In Bioshock 2, you return to the underwater city of Rapture 8 years on from the first game as “Subject Delta”, one o f the original Big Daddies.
Andrew Ryan’s rule has ended and a new communist-style government is in force following psychiatrist Sophia Lamb, who has brought the splicers
 (the deranged inhabitants of Rapture) together as part of her “family”. Instead of seeing graffiti on the walls saying “A man chooses,
 a slave obeys”, you find signs such as “We are reborn in the ocean”. You occasionally find small shrines to the
family with splicers worshiping around them. It’s very creepy and has a completely different vibe to the original game.

   You wake up in 1968 to find that Rapture is still plagued by ADAM crazed splicers, goliath Big Daddies in many different forms (this time some pack rocket launchers instead of the drill) and those creepy Little Sisters. Now there is also the added threat of the Big Sisters who are fast, powerful and can attack with weapons and plasmids. As Delta, you have to make your way across Rapture to find your Little Sister, Eleanor Lamb, before a fail-safe is triggered and Delta falls into a coma and dies. Along the way Delta is assisted by Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum and new ally Augustus Sinclair.

Presentation:

      The presentation of Bioshock 2 is top-notch. Although not many visual elements have changed from the first game to the second, there is a jump in quality of the graphics. The lighting effects have improved somewhat, creating less of a distance between bright light and darkness. Shadows seem more real and the lighting is a bit softer. There now is a variety of depth in the lighting, creating eerie moods and tension filled moments where shadows of Big Sisters and splicers run through the light.

      There is also a great deal of detail to the character models. While there’s no photorealism happening in this game, the splicers look perfectly deranged, the Big Daddies look menacing and the Little Sisters look sufficiently creepy. There has also been a great deal of effort put into making the enemies not all look the same. There are now four different versions of the Big Daddy (five if you include yourself) and they all attack in different ways and have different weaknesses, as well as having different physical designs.

      The Big Sisters are also a work of genius, as each fight with them is a tense affair with their screeches disrupting your visual field. The mood is heightened by the intense soundtrack, fast paced beat and rapid movements of the Big Sister, creating an atmosphere that is both tense and occasionally terrifying.

      Just as in the original, the music in Bioshock 2 is an absolute standout. Between each level and played on radios and jukeboxes scattered through the levels are songs relevant to the era. Even though the 60s were filled with The Beatles and other pop icons, the music you hear is mostly from the 30s, 40s and 50s and suits the atmosphere of Rapture perfectly.

      There is also an official score for Bioshock 2 composed by Gary Schyman and recorded with a 60 piece ensemble. To say that it works well with the atmosphere of the game would be an understatement. Good game music should heighten all the emotions you feel whilst playing while not overpowering the experience, and that’s what this score does. It truly immerses you in the world of Rapture, yet you sometimes won’t even realise that there’s any music at all.

      The level design is also fantastic, with no two levels being the same. Sure, there are some similarities between each level, but the design and layout is fantastic and I can guarantee that you’ll be too engrossed in the story to notice. Besides, Rapture is an underworld city based on one man’s vision of a perfect society, not seven or eight different mini-towns with polarising visuals. The levels change enough for you to not consider them to be carbon copies of each other, yet remain similar enough for you to truly believe that each level was a different part of Rapture.

Gameplay:

      The most obvious change from the first game is that you’re now a Big Daddy and that has some added benefits. The most obvious one is that you can attack with the Big Daddy drill that terrorised players in the first game. Words can barely describe the first time you charge up the drill and turn a foe into a Splicer Smoothie. Blood splatters across the screen, the world shakes in your hands and your enemies let out a guttural shriek. Looking down at their corpse, all you can think of is “Holy crap that was awesome”. Then you can loot their body.

      Another major change is the ability to duel-wield weapons and plasmids. The right bumper/trigger controls your weapons and your left bumper/trigger controls your plasmid powers. Most of the old plasmids make a return (electrocuting a splicer standing in a pool of water is still awesome) and there are a number of new plasmids introduced as well.

      There has also been a change to the way you interact with the Little Sisters. In the first game, when you take out a Big Daddy you can choose to either Harvest or Save the Little Sisters, netting you different amounts of ADAM. This time you have the choice to Harvest or Adopt the Sisters. Adopting Little Sisters makes them climb on your shoulders and guide you to a corpse filled with ADAM, Rapture’s genetic material and currency for buying plasmids and tonics.

      Getting the Little Sister to harvest the ADAM will initiate a “castle defence” type scenario where you have to defend your creepy little child from an oncoming wave of splicers while she drains the corpse of ADAM. This creates an interesting tactical gameplay mechanic where some players might spend time before harvesting meticulously planting traps for enemies to run into, while others might be more inclined to run and gun when the splicers come running. You can harvest two pre-defined corpses with the Sisters before taking them to an escape vent and either choosing to Harvest or Save them. While in the first Bioshock, the reward for choosing either path isn’t very noticeable until near the end, you have more obvious rewards for choosing one path over another this time. This being said, gamers who have played the first game won’t be too surprised with the direction that either path leads the player.

      There are other cool gameplay elements, such as spending some time underwater in the sea outside Rapture. While this is mostly aesthetic, it does show a different side of Rapture and gives you a chance to see the city from the outside looking in.

      The majority of the gameplay elements from the first game are carried over into the sequel. Ammo and money are still scarce, so you have to occasionally be prudent with choosing your battles and you need to think and prepare for large fights against Big Daddies and Sisters.

      There are some plasmids that you’ll never use and some of the tonics seem useless, but there’s little to fault Bioshock 2 gameplay-wise. It doesn’t change much from the original Bioshock, but why fix something that isn’t broken?

      As well as the single player campaign, there is also a new multiplayer mode. The multiplayer is set outside the main storyline and is based around a civil war in Rapture. In this, you act as a plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions.

      While adding multiplayer to Bioshock does seem like a bizarre move, it works pretty well. A lot of the modes are variations of the standard deathmatch, team-deathmatch and capture-the-flag game modes of all first person shooters, there is a different feel to Bioshock 2 than there is for other shooters such as Call of Duty. Throwing plasmids into the mix does provide a major difference to other shooters, and some RPG-style elements with levelling up and completing trials does make for slightly more interesting matches, but I don’t see Bioshock challenging COD or Halo for the number one spot on the Xbox Live charts.

Sinclair Solutions Test Pack DLC:

      Ok, this is something I want to discuss in detail. Shortly after releasing Bioshock 2, 2K announced a DLC pack called “Sinclair Solutions Test Pack”. It costs 400MS points, which roughly equates to AU$6.60. This pack includes:

•  
  • Increasing the levelling rank to 50 from 40
  • Unlocking 2 new playable characters
  • 20 new trials
  • 5 new masks
  • 2 new players’ special melee weapons
  • A third upgrade for each weapon

      Now, this may seem fine to anyone who wants to continue their Bioshock 2 multiplayer experience, however on closer inspection something seems odd. The file you download from Xbox Live is a measley 108kb. Normally a download including new characters, weapons and customisable gear would not be such a small size. Files this size are usually patches for minor gameplay updates or, as it turned out to be in this case, a file that simply unlocks data that was already included on the disc.

      What this means for people who are getting this DLC is that they’re paying to have something on the disc they’ve already paid for unlocked.

      Microtransactions and DLC seem to be the new fad amongst developers so they can recoup the costs of increasing development prices and continue to have players on their game for longer periods of time. Games tend to be a set price of around $100, but most games can get them for cheaper due to sales and competitions between retailers. Due to the stock-standard price for games, developers only get a certain percentage of this money back after packaging, transport, advertising, etc. DLC is a way to get money back for a game with little cost to develop, no packaging cost and near 100% return to developers from the online price.

      DLC is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I think developers do unethical things regarding DLC. The first two parts of Assassin’s Creed 2 DLC were segments of the story that weren’t able to be developed and perfected in time for release, so people ended up having to pay extra to play those missions. This DLC for Bioshock 2 is where it comes to be ridiculous.

      2K Games have already confirmed that the downloadable content was already stored on the retail disc and that the file just unlocks content that the player already owns. In my mind, this is absurd and completely unfair on the player. DLC shouldn’t be a way for the developers to continuously take money from their player base, it should be a way to expand the world of their games and give players the option to continue their gaming experience beyond what they originally bought.

      Prime examples of great DLC are Mass Effect 2 and GTA IV. The two pieces of DLC for GTA IV are two full stories. They’re not things that were tacked on or things the player should’ve had from the get go. They are full expansions to the story of Liberty City from the perspective of other characters and completely worthy downloads.

      Mass Effect 2 has another great example of DLC at its finest with the Cerberus Network. Players get download free DLC, such as new weapons, a new vehicle, a new character and some costumes. Some DLC for Mass Effect 2 is paid, but usually that includes a complete level, new character and achievements.

      In the end, DLC comes down to a cost for money balance. Are the players getting good value DLC for what they’re paying, or are the developers simply trying to get as much cash out of us as possible?

      In Bioshock 2’s case, this DLC is not worth it. Paying 400MS points for something that should have been included and unlocked on the retail is absurd and unfair.

Dr Awesome’s Prognosis:

Pros:

• Amazing atmosphere
• In-game choices really feel like they matter
• New weapons are very cool
• Drill is absolutely badass
• Great story

Cons:

• If you’ve played the first game, you won’t get the same feeling you did the first time you entered Rapture
• Sinclair Solutions DLC is a waste of money

Score:

      92/100

Final thoughts:

      To put it simply, this game is awesome. You may not get the same “oh my god” moment that you did at the start of the first game, but the story is incredible. You have plenty of moments where you can make real moral choices and the ending is brilliant. The multiplayer is much better than expected, however I can’t see die-hard FPS fans playing it as regularly as they would COD or Halo. All in all, this game is a brilliant follow-up to the 2007 Game of the Year nominated Bioshock and I’d recommend it to anyone and everyone.

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