Taking place ten years after the event of the first game, Bioshock 2 welcomes you back to the undersea, rundown, should-have-been Utopian city Rapture. The main protagonist of the first game long gone, the sequel casts you as one of the original ‘Big Daddy’ prototypes who wakes up after being forced to shoot himself in the head over a decade ago. Over a series of conversations and character interactions, the carefully thought and and clever ‘how’ and ‘why’ are explained. I won’t go into detail on the whole of the story here, except to say it was very well done.
Instead I’d like to comment on something that Bioshock does very well. Referencing, and building upon, the lore of the city of Rapture present in the first game, the sequel successfully cast the city itself as one of the main characters in the game. It’s wonderfully laid out and rendered — I can’t say enough good things about the 1930′s motif. It’s filled with interesting character and intriguing audio journals you can locate and listen to that provide more insight into the city’s life. It actually felt pleasantly familiar wandering it’s halls as it goads you to explore every corner.
If I were forced to complain about something regarding the game it would have to be the computer hacking-mini game. Its back from the first adventure, though not nearly as fun — although to its credit it can be played much faster — as it’s first iteration. This time around, its been reduced to a ‘stop the revolving pin in the green section not in the red section’ puzzle. Though this is more than made up with the inclusion of the ‘protect the little sister while she harvests adam’ mini-game inclusion.
Bioshock 2, on almost every level is the perfect game and I’ll rate it as such: 10/10.
Big Daddy been there, Big Daddy done that.
