PlayStation News, Articles and Information for the UK and Europe

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

RELEASE DATE: 9th February 2010

RATING: 18 (BBFC), 18 – Violence + Bad Language (PEGI)

DEVELOPER: 2K Marin, 2K China, Digital Extremes

PUBLISHER: 2K Games

Anyone who’s played the original Bioshock will quite probably remember it fondly; the crumbling underwater city of Rapture and your atmospheric exploration of it, trying to find out what happened to the city 10 years ago when society collapsed. This time, 2K Games have pulled out all the stops to create  a sequel which follows in the original’s footsteps by creating another atmospheric adventure under the sea only this time as a Big Daddy; tweaking a few mechanics and even going so far as to add a whole online section to the game with the help of Digital Extremes.

The main events of the game take place long after the fall of Rapture, about 8 years after when the original Bioshock was set, so as you can imagine, the place is falling apart pretty badly by now. The story starts back in Rapture’s hay-day, with a cutscene depicting you as a Big Daddy with your Little Sister, unfortunately you end up forced to kill yourself and wake up in the present day (1968). The story follows your hunt to find your original Little Sister under the protection of her mother – Sofia Lamb. The story itself isn’t quite as good as the original, there aren’t any real twists hidden in there, but there is definitely a well thought out and well-paced plot line to follow which will keep you playing, if just to see whether you ever find your Little Sister or not.

Bioshock 2 will shed some light on the mysterious scene at the end of Bioshock.

Much like the original Bioshock, you’ll find lots of audio diaries scattered throughout the places you visit, documenting the rise and fall of Rapture and giving you more details into the circumstances surrounding you and your Little Sister. These audio diaries help to make the story a lot deeper than you might think, with the game itself only scratching the surface of what happened.

The atmosphere isn’t quite as prominent in this sequel, but just exploring the place still allows you to delve into the world of Rapture and its inhabitants. If you leave yourself to it, the hours pass like minutes, with each level clocking in at about an hour of gameplay but feeling like a fleeting few minutes. The best way to play the game really is to shut yourself out from real life, turn the phone off, lock the door, whatever, but you’ll enjoy your experience a lot more if you allow yourself to become immersed in the game.

The basic gameplay mechanics from the original game still apply, with the left trigger used to fire Plasmids, and the right trigger to fire your weapon. As with the original game, the aiming still feels kind of clunky and doesn’t really have the precision that other first-person shooters of today have. The main changes are found in the hacking sections, where instead of placing pipes down to allow liquid to come through, you are charged with stopping a moving needle in a green or blue section, with the red and white sections setting off the security alarms and giving you an electric shock respectively. This hacking mini-game makes the hacking sections flow much more smoothly, requiring a lower amount of time to complete (over the old system) whilst maintaining a level of skill.

Playing as a Big Daddy has its advantages...

Also new to the sequel are the gathering sections with Little Sisters. As a Big Daddy, you must retrieve Little Sisters by fighting off their own Big Daddies. Once you’ve got a Little Sister, you have the choice to Harvest or Adopt them. Harvesting them results in you gaining a large amount of ADAM, the currency used to purchase and upgrade Plasmids, whilst Adopting them will give you a new objective. The objective is to find a corpse (which the Little Sister will choose) and drop the Little Sister so that she can harvest ADAM from it. Don’t think that that’s all there is to it though, as Splicers will try and attack her in order to get the ADAM. Once you’ve fought off the Splicers, you’ll gain a little ADAM, and after repeating this with another corpse, you can choose to rescue the Little Sister by taking her to a vent, or harvest for more ADAM.

Dealing with all of the Little Sisters in a level will result in a boss encounter of sorts, with the Big Sister. You’ll be given about half a minute to prepare for your encounter, and then she’ll strike. You must then kill her in order to progress further through the game. The use of a tactical strategy is imperative here, as the Big Sister can prove to be a formidable opponent on the harder difficulties. Once you’ve defeated her, you can search her corpse for some extra ADAM and a few other bits and pieces too.

The Big Sister proves to be a tough challenge at the end of every level.

Graphically, Bioshock 2 presents minor improvements across the board over its predecessor, with pretty much everything looking just that bit more detailed. Walking around the (leaky) ruins of Rapture may not give the game its due, but if you stop to look at your surroundings once in a while, you will notice the true beauty that the game has to offer. The underwater sections also show off the power of the game’s engine, with a large variety of sea life on all visible surfaces, it makes venturing out into the sea a thing to look forward to.

The incredible music is back from the original game too, with the soundtrack opting mainly for a string quartet focussed affair. From the high screeches of the violins as you witness someone being murdered, to the incredible sense of  mystery of the cellos as you lay eyes on the city of Rapture for the first time in a decade, the soundtrack really does enhance the best parts of the storyline. As mentioned above, the audio diaries provide a deeper experience for those who wish to delve further into the story of Rapture, lending a great amount of authenticity and a ghost-like atmosphere as you wander the desolate corridors.

The online component of the game really is worth a visit as there is tonnes of stuff to do. Aside from the bog-standard online features we’ve come to expect from multiplayer games, Bioshock 2 has a story type mentality interwoven with it. The idea is that the multiplayer portion of the game takes place when Rapture was still inhabited. You have a choice of characters, all of whom have taken part in the Splicer program, giving them access to weapons and plasmids. As you rank up through experience, you’ll receive messages from your boss telling you how well you’re doing and that you’ve earned this or that with every ten ranks earning you a promotion to a more elite group – offering with it a new set of perks.

Of course in addition to this, there are the normal features of an online game: Free-for-all Deathmatch (named Survival of the Fittest), Team Deathmatch (named Civil War), Elimination (Last Man Standing), Capture the Flag (Capture the Sister) and much more. In some of the game modes, a Big Daddy suit will be randomly placed in the arena, which when you find, you can use to gain more health and attack power, however you’ll forgo the ability to replenish health. Each time you rank up, you’ll earn a selection of different rewards which could be Plasmids, new Weapons, extra Load-outs, more Trials and new items of clothing with which to customise your appearance. All in all, the multiplayer side to the game has a lot of depth and provides a great deal of variation over other first person shooters.

In the online world, your Plasmids have been toned down to make the game less frustrating.

Overall, the single player section of the game should last you a good ten hours if you stop to explore everything, with considerably less should you focus on your main objectives constantly. The online portion however, remains fresh for a long time and provides enough uniqueness over other games for you to keep coming back. There aren’t tonnes of people online, and although you’ll easily find a deathmatch it may be harder to find matches in the other modes. The trophies provide a reasonable challenge, with the hardest one really being to complete the game on Hard. The online trophies don’t seem too bad, with basic bronzes for playing on every map or for becoming a Big Daddy, and then a gold trophy for reaching the top multiplayer rank (level 40).

Bioshock 2 doesn’t quite have the impact that its predecessor had, but that’s no reason to say that there is nothing of note whatsoever. The story is still well paced and reasonably lengthy, and although it may not be as shocking as the first one, there is still room for an enjoyable and atmospheric adventure. The levels can be a bit on the long side, but there’s lots to do and loads to explore, with a great variety of weapons and plasmids to choose from to create your own strategies. The aiming still fills a bit heavy, but various little mechanics have been changed (for the better), whether it be the hack minigames, helping a Little Sister gather her ADAM or fighting a Big Sister.

The online component is very well constructed and will keep you entertained for a good long while if you’re looking for something different and a bit more developed than other titles. There’s a variety of modes and a bunch of special trials to do, and the added ability to roam around your own apartment to customise your appearance and weapons load-outs is a great touch. Only haters of the original Bioshock will really despise the sequel, but the chances are if you loved your first outing to Rapture you’ll still have room for this one too, and if you haven’t played it you’re better off doing so as soon as possible.