April 23, 2009 - This fall 2K Marin will give Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC users the opportunity to return to the water-logged city of Rapture in BioShock 2, the sequel to 2K Boston's original. While it's set in the same place, it'll be 10 years later, and you won't be playing as the same protagonist. You'll be exploring new areas, slaughtering more genetically-enhanced splicers, and interacting with Little Sisters as an actual Big Daddy, a concept anyone who played through the original will be familiar with. You won't be playing as just any Big Daddy, either, but as a special breed; a prototype of sorts that's broken out of its role in Rapture's bizarre social order.
Many of the systems from the original game seem to be making a return, something we were able to hear more about at a recent demo session with the game and creative director at 2K Marin, Jordan Thomas. Back when the original BioShock was in production at 2K Boston, Thomas put together the memorable Fort Frolic section, and later set out to the newly-founded studio in Northern California to work on the sequel.
In case you didn't check out the first game (which you really should), the underwater city of Rapture was built by a megalomaniacal fellow by the name of Andrew Ryan. It was supposed to serve as an escape for talented people seeking an alternative style of existence free from the conventions and restrictions of life on the surface. Eventually the society was ruined as the practice of splicing, genetically modifying your body, expanded throughout the populace, introducing an unfortunate element of violence into an already strange and isolated world. Monstrous beings in diving suits called Big Daddies started following around little girls who'd undergone heavy genetic alterations. Rapture's residents, referred to as splicers here, were driven insane. The city started caving in on itself and in some of the surviving corners of Rapture dwelt twisted personalities fueled by psychotic and deadly ambitions. All these elements meshed together, along with an enjoyable style of gameplay, to make the original one of the most memorable gaming experiences of 2007 when it was released for Xbox 360 and Windows PC platforms.
So how does the story of this sequel hook into the end of the original? We were told the results of the major events of the first game, specifically the 'boss' encounters, remain unchanged. "There's a ton of controversy amongst the splicers as to which of the choices the player made," said Thomas. "The knowns are Tenenbaum and her safehouse full of Little Sisters returned to the surface and most of them led normal lives…One Little Sister did not acclimate. She wasn't able to fit in. She wouldn't let Rapture go for some reason…In the late '60s she returns to Rapture and she finds it a wreck. A lot of it has been reclaimed by the ocean, there's this new growth that's taking parts of it, and it's chilling to her."
According to Thomas, the splicers still remaining in Rapture are the stronger than before, as only the most powerful were able to survive in the chaos following the events of the first game. But there will also be folks in Rapture walking around who've never spliced before who are now tempted. "The first generation splicers are these really disturbing post-humans," Thomas said, "and then the more generic melee splicer guys are the new generation, the ones who had been incarcerated or otherwise non-accessible to the player in the first game. And they're coming streaming up out of the walls to find these new Little Sisters. The pressure of the Rapture world is very much a survival one. Anything that can help you live is at least worth considering."
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14240341/bioshock-2/videos/bioshock2_vdp_042209.html Gameplay preview!
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