By Martyn Licchelli
[originally published on February 19th 2010]
Before I review BioShock 2, I feel it important to state that despite it's massive critical success I was never a massive fan of the original. Whilst I thought the narrative was great, and there was plenty of originality in the overly dark, atmospheric location and in the gameplay too. By the time I was half way through, I felt like repetition had long since set in. It is important to remember that, when I say that I wasn't exactly thrilled too find that the majority of my traipse through BioShock 2 would take place in the inside of Rapture once more.
Set 8 years after the original, the similarities in the game are obvious, and bound to exist in any sequel. But I was immediately left feeling that I was in a mod, as opposed to a new game. In the first game you'd be finding tapes and recordings of Andrew Ryan strewn around the areas on your travels, talking about Rapture and it's creation. Now you find the same tapes by Sofia Lamb, the new leader of Rapture who has seemingly gone crazy and looks set to destroy Rapture in order to purge it of it's evil. It should be something that makes you think the story has moved on, but I just felt it was the same thing. Crazy person records vocal diary, you listen to their insanity. Perhaps if the beautifully realised Dystopia that is Rapture was different to the original game it would have more impact. Had the first game featured a city that was lively, then the bleak destroyed world of the sequal would allow us to see the torment of the last 8 years of the games world. However the first game featured a destroyed city, that despite new locations, looks very very similar to this one. It features splicers, which look incredibly similar, and the Big Daddys return too, again looking similar.
In fact, in using the aging Unreal Engine 2.5 instead of moving on to the full Unreal 3 engine. 2K games have taken a shortcut which made sure that a lot of stuff from the first game was able to be carried over. It's a shame then that the hard work put into the first game, leaves us now with characters that look like games from the 1st wave of the current systems game releases, with faces on splicers that return from the first game looking like they were sculpted with silly putty. The new enemies are slightly better, but appear less frequently.
The same physiques engine and core game play are used too. if you want to electrocute someone, but only have enough energy for a quick shot? make your enemy chase you into water, and then send the electic bolt into the water and fry them. You can do the same with fire on oil too. It's something that never really gets old, but it also feels a little underused. Perhaps if it was around more though, It would indeed outstay it's welcome.
Plasmids of course return. Plasmids are the special Xmen like powers available in the game. Normally given to you by Eleanor Lamb, the daughter of the protagonist who has a very special link to yourself. The only notable difference is the Hypnotize plasmid In the first game you could hypnotise a Big Daddy, now you can hypnotise anyone.
The main differences in the game are new enemies. Big Daddies return, but now have different variations which essentially just means a weapon change, but it's nice that each one requires a different strategy. Brute Splicers are tough guys who look like mob hitmen, they have move sets which look like they're stolen from the Left 4 Dead tanks, but they're far easier to deal with than their zombie horde counterparts. The last enemy is the Big Sister. A lightning quick, very mobile version of a Big daddy who comes at the end of every level if you harvest or save all the little sisters.
The new enemies are characters that if I was playing the first game, I'd feel they were incredibly tough, but in the sequel it's not so. In the sequel, as I'm sure everyone knows by now, you play the part of one of the Big Daddys. In fact, one of the original Big Daddys. You come equipped with a massive drill, which kills many people very quickly as long as you have fuel which you come by often... and you can duel wield your drill, or indeed any of your weapons including the rivet gun and grenade launcher, at the same time as your choice of the 11 plasmids. Making you twice as powerful as you ever were in the first game.
In the first game, when you wanted to save a little sister, a fight with a Big Daddy was required and it was terrifying. In this sequel, you again have to fight. But you can spam electroshock and use your drill at the same time(provided you have fuel) to take them down with minimal effort. The same applies to Big Sisters too. On each level you normally find 2-3 little sisters to save, I never once thought about leaving them whilst I heeled or got ammo, as it was so easy to just take them down. Thanks to saving them all, I was led to more ADAM which is the games upgrades currency, and made sure I stayed overly powerful.
In fact, Overly powerful is probably the saviour of the game as well as a downfall. The fact the game looses a lot of it's scares thanks to enemies being easier to take down now, it may turn some people off. For me, being super powered was quite fun. It's just a shame that throughout playing the game for a solid 12 hours and completing it, I felt like I'd just gone through Bio Shock 1 again with a cheat mode on. The Ocean bottom segments that a big deal was made about early on in the games development are also a disappointment. I was under the impression this would be something big, however, it serves more as a loading screen. A very linear 100 yard walk from one drainage room, across the sea bed to another drain sees no fighting, no puzzles or anything. Very poor incorporation indeed.
There is one new addition that is good though, and thats multiplayer mode. I've not had long with it, but enough to know that It'll hold my interest for a short while at least. The multiplayer mode is actually set before the first game, in 1959 and you fight in the civil war of Rapture as a splicer. Modes are of the generic nature, capture the flag, king of the kill, one for all and others all appear with their own Bioshock themed names. One thing the game has that others dont though, is the big daddy suit the main game is based around. In every game, one big daddy suit is spawned. First one to get it, gets to wear it and improve their strength.. it does remove your plasmid powers though. Still it's fun to chase around a group of people screaming 'come to daddy'
So there you have it. BioShock 2 to me was too much of the same thing, and whilst I stuck with it this time due to reviewing it, I cant help but think had I stopped playing I'd have struggling to build up the urge to put it back in my xbox, not because it's bad. But simply because I feel like I've already done it all before.
With the same graphics, same core gameplay with only slight improvements and changes, and a new multiplayer mode. I'm going to give the game 7/10. However, if you're a BioShock fan who really enjoyed the first game and would like a chance to take a slightly different look at Rapture, then add an extra point to that score.
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