Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

Whenever I play Bioshock 2 I feel like I need to enter a heightened state of awareness. The game is crafted in a way that really demands appreciation. This isn't a shooter, this is art. Bioshock 2 is a movie, a story, a deep, important core of knowledge that goes way beyond just trying to entertain you.

And here is the divide in this game: on one hand, its a mysterious, thought-provoking novel, on the other hand, its violent, entertaining shooter centered on gratuitious violence. I love that combination.

The entire approach to this game highlights its' themes. This is why I appreciate playing it so much. It's a precious experience, I always feel the need to reload if I didn't experience the game "right".

This isn't World of Warcraft, I don't play the game just to play it so I can get ahead and grow more powerful. In fact, its the total opposite of WoW: a limited gameplay time span, with lots of meaningful, savory moments.

To truly enjoy this game, just use your imagination. Appreciate how realistic and chilling the idea of an unknown, isolated underwater city really is. This game is SO immersive you want to believe in Rapture, you want to believe this all exists or could potentially have existed, I can't say enough about how intrigued I am.

Sometimes the fighting seems a little messy. I want to see different enemies other than the same ole' crazed splicers... there is something crude and disturbing about killing these guys who just cant STFU, that carried over from the first game. The "brute" splicers was a step in the right direction... but the combat still feels a bit awkward... maybe this is realism, or maybe I'm not used to shooters. With difficulty set at hard and vita-chambers turned off (the way I like it) it's "kill or be killed" and I hate loading saved games again and again... is it cause I'm not skilled enough? All in all, it doesn't matter.
The fact that the combat in this game could be more challenging, could offer a greater variety and need for killing enemies in the myriad of ways possible, can barely be considered a "con" when you just ignore that stuff and focus on the philosophical marvels Bioshock 1 & 2 are. It is so perturbing. Thank god people still make games like this one.

"But the parasite says NO" still sends chill up my spine.
EDIT: After beating this game, I've got to bump down the score ever so slightly... while the creator of this game is a genius, I can still feel the console-y constraints. In a nutshell, PC games designed for consoles basically make things TOO EASY. Its sickening, because there seems to be a lowered standard that all companies must adhere to. They must make a game that is easy enough, and all the hand-holding linearity kind of kills it sometimes; it makes me mad that the publishers and suits with all the money have this kind of hegemony over game production, they feel the must make the game as easy and accessible as possible, so all challenge and mystery is removed, because they think this formula will SELL MORE COPIES to the MASSES OF STUPID PEOPLE, and nowadays, sadly, $$$ takes an obscene priority in game design, which cheapens and lowers the games' quality vastly, as if these publishers actually know wtf they're doing.