Vgchartz Official BioShock 2 Thread

[GodOfWar_3ever]

The weapons of Bioshock 2 -
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1066470p1.html

February 3, 2010 - Rapture is a dangerous place. It's a leaky, underwater city filled with genetic freaks with violent tendencies. To survive, you're going to need some serious firepower, especially against some of the new enemies you'll face off against in BioShock 2. In case you're not familiar, in 2K Marin's sequel to Irrational Games' original, you play as a Big Daddy roughly 10 years after the events of the first game. Andrew Ryan was replaced by a new ruler, Sofia Lamb, who believes in the efforts and achievements of the community rather than those of the individual. She's whipped the splicers into a kind of religious fervor, and she's told them all to wipe you out. 

Since you'll be playing as a Big Daddy, that means you're a much more formidable figure than Jack from the first game. It also means you'll be able to carry around heavier weaponry. Though some of the guns function differently in BioShock 2, many tend to be pretty similar. There are some notable omissions, however. For instance, there's no direct equivalent to the wrench. Instead, every single weapon can be used to bash an enemy, which turns out to be a pretty convenient way to follow up a few rivet gun shots or an Electrobolt blast. The chemical thrower has also been axed from the lineup, and there isn't really a replacement here. 

As for how the weapons are acquired and upgraded, you'll come across these things lying around in the environment. Once picked up, you can upgrade them up to three times by finding Power to the People stations all over Rapture. Each weapon has two basic upgrades that boost things like magazine size and damage dealt. A third upgrade then becomes unlocked after the first two are selected, which has a more significant effect on weapon behavior -- which you can see examples of in the list below. All upgrades will affect the appearance of the weapon model, adding extra gears and detail and generally making the weapon look more threatening. Additionally, like in the previous game, each weapon has alternate types of ammunition which can be useful for plowing through enemies or setting up a defensive perimeter. 

Drill Arm: Like the name says, this is a giant drill that sits on your right arm. It's powered by fuel, and assuming you have some in reserve you can rev it up and slam it into enemies, quickly draining their health. A little ways into the game you also get a drill charge ability, which lets you move swiftly across the ground and shoulder into foes, again dealing a decent amount of damage. If you run out of fuel entirely, you can still swipe at splicers. 

Power to the People Upgrades: The first two upgrades for this weapon are pretty basic, giving you increased drill fuel efficiency -- so it doesn't drain as quickly -- and a damage increase. The third upgrade is a drill reflector, which lets you turn back incoming projectiles while the drill is up and running. 

Alternate Ammunition Types: There aren't any for this one, it just uses fuel. 

Rivet Gun: A semi-automatic gun that could be considered the equivalent of the pistol from the first game, though the weapon model looks a lot more powerful. This weapon is useful for any encounter, and is particularly effective at headshots. 

Power to the People Upgrades: The two basic upgrades give you a larger magazine capacity and a damage increase, then the third gives you a nice percent chance to light a target on fire. So a headshot, plus chance to ignite your opponent, in addition to a plasmid blast makes for a great combo. 

Alternate Ammunition Types: The base ammunition type, rivets, do decent piercing damage against armored targets (that means Big Daddies). If you run out of that, you can always switch over to heavy rivets, which are a little more powerful especially if you can peg an enemy in the face. For defense sequences, the trap rivets are quite valuable as they can be plunked down on the ground and walls in an area you're trying to protect. They'll sit there idle and fire only when any enemy walks over them, dealing damage, but they won't fire if you stumble across them. If you've wiped out all aggressors and find a bunch of trap rivets weren't triggered, they can then be scooped back up and added to your reserves. 

Machine Gun: Here's the rough equivalent of the machine gun from the first game. It has a different appearance, but it too delivers a rapid hail of bullets directed at your enemies. Good for group encounters and best if you're taking advantage of its special ammunition types. 

Power to the People Upgrades: The two basic upgrades enhance the gun's damage and reduce recoil, which in turn boosts accuracy. The third then adds a ricochet function for all bullets fired, which can get pretty chaotic in tight spaces or against a large group of splicers. 

Alternate Ammunition Types: You get standard .50 caliber rounds that do a slight amount of piercing damage, but really the reason to use this thing is for the other two ammunition types. Anti-personnel rounds are, as they say in the Pokeman world, super effective against splicers, and the armor piercing rounds are great against Big Daddies. 

Shotgun: My favorite weapon in the game, this double-barreled shotgun has a satisfying kick and does big chunks of damage at close range, though it's pretty much useless for targets in the distance. Its upgrades do a lot to make it more interesting. 

Power to the People Upgrades: Snagging the third and final upgrade on this gun attaches a few electric bulbs to the side, giving the weapon a chance to shock opponents it hits. Like with the rivet gun, when these effects trigger along with plasmid usage and damage from the shells, you can deal out a lot of punishment at once. 

Alternate Ammunition Types: The standard 00 buck does a decent amount of piercing damage, but if you switch over to solid buck, you'll find you can do more damage to non-armored foes as well as shoot through one target to hit another. The phosphorus buck is interesting in that it sticks to enemies and, after a few seconds pass, explodes into flames.

Speargun: This, like the crossbow in the first game, is the equivalent of a sniper rifle in BioShock. It'll launch spears at long distances that can actually pin enemies to walls. If you go up to their corpse you can then reclaim the spear from the wall, which drops the body to the floor. 

Power to the People Upgrades: The third upgrade for this gun doesn't dramatically change its functionality, but does increase the speed at which spears fly and shortens the reload time. 

Alternate Ammunition Types: Aside from the basic spears, this gun has some interesting things to shoot out. If you shoot a trap spear into a wall, it'll launch an electrified string from its exposed end that attaches to an adjacent surface. The rocket spears are more for the offensive minded player, as they'll stick into targets when shot and, after a brief delay, explode. While they're stuck the rocket jet extending from the back of the spear will also set things on fire. 

Launcher: For anyone who wants to clear a room really quickly, this would be the weapon of choice. The types of objects it fires dramatically affects its functionality.

Power to the People Upgrades: The first two boost the amount of each ammunition type you can carry and make you immune to their splash damage effects. The third upgrade turns every explosive into a kind of cluster bomb, which initiates additional explosions after the primary charge has been detonated. 

Alternate Ammunition Types: The base ammunition type is a simple fragmentation grenade, which is great against pretty much everything you fight. You can also spit out proximity mines with the launcher, which combined with trap rivets and plasmids can make for a deadly defensive perimeter. To smite a target as quickly as possible, there's no better option in the game than the heat-seeking rockets, which -- when used in conjunction with all the weapon upgrades -- can flatten pretty much anything. 

Research Camera: This doesn't shoot, but it is mixed in amongst your weapon selections. I won't go over all the research upgrades you get by snapping shots of every enemy type, but it should be noted that the way the camera works is different from the first game. You still have to ready the camera, but while you do you'll also be able to shoot plasmids. Then when you go to finally take a picture of an enemy, it's not a still shot. Instead, it's a video recording, and as you fight you'll get research bonuses depending on how varied your actions are. Also, after you initiate the recording, your weapon will immediately be brought to the ready, so you can fight as you normally would with weapons and plasmids. It's a nice change, and one that means you don't have to hop around trying to snap photos while splicers beat the crap out of you. 

Hack Tool: Like the research camera, this doesn't shoot either. It can be used to melee, though. Its main function is to fire remote hack and auto-hack darts at machinery, such as cameras and out of reach control panels, to initiate the hacking mini-game from afar. Unlike the first game, there's no pipe-hacking game here. Instead, a multicolored bar will appear at the bottom of the screen along which an arrow moves back and forth. If you stop the arrow on blue or green colored sections of the bar, you successfully hack into your target and can receive bonuses as well, such as extra items from vending machines or longer alert times from security cameras. The action doesn't pause while this game is going on, so while it doesn't require much thought, you will have to try and stay away from enemies after it's activated. Mini-turrets are also listed as an alternate ammunition type of the hack tool, so you'll need to have this thing at the ready if you want to drop down the little automated defenders. 


Hopefully that gives you an idea of the kinds of tools you'll have at your disposal in BioShock 2. Tomorrow you'll find a similar article talking about some of the plasmids and tonics in the game. Many are similar to the first BioShock, but like the weapons there are a few different ways to upgrade them that alter their functionality.