I recently got Bioshock 2 and wanted to come and post about it, only to find out that there wasn't an existing topic for it, so without further ado, here's my own;

Bioshock 2 takes place about 8 years after the first Bioshock. You play as "Subject Delta", aka Johnny Topside, a rather unfortunate diver who accidentally discovered Rapture in a diving bell and got captured by Rapture Security. They decided that they couldn't let him go, and that killing him would be a waste- so instead he was "volunteered" as a test subject for the Big Daddy creations. As one of the "Alpha Series", he is taller, leaner, and physically weaker than the squat, shambling Big Daddies of Bioshock 1; but he more than makes up for it with his speed and weapons' versatility.

Of course, that speed and versatility will help you in fighting the other Big Daddies of the game, and after you defeat them, you can either Harvest their Little Sister like a cold-blooded bastard or Adopt her and get her to gather ADAM for you. After she does two gathers (where you have to defend her as she draws blood from a corpse, ala the
"Proving Grounds" of Bioshock 1), she's ready for 'sleepy-time', and you take her to a vent where you can Harvest her like a cold-blooded yet conniving bastard, or you can Rescue her like a good Big Daddy and feel fuzzy inside.

But whether you Rescue or Harvest all of the Little Sisters in the level, as soon as you finish with the last one, the Big Sister inevitably shows up.

Big Sisters are essentially Little Sisters from the first Bioshock that have aged to hormonally-raging teenagers in armored suits capable of using plasmids like Telekinesis and Incinerate. They combine the tough armor of a Big Daddy with the firepower and speed of a ninja. As they still have the ADAM slugs in their bodies, they're also capable of draining ADAM, and are basically ADAM recyclers- whenever too many Little Sisters are put out of commission by Splicers or yours truly, the Big Sisters have to hunt them down and forcibly take the ADAM back. This also means that every Big Sister you fight carries ADAM, conveniently enough, which you can spend on more Plasmids and Gene Tonics.

Speaking of Plasmids and Gene Tonics, they, too have been revamped since the first game. Remember the three tiers of tonics- Combat, Physical, and Engineering? No more! They've all been wrapped up in one tasty genetic burrito of a category known as "Tonics", so you can become an uber-hacker or a Big Daddy on steroids- your Tonic loadout is more diverse than ever before. Plus, remember the pansy limit of 6 Plasmids in the last game? It's been revved up to 8, and the Plasmids are also more interactive and cooler than before. For instance, upgraded Plasmids have a charge-up effect that lets you unleash extra mayhem at the cost of extra EVE- as an example, Incinerate! 2 generates a fire-bomb when you hold down the Plasmid button, which deals heavy damage to a single target and lighter splash damage to surrounding enemies. Hypnotize is basically the new form of Enrage, and it'll cause your enemies to attack each other in a blind rage, but they'll sometimes attack you if there's no one else around- however, Hypnotize 2 will cause them to love you long time and they'll actively fight on your side. Try requisitioning a fellow Big Daddy to help ward off a Big Sister attack! "But Plasmids were so inconvenient in the last game- I had to switch from my weapon to my Plasmid constantly!" But no more! Introducing; dual-wielding!

Now you can have your cake and eat it too, in a manner of speaking. Notice that big drill in the picture? It's yours, and it'll wreak destruction on your weak enemies (especially when you unlock Drill Dash) Yet it's only the first of your many weapons! Most of them are a step up from the last game's arsenal- the Rivet Gun instead of the Revolver, a four-barreled .50 caliber machine gun instead of a Thompson, an enormous speargun instead of a crossbow, etc.

There's a lot more I could mention, but I don't really want to spoil the story or any surprises you'll get playing through (if you haven't already) On a final note, the hacking has also been totally revamped. Instead of connecting a pipeline for electrical flow, you just basically have a semicircle of colored bars- yellows are shocks, reds are alarms, greens are passes, blues are bonuses- and you have to stop a needle by hitting the action button whenever the needle passes over the green or blue bars. It's much faster and simpler than before. You can also hack from a distance or auto-hack by using the Hack Tool, and get hack bonuses by hitting those blue bars I mentioned- Health Stations give you First Aid Kits, Ammo Banditos give you ammo, etc, all free of charge. If you haven't already, I definitely recommend picking this up. Haven't played the first game? No worries- Rapture may be totally foreign to you and you might not understand some of the backstory, but the main story is totally unrelated to the previous game's events, though it does help to play through the first game before playing this.

PS: As a heads-up, it has an ungodly install time. I don't know if this is for all three versions but I had to wait about ten minutes for it to install on my PS3 >_< That's one thing that hasn't changed from the original game.

Comments/discussion/critique, gogogo.

Well, what can I say? This is one of the games I've most enjoyed ever, and definitely a keeper for my little collection.

Sure, some might say that the story is not as deep as the first game's, but the whole atmosphere of the city, the beautifully-made environment, the inventive and varied weapon selection, not to mention the thoroughly improved character models, more than make up for that.

And mind you, I'm not saying that the story is bad: it's just that the first game's one was purely unbeatable. The sequel, however, beats it when it comes to those tiny details that make the world seem alive. The Big Sister, for instance: most people think that she only appears at the end of the levels, but if you look carefully, you'll notice that she's always following you from a distance, being possible to spot her peeking at you at least twice on each level. I'm now replaying the game with the intent of finding out each one of those occasions. Call it too much free time.

Huh? Wasn't Rapture in Bioshock 1 all dead and stuff? Why are they still making stuff?

TBH BS1 didn't really do it for me. I got a fair distance in and then stopped playing. Why does everyone like it so much?

For the same reason I don't like sports games: differing tastes.

Well, it was pretty different. I liked how it presented some purely ridiculous or creepy things in a very serious, solemn way- the grittiness of the whole thing is a pretty unique experience. I can't really find a game to compare it to- maybe Penumbra comes close, but Bioshock is definitely more action-packed than Penumbra.

The atmosphere was also amazing- the game felt real, from the moment you have to swim up from the crashed plane's debris all up to your epic fight with *NAME REMOVED TO PREVENT SPOILING*. From the music, which could go from creepy and cautious to 50's pop and dance in a heartbeat, all up to the many tiny leaks that let the fudge beautiful looking water filter in from the sea.

Rapture in Bioshock 1 was in ruins, true, and many people dead or feral, but it's still an ongoing society. They just seem more messed up than they should because all of the splicers attack you on sight. There are lots of normal people, however, who haven't turned into ADAM junkies, and luckily these are all of the important people who keep Rapture running.

I also didn't even realize this until I read it by chance in an review article, but it drew heavily from Ayn Rand's political philosophy; like Andrew Ryan (similar names, too, olo), she believed in lots of individual rights with limited governmental power, and Andrew Ryan is like a male reflection of Ayn Rand, although a bit more insane. There's a lot of underlying subtlety in Rapture, including a few revelations at the end of the game that will quite possibly blow your mind when you think about them (for obvious reasons, I won't reveal any.)


Then again, for some people, it's just not their cup of tea. I still encourage you to finish it because it's genuinely, in my mind, a good game, but you shouldn't force yourself to do it either.

>Contrary

Good question. I reckon it's because of the inventive storyline, and for being really good in terms of immersion.
However. I also must admit that the game became repetitive later on, specially after Hephaestus. It seemed that the story was getting more and more intense and interesting up to your confrontation with Ryan, but then it really slowed down. For instance, the later levels, such as Olympus Heights or Apollo Square, are the biggest ones in the game, but also the shortest. There is a lot to see, a lot to explore, but no clue as to where to search for it, or incentive to do so. The ending was awesome, though, so it kind of made up for that.

The fact that the sequel doesn't commit that same mistake is, I think, BS2's greatest conquest. The excitement is kept fresh until the last level, and then it just skyrockets, with a great ending too. So yeah, I think that even people that didn't like the first game will enjoy the sequel very much.

I didn't like Bioshock 2 as much as the first one. It just wasn't as scary as the first, to me. The first was a pretty scary game a lot of the time, but in Bioshock 2, you're not a weak little outsider, you're better armed and armored, and more prepared to face any enemies. The storyline was still great, though, and the gameplay was smooth and plasmids were a lot of fun. Cyclone Trap is officially the greatest thing ever, you can fling around enemies, and charge them with other plasmids. Tornado of Bees, anyone? Still a great game, but I liked the first game more.

BS 2 was a ripoff, in my opinion. I got it for the PC, which was a bad idea, but I didn't realize it at the time.
First of all- G4WL, or Games for Windows Live. It's some bull♥♥♥♥ Steam overlay wannabe, and it really takes away from the multiplayer experience.
And then, the crashing- might have just been my computer, but I never could get it to work after the first cutscene. Multiplayer worked okay, but was terribly laggy. I blame G4WL.
Next up, the fact that it IS NOT A SOURCE POWERED GAME. I bought it under the assumption that it would be like the amazing first game, and that I could use it for Garry's Mod. I was wrong.
But all of my criticism aside, I had fun with it when Dan brought his xBox version over. Didn't have the... originality as the first.

Oh and I forgot to mention the fact that it is extremely linear, because of the train-system, you cannot go backwards through previous levels. I was disappointed, to say the least.

What in the WORLD gave you the idea it was?

"The first one was Source powered, why wouldn't the second one be?" was what was running through my head at the time. Like I said in the post, read more carefully, thanks.

Uh. No. No it is not. At all.
Any Big Daddy models you have in Gmod were just ripped from Bioshock or recreated by someone with much more free time than is healthy.

Yeah, what are you on? The first game was running on the UT3 engine if I recall correctly

So was the second...

I sincerely hope the third one will not run on that...
Riveting people is fun though.

I made a mistake. Well, for some reason I thought it was Source.
Anyway, I still can't even play it, but it is good.