Scop’s Blog

To be honest, going into this game, I thought BioShock 2 was a cash-in. After all, how can you recreate the success of a game that stood out for doing things differently? How do you follow up a story that pulls from social theory and the likes of Ayn Rand? While I never completely shook that feeling playing BioShock 2, the game worked awfully hard to convince me that it was fun and worthy in its own right.

BioShock 2 is what I like to call a “second-string” game. The primary developers, 2K Boston (formerly Irrational Games) crafted an entire franchise on the quality of a single game back in 2007, then publisher 2K Games drafted developer studio 2K Marin (confused yet?) to develop the follow-up, which was almost guaranteed to move units, whether or not the game was quality.

Like other second-string games (Call of Duty: World at War, Knights of the Old Republic II, etc.) Bioshock 2 does not stray far from the core gameplay that popularized the first game. Instead, it introduces subtle tweaks, to varying effect.

2K Marin was not afraid to lay on the fan service, and while much of that will be discussed later, one important change was to the player character. While you played as a relatively ungifted outsider in the first game, BioShock 2 starts you out at the top of the food chain, as a Big Daddy. The first one, to be exact.

That is the party-line, at least. In reality, the shift in perspective has little practical effect on gameplay. It is a cool feeling to look through a Big Daddy helmet and hear the thunder of your footsteps, but your character, Delta, is depressingly fragile. In nearly all conflicts, you will constantly find yourself watching your health bar, hovering over the D-pad to use a Health Kit.

The Gameplay

BioShock 1 vets who have not touched the game since soon after its 2007 release will be surprised to remember just how distinctive the gameplay was. Shooting feels a bit stiff compared to the likes of Modern Warfare 2 and Halo, but after a brief (re)acclimation period, I found myself scoring more headshots and moving skill shots than those games mentioned above.

Headshots are still vital, as the early-game is still characterized by nearly survival horror-level ammo supplies, though you will slowly build and diversify your stores throughout the levels. By the end, enemies come in large enough numbers that you will need to become proficient with multiple weapons and techniques to avoid running dry in any one gun by the end of a skirmish.Once things quiet down, you can usually top off from your fallen enemies, or collect enough cash to purchase more.

One of the talking points of magazine previews before the game dropped was the new arsenal. To better outfit your hulking Big Daddy, the developers upgraded to bigger, more outlandish weapons, like the Rivet Gun to replace the pistol, and a rotating barrel-style Machine Gun to replace the submachine gun. Some of these new weapons are more interesting than others, though.

The new shotgun, for example, is merely a double-barrel, instead of a pump, and the crossbow was replaced with a spear gun. Outside of a few interesting alternate ammo types, most of these weapons return from the first game with nearly identical mechanics. While these are still solid, I was still a bit disappointed to see the game fall in to the classic pistol-shotgun-machine gun-rocket launcher trope.

Plasmids, the ADAM-fueled superpowers of the first game return as well, and benefit from the new ability to wield one without switching away from the current weapon. Outside of this, there have been even less mechanical changes to the plasmids than with the weapons. Active powers like Telekinesis, Shock, Freeze, Incinerate and Hypnotize are back exactly as before, and while I used them more than I did in the first game, I still found myself reaching for my gun much more often than resorting to a plasmid. The ADAM-based economy is a bit more forgiving this time around, so I did feel like I was able to load up my tonics (passive plasmids) more to my liking than in the first game.

It is a bit disappointing that the enemies in the game are practically cut and pasted from the prequel. All Splicer and Big Daddy variants return from BioShock 1, and they are only joined by four new enemies. Brute Splicers and the new Big Daddy variants provide some new experiences, but the Big Sister will get all of the attention. She features heavily into the new ADAM harvesting mechanic, and provides a number of difficult, if not necessarily satisfying boss fights.

In BioShock 1, players were frequently warned of upcoming ambushes and given a chance to create a defensive perimeter. With the introduction of a Little Sister harvesting mechanic, the sequel expands on this and gives you a bevy of new tools to prepare for these sequences. Electrified trip wires and proximity grenades return later in the game, but I found myself relying upon the whirlwind traps, new trap rivets, and (occasionaly, due to their rarity) mini-turrets.

Harvesting

To be honest, I am still split about the harvesting mechanic. To summarize, Big Daddy’s escort Little Sisters around, just as in the first game, and you must kill the Big Daddy to reach the Little Sister. Instead of immediately healing/harvesting her, though, you can now assume the role of her Big Daddy and put her on your shoulder. While she is riding on your back, she is unnoticeable, save for a status icon on the HUD and occasional comments on the action (“Nobody hurts my Daddy!”). At points, I even found myself forgetting that I had retrieved one.

Throughout the levels are preset corpses that smoke slightly when you have a Sister with you. Dropping the Sister here causes her to extract the ADAM from the corpse, and trigger waves of Splicers to attack. Some of these locations are easier to defend than others, and I was frustrated in early encounters before I realized that there were more harvesting locations than Little Sisters.

Well-planned harvests are incredibly satisfying. You can restrict enemies to one or two chokepoints and snicker as you listen to the various sounds of your traps springing. Too often, though, harvests devolve to frantic shootouts and MedKit spamming. This is largely due to the game’s nasty habit of spawning enemies in nooks and crannies they could not possibly reach. I lost track of how many times I set up complex perimeters, only to get shot in the back by a Splicer that had spawned in a closet.

Still, I would not be torn on the mechanic if it was beyond redemption. And I certainly would not have done every harvest in my single playthrough.

The Story

BioShock 1 told the tale of a brilliant idealist who took control of an amazing underwater city, and the long, intricate plot to cause his fall.

So did BioShock 2.

While this is an oversimplification, it is difficult to ignore the many plot elements that were appropriated for BioShock’s second outing. Replace “his” with “her”, and “long, intricate plot” with “contrived mess”, sprinkle on a healthy dose of fan service, and you have the game’s plot in a nutshell. BioShock 1 dared gamers to tackle utopian ideals and the dangers and possibilities of individualism.

BioShock 2 replaces the idealistic and stubborn Andrew Ryan with the sly and manipulative Sophia Lamb. Her broadcasts confront the player at seemingly every turn, accusing Delta of harming “the Family” and putting the needs of the few ahead of the community.

Unfortunately, her high-concept communistic ideals seem out of place as you combat the same greedy Splicers that try to kill Big Daddies and steal ADAM from the Little Sisters. I frequently found myself ignoring Lamb, focusing instead on the task at hand.

The other portion of the story, that dealing with plot and characters, starts out quite similarly to the first one. The first few levels each have their own relatively-sane overseers who you inevitably confront before you depart. These encounters offer some interesting moral choices, but they primarily feel like modules that could have been lifted straight out of the previous game, and the characters themselves do not stray far from a familiar path.

As you get closer to Sophia Lamb, however, the story comes into its own and goes far to redeem this game. You see, you are a Big Daddy, and no Big Daddy exists without his Little Sister. It just so happens that your Little Sister is Eleanor Lamb, Sophia’s daughter.

While the first few levels feel like retreads of BioShock 1 (and indeed, some familiar locales will show up), the last few hours of the game trade the wordless story of a crumbling metropolis for a poignant exchange between Mother, Daughter and Big Daddy. While it is debatable whether the climax of BioShock 2 trumps those three words that shocked players in BioShock 1, I’ll wager that introspective gamers will have just as much to ponder.

In Closing (…)

The original BioShock was a challenge. While any gamer could pick it up and find rewarding gameplay, those who let themselves become engrossed in the storyline found a sobering interpretation of utopianism and a gut-wrenching twist that forced them to ask, “Just who is in control?”

BioShock 2 will see to the needs of the former group, but the latter may find the sequel to be an unsatisfying second course. Gamers who stick around for the game’s closing levels, though, will find instead a thought-provoking character drama.

Yeah, this last section is half-assed. It is really hard to review the ending without giving anything away. For a spoiler-rich analysis, click here. Do not click on it if you intend to play the game!