Bioshock 2 is another memorable journey through the unforgettable fictional underwater dystopia of Rapture
Contains: Strong Bloody Violence, Horror and Very Strong Language
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Bioshock 2 is a First-Person shooter sequel to Bioshock, that takes you back to the fictional underwater dystopia of Rapture.
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STORY - 4/5
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Bioshock 2 instantly catapults you into the story with a riveting and dramatic, opening prologue cutscene, that tells the events of what your prime objective will be throughout the course of this sci-fi First-Person shooter set back in the beautiful and disturbing underwater world of Rapture.
The game is set in fictional dystopian city Rapture in alternative history 1968, eight years after the events of Bioshock. You play as a prototype Big Daddy who was forced to commit suicide by the antagonist of the game - Sofia Lamb, through the use of a mind-controlled plasmid. Among the first of its kind, the player-controlled Big Daddy, named Delta, reactivates 10 years later, with no recollection of the past decade's events apart from the urge to find his little sister who is Lamb's daughter, and scours the city in an attempt to relocate the Little Sister that he was paired with. Fearing this reunion will ruin her plans for the city, Sofia Lamb sends out her spliced up followers she calls The Family and new Big Sisters in an attempt to deter Delta.
The prologue propels you quickly into the story and shapes up into a gloriously satisfying tale of involuntary vengeance all within a unique and fascinating Biopunk/dieselpunk setting.
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CHARACTERS - 5/5
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In Rapture, stereotypical characters are common, and this particular story offers more than enough of the same characters, each trying to establish their opinions on the whole of Rapture, and of course, upon you. Audio diaries lying around revel in the opinions of others, each detailing an event they had in Rapture. But not only do these diaries voice the opinions of unseen characters throughout the game, they lend an insight and some backstory to what previously occurred in the now ruined dystopia.
The protagonist and player-controlled character is a Big Daddy, a being that has had its organs and skin grafted into an atmospheric diving suit, with the sole intention to find and protect your little sister who was taken away from you 10 years ago. The question of why you can use plasmids and other Big Daddies cannot is never answered in the game, but the mystifying fact is something that you will never question much, because the fact you can use plasmids is something well worth appreciating above anything else. Lamb, the main antagonist, was originally brought to Rapture to help psychologically-stressed citizens of the underwater city cope with the situation, but used brainwashing techniques to convert her patients into a cult called "The Family", and attempted to take over Rapture without Ryan noticing until a later date. And when Ryan died, she forcibly has become the new leader of Rapture with evil and unforgivable intentions. Through the many new areas of Rapture you haven't witnessed before, you'll be guided towards your goal by Augustus Sinclair, who was once a leading figure in Rapture's science community and an important business figure with a respectable large company for the research of plasmids, but is now an ally of Brigid Tenenbaum, with the significant role of guiding you to Eleanor Lamb, your little sister, and showing you points of interest to help you adapt to the new enhancements in the gameplay. The new characters are all brilliant in creation and are accompanied with interesting background, but are noticeably less memorable than the characters in Bioshock.
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GAMEPLAY - 5/5
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Assuming you've played and completed the previous highly acclaimed 2007 Game of the Year Bioshock, you'll know all about ADAM, EVE, Plasmids and the many vending machines, so I'll get right to the point about the new additions and improvements to the core gameplay. Firstly, the shooting mechanics are far greater than before, and hit detection is certainly improved and makes hitting flesh with the spurt of blood that bit more enjoyable. Weapons are similarly categorized like before, with improved versions and looks to the machine gun, shotgun, pistol etc. except for a few new additions to your seemingly over-powered arsenal, one of which is the Speargun, which pins enemies to all kinds of surfaces. With each weapon there is 3 different ammo types to choose from, each with purposes for the right situation and enemy.
Probably the best improvement is the ability to duel wield weapons and plasmids. The wrench is not in Bioshock 2 as a usable melee weapon, but as you have the appearance of a brutish Big Daddy, you have access to its power drill, a strong weapon that makes quick work of enemies and covers your screen in blood and raises the volume of agonised screams that is a delicious and memorable gameplay aspect. Plasmids are the cool genetic modifications that allow you to cause all sorts of damage to your enemies, and when you be creative when using both plasmids and weapons, it can set up many extremely fun action sequences. Upgrading weapons is like before but has a new twist to it. An upgrade is something money or ADAM cannot buy, and scattered around Rapture are unique machines that offer one free upgrade before completely shutting down for good - Power to the People machines. A weapon can be upgraded 3 times, but to purchase the 3rd, a weapon must have the first 2 upgrades included, and usually the 3rd upgrade is the most interesting one and totally fantasy based with little appreciation for realism, but down in Rapture, everything seems a little unlikely, which is just what's so likeable. Plasmids can also be levelled up, and this time around, the plasmid doesn't just get more powerful, but opens up more options to use it on groups of enemies. For instance, the incinerate plasmid burns the skin off enemies with each burst you unleash, and with the 2nd upgrade, you can hold down the fire button and unleash a devastating fireball that not only is more powerful and singes skin at a faster rate, but the flames will attack more than one enemy if they're within proximity of the blast. The final upgrade is a deadly eruption of flames, and acts like and looks like a flamethrower from your fingertips, allowing you to aim and flame enemies constantly if you hold down the plasmid use button, but at the cost of a little more eve because of how powerful it is, meaning it drains at a much quicker rate because of the devastation that will inevitably occur.
With the new additions to plasmid and weapon variety and upgrades, design and abilities, is also the expanded moral quandaries open to the player, which will lead to many possible endings, depending on your choices and actions throughout the game. Little Sisters are your main source of ADAM and to get to them, you have to take out their great big protectors - The Big Daddy's. They put up a hefty fight to maintain the protection of the little sister, and the connection can only be broken once you've dispatched them. Once the big daddy is taken care of, you have options of what you can do with the little sister - Adopt or Harvest. Harvesting the ADAM from the little sister there and then kills the little sister in the process but gives you maximum ADAM, but adopting the little sister allows you to proceed with some interesting new activities before you make a choice of rescuing or harvesting. When you adopt her, you pick her up carefully and place her on your shoulders, and are given the responsibility to protect her. Fortunately there is no panic when she is in your custody, as splicers cannot attack her unless you decide to put her down to gather ADAM. The little sister will guide you to a corpse which needs to be extracted of available ADAM, and when you place her down she'll use her great big needle to extract the raw ADAM within the deceased body. This process attracts splicers however, and its up to you to hold off the enemies so she can collect the substance without being interrupted. This great addition to the gameplay forces you to adapt to the environment and take up a defensive posture to defend the creepy little girl who so lovingly calls the corpses "Angels" while using all of your available plasmids and weapons cleverly and effectively. Many weapons have defensive ammo, and careful placement of these devices on walls produces the best out of your capabilities as a big daddy. Trap wires, proximity mines and cyclone traps can all be placed appropriately, and when you are ready, you let the little sister do her job while you prevent all splicers from attacking her. It can end up all very chaotic with the amount of action and effects taking place on the screen, but thankfully the framerate is solid most of the time, and so the enjoyment doesn't deteriorate. You can do up to 2 rounds of ADAM gathering with each little sister making a small profit of ADAM after each successful gather before its time to take her to a vent to make your final and decisive decision. Here you can harvest her, or rescue her - moral decision with everlasting effects on the plot outcome and the pathway to an evil or good ending.
Like in Bioshock you are able to hack machines for discount prices on items, and security turrets and bots to get them on your side. The only difference is a new tool with a shorter mini game, where you fire a hacking dart at your target and you need to stop a quickly-moving needle one or more times in the correctly-colored marked area of a gauge. As you progress you will need to get a success in a few gauges in a row, and depending on what you are trying to hack the needle will move faster. Tonics are still present with some new additions that can be found through exploration, and this time are only organised in a single category rather than individual tonic slots for physical, combat or engineer. New slots can then be purchased with ADAM. The research camera has also been greatly improved from before. Last time it required you to capture an action photo of a splicer, which in doing so made you more vulnerable to be attacked, but this time the camera is more like a video recorder with great colour presentation and sound effects to let you know that you're recording, and basically you have to mix up your attacks using all sorts of plasmid and weapon combinations to unlock damage bonuses and tonics, whom which you get given a grade after each recording.
Following the quest arrow at the top of your screen would take you to each objective quickly, but the best way to play Bioshock 2 is to go the opposite way that the arrow points, and search every room leading off on the map that you haven't already explored. The exploration is a key aspect of Bioshock, and fully searching environments not only enhances enjoyment but you'll seek out new weapons, upgrades, tonics and audio diaries which are all extremely worthwhile to look out for. Because of the necessary improvements, a notable one being the changing ammo types which doesn't take hardly anytime unlike in Bioshock, and the effects of being able to duel wield plasmids and weapons, Bioshock 2 is a solid and fully entertaining experience, and contains all sorts of unique scripted events that can only be discovered and uncovered in the fantastic setting of Rapture.
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GRAPHICS - 5/5
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Visually, Bioshock 2 is simply outstanding, and features impressive water effects and fantasy effects from plasmids. But what makes Rapture impressive above everything else is its artistic level design which never fails to impress. Art deco environments are well crafted to consistently keep you in a state of mind that your not in a futuristic world, but in a decaying one, set back in time as an envisioned utopia by Andrew Ryan. What Rapture's visuals capture above all, is the combination of both beautiful and disturbing imagery; Environments with bright colours and classically portrayed 1950's objects, with sudden instances of scribbled bloody writing keep you constantly on edge as everything becomes perfectly clear how Rapture has degraded into chaos and death, and risen into psychotic animalistic behaviour with greed and violence possessing the normal human brain functions. From what used to be a dream paradise to escape government and law on the world above and start over with new science, is now an underwater hell suffocating in rage and populated by deformed splicers who are now past the point to be classified as human, and every room, and every wall clearly puts that fact across to you.
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SOUND - 5/5
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The musical score that capably adapts to each action scene, the sound effects generated from an electrical surge in your veins, and the convincing cast of actors who perfectly portray their characters are all aspects of the sound department that are nailed perfection. The gulping sound the little sister makes when drinking and digesting ADAM is enough to make you cringe, and when you're traversing the underwater world of Rapture, the dripping of water from ceilings and heavy footsteps of Subject Delta making his path to Eleanor, are all sounds which are just right, and add to the entombment of you trapped in a world that is far below a cry for help.
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CONTROLS - 5/5
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In Bioshock changing between weapons and plasmids was a switch that could be made with unquestionable ease, but this time around, you don't need to make that change. The controls are all responsive and the configurations are all well organised and adaptable, and the layout and presentation is similar as last time but with a few tweaks that will undoubtedly come across your mind as well done and worth the small improvement. Action is frequent and often chaotic, but never proves a panic when you want to mix up the deaths of splicers. When changing weapons or plasmids, a weapon radial comes up onto the screen, and in doing so, it pauses the action to allow you to calmly select a new loadout, and even use health packs and eve hypos. The display is perfect, and the idea is simple but works out very effective.
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ATMOSPHERE - 5/5
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"Big Sister doesn't want you playing with me" says the grave voice of your frightened little sister, as she warns you of a dangerous threat closing in, where you'll have to stand strong in order to defeat your vicious enemy. Rapture, and the now inhuman population, all make for a fantastically chilling atmosphere, and the words written in blood on the walls are enough to send chills down your spine. You can't escape the atmosphere of Rapture, since there's never a dull moment, and never a moment where you'll ever feel safe and secure. The haunting level design, combined with bloody imagery, only makes you feel more engaged with everything that goes on, and while audio diaries don't touch on Rapture like they did in the first, you'll always feel included with the areas you venture into, letting you know that the city of Rapture is inescapable.
During gameplay, there are lots of tense moments where enemies are waiting to lunge out and attack, and you'll often notice shadows just around a corner before a light goes out, then comes back on, and the splicer has moved position, only adding to the haunting feel of the environment which is seemingly possessed with dark and evil intentions. In conclusion, Rapture is fantastically atmospheric and creepy, and the disturbing imagery only adds to the daunting fact that you're secluded in a place far from help.
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ENEMY AI - 4/5
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The once ideal place to escape the crimes of the real, Rapture has turned into chaos, and is now overrun and populated by Splicers, and anyone else still alive has either committed suicide or barricaded themselves away in a safe place. Splicers are the result when a human 'splices' themselves up far too much with ADAM, and when they've overdosed on the substance obtained from the parasite, they crave it even more. Side effects include the loss of mental stability and increasing appetite to kill. The enemies are smart and adapt to the environment, but not smart enough to overcome you and your arsenal of weapons and array of deadly gene modifications. Most splicers are recognisable from the first game such as Thuggish splicers - who rampage around using a melee weapon as the overuse of ADAM has deformed there hands so much that they are unable to carry a firearm, and Spider Splicers - Creepy and terribly mutated enemies who use hooks to manoeuvre around and attack by throwing them at you. They crawl around the ceiling and respectably earn their name, and are by far the most frightening enemies, because of their psychotic behaviour, attitude, and nastily deformed facial features, and are the least human out of the splicer population. New enemies include the Brute splicer - A huge hulk-like enemy that is made of raw strength and muscle. They throw things at you, and often charge towards you, and are tough to take out. The enemy that acts like a boss fight throughout the game is the Big Sister, and she hunts you down when you have taken care of a certain amount of Little Sisters, and is the toughest adversary you'll have to face. Agile and fast, with plenty of abilities to vary up her attack, you'll have to use all your wits to defeat her and escape alive.
Most enemies use cover when they can, and if they take a lot of damage they seek out health stations to fix themselves up. If you enter an area and encounter splicers without disturbing them, you'll often here expressions resembling their paranoia, and are always talking to themselves and acting as if their human and life is going like it always is. Its often creepy to overhear them, and even on odd occasions funny, as they accuse each other about previous life moments and other things.
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LENGTH - 5/5
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Bioshock 2 is a game that combines linear gameplay with non-linear in some respects where you are free to engage in the objective when you want, meaning exploring is the best way to fully experience this sci-fi First-Person shooter. If you do explore every inch of every environment then you are looking at a long and memorable experience of roughly 20 hours, and you probably won't want it to end. The plot is well paced and never answers everything at once, keeping you constantly engaged to every scenario that does invite you to listen to important character dialogue where questions will be answered and give you more understanding of what's happening.
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REPLAY VALUE - 5/5
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Because of the big impact moral decisions have on the plot and character development, there is certainly at least 3 playthroughs available here, each providing a satisfying ending, if you change up your actions of who you save, and who you don't. Bioshock 2 has lots of replay for gameplay aswell, as each scenario will never unfold the same way, and on future playthroughs, if you change your plasmids and tonics, you can attain a completely new gameplay experience that challenges you to adapt and survive in all sorts of fun and exciting ways. Bioshock 2 is another memorable return to Rapture, the city is now a haven for the insane and the bloodthirsty, and to escape the inescapable, you'll have to genetically modify yourself, and see if you have the will to survive.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 9.5/10
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Good Points: Rapture is just as disturbing and beautiful as before, Superb art design that captures the right creepy tone in every environment, Gunplay is greatly improved from the first game along with other improvements in gameplay and display, Splicers are truly horrifying adversaries that add to the haunting atmosphere, Great selection of plasmids and weapons that are all terrifically designed and fun to use, Engaging story from beginning to end, Rapture invites exploration of every corner, So much variety in combat, tonics and upgrades that allow for many more playthroughs, Moral decisions have huge impacts on the storyline and ending.
Bad Points: Characters and story aren't as memorable as the first game.