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- Jan 2, 2007
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2007's BioShock was quite a nice treat. While I can't say that it filled the gap of the absent System Shock franchise that left off with the ingenious System Shock 2, it was a pleasant surprise that brought a lot of great ideas to the table. The "Emergent AI" and environment stood out, the plot was surrealistic and more than a little unsettling, and for all its flaws it was a nearly unforgettable ride.
So now we have the sequel. Ted Levine and the fine folks at Irrational (Who are hopefully stealing System Shock 3 back from EA... and cooking up a new Freedom Force. DO IT!) have left and 2K has put various development houses in charge. So is it any good? Well, let's find out, shall we? As always, I divide my review by individual merits, and if you have kids or dislike certain content, there's a more descriptive rating hiding out at the bottom.
Story
If you haven't played BioShock 1, either go back and play it now or don't bother with this games story. The writers didn't bother to do any RetCon work, so you'll have no idea whats going on unless you have played part 1, and even then, the game does a poor job explaining whats going on and some simple RetCon work could've fixed that. The game begins on the fateful Dec. 31st 1959, which fans of the first game will know as the night that Rapture finally goes to pot.
As a prototype big daddy, you are leading a little sister named Eleanor, through the party to the disgusted looks of many who are understandably perturbed by your presence and see you as a filthy kidnapper. You are approached by Eleanor's mother, Sofia Lamb, a psychiatrist who leads a bit of a cult and opposes Andrew Ryan's "No laws, no taxes, only industry and the fruits of your labour" with the political ideal of "Family," getting rid of the "Self" and encouraging a you scratch my back, I scratch yours type society. She commands you through hypnotism to shoot yourself in the head, but 10 years later, after the death of Andrew Ryan, she has finally taken control of Rapture and is planning to bring it back to life through her "Family." Your goal? To find Eleanor, who has been subject of a cruel experiment of sorts (The details of which will remain mum in this review.) and counts on you to save her from her mum. There are a few other mysteries as well, mostly regarding your awakening, the presence of "Big Sisters" and of course, the bonds between you and Eleanor and how they go beyond your call of duty and even simple paternal instinct.
The story starts off poor, it took me awhile to figure out all of what I just told you, and while mystery is fine (In fact its what made the story to the first game so memorable, unveiling the mystery of "What is this place, and what in the name of god happened here?") they do a terrible job setting up the first bits and it can confuse even veterans of the first game. The story does pick up halfway into the second act, and while it definitely takes pages from "Silent Hill" (Tastefully though, so that's a good thing) it has plenty of disturbing and memorable moments, and although it gets off to a rocky start, once the game submerses you the story is just as good as the first games story, even if its not quite as memorable.
8.5
Graphics & Audio
The game looks more or less the same as last time. That is a good thing in some ways, although some things haven't aged so well, and it definitely pushes the Unreal 2.5 Engine to its limits and the Unreal 3 enhancements are welcome and merge seamlessly. The game has a high framerate even on my bottom end PC on 720p, which even Source has a problem with (Though that may be because the majority of the code is unreal 2.5) and the art design is still superb, although I will say that oddly enough, despite having more "Refined" models, the splicers don't seem as surreal as disturbing in form as they did last time. Their animations have been improved though, and the physics aren't nearly as clunky and awkward.
My biggest issue with the art design is the familiarity, Rapture is still a treat on the eyes, but it doesn't have the same feel as last time. It feels too similar, and it doesn't feel as foreign as it did last time round. The art team has done their hardest though to make the environments detailed, which does help. People who followed the development of the first game will recognize some designs from the early betas, including the "Rumbler" model of the big daddy, which is actually the very first model ever shown of a big daddy (Back when they were "Protectors") in the first games early development.
I also didn't care for the art direction on the "Brute" splicers. The splicers were meant to be surreal and strange, getting weirder and weirder and they still retain that feeling, but the Nitro splicers are all gone (They are now replaced with Leadheads that occasionally throw grenades.) and in their place are brute splicers, which you've seen in about every shooter of the past 16 years, a giant hulking mutant mass that runs around pounding things. Yawn.
The audio is a real treat. The voice acting is superb, and although you will notice the splicers repeating some lines of dialogue from the first game in casual talk, there are tons of great voices new and old and the acting is just as good as the first games cast. The music and soundscape is good as well, even if some music from the first game is repeated early on. The game also has a nice selection of old 50's tunes, and it was nice of them to put tunes in the loading screens since my computer takes minutes on end to load levels.
Although there are some painful lines of dialogue (Such as "Big Sister is watching you." Ugh.) the majority of the dialogue is still good, and since you are closer to the little sisters more frequently than in the first game, they have a chance to say more and lets just say some of the things they say are more than a little disturbing. They say these things with such innocence and joy that it only makes it a bit freakier when you realize how messed up these comments are. One time, I was attacked by some splicers with a little sister on my shoulder, and I couldn't help but shudder a little whilst going "WTF" when the little sister commented, after me pulling out my drill, "Yay! Go Unzip them daddy!" The game really does sound great, and the voice acting is some of the best you've heard in awhile.
9/10
Design
The game follows the same design philosophy of the first, Rapture works very much the same way it did last time in that its "Living" and that splicers, big daddies, and little sisters roam about doing their thing and that the environment is fully interactive. The only real issue with this is the familiarity, while the "Emergent AI" is still impressive, it won't wow you like it did the first time around. It feels more like an extension than an improvement, and it would've been neat to see them improve more on this concept. The level design is good, but its a bit smaller and more linear than the first game.
Another returning feature is the moral choices, which are branched out a bit. Being a big daddy, although you still need to wrestle the little sisters from their protectors, you are given more options than to just immediately harvest or exorcise them on the spot. You CAN harvest them the second you beat the big daddy, but if you want to exorcise them, you have to pop them on your shoulder and fill their daily rounds. This may sound repetitive, but the dynamic world of Rapture makes it interesting. You must protect them while they harvest Adam, and you have to put up with splicers. Its always best to scout the area and make note of what machines and items are where and to set up traps, be it the mini-turrets you loot from Rumblers or trap Rivets that can stop splicers from charging in immediately. After filling their rounds, you can exorcise them or you can harvest them, once again harvesting gets you more Adam but exorcising them has its own benefits and depending on certain tonics, exorcising them can actually bring MORE Adam if you play your cards right.
The moral choices also affect certain characters now. There's an encounter where you need to get a key from an old woman who is mad at you and believes it is your fault Eleanor was spirited away, and she makes the journey to her home hard, but when you get there because of her age and the fact that she has no weapons or plasmids to fight you with, she simply lets you in to grab the key. Naturally, you can kill her, or you can leave her alive, and if you leave her alive she will aid you throughout part of the game, in which another branching encounter will determine if she still cares for you or not.
The level design is good, but it does feel a little more cramped and scripted then before. You still do a fair amount of backtracking, and secrets seem less common, which makes the back tracking feel more of a chore. It also doesn't help that the MacGuffin characters here aren't as interesting. There are a couple memorable ones, but you'll never meet anyone as memorable or twisted as Sander Cohen (My personal favourite character from Part 1, and my favourite section) or Steinmann. There are still some memorable set ups, oddly enough one of the most memorable is the bit where you tour an "amusement" park that Ryan turned into a shrine, and you go through a tour of "The Surface" where Ryan's propaganda remains, which has a disturbing echo of the past in it and I especially liked a tape where Ryan is indulging his masturbatory fantasies of his "Utopia" and perception of "The Surface," and was so proud that after a kid took the tour, he asked the kid what the kid thought and his response was "My chores don't seem so bad now, as long as mum doesn't send me to the surface."
Like the story, the game does get off to a rocky start design wise. At first, it feels like a mod of the first game. You go through the same forced tutorial with no alterations save for the cosmetic kind, and even they are thin, and until you upgrade them a bit, the Drill is just a reskinned Wrench with a rapid mode, the rivet gun is just a pistol with a repeat fire option, and am I the only person who finds it strange that the .50 cal machine gun accepts ammo from Splicers Tommy guns? I'm pretty sure .50 Cal rounds aren't compatable with Tommys. It does improve fairly quickly though, and you'll start ignoring these petty details.
8.4/10
Gameplay
The combat in BioShock is improved. While it remains the same in many ways, its a little more satisfying. Gun combat in part 1 was somewhat clunky, and the game was distressingly easy. BioShock 2 fixes both of these. Guns are more satisfying to use once they've beefed up a bit, and offer a bit more variety, and just like in part 1 each gun accepts multiple ammo types. I mentioned the Trap rivets and the deployable mini-turrets that can be shot from a hacking tool, but my personal favourite is the phosphorous shotgun ammo, which frenzies your enemies before exploding. Its quite fun to send a splicer into a frenzy and watch them bump into a friend before blowing up and knocking their friend to the ground so that you can light them on fire and watch them go in a manner unlike their friend.
The difficulty has been improved and the game is a bit tougher. You still have vita-chambers (And you still have the option to turn them off, if you wish.) but you'll actually be glad they exist, especially when dealing with both varities of sister as your little sister (Presuming she wasn't killed) will appear at the vita-chamber, and the big sister will still be hunting you if you exit the vita-chamber, and trust me, those things are a BITCH to kill so for once you'll be thankful for being able to spawn in after denting them a bit. You can only hold 5 eve hypos and 5 med kits (Though this can be expanded with a tonic) and they are much rarer and so is money and ammo, which makes combat intense and varied, and it can be frustrating but that only makes the fruits of your labour more satisfying.
Hacking is fairly easy, though its made harder and more balanced by the fact that you can't pause the game whilst hacking and the hacking tool which shoots hack darts for long rage hacking is essential if you are trying to hack a turret without alerting some splicers or can't reach an area without being seen by a camera, and it makes it more frantic that you are actually vunerable whilst doing it. Hacking is no longer a pipe-dream mini-game, its a bit simpler now, just pinning a needle into the green area and avoiding alarms (Red areas) and shock areas (white) and if you are lucky, pinning the needle in a blue area which gives you a bonus. It is easy when you are alone and aren't dealing with something like a safe (Which are always annoying) but it is more challenging than last time, and its always intense to be on your last bit of health and you have to dart from a splicer and then hide before a corner whilst attempting to hit that turret with a hacking dart and not being spotted.
The core gameplay is better and more satisfying, but like the story and design, it gets off on a rocky start. It isn't until you get multiple ammo and some upgrades that it all gets interesting. Regardless, when things heat up, the game is really, really fun to play.
The biggest problem, once again, is familiarity. There are hardly any new plasmids (In fact I've only encountered one new one, most of the added ones are tonics) and save for a charging element with upgraded plasmids, they handle more or less the same. It may be a bit more fine tuned, but there aren't as many additions as one would hope for, and it can be said that there are definitely more possibilities for plasmids that would've been cool to see if the dev team spent some more time with their imaginations.
Overall, the game is good fun, and improved gun combat is nice, even if some more variety and new features would've been nice.
8.8/10
Overall
BioShock 2 is a very good game, but its not as memorable as its predecessor and it simply doesn't have the same "Wow" factor, and because of this the first games flaws are a bit more glaring, and the new flaws here glare more as well. The game also has a rough start, but it gets better as it goes on and while it may not do anything explosive at the end, it builds up and it has a satisfying pay off. Like its predecessor, it can really suck you in once it builds up said steam, and the atmosphere is top notch with plenty of good creeps and the story does get quite good once all is said and done. Its a good sequel, and the atmosphere and story do a great job at keeping you interested in another adventure in Rapture, despite some all too familiar echoes and a poor start.
8.7/10
Content Note for parents and the discretionary
BioShock 2 isn't a game for kids or the squeamish. Blood may not splatter all over walls when you shoot an enemy, but the game is still painted in plenty of blood from past events, and there are many gruesome "Decorations" and death scenes that were placed to invoke fear and disgust, and enemies will sometimes have elaborate and violent death animations as well, so if you don't like such things, stay away. There is also some strong language, but its not that frequent. Sexual content is fairly low as well, although there is mention of rapes and a tour through a love hotel that has its fair share of references. Violence is the biggest issue. Its not the most graphic or over the top, but there's plenty of violent imagery that's hard to avoid and combat can get bloody at times.
So now we have the sequel. Ted Levine and the fine folks at Irrational (Who are hopefully stealing System Shock 3 back from EA... and cooking up a new Freedom Force. DO IT!) have left and 2K has put various development houses in charge. So is it any good? Well, let's find out, shall we? As always, I divide my review by individual merits, and if you have kids or dislike certain content, there's a more descriptive rating hiding out at the bottom.
Story
If you haven't played BioShock 1, either go back and play it now or don't bother with this games story. The writers didn't bother to do any RetCon work, so you'll have no idea whats going on unless you have played part 1, and even then, the game does a poor job explaining whats going on and some simple RetCon work could've fixed that. The game begins on the fateful Dec. 31st 1959, which fans of the first game will know as the night that Rapture finally goes to pot.
As a prototype big daddy, you are leading a little sister named Eleanor, through the party to the disgusted looks of many who are understandably perturbed by your presence and see you as a filthy kidnapper. You are approached by Eleanor's mother, Sofia Lamb, a psychiatrist who leads a bit of a cult and opposes Andrew Ryan's "No laws, no taxes, only industry and the fruits of your labour" with the political ideal of "Family," getting rid of the "Self" and encouraging a you scratch my back, I scratch yours type society. She commands you through hypnotism to shoot yourself in the head, but 10 years later, after the death of Andrew Ryan, she has finally taken control of Rapture and is planning to bring it back to life through her "Family." Your goal? To find Eleanor, who has been subject of a cruel experiment of sorts (The details of which will remain mum in this review.) and counts on you to save her from her mum. There are a few other mysteries as well, mostly regarding your awakening, the presence of "Big Sisters" and of course, the bonds between you and Eleanor and how they go beyond your call of duty and even simple paternal instinct.
The story starts off poor, it took me awhile to figure out all of what I just told you, and while mystery is fine (In fact its what made the story to the first game so memorable, unveiling the mystery of "What is this place, and what in the name of god happened here?") they do a terrible job setting up the first bits and it can confuse even veterans of the first game. The story does pick up halfway into the second act, and while it definitely takes pages from "Silent Hill" (Tastefully though, so that's a good thing) it has plenty of disturbing and memorable moments, and although it gets off to a rocky start, once the game submerses you the story is just as good as the first games story, even if its not quite as memorable.
8.5
Graphics & Audio
The game looks more or less the same as last time. That is a good thing in some ways, although some things haven't aged so well, and it definitely pushes the Unreal 2.5 Engine to its limits and the Unreal 3 enhancements are welcome and merge seamlessly. The game has a high framerate even on my bottom end PC on 720p, which even Source has a problem with (Though that may be because the majority of the code is unreal 2.5) and the art design is still superb, although I will say that oddly enough, despite having more "Refined" models, the splicers don't seem as surreal as disturbing in form as they did last time. Their animations have been improved though, and the physics aren't nearly as clunky and awkward.
My biggest issue with the art design is the familiarity, Rapture is still a treat on the eyes, but it doesn't have the same feel as last time. It feels too similar, and it doesn't feel as foreign as it did last time round. The art team has done their hardest though to make the environments detailed, which does help. People who followed the development of the first game will recognize some designs from the early betas, including the "Rumbler" model of the big daddy, which is actually the very first model ever shown of a big daddy (Back when they were "Protectors") in the first games early development.
I also didn't care for the art direction on the "Brute" splicers. The splicers were meant to be surreal and strange, getting weirder and weirder and they still retain that feeling, but the Nitro splicers are all gone (They are now replaced with Leadheads that occasionally throw grenades.) and in their place are brute splicers, which you've seen in about every shooter of the past 16 years, a giant hulking mutant mass that runs around pounding things. Yawn.
The audio is a real treat. The voice acting is superb, and although you will notice the splicers repeating some lines of dialogue from the first game in casual talk, there are tons of great voices new and old and the acting is just as good as the first games cast. The music and soundscape is good as well, even if some music from the first game is repeated early on. The game also has a nice selection of old 50's tunes, and it was nice of them to put tunes in the loading screens since my computer takes minutes on end to load levels.
Although there are some painful lines of dialogue (Such as "Big Sister is watching you." Ugh.) the majority of the dialogue is still good, and since you are closer to the little sisters more frequently than in the first game, they have a chance to say more and lets just say some of the things they say are more than a little disturbing. They say these things with such innocence and joy that it only makes it a bit freakier when you realize how messed up these comments are. One time, I was attacked by some splicers with a little sister on my shoulder, and I couldn't help but shudder a little whilst going "WTF" when the little sister commented, after me pulling out my drill, "Yay! Go Unzip them daddy!" The game really does sound great, and the voice acting is some of the best you've heard in awhile.
9/10
Design
The game follows the same design philosophy of the first, Rapture works very much the same way it did last time in that its "Living" and that splicers, big daddies, and little sisters roam about doing their thing and that the environment is fully interactive. The only real issue with this is the familiarity, while the "Emergent AI" is still impressive, it won't wow you like it did the first time around. It feels more like an extension than an improvement, and it would've been neat to see them improve more on this concept. The level design is good, but its a bit smaller and more linear than the first game.
Another returning feature is the moral choices, which are branched out a bit. Being a big daddy, although you still need to wrestle the little sisters from their protectors, you are given more options than to just immediately harvest or exorcise them on the spot. You CAN harvest them the second you beat the big daddy, but if you want to exorcise them, you have to pop them on your shoulder and fill their daily rounds. This may sound repetitive, but the dynamic world of Rapture makes it interesting. You must protect them while they harvest Adam, and you have to put up with splicers. Its always best to scout the area and make note of what machines and items are where and to set up traps, be it the mini-turrets you loot from Rumblers or trap Rivets that can stop splicers from charging in immediately. After filling their rounds, you can exorcise them or you can harvest them, once again harvesting gets you more Adam but exorcising them has its own benefits and depending on certain tonics, exorcising them can actually bring MORE Adam if you play your cards right.
The moral choices also affect certain characters now. There's an encounter where you need to get a key from an old woman who is mad at you and believes it is your fault Eleanor was spirited away, and she makes the journey to her home hard, but when you get there because of her age and the fact that she has no weapons or plasmids to fight you with, she simply lets you in to grab the key. Naturally, you can kill her, or you can leave her alive, and if you leave her alive she will aid you throughout part of the game, in which another branching encounter will determine if she still cares for you or not.
The level design is good, but it does feel a little more cramped and scripted then before. You still do a fair amount of backtracking, and secrets seem less common, which makes the back tracking feel more of a chore. It also doesn't help that the MacGuffin characters here aren't as interesting. There are a couple memorable ones, but you'll never meet anyone as memorable or twisted as Sander Cohen (My personal favourite character from Part 1, and my favourite section) or Steinmann. There are still some memorable set ups, oddly enough one of the most memorable is the bit where you tour an "amusement" park that Ryan turned into a shrine, and you go through a tour of "The Surface" where Ryan's propaganda remains, which has a disturbing echo of the past in it and I especially liked a tape where Ryan is indulging his masturbatory fantasies of his "Utopia" and perception of "The Surface," and was so proud that after a kid took the tour, he asked the kid what the kid thought and his response was "My chores don't seem so bad now, as long as mum doesn't send me to the surface."
Like the story, the game does get off to a rocky start design wise. At first, it feels like a mod of the first game. You go through the same forced tutorial with no alterations save for the cosmetic kind, and even they are thin, and until you upgrade them a bit, the Drill is just a reskinned Wrench with a rapid mode, the rivet gun is just a pistol with a repeat fire option, and am I the only person who finds it strange that the .50 cal machine gun accepts ammo from Splicers Tommy guns? I'm pretty sure .50 Cal rounds aren't compatable with Tommys. It does improve fairly quickly though, and you'll start ignoring these petty details.
8.4/10
Gameplay
The combat in BioShock is improved. While it remains the same in many ways, its a little more satisfying. Gun combat in part 1 was somewhat clunky, and the game was distressingly easy. BioShock 2 fixes both of these. Guns are more satisfying to use once they've beefed up a bit, and offer a bit more variety, and just like in part 1 each gun accepts multiple ammo types. I mentioned the Trap rivets and the deployable mini-turrets that can be shot from a hacking tool, but my personal favourite is the phosphorous shotgun ammo, which frenzies your enemies before exploding. Its quite fun to send a splicer into a frenzy and watch them bump into a friend before blowing up and knocking their friend to the ground so that you can light them on fire and watch them go in a manner unlike their friend.
The difficulty has been improved and the game is a bit tougher. You still have vita-chambers (And you still have the option to turn them off, if you wish.) but you'll actually be glad they exist, especially when dealing with both varities of sister as your little sister (Presuming she wasn't killed) will appear at the vita-chamber, and the big sister will still be hunting you if you exit the vita-chamber, and trust me, those things are a BITCH to kill so for once you'll be thankful for being able to spawn in after denting them a bit. You can only hold 5 eve hypos and 5 med kits (Though this can be expanded with a tonic) and they are much rarer and so is money and ammo, which makes combat intense and varied, and it can be frustrating but that only makes the fruits of your labour more satisfying.
Hacking is fairly easy, though its made harder and more balanced by the fact that you can't pause the game whilst hacking and the hacking tool which shoots hack darts for long rage hacking is essential if you are trying to hack a turret without alerting some splicers or can't reach an area without being seen by a camera, and it makes it more frantic that you are actually vunerable whilst doing it. Hacking is no longer a pipe-dream mini-game, its a bit simpler now, just pinning a needle into the green area and avoiding alarms (Red areas) and shock areas (white) and if you are lucky, pinning the needle in a blue area which gives you a bonus. It is easy when you are alone and aren't dealing with something like a safe (Which are always annoying) but it is more challenging than last time, and its always intense to be on your last bit of health and you have to dart from a splicer and then hide before a corner whilst attempting to hit that turret with a hacking dart and not being spotted.
The core gameplay is better and more satisfying, but like the story and design, it gets off on a rocky start. It isn't until you get multiple ammo and some upgrades that it all gets interesting. Regardless, when things heat up, the game is really, really fun to play.
The biggest problem, once again, is familiarity. There are hardly any new plasmids (In fact I've only encountered one new one, most of the added ones are tonics) and save for a charging element with upgraded plasmids, they handle more or less the same. It may be a bit more fine tuned, but there aren't as many additions as one would hope for, and it can be said that there are definitely more possibilities for plasmids that would've been cool to see if the dev team spent some more time with their imaginations.
Overall, the game is good fun, and improved gun combat is nice, even if some more variety and new features would've been nice.
8.8/10
Overall
BioShock 2 is a very good game, but its not as memorable as its predecessor and it simply doesn't have the same "Wow" factor, and because of this the first games flaws are a bit more glaring, and the new flaws here glare more as well. The game also has a rough start, but it gets better as it goes on and while it may not do anything explosive at the end, it builds up and it has a satisfying pay off. Like its predecessor, it can really suck you in once it builds up said steam, and the atmosphere is top notch with plenty of good creeps and the story does get quite good once all is said and done. Its a good sequel, and the atmosphere and story do a great job at keeping you interested in another adventure in Rapture, despite some all too familiar echoes and a poor start.
8.7/10
Content Note for parents and the discretionary
BioShock 2 isn't a game for kids or the squeamish. Blood may not splatter all over walls when you shoot an enemy, but the game is still painted in plenty of blood from past events, and there are many gruesome "Decorations" and death scenes that were placed to invoke fear and disgust, and enemies will sometimes have elaborate and violent death animations as well, so if you don't like such things, stay away. There is also some strong language, but its not that frequent. Sexual content is fairly low as well, although there is mention of rapes and a tour through a love hotel that has its fair share of references. Violence is the biggest issue. Its not the most graphic or over the top, but there's plenty of violent imagery that's hard to avoid and combat can get bloody at times.
Sorry, I know that isn't BioShock related, but whatever.
. Game is real fun and a lot scarier than the first one.
