Before Bioshock Infinite comes out so here is my Unbiased Review of Bioshock 2:
Story:
You once again return to Rapture but not as the original protagonist, this time around you will be a Big Daddy. You have a brief tutorial that will help you learn the basics in Bioshock 2 but for the most part it is similar to the original, so if you have played the original there will not be many surprises in that area. After the first cutscenes in the game you quickly realize what your goal is and as in the previous installment you will gain a Plasmid during the beginning so even if you are a Big Daddy, you can still use plasmids. Although there are a lot of similarities one big thing you will ask yourself is who is running Rapture now? Lamb took reigns as being Rapture’s leader which replaced Andrew Ryan. You will find out why you need to go after her as the game progresses so to avoid spoilers I won’t tell you the reason.
There is still the Steampunk atmosphere to this beautiful world. You will see some new people and the old ones from Bioshock 1. Unlike many games though it does not feel like they tacked on new characters but the new ones are actually interesting to meet with and learn about. It has the feeling like they were real people and the voice acting is superb in every way. Some choices in Bioshock 2 will be hard decisions because of this reason though. You will need to make tough decisions to spare people or not and because the characters are so well rounded it can be tough at times to make these hard decisions.
Overall the story was great in so many ways which almost makes the ending a little more disappointing. Although the ending is great and may leave you with emotions lurking inside you, it leaves much to be desired. There is so much more they could have done with this one of a kind game but to not even have an end boss is really a letdown and something that I find unacceptable. None the less the story in a whole is superb in most ways.
In the end the overall experience was great but as a follow up to the original Bioshock it fell short. Bioshock may possibly go down as one of the greatest games of this generation so it is hard to follow up, but I can’t say that this game was as good as the original. I’m not sure if it was the change of the protagonist or the multiplayer that I feel like they tacked on for extra sales but in general hurting the overall quality of the game. This I will further explain in a moment.
Gameplay:
In the original Bioshock they brought in an original design and the gameplay mechanics was great but did they do a great job in this category, improve it or destroy it? Let’s find out?
If you played the original Bioshock you will know these controls because they are practically the same in every way except one but you will find out. In this game you can rescue/adopt a little sister or harvest them instead of just rescuing/harvesting them but you still have to fight Big Daddy’s to get a Little Sister. Kind of odd since you are a Big Daddy right? You can use a weapon/gun and plasmids at the same time so no need to switch between guns and plasmids. This is an improvement and a good one at that and I like using them both at the same time. There are two ways to hack a machine now. Either shoot a hack dart or go up close and instead of hacking with pipes, it is a needle this time. The needle makes it slightly easier but not much and with hacking in this game, you need to know timing. Anyways let’s continue onto other things. There is still secondary ammo like before and that is good. Secondary ammo makes it slightly easier to kill certain enemies. Each group gets different effects with secondary ammo so you have to choose which one will kill them faster than the other. There is still a good amount of exploring and you possibly could get lost in this game like before. Sometimes you might forget what area you did or didn’t explore yet so be prepared to get lost. You can find (you should find them) upgrade stations, diaries, and plasmids/Tonics all over again. You should know what Weapon upgrade stations do. Diaries are pieces of Rapture history but it is not a must find but it is still good to know stuff that was happening in Rapture. Plasmids/Tonics help you through the game and it will be a good idea to try to find them. Adam lets you buy Plasmids/Tonics/health & Eve upgrade at a Gatherers Garden so make sure you get the Adam. The research in this game is interesting and it is good for some and others may hate it. Instead of taking pictures, it will be a video recorder instead and researching enemies gives you bonuses. Becoming the little sister near the end is cool and it is different.
The bad parts are small compared to the good but we will look at them anyways. There is still no running button which gets me annoyed when I have to go back to the beginning to try to find something so it takes a long time to go back to the beginning and going back to where I was. Backtracking is tedious in many ways and since they did not add a sprint button I have to say that I often became frustrated with going back and forth as you do have to do from time to time. It is still a small problem but I wish they would have added it. They got rid of inventing stuff which was a good thing in Bioshock 1 because it let me choose to either purchase the special bullets or make it yourself if you find the right stuff to make it. In this game you don’t have that choice. You have to purchase the special bullets, which is a bummer. I don’t know why they got rid of it but to me, it was a bad move. It takes the focus away from scavenging which was an excellent element to the original.
Overall they did a great job. They mostly improved it so that is good. The only part they destroyed it was getting rid of inventing stuff but that is only one thing so the gameplay has improved upon the first game. And of course I still will to run. What kind of person can’t run?
Presentation:
The textures are improved from the first game so that is good. They did a better job with the little sister design than the previous game. They look a bit more real now than looking like a plastic toy. The water textures are better. The loading is slightly faster than before by eight seconds so they improved it even if it wasn’t that big but it is one nonetheless. There are no Framerate issues that I experienced so that is an improvement and very good one. Framerate issues could kill a game for people so it is good they didn’t have the problem. The enemy designs are better. They look more real than it was before. The music choice was good. I liked it so much when the loading screen was up, I would listen to all of it before continuing. The Gun Sounds were good just like it was before but slightly improved by a small margin. You probably won’t tell the difference between the two.
There is only one problem I found with this game and that was glitches. Yes there are still glitches but not a whole lot. One glitch was when I try to purchase something it wouldn’t read until I press it multiple times but it did not happen all the time though and if you jump in an elevator, you could glitch in the floor and have to reset the mission.
Overall they did better than before but glitches are still a problem but it is one bad against all improvements. They did do great job and it deserves praise for a 2010 game. It withstands time.
Shooter/Action Genre Mastery:
Just like last time there is a good selection of weapons/Plasmids/Tonics. There is no change here. There are new weapons to choose like the drill, spear gun, and a rivet gun which are all good. There is still a good selection of Weapon upgrades. You will also have to choose wisely because at the end when you find all the upgrade stations there will be four other upgrades that you won’t be able to get. There are new enemies. Like a big sister which only comes when you rescue all the little sisters in the area. There is also a Brute Splicer which is tough to kill. The damage ratio feels better than before so this is an improvement which is good. The action is still good like before. There will be non-stop action till the end which it is great. The ammo is not as scarce as before so this an improvement also from before and that is good.
There is only one problem and that it’s pointless of aiming. You might as well hip fire through the whole game because it is better than aiming. Yes, I nit-picked but aiming should be better than hip firing.
Overall they did as well as before so it is the same.
Multiplayer:
A game that didn’t need multiplayer was tacked on but let’s find out if it is any good
You can only go up to level 50 so it will be a while before you get to the max level so it will be a good idea to go after trials. Trials in this game are like challenges in COD and when completing a trial you will get Adam (this games XP system to level up) and it will take time to finish them. Doing research on your enemies would be a good idea. Hacking in multiplayer is really easy so it shouldn’t be hard for you to do it. The thing that I love doing is becoming the big daddy because it is fun and here is a tip; try to find enemies that are alone because you will be able to kill more and get damaged less. There are no server issues that I experienced. I played two plus hours and not once did I lag so if you experienced server issues, I am sorry about that. The customization is good. You are able to choose the character you look like for the matches, customize the character’s aesthetics like which mask to wear, what melee weapon to use, and then you can customize your loadout. The maps are well designed, not too big and not to small, it’s just the right size for a 10 player game.
Now onto the bad stuff, it does get boring pretty quickly. I think two hours is all I can play and I can only play it once a week because it got boring to quickly and I just can’t explain it because I don’t know how it’s possible. It’s probably just me that gets this feeling. You have well designed maps but there are so few of them that in one hours’ time you probably have played on all of them. It is pretty sad really. Probably this is why it gets boring pretty quickly because you will be playing on all of them in so little time and it will get cycled pretty quickly that it just gets boring after a while but I am not sure about that. You will have a tough time finding anyone in every playlist except civil war. Why does everyone love to play team deathmatch, I don’t know. Playing team deathmatch every time gets boring and so is waiting for the other playlist to find people so this is probably the other reason it gets boring pretty quickly due to the fact that you will probably play one playlist constantly and nothing else. Well it may be a nit-pick here so it will not affect the score that badly.
Overall it is good when you play for the first after a while it will get boring. It is probably worth two to four hours a week. It is good in a lot of parts but I just can’t help but notice that it does get boring quickly even when there are more goods. Some may love it and some may hate it and for me it is good. I don’t love it but I don’t hate it.
Conclusion:
The game is great in general. It is a must play game if you played Bioshock 1. It is a great experience even when there are problems and I think you will enjoy this game too. I also say give the multiplayer a chance, you may like it because some people love it and some people hate it. It’s a matter of opinion, everyone has one.
Story: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Presentation: 9.5/10
Shooter Genre Mastery: 9.5/10
Multiplayer: 8/10
Overall: 8.8/10
