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BioShock 2 - The Review.
Back down, beyond the sea...
Written by Jon Denton, 08 February 2010
After reaching BioShock 2's dizzying climax, it seems mad that this sequel had its vocal share of detractors. The shift in development team (more in name than personnel) coupled with the inclusion of multiplayer spelled out doom to many who loved the measured pace and searing intelligence of the original. How wrong they were.
BioShock 2 is a better game than its predecessor. Unquestionably. While the foundations layed by Irrational's first foray into Rapture, the doomed underwater metropolis, still underpin everything achieved here, the way 2K Marin and its creative director Jordan Thomas have realised the true potential of the BioShock concept is just staggering.
Name anything, and BioShock 2 is a marked improvement over its ambitious forebear. Story? Yes. Atmosphere? Amazingly, yes. And combat? There's no competition. Even before the multiplayer, which sadly was not available at the time of review, BioShock 2, stands tall above its revolutionary forefather, like the Big Daddy towering over its human creator.
BioShock dealt with ideas of Objectivism and authorship in videogames, and shocked the world with its incredible attention to detail and brave narrative themes, especially to an audience used to space marines and fake-Afghan wars. The sequel expands upon these ideas, but from a markedly different perspective. BioShock 2's vocal antagonist, Dr. Sofia Lamb, is more of an altruistic Marxist figure than the megalomaniacal Andrew Ryan, but one who has developed a zealous following among the denizens of Rapture, whom she refers to as 'The Family'. You, of course, play as a Big Daddy, the only one of the legion of diving-bell clad monsters capable of free will, casting the player as the individual against a commu-fundamentalist regime. And the driving force behind the story is the search for Eleanor, your own daughter and Little Sister, who Lamb is keeping in captivity.
The rest of the cast all have legitimate motivations, and it's up to you who you trust. BioShock made us wary of that classic gaming trope - the guiding voice in our ear - and the sequel plays on that, toying with our own sense of belief and tempting us with a twisted morality. Just as before, you can slaughter other Big Daddies to steal their Little Sisters, but now the 'harvesting' option is more lucrative, making it more tempting but ultimately more sickening. You can also choose to adopt the little ones and go hunting for Adam together, opening up attacks from Splicers as the Sister jams her sizeable needle into an 'angel' - a rotting corpse.
BioShock 2's morality is hazier than the original's. Reactions to characters you meet along the way determine how the story plays out and ultimately your own payoff, but nothing is as black and white as the simple 'kill or save' of the first game.
360Zine Issue 39
For our latest Bioshock 2 coverage, click here to download 360Zine Issue 39 for free.So, the story, thematic sensibility and creaking, doomed atmosphere are all there, but what about the combat? The original suffered by not capitalising on its bold ideas; the combination of elemental attacks with classic PC-blaster gunplay. BioShock 2, though, is one of the most compelling shooters ever crafted. Being a Big Daddy, you're noticeably tougher than the original's Jack, mainly due to your ability to 'dual wield' plasmids and weaponry, but also thanks to the giant drill sitting on your right arm. You can combine elemental attacks with artillery fire smoothly, but real success only comes from analysing the environment and working out how you can turn it to your advantage.
Whether it's setting traps to trick a Big Daddy or offset a Splicer assault, or hacking a room full of turrets and cameras (with the brilliant, game-changing hack dart tool, which allows you to toy with circuitry from afar), BioShock 2 teaches you to use your surroundings to your advantage, making you feel as powerful as possible in the process. And it works - the game is rarely frustrating, perfectly pitched on its 'normal' difficulty and hugely rewarding for players patient enough to not just rush drill-first into every skirmish.
Also, the volume of customisation available means you can create your Big Daddy in your own image, as it were, focusing on specific combinations of weaponry and plasmids instead of just plodding through as the jack of all trades (pun quite pleasingly intended).
It allows the fights to take place on a grander scale, too. BioShock 2 has a 'stalker' character - the Big Sisters - who announce their own arrival with a hideous, speaker-cracking scream, then hurl everything in their power (including, quite literally, the kitchen sink) at you until you stop them dead. They're like premenstrual art-deco pitbulls, and while their place in the story is perhaps somewhat shoehorned, BioShock 2 would be a lesser game without them. Plan appropriately, and you can take a Big Sister out in style. Don't, and it'll be a quick visit to the nearest Vita-Chamber for you.
Ultimately, though, BioShock 2 is about much more than slick combat and screaming psychopaths. It's a complex, cerebral trawl through a magnificently depraved world and a fiercely original narrative, one that's perfectly paced and flawlessly delivered. Whether it's the echoed stomp that sounds out as you tread the sea bed, the screen-tearing power of drill-dashing a Splicer in the heart or the haunting disquiet of just walking the glass-walled halls of this once-proud but never-pure city, BioShock 2 just bleeds class.
Few thought that 2K Marin could ever match the brilliance of BioShock. Surely no one thought they would blow it clean out of the water.
SCORE: 95%
Bioshock 2 coverage available in 360Zine Issue 39 - click here to download it for free!
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breakdancefight
14 February 2010 @ 3:27AM GMT