Bioshock 2 - Full review - 6.9/10

Summary

Been there, done that, rehashed to hell and back. Still fun though.

Gameplay 80/100

For those of you who haven't played the original Bioshock (I won't be so cliched as to mention things about rocks and living under them.... wait I just did) Bioshock 2's gameplay can be surmised as an FPS with light (emphasis on light) RPG elements.

And this worked fine in BS1. Run through a structurally faulty (more so this time around) underwater city. Pick off crazed, genetically modified, superpowered vagrants (most common superpower being "talk to yourself" apparently). Collect Adam (XP to you and me) from little girls protected by Mechanical deep sea divers. Use Adam to get useful powers and upgrades. Make moral decisions which can be summarized as "Are you a child murderer (Yes?|No?)". It worked well then, no reason it shouldn't now.

Unless you where expecting something new. In which case.... you have protecting Little sisters to look forward to I guess. See, you get to harvest Adam this time around from dead bodies. Not just from ganking sea slugs from deformed children.

Also, trap rivets and mini turrets... which is kinda part of the latter. Just cover the little sister with the damn things while harvesting and go hide in a corner. What, you where expecting to be an unstoppable hulk of an armored suit? Nope! Go hide in that corner! Hack some camera's and turrets while you are at it. Last thing you want to do is get smacked in the face by the handle of a hand gun. And die.... You hear that? That's the other Big Daddies laughing their collective asses off at you.

And this game really drives that point home... The point being 2k Marin couldn't decide if they wanted you to be a Big Daddy or average joe fps guy. They settled on subaverage daddy fps guy but forgot to take out all the bits for Big Daddy. This shows when you are swamped by splicers and end up running for your life to avoid bullet wounds. Yes Bullet wounds. And they made such a big deal about showing how indestructible Big D's where in Bioshock....

Being a Big Daddy (which is the rough equivelent of say, playing as M.Bison in SF2 Champ. Edition or playing as Magus in Chrono Trigger) comes off as massively unfulfilling in BS2. Least Drill rush makes up for this. Sorta.... Ok no, it doesn't make up for it at all.

Story 60/90

This part contains*Spoilers*

BS1's Story was the tale of Ego gone wild. Of a man with a dream. The dream being that everyone worshiped him for his greatness while giving others the illusion of that very same worship. Watching a man like that crash and burn (second hand through tape recordings of course) from the very same rules he set up in his underwater society was fulfilling in and of itself. Everything else was just icing on the cake. From the plot twists (O'rly? You're not who you say you are? I didn't not see that coming a mile away.) to the art design to the lumbering hulks of whoop ass and there tiny charges. BS1 just bled awesome.

Not so much with BS2. I was always put off by the way the story was presented in Bioshock. Getting the rundown by way of voice recording always seemed like a cumbersome way of telling the tale. This becomes glaringly obvious in BS2. Especially when you don't have something fresh and new around every other corner stringing you from Voice recording to voice recording.

But BS2's story woe's don't end there. It seems that not knowing what the hell is going on amounts to the dish de jure of the story. You can summarize the entire experience as follows.

I am a protector. I shot myself. I woke up. I looked for her. I found her. I died again.... I think. I Still don't know what the hell just happened.

And that's pretty much Bioshock 2 in a nutshell. The story itself feels disjointed as all hell. Like the writers got interrupted by a deadline or something and had to cram as many notes left behind from Irrational as they possible could. And it's a shame. Because the underpinning story of a parent looking for there lost child in the hell hole we know as rapture was very promising.

examples of rushed writting:

1. They bring back Tenenbaum from BS1 just long enough to pass you off to some random dude. This easily sidesteps having to introduce Sinclair as a character. Just shoe horn him in there using the role Tenenbaum already established early in the game peppered with what we know of her from the last game (Screw Bioshock Universe newbies apparently). But then that raises the question, why bother with Sinclair at all? And while we are at it, what happened to "Tenenbaum can't get out of Rapture"? She got out of there in a big hurry when the plot needed her to.

2.What the hell is up with the guy looking for his daughter. They made such a big deal of this. Then it barely gets wrapped up in an audio diary midway through the game. Did the writer run out of ideas? Where they trying to write that as your origin and forgot writing team B had another origin story in mind? What a big waste of time that was.

3. Lamb as a main villain was just.... Why? From her Cacophony of "get him boys!" over the loud speakers to the "You bad, me good" in your headset she just comes across as superfluous. Tacked on at the last minute to remind you why your here in rapture at all. Constantly reminding you... or more likely added as an afterthought. The thought being "we need a final boss." You could have gotten the same point across showing flashback sequences whenever Big D saw something that reminded him of his past. Would have been more visceral. Also, setting a character up for a big boss battle and getting a "I taught her that" cutscene is just telling everyone who played this game "We didn't know how to end it. SORRY!"

Graphics 75/80

I would have given this a score of 80/80 two and a half years ago. When these exact same graphics first appeared in Bioshock. Oh true, we get to see Rapture from underwater now for much longer. (surprised they remembered he was in a diving suit) But seriously, nothing much has changed. Rapture is still beautiful to behold in all it's splendor, so if this is your first foray into batshit town, you will be impressed.

The real show stoppers are the Big Sisters. Allot of effort went into these and it shows. From there screeching entrance to there endurance marathon battles (Pretend you don't have winter blast) they bring to the gameplay, Big Sisters do rekindle a memory of your first time here in Rapture. One where you weren't quite sure what was next around the corner.

Sadly however, the fresh and new ends there. Sure, Little Sisters look less like goblins and the graphics themselves are cleared up a bit. But in all honesty, everything else in rapture is just rehashing on old idea's. Old idea's that still, admittedly, look beautiful.

Sound 43/70

Bioshock 2's music is not as memarable as it was in BS1. At least the Moldy oldie music isn't. And where as BS1 set the trend for that. BS 2 seemed to sling shot in as many crappy sounding songs as they could fit into a loading screen. As long as it sounded dated, and therefore "authentic" it got jamed in there. Nothing memorable mind you, like in BS1 or Fallout 3. Just old sounding. (F'n Boogie man song.....)

And while we are on the subject, it's the 70's in game now. I know they have been trapped in Rapture for decades, but for christ sakes, tell the Big Sisters to bring a record back with them when they go out on there kidnap forays.

Sound effects remain mostly unchanged from BS1. And that's a good thing. Why they changed the hollow metallic thunk of a Big Daddy calling a Little Sister out is beyond me though. Maybe they wanted an added element of challenge by limiting your ability to tell when a LS is popping out by sound alone. (Is he.... is he calling her or triping over something?) but that doesn't make any Goddamn sense now does it? So why did they change it?!

Replay 30/60

Now I'm gonna skip over the multiplayer aspect of the game. Why? Because you can sum up multiplayers replayability into one equation. If there are players playing it, it will remain fun. If there is nobody there, multiplayer sucks. It's that simple.

So what about single player replayability? Well.... a second playthrough may help you figure out what the hell just happened. And it's fairly short. (shorter than say Mass Effect 2) and if you really want them, you can get those obnoxious to get 360 achievements out of the way. (Ha! You only got 99 of 100 voice recording ass! It's replay from the beginning time for you!)

If you are the type of person that needs to get Everything (ok I'm guilty of this) or just want to see how things play out if you do things differently. (Whats the ending is like if I kill off everyone instead of sparing them) Then ya, this may be worth a second playthrough. However, if you are the person that played BS1 to death... this is gonna feel like a replay of your last 6 replays.

Little Bits that wowed or bugged me

• Little Sister's No longer look like walking ass! (+1)


• Big Sisters Bled awesome. (+1)


• New Big Daddies where underwhelming. Quaint when compared to the Big Sisters. (-1)


• Random glitch in Pauper's drop made over dramatic music play constantly till you left the stage. Which came off as strange when you where doing something as trivial as eating potato chips. (Chomp chomp chomp "dun dun dun".... you get the idea.) (-1)


• Being a Big Daddy was a big goddamn let down.(-1)


Bioshock 2 comes out as: -1




Overall 6.9 out of 10.0


Yep 6.9 out of 10.0. I honestly feel cheated here. Definitely not worth full price when the game feels like an expansion pack instead of something new. If however you never played the original Bioshock. Then give this score 2 more points (8.9) It will be worth it for you. Rapture is still one of the best realized visions in the gameing industry. It's just not as awe inspiring the second time through.