Why return to the city of Rapture when Bioshock did such a good job of delivering a well written story? If the new story or multiplayer aren’t reason enough then then you might find it worth a revisit for the fixed parts of gameplay that you never realised were broken.

Rapture feels a little different the second time around as you see through the eyes of Subject Delta, one of the cities armoured abominations known as a Big Daddy. Life as a Big Daddy really keeps you slow compared to the splicers. This change isn’t all bad as this cumbersome nature does give you the ability to equip plasmids in one hand and a weapon in the other, now making combat actually feel less cumbersome than before. Plasmids are the super powers of Rapture, by collecting ADAM you can purchase plasmids that give you powers like shooting fire, unleashing bees or throwing things around with telepathy. Dual-wielding gives you an edge you can really need in battle, your armour isn’t as tough as you’d expect and when it comes down to liberating a Little Sister the money you’ve been collecting will quickly disappear into vending machines to stock up on ammo and health packs. There is no regenrating health in the single player mode which is offset (perhaps overly so) by vita chambers that bring you back to life whenever needed. One new trick up your sleve for tricky situations is being able to lay down traps. Throwing down a tripwires or turret before liberating or protecting one of the Little Sisters is an invaluable and necessary tactic if you want to rescue or harvest one of the girls for their valuable ADAM.

Despite being set around ten years after the previous game and in the heavy boots of a Daddy little has changed within the world; crazy Splicers are hunting you down and you’ll be tripping over audio diaries every few steps as the new story unfolds for you. The story and environments have a lot less impact the second time time around, they’re still magnificent, but it’s a magnificence we’ve seen before. There’s a new leader in town and you’ll have to travel through the various districts of Rapture to reach her and each district has their own overlord that will have to be dealt with in order to progress. This should all seem rather familiar and it is surprising just how close the story and progression follows the previous game, right down to some of the events in the final level.

One of the most startling additions to Bioshock 2 is the new multiplayer. It’d be foolish to expect the sequel to such a strong single player game to be able to pull off a decent multiplayer experience but they did it and it’s (Bio)shockingly good. Rather than taking the role of a Big Daddy from the single player you’ll instead play as a splicer who can put on a Daddy suit should you be lucky enough to find one. The small story of the multiplayer describes this as a prequel and you’ll take part in the war between Andrew Ryan and Atlas, you can return to your home and switch costumes, weapons and plasmid load outs earned through the a persistent levelling system. The story doesn’t have much baring on the action itself and you’ll have your expected game modes available with a pair of them having team based variations. Along with the usual deathmatch, capture the flag and control point capture modes there’s also a last man standing mode where you have just a single life and and another mode where you or your team have to keep hold of a Little Sister for the longest. There’s no huge innovation but the powers and weapons from the single player are enjoyable to play with and guarding your Little Sister from other players while inside a Big Daddy suit armed with a rivet gun is just as much fun as it should be.

It’s hard to fault Bioshock 2 for its effort, Bioshock is a tough act to follow and the removal of thinks such as the arduous Pipe Mania hacking game can only be seen as a benefit. The biggest issue with Bioshock 2 is that it’s hard to go back. Most of what made the original so successful is the totally unique setting and tight story, by returning to the same city again much of that impact is lost and it leaves Bioshock 2 feeling inferior to the first. Technically however Bioshock 2 is a better game in practically every respect, the few things that could hold it back, for example not being able to go back to previous areas is made up for by allowing far more interesting changes to happen in the environment than what was possible before. So should you return to the city of Rapture? Well, if you missed or want more of what the previous game offered then the answer is undoubtedly yes, if however you were a little frustrated by Bioshock’s flaws then you may still find this sequel to your liking, if nothing else it certainly is more replayable.

Mark Dell

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