Bioshock 2 Review

                  Will you heed the call of Rapture or will you stay 6 feet under? Bioshock 2 is a very engaging sequel, with new ideas and fun gameplay mechanics to boot. This time around instead of a puny human on crazy tonics and plasmids you fill the shoes of a Big daddy. For those who don’t know what a big daddy is, it’s a giant brute in submarine gear with a heavy will drill and other unique devices. The plot actually takes place 10 years after Jack, the main protagonist of Bioshock, ventured to the city. Sadly the introduction of the story is not as engaging as the first Bioshock. You wake up as a Big daddy lying on the floor, get back up, and continue your long quest for your own personal Little Sister.

The Drill which is your starting weapon is very cool to use whether you’re using it smash in a face of a splicer or drilling a hole in your enemy. Unique to Bioshock 2 is the ability to have your plasmid present in one hand and your weapon of choice in the other, wielded at the same time. It may sound minor at first but believe me it makes combat a bit interesting and subtracts the idea of going through menus. Graphically though everything looks the same with some touch up here and there, along with the amazing water physics applied into the game. There will even be segments in the game where you will venture outside of the City of Rapture into the ocean to explore new areas. These sections consist of no enemies in consideration that splicers, the common enemy of the game, are unable to breathe under water. Unique enemies like the Brute really add diversity to the game rather than facing the same old splicers over and over again. Another example is the infamous Big Sister. This enemy was once a little sister but has been modified into an agile assassin that you will encounter depending on how many littler sisters you have adopted or harvested. It’s sad that the Big Sister isn’t its own character and is treated as a reoccurring boss with generic attacks. Plasmids and tonics are still the same yet they can be charged up at higher levels in order to use them in creative ways like sapping someone with a thunder storm from your hand.

          A perk to being a Big daddy is that you are now able to adopt littler sisters in the game which allows you to gather more Adam and you can still harvest them for those who desire a darker path through the story. Yet you cannot carry around one littler sister forever eventually they will have to return to their hiding places.  Despite all these amazing additions to Bioshock 2 I still didn’t feel like a true big Daddy. It appears that my heavy Submarine suit would be made out of cloth at times. Splicers would cut clean into my health even on lower difficulties. It was not until near the end of the game that I felt like an overpowered Big Goliath. Even then the events that lead up the ending seem very minor and everything seems steadily paced. It was as if the developers were too scared to add major additions to the game, which really brought this game down in the end. The last couple hours of gameplay add an interesting twist to the game but that cannot make up an entire game.

          2k games, the developers of Bioshock 2, was even nice enough to add in a multiplayer mode. Yet you will not find a multiplayer as engaging as Modern Warfare 2, at times it can be fun but the load out options doesn’t feel up to pair with only 2 plasmids out a time, which really limit what you can do and weapons that appear overpowered or underpowered. I would find myself in matches in which everyone would be using the grenade launcher because it is considered a 1 shot kill. The Big daddy suit may be cool to get but it’s not enough to make me want to keep on playing the multiplayer. Customization of character is unique but other than that you can infer that 2k games just through it in there for kicks.  

          Bioshock 2 offers new twists to our beloved game but needs more additions  for it really feels as if you’re playing more of the old, which isn’t bad yet it doesn’t do much to improve this sleeping game series.