Bioshock 2

[entrerix]

i loved the first bioshock but the gameplay was definitely butt

 

i think im gonna skip the sequel, or at least wait till its 10$

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I loved the gameplay - I just decided to ignore the vitachambers, which I think is what most of you didn't do. It's a lot of fun if you experiment with plasmids and traps and the like, but yes, the vitachambers completely ruin the game.

[Purkake]

I loved the gameplay - I just decided to ignore the vitachambers, which I think is what most of you didn't do. It's a lot of fun if you experiment with plasmids and traps and the like, but yes, the vitachambers completely ruin the game.

I ignored the vitachambers as well.

 

The total lack of different enemies, constant respawning and not actually needing to use any plasmids or traps ruined the game.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I loved the gameplay - I just decided to ignore the vitachambers, which I think is what most of you didn't do. It's a lot of fun if you experiment with plasmids and traps and the like, but yes, the vitachambers completely ruin the game.

I ignored the vitachambers as well.

 

The total lack of different enemies, constant respawning and not actually needing to use any plasmids or traps ruined the game.

Eh, alright then. I still love the game, this world needs more steampunk games.

[Pidesco]

Bioshock wasn't steampunk.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

... the hell? What's your definition of steampunk?

[Pidesco]

A Victorian age inspired setting with anachronistic technological achievements.

[Tigranes]

Steampunk?

 

 

YEAAARGH

[Purkake]

... the hell? What's your definition of steampunk?

Get your punks straight.

[HoonDing]

And here was I thinking Oni was steampunk.

[Oner]

And here was I thinking Oni was steampunk.

You're kidding, right?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

So, finished it last night. SPOILERS YES.

 

Collecting my thoughts about the experience renders the game as a good shooter. Sometimes a very good shooter and really, past all the glitzy artwork and themes, the first Bioshock was "simply" a shooter. What Bioshock 2 does is to make that nature a lot more obvious.

 

So, combat's great. Plasmid combos and weapon upgrades are there and remain great, sure, but now that you can use both plasmids and weapons simultaneously means neither of them gets shafted: they're both effective and reliable tools you can use at all times. Triple shocking Splicers while pumping them with buckshot can be very satisfying, and lordie, that Speargun. But sweet jeebus, it is brutal. Towards the endgame encounters ramp up and the last setpiece envolves

giving time for a group of Little Sisters and Eleanor Lamb - the daughter of antagonist Sofia Lamb and the Little Sister you were originally bonded with - by

hacking away at handfuls of tough Splicer variants. Some later places where you have the tykes harvesting ADAM are veritable architectonic traps: small corridors, hiding places, several floors, etc. What these encounters lack in finesse - and I stress the good and bad I've highlighted before (namely that Splicers can go from using the environment in a "smart" way to being uncerimoniously spawned near you) - they try to balance with some novelty and attrition. One corpse may be in a large circular room, another may be in a low ceiling room, another in a wide open space in a theater, etc. Setting up Trap Rivets (I called them Mine Rivets before, my mistake), Mini Turrets and Proximity Mines is almost a puzzle in itself, and can go from glorious to catastrophic results.

 

2K Marin's job was difficult from the start. There are the mandatory nods and winks to the first. It's also a simpler and more contained story than BS1, more consistent in the telling even, but if you damn the first game for a lack of ambition in that regard, BS2's problem is a lack of talent in seeing it through. It's an executive order to give continuity to something you'd feel had a satisfying ending or one which, whether good or bad, brought closure. It's not easy doing that and while the team did try what I presume to be their best, I'm divided on the results. There are nice touches. Lamb is a reasonable antagonist, whose actions echo Ryan's own twisting of his own dream (the lengths you go to promote your ideals). Rapture's citizens become so indoctrinated into her speeches they begin treating Little Sisters as deities, looking at the vents they crawl through as temples to their glory (complete with offerings). But the imagery, the concept, the very themes feel spent, tired, washed out. Big Sisters are nothing short of wasted potential: much like the Big Daddies and Little Sisters, which went from novelty to routine in the first, so they too become mini boss encounters that, their agility and resilience aside, never captivate beyond that first contact. There's really nothing on the same level as "Would You Kindly?". And to some, the straightforward tale in BS2 won't elicit the same discussions as the first game, which might be seen as either blessing or curse. What it does, at least from the ending I've achieved, is to wrap it up nicely even if unsurprisingly.

 

Oh yes, the end. Throughtout the game there are moral decisions. Rescuing or harvesting all of the Little Sisters aside, some key characters have had a part in the events that befell Rapture but more importantly, things concerning your past. Even here, the game tries to make it a more personal tale, making Lamb's lieutenants much more ingrained to the main character. There's the singer, Grace; the sleaze, Stanley Poole; and the scientist, Gil Alexander,

who was to be the first Utopian - a host to all of Rapture's ADAM and therefore, all of the citizen's memories; a burden later placed on Eleanor.

You can decide if you want to kill them or not but the DIY morality is still divise. On one hand Grace is a woman tired of fighting and surrenders to your will so it makes sense she simply gazes at you, accepting whatever you decide. On the other Poole is a coward who just whines and begs for forgiveness inside his booth - expected perhaps, but no less jarring that he stays rooted in his spot, not even trying to save his worthless hide. Gil is... Well, the "Alexander the Great" nickname is kind of fitting given his condition, and the choice here is no different and I ended up killing him ("releasing him", more like it). All of these, along with saving all of the Sisters, seems to result in a "good" ending of sorts,

with the main characters escaping the city and suggesting that while Rapture's story had come to an end of sorts, theirs was just beginning.

 

 

There's no final twist that I could see. There are mentions of several characters in the BS lore

(Lamb was apparently aware of the W-Y-K conditioning in Jack, for instance), there are hints that the main character was indeed some schlub who just happened to be Big Daddied when the Protector project started rolling, and there is one peculiar setpiece where you're actually in control of a Little Sister.

Won't spoil further than that but will say that it was kind of lukewarm. I kinda saw it coming, yet not. It's like going through Rapture and then one part of the game forcing you to read internet fanfiction, a "what if?" as gentle and inconsequent as a boner at 3 AM when you're dreaming of naval construction yards. There's context but there's also a tenuous excuse to include it.

 

The "reward" for saving Grace is apparently only felt twice - once right after you save her (where I mentioned she sent Elite robo-turret-choopers) and further down the line where she sends a care package through the city's pneumos. Other than that, nothing else ever happens. There were no consequences to sparing Poole and killing Gil that I could see but I'm going to start replaying today, being a metal jackass, trying to find out what changes.

 

So. There's really no other way I can say this but, unfortunately, what resides in my memory after a playthrough are the moments of tension rising from the sieges the Splicers launch on you when the girls are harvesting ADAM. All else, while possibly tremendous in concept, ends up being merely competent (not necessarily a complaint) or lacklustre in execution. I can see why Bioshock was a hit among the console crowd, and I can feel myself kind of dreading the review I have to write for that very same crowd. In a world of Gears and Halos, where Ultimas and Deus Exes were left undiscovered, it's no wonder it proved a hit. But even by the standards of other console shooters, BS2 is a precarious thing. It provides several very good action moments and the plasmid/weapon combos can be, I daresay, delicious. I suspect many gamers will give the MP a whirl

(in particular since one of its modes intends to depict the Civil War that led to Rapture's demise, splicing role-playing elements like those in Modern Warfare's online and story exposition; but when you can read Wikis about what happened during that time, it better be good)

. But while it feels a more refined shooter, it's one that seems to use the core of Bioshock and Rapture as a prop. It

[jaguars4ever]

It's like going through Rapture and then one part of the game forcing you to read internet fanfiction, a "what if?" as gentle and inconsequent as a boner at 3 AM when you're dreaming of naval construction yards. There's context but there's also a tenuous excuse to include it.

 

I might pick it up for that comment alone.

[Matthew Rorie]

This is finally unlocking on my Steam account. Maybe I'll give it a whirl at lunch.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

A Victorian age inspired setting with anachronistic technological achievements.

Eh, the game fits the visual style of steampunk, which is what I was referring to.

[Purkake]

It has some steampunkish elements like the turrets, but the setting isn't really steampunk. Apparently there's also something called biopunk.

 

Oh, and Giant Bomb's verdict: a fun expansion pack.

[Pop]

Rockpapershotgun's got a nice (non-spoilery) writeup.

[Slowtrain]

So, combat's great.

 

 

What did you think of the combat in the first game?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

^Alright. Which is to say, good enough. But 1) the Plasmid/Weapon combos weren't exactly taxing but hand-switching between them felt like an unecessary layer of management and for a game intended to be grounded on shooty-bangs, the absence of dual wielding seemed like an oversight (fortunately corrected now as each hand is basically independent); 2) in Bioshock, for the most part, the fighting was a horizontal affair across large spaces or at least, large enough for each fight to feel individual, more something you chance upon. Here, the environments where the skirmishes occur require different approaches and tactics given their layouts and enemy numbers. They are forced on you when you harvest Adam, true, and if you make it a challenge not to collect Adam from the Little Sisters at all, you may very well not engage in these fights; but when you do, it becomes much more a fight for your life than a random encounter (which can be good or bad given your perspective; I enjoyed the challenge of these moments but do miss some of the more incidental encounters of the first one but I guess it comes with the territory - in B1, the Splicers were mostly as confused as you in Rapture; in B2, they're territorial packs).

 

At some points you get the feeling the SP is a training ground for MP, though.

[Jaesun]

The whole re-spawn thing is pretty much the deal breaker for me on this one. If it is not too intrusive (say like System Shock 2) then that's not a problem.

 

Nice read on that review.

[Slowtrain]

Thanks, DR.

 

that was a great mini-review (or not so mini).

 

It seemed as if you feel it is a decent enough console-shooter that sort of plays on the remnants of the first game but doesn't really do much beyond being a shooter.

 

Which may be enough, if that is what one is looking for.

 

edit: the RPS review Pop linked offers a remarkably similiar judgement to yours.

Edited February 11, 2010 by Slowtrain

[Diogo Ribeiro]

@Slowtrain: you're welcome And I pretty much feel like that, yeah. It's surprising how, even in the face of the respawn-o-mess and a number of seemingly less armed opponents who still manage to do the wire-fu on you, there's some fun to be had in those sieges. I'm leaning towards SP being one large tutorial for MP because at points, that's how it feels. You have nice moments but otherwise it's demoralizing to see it unfold. There's no "magic" to be had playing as a Big Daddy and, really, when the very first Tonic you get enables you to move faster, that kinda hammers the point home: barring the industrial drill on the arm, he's just an ordinary guy. Moves, shoots, behaves like one.

 

I think I'm about halfway through the game again; this time I'm consuming the tykes. I'll probably do a very minor update to point out the differences between my past choices and these. Only difference so far is a personal one: I'm a sap and I can't help but flinch at hearing the little ones begging me to stop or, based on how I've been treating them, realize the utter fear as they say "I've been good, Daddy, I promise" or somesuch.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

And then, it was done. Finished the game again, this time harvesting all the Sisters and killing off the three characters.

 

It's nearly exactly the same and the changes themselves only relate to a character, who only spouts a different lines before presenting you with an ending very close to the other one I mentioned.

 

The only difference is that

Eleanor becomes, as expected, a rougher character, taking your own killing of the children as an example of survival. At the end of the sequence where you control a Little Sister she kills here, taking the Adam, as opposed to setting her free had you rescued them all. Her development comes off as highly stunted: throughout the game she contacts you through a telepathic link of sorts, giving hints or comments, but whether you are "good" or "evil", all of these play out the same. In fact, all of the mission objectives, levels and the motions you go about them are exactly the same with just a wee change in context: if you're "good" both of you rescue the remaining Sisters to help everyone escape; if you're "evil" she actually kills them all to get enough Adam to provide an escape route herself. Barring a few different lines, she's exactly developed the same way... And at the end, she harvests you, looking over the stormy ocean and saying the world will change forever.

 

 

Two final details. During my first playthrough I saved two characters and killed a third one, Gil, whose pleas for me to release him led to that choice. But today I found out there's an Achievement if you save all three. Strange since the game suggests that leaving Gil alive is the same as confining him to a slow death, which could be seen as a "wrong" decision or at least, morally condemnable.

And even if he had a part in the experiments with Eleanor, he resents that.

So it's not exactly clear why sparing two characters while damning a third one makes me a paragon of virtue of sorts.

 

Also, I was considering a third replay to investigate the possibility of a neutral ending - or at least to see if it was possible to ignore the Little Sisters altogether. But I suspect it doesn't: one level in the game activelly requires you to deal with them, meaning at some point, you are forced to make a choice regarding them. If there is a "neutral" ending, I neither know what would trigger it nor do I have the time or inclination to go through it all again, at least not right now.

 

I think this concludes my impressions, review and last words on Bioshock 2. Now all that's left is to try some MP next week, and write some ruminations on my blog. And then, adios Rapture. May you rust in peace.

 

 

EDIT: Funny detail: one Achievement is called "Look at you hacker", gained after killing 50 enemies using only hacked security

Edited February 12, 2010 by Diogo Ribeiro

[Slowtrain]

"Look at you hacker"

 

 

I've just come to accept the fact that System Shock 1 is one of those game experiences that will never be surpassed.

 

Despite the cartoony graphics, computer games used to be such amazing experiences, now, for the most part, they're just meh.

[Morgoth]

I finished it today and was very suprised how well overall the writing and the father-daughter bond was realised.

 

I agree with RP that they have a bit exaggerated the splicer/alpha/mutant spawn rate. It's also harder now to get some ADAM. First, you have to kill a Big Daddy (Rumbler are particularly mean), then you have to find twice a location for the LS to harvest which in return will be heavily assaulted, and with a big luck you have to deal with a Big Sister (toughest enemy, even on Easy) as well. But the improved shooting mechanics makes that up.

Sound and Art is as always top notch, the level design a bit more confusing and ramified than BS1, but still 1000 times better than most the linear corridor shooters out there.

 

Overall, I liked BS2 equally as BS1. That means, very much.

 

BS3 can't come soon enough.