BioShock 2

2K Games

Xbox 360, PS3, PC

8.0 out of 10

BioShock was a surprise hit for the Xbox 360 back when it debuted in ’06, garnering unanimous critical acclaim and giving gamers a first-person shooter that wasn’t just about running around and blowing ish up. 2K gave gamers a deep storyline that blew just about everyone away and the RPG/FPS hybrid gameplay was fun enough to warrant multiple plays. So it should go with out saying a sequel would be no surprise.

For the most part, BioShock 2 plays essentially the same as the original title. You explore the ruined city of Rapture and loot the hell out of everything that has a lid or has something that so much as resembles a lid. The biggest change in BioShock 2 is that you are no longer a measly dude walking around beating drug addicts to death with a monkey wrench. Now you’re a dude in a huge scuba diving suit beating people to death with a drill. Yeah, you’re playing as a Big Daddy this time around. Fans of the original will remember the Big Daddies as those behemoths that stomped around the deep sea city of Rapture babysitting little girls with huge, pointy syringes. Your mission this time is to find your Little Sister Eleanor — those annoying little girls that were running around in the BS1 that meant a Big Daddy, and a fight wasn’t too far behind.

Along with that sick drill, you also pick up some Big Daddy-exclusive weaponry along the way, and while not all of your arsenal is original, the weapons are effective enough to get the job done. Instead of being forced to switch between Plasmids and your weapons, 2K now let’s you use one hand for Plasmids and the other for your weapons, giving you better combat experience. What’s disappointing about the Plasmids is that they are basically lifted from the original. They’re still dope to use, but c’mon son, give us some new mutant powers to play with. At least, the controls have been upgraded from the original title now they’ve laced us with the ability to wield Plasmids and guns simultaneously. Unlike the first game, you don’t just ice Big Daddies and decide what to do with Little Sisters later. Now you can steal one of these demonic little girls to help lead you to a corpse filled with delicious ADAM (the game’s currency for magic stuff).

Since you are a Big Daddy in this game, the developers created an even more intimidating baddie. Randomly throughout the game, Big Sisters, who are basically thinner and much more powerful versions of Big Daddies, come along to kick the crap out of you.

The multiplayer is new to this game as well. It takes place during the war in Rapture that saw the Splicers start appearing and had a lot of people getting ganked. While there are a bevy of modes and admittedly good ideas implemented in the multiplayer it just doesn’t click and offers only a brief mild distraction. Unfortunately, BioShock 2’s multiplayer simply won’t pull gamers away from established multiplayer shooters, but you’ve got to give the developers credit for trying.

The multiplayer probably would have fared much better if it wasn’t restricted to online play. If BioShock wants to compete with hardcore multiplayer shooters out there, then it needs to be as expansive and have the same gameplay options as competing titles.

BioShock 2 is a lot of things. It’s a fun first-person shooter/RPG adventure that lets gamers revisit Rapture. If you liked the first game, you should definitely be satisfied with this sequel, but be warned! It’s not the amazing leap forward in gameplay and storyline everyone was expecting. But it is still a great game that is worthy of your time. –A. Kennedy

Tags: bioshock 2 review, video games

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 11:22 am by The Notorious BJP and is filed under Games, PC, PS3, XBOX 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.