Bioshock 2: Singleplayer

It opens at a party just before the civil war; you are the original Big Daddy – Delta, and everyone is visibly horrified to look at you in your monstrous metal shell. You are the guardian of Eleanor – a little sister – and she is running just in front. Then, a scream, chaos, an introduction to Sophia Lamb and a brutal separation. You are dead. Then, suddenly you find yourself waking up somewhere different. It’s still Rapture, but it’s ruined. Years have passed – ten since the original Bioshock – and you have just one thing to do; find Eleanor, find your daughter.

Sofia Lamb is running Rapture now in Ryans wake. She was a pshychologist brought in to help the citizens of Rapture by Ryan himself, and is bent on creating a pure utopia out of the place. Eleanor was Sofias daughter, stolen away to be sold into the Little Sister program when it was first starting – when Big Daddies started being bonded with them. You and Eleanor were the first successful pair-bond, a chemical experiment that imbues the father-daughter relationship between a Big Daddy and a Little Sister. You want Eleanor back, Eleanor wants you back, Sofia isn’t happy about it.

You stomp through Rapture towards Eleanor and it’s still as staggering now as it was in the first outing. A whole city in the depths of the Atlantic is such an ambitious, ridiculous, and stunning idea that it can’t get tired. And to an extent the idea of Rapture is more realised here than it has been before. Water is more prevalent; often you go out into the ocean its self to travel between areas – allowing you to see the gorgeous, terrifying Rapture from the outside. Entire rooms are flooded with burst pipes throwing out water and recognition that this is a different, alien world to that of the surface is drawn more often. Where the Rapture of  Bioshock 1 felt like a city that happened to be under the sea, this is a city that feels like it’s deep in the ocean.

And while there is no Fort Frolic here, Bioshock 2′s locations easily hits the highs that it’s predecessor is praised for. A theme park designed by Ryan to illustrate why he built rapture stands out as exceptional, providing a sickening insight into his twisted ideals; then a beautifully designed shopping town, crumbling through neglect; and a haven for Raptures elite, ruined by complete flooding. They are stunning, and large; rather than being a straight line through Rapture, Bioshock 2 delivers you to a set of areas for you to explore. This change allows you to learn the place, to know where you can lure enemies to stack odds in your favour. It gives you more of a sense of place, becoming intimate with each room, dispenser and security console, rather than just moving past them.

When you do get into a fight, it’s far more satisfying than the combat the original achieved. It feels more connected, weapons feel meatier, and the addition of pseudo iron sight capability serves to heighten it. Weapons are much more fun too. For a start you have a giant fucking drill strapped to your arm, letting you bore into enemies torsos amidst a shower of gore. Then you get a spear gun, and while it has been done before, sending people flying only to get pinned to a wall doesn’t get old. You can also upgrade your standard pistol equivalent to randomly set people on fire. Brilliant.

Plasmids have had a bit of an overhaul too. You don’t have to equip them now, instead it’s left-click to shoot weapons, right click to shoot plasmids – a system that feels far more organic and less complicated than the old alternative. And as they upgrade, rather than just being  a stronger variation of the base plasmid, they actually gain extra effects. By the end I could continually spray fire from my hands, summon security bots, and had bees that hid in corpses waiting to spring onto an unsuspecting passer by. Still, however, combat is far from perfect – it’s never in the position to pit its self against the great man-shoots; often it feels too chaotic and quick weapon/plasmid selection isn’t possible in the middle of a huge fight without getting mixed up.

There is though an element of planning in Bioshock that standard FPS’s don’t allow. As you go through you find other Big Daddies with their own Little Sisters, and again these are your source for elusive Adam – currency for splicing plasmids. To get them means fighting the big metal beasts, and again this means a bit of fore-thought. What changes here though is that when you defeat the Big Daddy, you have the option to adopt the Little Sister. If you do she rides on your back, shouting at your enemies like a tiny monster mascot and leading you towards more sources of Adam. These are select corpses, which, when you tell her to, your Little Sister will jump down and harvest.

It creates a whole new mechanic; as soon as she starts harvesting, Splicers will become aware and try to forcefully steal the Adam. You have to hold them off until the Little Sister is done but there are so many you can’t do it without laying a few traps or getting backup. Security bots, turrets, hypnotised enemies, proximity mines, trip wires, trap plasmids, whatever. You lay it all down first in the vague hope it will hold off the majority of the incoming splicers long enough for your Little Sister to complete her grizzly task. Each sister can gather two corpses before you either harvest and kill or release them – the former providing an Adam bonus.

Generally, the combat is fine. And as stated, while not quite on par with the pure shooters out there it still works and does enough differently to get away with not quite hitting that special something that differentiates good and great shooters. And you have to remember that combat isn’t really why we are all here anyway; it’s the story of Rapture. Bioshock 2 extends it without compromising anything already there, and then goes on to enhance. If you go back to Bioshock 1 after playing through 2, I think you would be looking on those Big Daddies and Little Sister relationships in a different light.

The big question is how it compares to Bioshock 1. It’s just about as good and better in places. There aren’t any ‘Would you kindly’ moments or the general smartness that the first emitted so brilliantly, nor is there the initial shock and awe you got from exploring Rapture for the first time, or quite as much atmosphere for that matter. There is a stronger shooter underneath it though, and no ridiculous end boss to boot. As far as shooters go it has a great, compelling plot; it’s smart; it has a nice organic learning curve; and it’s utterly gorgeous. While it doesn’t particularly innovate, it stream lines and explores; while it doesn’t throw a jaw dropping twist at you, it provides constant surprises; and while the themes aren’t quite as inspired as Bioshock 1′s, they are no less relevant or interesting. It’s a fantastic shooter and should not be missed.