Review: BioShock 2 Does it live up to the first game?

Submitted for Your Approval- Ivey Rhodes


Overall Experience

When I heard there was a new BioShock game coming out I can’t say that I was thrilled. To me the first one stood alone as a breakthrough in video games. BioShock was more like art than any other game I had played before. The graphics were stunning, the gameplay was solid, and story was top notch. It stood out in a plethora of mediocrity. Does BioShock 2 shame its mother game? Nope. Does it live up to expectations? Mostly.

Story: BioShock 2 takes place 10 years after the original. In BioShock fashion the player is thrown into a situation they know very little about. As you move through the world audio diaries and messages line the walls to organically unfold a story before you. You’ll play as a Big Daddy and even take care of little sisters. This time there is a new antagonist named Sophia Lamb. Your history with her is quickly explained at the beginning of the game and it starts a chain reaction of events that will propel you through the rest of the game.

In regards to the story this game delivers. I believe that most people remember the first game for 2 things- story and atmosphere. This game is no different. If you’ve played the first game you’ll remember all the twists and turns that happen along the way. This one is a little more straight forward. It avoids falling into the slippery slope of trying to find a new twist that blow people’s minds again and again. I commend it for that. Don’t be mistaken, the story isn’t completely predictable but there isn’t any one “Would you kindly” kind of moment.

BioShock 2 works hard at continuing the legacy of the first game. Because of that the world looks eerily similar to what it did 10 years ago. Time seems to have been good to Rapture. There are some differences, but players of the first game may feel a slight amount of déjà vu when playing this new installment. In this game you play in a completely different area of the under water metropolis. The player will be lead through the slums and ritzy areas of rapture. All the areas in the game are separated nicely. They all have a distinctive look. The player progresses through the world using Rapture’s rail system. That design choice requires a little backtracking if only to get back to the train station, but I never found myself dreading going back. There was no epic journey back the train station because most places in rapture can traversed quickly. It’s not too large of an area.

Gameplay: Splicers are back in all their ugliness. Everything about splicers is revolting. But the players interaction with them this time is different. Sure, you’ll run into the occasional group of splicers going from room to room, but your biggest interaction with them takes place while protecting the little sisters. In order to get adam you’ll use your little sister to harvest it from corpses laying on the ground. While she is slowly, oh so slowly, sucking the adam out a corpse you have to protect her. Splicers appear from out of no where to steal the adam this little girl is collecting. If you die during the gathering it’s as if the little girl never gathered any adam at all. The process must be started again, but this time the splicers are already in the area. I found this a little frustrating in a difficult section of the game. Just like in the first game Vita-chambers allow you to die and then quickly get back in the action.

One of the more interesting gameplay choices has to do with the ability to wield plasmids and weapons at the same time. In the first game you could electrify someone and then shoot them. In this game you can electrify them while you shoot them. It seems simple but it’s a great addition to the gameplay.

Some of the newer plasmids allow for some interesting opportunity for strategy. In the first game you could hack electronic devices, like cameras and turrets, to your advantage. In this one you can do the same, but you can also hack splicers and bring them on your side. That can be useful when dealing with lots of enemies.

Electronic hacking has become a little more on the fly. No longer does the action freeze while you hack. Everything is done through your hacking gun. A meter comes up with green, white, blue, and orange areas. The idea is to stop the oscillating needle on either the green or the blue areas. The other areas take off health or release bots. This seems like a much better approach than the whole pipe hack thing.

Presentation: I felt the load times were pretty long but bearable in BioShock 2. When first jumping into the game you will be asked to start a meaty download to your hard drive. It’s not a deal breaker but worth mentioning. In between areas of the game there were loading times that took a little longer than normal and didn’t have a progress bar. Because I’m impatient, that bugged me. If something is going to take a while at least let me know how long so that I know if I can get a glass of iced tea or not. And for your reference during the load screens you can go get a glass of refreshing ice tea and get back in plenty of time. The loading screens shouldn’t determine whether you buy this game or not. They are intrusive. Just a little long.

I’m not sure if the graphics are a little worse this time around or if my bigger TV brings out the flaws. I remember the first game being breathtaking when I first played it. This game, well, not as much. The graphics are good and maybe even identical to the first game. The difference in my perception of the two games probably comes down to expectations. The graphics of the BioShock 2 are very similar to the first game. Because of this the graphics seem a little dated. Some of the textures are grainy the 3D modeling can look a little sharp at times. Don’t be mislead though, Rapture is still fascinating and beautiful in its moody shattered way.

I encountered very little slow down. Sometimes when plasmids would fly and guns would fire things may chug a little. In the menu there is an option to lock the frame rate. Doing so may degrade the graphics a little bit, but will keep everything running a little smoother.

 

Multiplayer: The thing that I had the most concern with was BioShock 2’s online multiplayer. I thought it would be a tacked on addition that didn’t live up to what I expected from a BioShock game. I will have to say that my time with the multiplayer was fun. Everyone seems to be playing fair and having a good time. I saw no exploits. Multiplayer is equipped with a Modern Warfare type upgrade and perk system that works well. Points are gathered through kills and actions. Research can be done during matches. This research gives you perks like +10 for damage etc.

Multiplayer has a small story element to it too. It’s nothing ground breaking but it’s still cool to see the development team put that kind of effort into multiplayer. When choosing outfits, player models, weapons, or plasmids you can do it in two ways. The first way is by walking around your room and interacting with the various props around, i.e., a closet or a gene bank. The other way is through traditional menus. Ground breaking? No. Intriguing? Yeah. It’s not needed but it is neat.

All that being said BioShock will not be the next big multiplayer killer app. It’s adequate, but it’s not an over achiever in this category. This isn’t an ultra accurate head shot kind of multiplayer game. It’s a plasmid wielding moody multiplayer experience. If you go into to it with that in mind I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed.

Crap Index

This game’s rating is an M and it earns it. The entire gameplay experience revolves around the player constantly shooting up with different gene enhancing drugs. Then you use these drug induced gene enhancements to kill people while fighting over the drugs you’re “splicing” up with.

Splicers and audio diaries curse. Most of the cursing in the audio diaries is light. The splicers are a different story. At times will let nasty words fly (I’m talking F bombs and GD). Fortunately you’ll do more exploring than fighting with splicers so the game isn’t constantly bombarding you with foul language.

Violence is off the chain. You’ll shoot and drill splicers. Blood will fly. The drill can actually spin the splicers like a top while killing them. Then their dead bodies will lay limp on the ground while you stomp over them. It’s very graphic. The violence falls somewhere in between realistic and cartoonish. The blood reminds me of something you would see in a horror movie. It’s a little over the top, but not so much so that it’s funny. This violence is repulsive more than anything else. I found myself squinting more than once.

The mood is very dreary and the world would scare any child. Everything about Rapture is dark, wet, and cold. Many times you’ll feel very alone. This feeling helps the gameplay experience but ramps of the disturbing mood.

Good and evil is relative in BioShock. Even at the end of the game the line of what is right and wrong is blurred. Decisions of killing the little girls or saving them face you. It’s heart wrenching to take one of their lives, but you are rewarded for doing so. You are also rewarded in more indirect ways for rescuing these drugged up slave girls.

There are very little sexual references in BioShock 2. At one point you’ll find an audio diary from a prostitute. Nothing too graphic is mentioned.

Do I recommend BioShock 2? The gameplay is excellent, but the perversion is exceeding. This is the hardest part about my duty to you the reader. On one hand we have a good, maybe even great game, but on the other it’s extremely graphic in almost every area. I urge you before playing- deeply examine you weaknesses as a person. Do violent acts push you to be more violent? Does hearing cursing make you curse more? Is this game something you want your children to see? For what it’s worth I played this game late into the night because I wouldn’t dare let my 2 year old watch me play. Now, the choice is yours.

10 Point Scale 1 being worst and 10 being best