BioShock 2 Multiplayer – The Noob’s Guide

If you’ve conquered BioShock 2’s magnificent single player campaign, chances are you’re heading into the violent world of multiplayer, which tells the story of the interim 10 years between the two BioShock games.

What it doesn’t do too well though is actually explain what the hell is going on. You’re dropped into a home – you’re own, supplied by Sinclair Synthetics – and from there it’s a slightly overwhelming experience. So stay with us for the breakdown.

First of all, you’ll need to pick your loadout. This functions much like Modern Warfare, but without the depth. You’re given two choices from the off – weaponry and plasmids. Your character can hold two weapons at once, but at level one you’re only given the choice of a pistol or a shotgun, simple enough.

Plasmids, though, allow for a little more experimentation, seeing as you’re given Incinerate, Electro Bolt and Winter Blast straight from the off. Picking two from three is a tough call, but for the early stages, it’s actually wise to pick Electro Bolt, because many of the maps have large puddles of water where you can kill opponents while they stand there, and it can disable turrets if you get caught in their crossfire. The second plasmid is more of a personal choice, but we’d go with Incinerate due to its ability to double-up damage as you continue to fire it.

Ok, so you’ve sorted your loadout, now it’s on to the big show. There are six modes to pick from, all of which are fairly standard if you’ve played an online shooter before. We’ll leave the Adam-hoarding Little Sister modes for now, and concentrate on Survival Of The Fittest, essentially BioShock 2’s Free-For-All.

Obviously, the idea is to kill anyone in the map, but there are key areas where BioShock 2 differs from any other online shooter. Firstly, you have a recharging health bar, but not a recharging Eve bar (for plasmids). You have to find blue Eve hypos around the maps to keep this topped up. Sometimes they’re scattered about, other times it’s  a case of finding an ammunition vending machine. But be warned – these machines can be booby-trapped by other players, or yourself, by holding down ‘A’ or ‘X’ on PS3 long enough.

Still with us? Good. Right, this ‘holding A’ mechanic is actually crucial to BioShock 2’s multiplayer. It’s the ultimate risk/reward strategy, and there are a number of situations where you can use it. The aforementioned vending machines are a good place to start, and can grab you a cheap kill here and there, but a good practise to keep in mind is turret-hunting. Seek out the turrets on the map, then hack them with that same ‘A’ press. Obviously don’t do it if someone is blasting you in the chops with a plasmid, but you get the drift.

More importantly, though, is the research system. When you kill someone, you can stand over their body, hold ‘A’ again, and research their strengths and weaknesses. This will give you a damage boost over that opponent for the remainder of the match, and they’ll be signified by a camera floating above their heads. This is ABSOLUTEY CRUCIAL. Of course, the risk you run in researching is having someone stroll up behind you and putting buckshot in your cranium, but them’s the breaks.

Hopefully this will help you to overcome the initial oddness factor of BioShock 2’s multiplayer, so you can start levelling up quickly to get the good weapons, plasmids and tonics. We’ll rejoin the game’s multi later in the week for an in-depth loadout guide. Until then, happy hunting!

And don’t forget, if the Big Daddy suit spawns – GET IT.