[Review] Rapture Is Just As Sweet The Second Time Around – Bioshock 2

There’s a school of thought within the entertainment industry that if you’re going to have the audacity to make a sequel to an all-time classic, you best be damn sure that the successor is both a classic within itself and innovative to the franchise.  Let me pose just one simple question to these people: Why? As long as the sequel isn’t a shameless attempt at cashing in on the success of the first, I see nothing wrong with furthering a story that people clearly enjoy.  Think about it this way – Alien was a damn good movie (a classic by many’s standards), but a little flick called Aliens would’ve never been made under the aforementioned rationale.

I’ve read enough Bioshock 2 reviews to realize that the consensus seems to be “Bioshock didn’t need a sequel”.  Again – Why? 2K made one critical (and incredibly smart) decision about the development of this game, and that was to not reuse Jack (Bioshock’s protagonist) as the vessel driving Bioshock 2.  They were wise enough to recognize that his story-arc came to a satisfying end, and recycling him would most likely damage the nearly bullet-proof impression of the first game.  By opting to tell a different character’s story, it allows us to learn more about the history of Rapture with (what should be) a “not too many strings attached” feel of the first.

For those of you who don’t know, the protagonist of Bioshock 2 is a Big Daddy; specifically, the first Big Daddy.  You are Subject Delta, the prototype for all Big Daddies and the worst nightmare for all EVE-craving Splicers.  You wake up realizing that your Little Sister is missing, and your mental conditioning kicks in.  Subject Delta is now on a “find her or die trying” mission that will expand across many new Rapture locales.  Your arsenal consists of (amongst other weapons) a rivet gun, a spear gun and, of course, the trademark Big Daddy drill.

Speaking of Big Daddies, they’re back and they still don’t know how to share

The overall feel of the game is very much the same as the original, except everything is more polished.  The graphics look prettier, the game runs smoother, all of the things you’d expect two years of progress to achieve.  In fact, it feels so much like Bioshock that the player quickly deduces that 2K definitely took the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach.  Honestly, it was the right way to do it, otherwise we would have a Bioshock game that doesn’t feel like Bioshock.

However, this isn’t to say that there were no innovations.  One of the biggest changes came in the way that you use the Little Sisters that you save.  If you choose to adopt rather than harvest them, you have the option of using them to extract ADAM from two corpses before you eventually rescue (or harvest) them.  This comes in the form of a defensive stand against Splicers until she’s done with her extraction.  For the lazy gamer, it really makes them think twice about the Rescue/Harvest moral dilemma.

The recession in Rapture meant tough times for everyone

Two more significant changes come in the form of research and hacking.  Research is now done with a video camera and your research grade depends on how uniquely and creatively you fight the enemy after you start recording.  Usually a combination of a plasmid and weapon will garner an “A”.  The clear upgrade to hacking was probably my favorite addition to the game.  Instead of the plumbing mini-game, it’s now a real-time “needle” game, wherein you must stop the needle on the correctly colored section.  Failure to do so results in a nasty shock, or setting off an alarm.  The best comparison that I’ve heard is that the hacking mini-game is a lot like the Gears of War active reload system.  Most importantly, it doesn’t kill the flow of the combat.

Overall, the single-player campaign is worthy.  It’s worthy of the Bioshock title, and it’s worthy of being called “a good game”.  Is it as mind-blowing and breath-taking as the first?  No.  But in my experience, we will see very few games that are.  Bioshock 2 gives the player more history and insight as to the rise and fall of Rapture, while providing some very solid gameplay along the way.  So, I must say “kudos” to 2K for creating a sequel to a classic that nicely compliments the original without tarnishing the way we remember it.

Remember this guy? What happened to his face?

After all that rambling about “ruining the franchise”, I must be fair and admit that I was definitely one of the skeptics that thought it was a terrible idea to add the multiplayer aspect to Bioshock.  I was especially worried when I found out that they’d be delegating the work to another studio.  However, after playing the multiplayer mode for a long time, I must admit that while it has faults, it comes off as surprisingly charming.

The multiplayer is relatively standard as far as specifics go.  There are a handful of maps, some of which feel too big for 5-on-5 action.  There are a handful of different game modes such as Capture the Little Sister (read: flag), Civil War (Team Deathmatch), Survival of the Fittest (Deathmatch), etc.  I found that myself and the people I played with kept gravitating to one or two favorite game types (Civil War and Capture the Little Sister).  The gameplay has often been likened to Team Fortress 2 and the rank-up system is like Modern Warfare 2 in which you earn perks (weapons, plasmids, and tonics) as you progress.

Up until release date, I was confident that multiplayer would be a bunch of plasmids haphazardly flying across the screen.  I’m quite happy to report that I was spot on.  Whereas I thought that this would quickly grow annoying, it hasn’t, and is the defining characteristic of multiplayer.

As you could well have guessed, there are some faults.  First off, many players have reported lag issues.  The lag is never debilitatingly bad, but just enough to occasionally irk you.  Also, the multiplayer has a nasty habit of crashing the 360.  It seems that if you play for 2-3 hours, the 360 will freeze up at least once.  Thankfully it never seems to be mid-game; it’s always at the beginning or ending of a game.

The biggest problem I have with the development of the multiplayer is the inclusion of the Big Daddy in several of the different modes.  Specifically, the balance is perfect until one of the teams finds the Big Daddy suit, and then any semblance of balance is promptly thrown out the window.  To make matters worse, each map only has a couple of Big Daddy spawn points, allowing experienced players to camp out for them when they appear.

Even with all the knocks against it, I’ve found that Bioshock 2‘s multiplayer makes for a fantastic time away from the other multiplayer games that you know and love.  Its unique quirks make it entertaining enough that I’ve found it’s gotten quite a few hours of my attention.  The combination of the very good single and multiplayer modes means that the return to Rapture is well worth the price of admission.