Bioshock 2 - A 2K Marin / 2K Games Game

Back in August 2007 2K games introduced us to a world like no other, a giant sprawling city built on the ocean floor. This colossal undertaking was lauded as an underwater utopia free from the despots and hypocrisy rife in all governments around the world. It was a place where man was not restricted by law or rule, a place where anything could and would be accomplished. This city was Rapture.

As it turns out things didn't quite go according to plan, in fact it is safe to say that Rapture turned out to be something of a catastrophic failure as all this unchecked freedom lead only to insanity and violence. Rapture became a dystopian nightmare.

In Rapture 2k games introduced us to one of the most intriguing worlds created to date and at the same time one of the most compelling gaming experience to have ever graced the 360. The game rightly became an instant classic. In Bioshock 2 2K games once again return us to the savage and broken city of Rapture, albeit 10 years later. All the key ingredients that made the first game the success it was have returned, along with a few added extras.

The first and most notable difference you will find is that you are no longer in control of a humble man lost at sea, in fact the character from the original is largely irrelevant in this outing. No this time you control a Big Daddy, and not just any Big Daddy, you are in control of one of the earliest and most deadly prototypes... you are subject Delta!

The start of the game sees you awake in all too familiar surroundings, with little clue as to what is going on and only a mysterious message to start you on your journey.

Fans of the original will instantly feel at home, as very little has changed with how the game looks or plays. Graphically everything has obviously been kicked up a notch from the original and some of the scenery and water effects are visually stunning but it is still the same Rapture that fans of the first game will have grown to know and love. This is definitely not a bad thing however as the original game was a masterpiece, and in its own right visually stunning but it does mean that it lacks that initial wow factor of the original.

The biggest selling point of Bioshock was the ever engrossing story which kept driving you forward, always wanting to find out more and I'm very happy to say that this has not changed for the sequel. Great attention to detail has been taken for this outings overall story and as was the way in the original a great deal of detail, in fact some of the best elements of story about the world as a whole and the events within it can be attained from the various data recordings that are strewn amongst the broken ruins of this once great city.

In essence Bioshock has always been a story driven first person shooter, a role-playing first person shooter if you will, so the combat element is also a very large and important part of the game. Once again the team at 2K have done a great job with this also. There is a wealth of interesting weapons available to you throughout the game and each one has three separate types of ammunition which further diversify their effectiveness. Not only this but scattered around Rapture you will find a number of weapon upgrade stations which allow you to further tweak your tools of mass destruction, with three tiers adding from the simple more damage and bigger ammunition clips to a few more interesting unique upgrades if you invest solely in a certain weapon. It is nothing major or game changing but it is a nice little reward none the less, especially if like me you ended up favouring one weapon above all others.

Another big element of Bioshock and indeed the combat was the presence of Plasmids, and these make a very welcome return and have been tweaked to boot. No longer do you have to decide between your favourite shotgun and the ability to turn someone into a burning effigy, oh no you can indeed have your cake and eat it with the great addition of using Plasmids and weapons in tandem. This adds a great deal of extra fun and strategy to the combat proceeding as you work out which combination of weapon and Plasmid suits your play style and opponent. The Plasmids themselves have received a fair amount of time and attention, with each having three tiers of power each one costing significantly more ADAM than the last, but the differences in power level from one to the next are very noticeable indeed. These small tweaks to the game lend better to the feeling that you are actually progressing as the game goes on, you can actually feel it as you power grows... and the more it grows the greater your hunger for more will be!

Hacking has again returned and has also been tweaked for the better. No longer do you need to sit there and solve bizarre puzzles based around tubes, instead it takes the form of a more interactive reactions based system which is done in real time. This means that the action keeps flying around your head all the while you are tinkering with the tech. You therefore have the choice to make of whether to try and deal with the chaos around you alone or take the gamble that you can get that little security bot up and running in time to help turn the tide of battle. All of these tweaks and improvements all help to create a game which just seems to flow that much better than the original.

That isn't to say that Bioshock 2 is without its flaws, because it isn't. Despite the fact that it is an immensely enjoyable game with a full and rich narrative I couldn't help shake that feeling that the game was a little short. In a way it almost felt as if I was playing a piece of downloadable content much like Grand Theft Auto IV's "Lost and the Damned" or "Ballad of Gay Tony". A sizeable and time consuming expansion, but an expansion none the less. You will get a good 10-15 hours from the main single player campaign, but this figure pales in comparison to the likes of the original Bioshock and other games in this genre like Dead Space or Mass Effect. It appears that with the single player experience they went for the safe option, improve the elements of the original that needed tweaking but ultimately stick with the same formula.

The real risks it appears came in the form of the biggest and most noticeable difference from the original and that was with the inclusion of a multiplayer component. Great pains were taken with this to ensure that it felt like it was part of the Bioshock world rather than a bolted on extra, and I have to admit that the team did a good job doing so. The multiplayer element is integrated nicely into the story and its time line is actually set just before the events of the first game. You take control of one of Raptures splicer population before everything went a little haywire. With a choice from six unique characters each with their own story element that is unlocked as you progress through the ranks it does a nice job of making the experience not feel like a bolted on extra limb. Despite this however the mutliplayer doesn't really offer anything ground breaking or new, and in fact it struggles to stand up in a direct comparison to the newer and bigger multiplayer behemoths.

It tries to distinguish itself with the inclusion of the story and the progressive "levelling" of your in game character. As you gain ranks you gain access to newer and better equipment which whilst a nice touch and rewards those who put more time into the game it unfortunately brings a host of its own problems. It was once said that with great power comes great responsibilty, well in Bioshock 2 great power comes with greater success at smiting your opposition, and this is where their "levelling" systems hits a small snag. With no real way to control who plays in what game it is not unusual to find a game where a rank 2 or 3 is playing in the same game as a rank 30. So all the while you are running around with your pistol and shotgun they are running around with modified versions of everything you have as well as tweaked grenade launchers, machine guns and nail guns and that is just a selection of what is on offer. Experienced FPS veterans may relish the challenge of beating someone with better equipment etc but the more casual gamer like myself just found the experience to be greatly frustrating. Now add to this the current problem with the multiplayer mode causing complete lock ups with your 360 console, something I have experienced several times with my online experiences, and some of the worst lag I have encountered since Gears of War 2 it makes the online element all the less appealing and some times ultimately forgettable. As it is I can't help but feel the multiplayer element is something that will be played a little at the beginning and then only continued for as long as it takes to obtain the multiplayer achievements.

Bioshock 2 is a great game which I would happily recommend to anyone and everyone, but I can't help shake the feeling that it could have been and should have been so much more. Maybe if they had taken the same approach as Halo: ODST and had the single player campaign on one disc and the multiplayer element on a second disc they could have put more into the overall much better and much more rewarding single player experience and made it into the game it should have been.

So in conclusion I give Bioshock 2 a very respectable 8/10 and can and will recommend it to all as a great game. However a longer and more developed single player game would have granted this a very well earned 9/10, but the brevity of the single player campaign and the flaws in the muliplayer offering have disappointedly meant a lower overall score than it should have been.

Great review of a fantastic if slightly flawed game. Looking forward to the next outing in Rapture already

Nice review fella! If i hadn't already bought the game id be sold after reading that

Great review.

Nice review.....you've got it pretty much spot on there.

Well on that good review i went out and bought the game

Great review mate

Nice review. I'm a little late to the Bioshock 2 party, despite loving the first one. I'm only a couple of hours in and I'm really enjoying it so far.

I really didn't like the first game, thought it was really over hyped, and repetitive. I've had no interested in playing this at all, I've had it from Lovefilm for about 3 weeks and only kept it so my mate could play it. But I started playing this yesterday, and got hooked, and have just completed it. It's a awesome game, really enjoyed playing it. Much better than the first .