System: Xbox 360 (Also on: PS3, PC)
Developer: 2K Marin
Publisher: 2K Games
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Bioshock was a wicked game. It had a great story, great visuals, and was an interesting shooter. It earned the awards given to it and became a platinum hit.

Bioshock 2 released last week for 360, PS3 and PC atop a lot of hype from the underground. It would have mulitplayer, a new story, Playing as the Big Daddy sounded hella tight and I was excited to try my sea legs out inside a massive 50’s era diving suit, and all the bells and whistles that would make it a smash sequel were present. Sadly, while it is a good game, 2K Marin fails to deliver the punch that 2K Boston, the team behind the original, did.

Review:

My major complaints are the game is very short (beat it in about 4 1/2 to 5 hours) and doesn’t seem to offer up much in the way of new and innovating gameplay.  You get to yield plasmids along with your gun, which was interesting, but that was about it. The weapons were new, but they were, in a sense, just a reshelling of guns from the first game. I mean that in the sense of, you got a shotgun, machine gun, melee weapon — the same assortment. In Bioshock, Rosies unleashed Hell with their rivet guns, and in this, your lucky to unleash anything unless you upgrade the pants off the thing.

Story was interesting, but not very immersive. You play as the big daddy, begin to find out who you were before you were a big daddy, and why you’re so drawn to one specific little sister. The game gives great detail to the Daddies, and how they were developed into the hulking bastards they are today. You still fight a similar villain figure posed by Ryan in BioShock, now in the form of a psychiatrist/religious nut who wants to rule over the decaying lumps of ADAM addicted flesh that are the Splicers. She pits you against big sisters, who are essentially grown up little sisters in battle armor with a pension for wanting to kick your metal clad ass. The first battle with a big sister is crazy, just like fighting the Daddies was in the first Bioshock. Sadly the new wears off quick.

Final Words:

All in all, Bioshock 2 isn’t a bad game at all, it just isn’t quite what myself and many others would have expected. The multiplayer is fun, but restrictions to plasmids and weapons makes for a more planned experience rather than being able to shift and adapt on the fly. The game looks great, just like the first one, but seems like a lot of recycled scenery with the exception of the theme park and prison locales.

The major twist at the end of the game was quite interesting, and I was not expecting it, but even that doesn’t weigh up to the time spent grinding away at the same task three times over. The game gives the player a few good/bad options in form of killing or sparing a few characters, but aside from some complements and gifts on their part, it doesn’t seem to make a whole load of difference. You still have the option to harvest or rescue the sisters, and it works the same way it did in Bioshock.

Pros

• Good visuals
• Playing as a Big Daddy
• Sticking people to walls with the spear gun

Cons

• Short
• Story doesn’t feel as fleshed out as I would hope
• Has the “same game new faces” feel

Score: 7.75/10 (Good)