing the third game in the series. I could have played this game as well, but I had other games that I wanted to play first. One of them was the original BioShock just to get its bad ending. After it was a success, it was inevitable that 2K produced a sequel that has a lot more involved.

You control a Big Daddy known as Subject Delta, at the time when Splicers still roam the underwater city of Rapture. This time, Dr. Sophia Lamb has filled the void left by Andrew Ryan after he was attacked with a golf club, and she plans to make the Splicers her worshippers. Her daughter, Eleanor, shares a special bond with Delta since she was a child, and Lamb is holding her against her will. In BioShock 2, Delta must make his way to Eleanor, while overcoming the traps that her mother has put in place for him.

BioShock 2 has the same underwater setting that the first game had; and the health, vending machines, and other things are the same. The gameplay has been slightly tweaked. There are new splicers to deal with, such as the Brute Splicer (who I likened to the Tank from Left 4 Dead 2) and several Big Daddy variations. Besides the Splicers, there are a couple of NPCs you have to deal with. The number of health kits that you can carry is halved, and hacking has become much easier. With the latter, you don't have to worry about with connecting pipes to the exit. You just need to stop a needle in a certain area. Miss this area, and those flying security things try to take you down.

With the Little Sisters, you still have to kill the Big Daddy in order to get to them, but there is a lot more involved. Unless you want to harvest her straight away, you can adopt them, and this means leading her to what she calls an “angel” and setting her down. You then have to protect her from Splicers while she gathers ADAM. After she gathers two lots of ADAM, you can then direct her to her vent and rescue or harvest her. The animations that plays when either action is performed remains the same as the first game. It is also nice that the Little Sisters in the game sob like a real human being, not let out those ghoulish cries. Also introduced in are the Big Sister who take quite a pounding to kill, just like the other, bigger enemies that you will face. They also look like cyborgs with their glowing red eyes and let out a mechanized yell.

At one stage I fought a Big Daddy while I still carried a Little Sister on my back, and managed to kill him. I couldn't pick up another Little Sister, so I left her standing there sobbing for ages. When I came back to get her, she still sobbed when she was on my back. Surely, this is a bug, but it must be a hilarious one. With the characters, we got to meet Little Sisters, Big Daddies, and Big Sisters. Will we see Little Daddies as well? I highly doubt it.

New plasmids have arrived, any those that were found in the original have also been tweaked. One such plasmid is called Hypnotize (formerly Enrage), which causes enemies to turn against each other, not just splicer. It's always entertaining to watch a Brute Spider trying to bring down a Big Daddy. One of the new ones is Scout which lets you search an area unnoticed and attack any splicers nearby while still being invisible.

Not only do you have a huge arsenal of weapons that look and function the same (unless you upgrade them), but you are also equipped with a drill at the start of the game, and have the ability to carry a weapon in one hand and a plasmid in the other. You are shown how to electrocute Splicers (with the Electro Bolt plasmid) while killing them with the drill. And that's the combination that I used throughout the majority of the game. I made sure that the electrocution lasts by going to a Gatherers' Garden and upgrading the plasmid there.

The graphics are great, having been up to the same standard as BioShock. I liked walking around underwater and ignoring the yellow arrow that directs me to my goal. The loading screen is brilliantly designed, and its main focus is the old-fashioned radio with pictures showing you the areas you can expect. There are tips on how to succeed in the game rather than quotes. Who knew that old-fashioned radios had more than one speaker?

The game still uses licensed songs from the Thirties right through to about the Sixties, and you'll hear them as you make your way through the game. Even the aforementioned loading screens allow you to listen to a piece. Each new area took me five minutes to load, I could have almost heard the entire song. But that's okay, as I could [Alt]-[Tab] out of the game and do something else, then come back into the game when the new areas were loaded. Having said that, I didn't want the screen to disappear. The sound effects are exactly the same as the first game pretty much.

There are a lot more endings than BioShock, and whatever ending you get to watch depends on the treatment of the Little Sisters and how you deal with the NPCs. For example, if you intend to save all the Little Sisters and spare the life of the NPCs, expect to get the best ending. This is the same one that I had. The closing scene has spectacular graphics that are reminiscent to BioShock Infinite. Because of these multiple endings, BioShock 2 deserves to be played more than once.

The Bad
Apart from the long loading screens, I found nothing else to complain about.

The Bottom Line
So, is BioShock 2 an improvement over the original? Yes, it definitely is. Most of the gameplay has been slightly tweaked, but a majority of the Splicers remain the same. Your actions throughout the game also determine which of the several endings that you get to watch. Because of this, this sequel is replayable, because the player can change their ways. There are some multiplayer components and downloadable content that I neglected to mention here, but I will be discussing the latter in another review or two. Is it worth getting? Well, if you are a fan of the original, I just cannot see why you should not like this. It has “superb” written over it.

The Good
Same great BioShock experience, but with some improvements to the combat.

The Bad
The plot twist in the first game was one of the most memorable moments. This sequel doesn't manage to match up in that regard.

Despite playing a big daddy now, it plays mostly identical to when you were just a human.

The Bottom Line
My notes from 2010: It's good, but doesn't really offer anything new whatsoever. Could've been an expansion pack. I just wished there was something new in the game. Now it's just a déjà vu experience...