Rapture invites you in once more.
Developer: 2K Marine
Publisher: 2k
Release date worldwide: February 9, 2010
For Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC
In the footsteps of Irrational Games, 2K Marine takes over the Bioshock franchise. As entertaining and well written as Bioshock 2 is, 2k Marine goes slightly over par in a less superior title to the ever amazing Bioshock 1. Issues arise such as a less engaging story, sometimes unbelievable (in the bad sense) dialogue, some graphical errors, and a less consuming atmosphere. Bioshock 2 is a great game, but it does not meet the potential which it was expected to have. Fully, anyway.
You are a big daddy who has been bound to one little sister for his entire life - when you lose her for what seems like for good (I won't spoil it for you), you go on a quest to find her in the even more ruined halls of Rapture than Bioshock 1 (the game takes place eight years after the first game, 1968).
The antagonist, Lamb, is the mother of the girl you are trying to save, and she's pretty much a power-hungry psychologist who won't let you near her daughter because she thinks filth like you don't belong with these children, and she's right. However, you are not a normal big daddy.
You are not a 'house plant' that guards your sister, and you can think and act for yourself. Because of this, the connection you feel to your little sister is real, like a real father and daughter. Lamb knows this, which makes her evil for trying to stop you from being with her.
The story can be quite complicated and in itself is not extremely interesting. The story's not bad, but it's just not as entertaining and mind-boggling as the first one. Most of the voice acting is great just like the first one, however, Lamb gets annoying after a while. She sounds like a stern English teacher from one of my elementary school classes, except with a British accent. The atmosphere has also become less believable and immersive.
Having said that, it's really hard to beat Bioshock 1's immersiveness, especially considering this is the sequel and we've already been to Rapture before. The game is also shorter, at around 11 hours average completion time compared to the 20 hour completion time of the first
In terms of gameplay, a lot's new to Bioshock 2. Obviously the fact that the player is a big daddy now and has a drill, but perhaps the most noticeable change is in the first 5 minutes of the game, when you pick up your first plasmid. When you inject it into your body, you go berserk like in the first game, but when you get up, you have a drill in your right hand, and a plasmid in the other hand. Yes, that's right, you can use them both at the same time.
This gameplay change I approve of highly because I found it considerably annoying in the last game changing from a plasmid to a gun constantly, and now that you can do both at the same time, this allows for more swift and engaging combos, such as freezing an enemy, than breaking he/she into pieces immediately with a machine gun.
On that note, there's also a change to the research system. It is no longer a normal camera, but a video camera that rates your combos. Simply turn it on when you see an enemy, and go crazy on that son of a *****. You'll get points for how interesting your combos are (e.g., lighting an enemy on fire and machine gunning them down, electrocuting them, then drilling their guts out, etc.). There are also new weapons, such as the rivet gun and spear gun (which can impale enemies to walls). Gameplay has improved over the last game and I'm very pleased with this element.
The graphics in Bioshock 2 are strangely not as good as the first, but I'm sure this has to do with the dev change. The environments are still great however and character models and animations are still fantastic. The only problem is the textures are not as good as the first and the lighting is less impressive.
A nice addition however are the underwater parts of the game where the player can walk around in their big-daddy suit on the surface of DJ's locker, which is full of beautiful fish, coral, city of Rapture panoramas, etc. Even with this nice addition, Bioshock 2 is not as visually striking as the first, but still a great job done.
The sound is again superb in this game, as it is composed by the same composer of the music in the first game, Gary Schyman. It gives the game such a great, creepy feel that sticks to your ears while you light splicers on fire. Also, the oldies have been added again on the record players, which I think is a great addition. The only problem is Lamb's voice - god, it gets annoying, especially since you hear it so much while playing this game.
Another great addition which is fun but probably will not last is the multiplayer element. Players can choose between a mess of characters, and make their own classes right off the bat - there are no set classes. Game modes include team deathmatch (called "civil war" in Bioshock 2), adam grab (hold a little sister for three minutes, first to three minutes wins), capture the flag, etc.
The level cap is 40, and there are new guns added to the multiplayer which weren't seen in the campaign of Bioshock 1 or 2. As fun as this multiplayer is, it just doesn't have the spark that MW2 or Halo 3 has, and I don't think it will live long in people's heads like the latter games' multiplayer did and still does.
In the end, Bioshock is a great game with a load of new features that just don't meet the greatness of its predecessor. Even though this is true, Bioshock 2 is a game which every gamer should experience, and if you've played Bioshock 1, this game is a no brainer purchase.
Presentation: 8.5/10
An okay story, great graphics, a great opening menu, and some okay box art (though it was metallic, and bumpy to give the effect of the case having barnacles, the art itself wasn't very creative).
Graphics: 8.5/10
Not as good as the first game, but still impressive.
Sound: 9.5/10
Great music and a nice addition with the oldies tunes. Lamb is an annoying character, though.
Gameplay: 9.5/10
An improvement over the first. The mixture of plasmids and firearms/melee at once was a great idea. What's up with the enemies barely regenerating any health after character respawn? This game is practically impossible to lose like the first game!
Replayability: 8.5/10
The story isn't long, but there are a lot of collectibles to find, and multiplayer is fun.
Overall: 9/10
FANTASTIC
Developer: 2K Marine
Publisher: 2k
Release date worldwide: February 9, 2010
For Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC
In the footsteps of Irrational Games, 2K Marine takes over the Bioshock franchise. As entertaining and well written as Bioshock 2 is, 2k Marine goes slightly over par in a less superior title to the ever amazing Bioshock 1. Issues arise such as a less engaging story, sometimes unbelievable (in the bad sense) dialogue, some graphical errors, and a less consuming atmosphere. Bioshock 2 is a great game, but it does not meet the potential which it was expected to have. Fully, anyway.
You are a big daddy who has been bound to one little sister for his entire life - when you lose her for what seems like for good (I won't spoil it for you), you go on a quest to find her in the even more ruined halls of Rapture than Bioshock 1 (the game takes place eight years after the first game, 1968).
The antagonist, Lamb, is the mother of the girl you are trying to save, and she's pretty much a power-hungry psychologist who won't let you near her daughter because she thinks filth like you don't belong with these children, and she's right. However, you are not a normal big daddy.
You are not a 'house plant' that guards your sister, and you can think and act for yourself. Because of this, the connection you feel to your little sister is real, like a real father and daughter. Lamb knows this, which makes her evil for trying to stop you from being with her.
The story can be quite complicated and in itself is not extremely interesting. The story's not bad, but it's just not as entertaining and mind-boggling as the first one. Most of the voice acting is great just like the first one, however, Lamb gets annoying after a while. She sounds like a stern English teacher from one of my elementary school classes, except with a British accent. The atmosphere has also become less believable and immersive.
Having said that, it's really hard to beat Bioshock 1's immersiveness, especially considering this is the sequel and we've already been to Rapture before. The game is also shorter, at around 11 hours average completion time compared to the 20 hour completion time of the first
In terms of gameplay, a lot's new to Bioshock 2. Obviously the fact that the player is a big daddy now and has a drill, but perhaps the most noticeable change is in the first 5 minutes of the game, when you pick up your first plasmid. When you inject it into your body, you go berserk like in the first game, but when you get up, you have a drill in your right hand, and a plasmid in the other hand. Yes, that's right, you can use them both at the same time.
This gameplay change I approve of highly because I found it considerably annoying in the last game changing from a plasmid to a gun constantly, and now that you can do both at the same time, this allows for more swift and engaging combos, such as freezing an enemy, than breaking he/she into pieces immediately with a machine gun.
On that note, there's also a change to the research system. It is no longer a normal camera, but a video camera that rates your combos. Simply turn it on when you see an enemy, and go crazy on that son of a *****. You'll get points for how interesting your combos are (e.g., lighting an enemy on fire and machine gunning them down, electrocuting them, then drilling their guts out, etc.). There are also new weapons, such as the rivet gun and spear gun (which can impale enemies to walls). Gameplay has improved over the last game and I'm very pleased with this element.
The graphics in Bioshock 2 are strangely not as good as the first, but I'm sure this has to do with the dev change. The environments are still great however and character models and animations are still fantastic. The only problem is the textures are not as good as the first and the lighting is less impressive.
A nice addition however are the underwater parts of the game where the player can walk around in their big-daddy suit on the surface of DJ's locker, which is full of beautiful fish, coral, city of Rapture panoramas, etc. Even with this nice addition, Bioshock 2 is not as visually striking as the first, but still a great job done.
The sound is again superb in this game, as it is composed by the same composer of the music in the first game, Gary Schyman. It gives the game such a great, creepy feel that sticks to your ears while you light splicers on fire. Also, the oldies have been added again on the record players, which I think is a great addition. The only problem is Lamb's voice - god, it gets annoying, especially since you hear it so much while playing this game.
Another great addition which is fun but probably will not last is the multiplayer element. Players can choose between a mess of characters, and make their own classes right off the bat - there are no set classes. Game modes include team deathmatch (called "civil war" in Bioshock 2), adam grab (hold a little sister for three minutes, first to three minutes wins), capture the flag, etc.
The level cap is 40, and there are new guns added to the multiplayer which weren't seen in the campaign of Bioshock 1 or 2. As fun as this multiplayer is, it just doesn't have the spark that MW2 or Halo 3 has, and I don't think it will live long in people's heads like the latter games' multiplayer did and still does.
In the end, Bioshock is a great game with a load of new features that just don't meet the greatness of its predecessor. Even though this is true, Bioshock 2 is a game which every gamer should experience, and if you've played Bioshock 1, this game is a no brainer purchase.
Presentation: 8.5/10
An okay story, great graphics, a great opening menu, and some okay box art (though it was metallic, and bumpy to give the effect of the case having barnacles, the art itself wasn't very creative).
Graphics: 8.5/10
Not as good as the first game, but still impressive.
Sound: 9.5/10
Great music and a nice addition with the oldies tunes. Lamb is an annoying character, though.
Gameplay: 9.5/10
An improvement over the first. The mixture of plasmids and firearms/melee at once was a great idea. What's up with the enemies barely regenerating any health after character respawn? This game is practically impossible to lose like the first game!
Replayability: 8.5/10
The story isn't long, but there are a lot of collectibles to find, and multiplayer is fun.
Overall: 9/10
FANTASTIC