Shixx
02-20-2010, 09:42 AM
I posted this on my site a week ago looked here a couple days ago, saw there was already 2 here so I didn't post it. But the more opinions the better right?
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5603/bioshock2o.jpg
Intro-
Bioshock 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Bioshock. Bioshock took players to a utopia, the remains of one anyway, and had you battling through crazed splicer’s as you fought your way to the surface. Bioshock certainly did set the bar as to how RPG FPS’s should be made, but the question is will its sequel be any good or just fail completely? Find out Below...
Story-
Its 1958, you are Delta, the first big daddy, and you are trying to keep up with your little sister, Eleanor, as she runs through a party. After some unfortunate events you awake from a coma like state ten years later.
The story is given to you pretty much the moment you wake up. Tenenbaum contacts you through a radio message and tells you to rescue Eleanor so you and she can escape together from the decaying utopia. However there is a certain bond between Delta and Eleanor which makes the search for her all more valuable.
So after the events of Bioshock and many people saying, “Would you kindly” people questioned how a story could be any better. While the story to Bioshock 2 is definitely not as good as the first the way the story and history are told is better.
The story is given to you when you wake up however additional details are dolled out through audiotapes. While this was the case with the first more of the audiotapes were for historical purposes instead of a focus on story, which was shown through ghosts or Atlas. But if you are not the search and find kind, then don’t fret, important audiotapes are places practically in front of your face, so you don’t have to search every nook and cranny.
History is another thing that is better than the first. The first one left many questions as to how Rapture was built, and who exactly were the previous inhabitants. The perfect example of the tale of Rapture would be the Ryan’s Amusements level. This was basically one of those boring amusement parks that were supposed to be educational; however this is quite interesting for the gamer as it shows how Ryan built his city, along with the propaganda he pushed upon the children of Rapture.
The story all together is pretty much stand alone and does not require you to have played the first Bioshock. However I must recommend playing the first as it will let you get the Easter eggs hidden throughout Rapture. I don’t want to give too many of the hidden surprises away, but in one part you may find sunken remains of the crashed airplane from the first one.
Game play-
Game play is pretty much identical to that of the first one with you being able to use plasmids and shoot guns. But the minor improvements to the game make the sequel a lot more of an enjoyable experience than the first.
I shall begin with the basics. Many weapons lay around Rapture, and there were some you couldn’t use it Bioshock. But with your new found strength in the form of you being a big daddy you can use these enormous weapons that no ordinary man could use. Rivet Guns, the weapons a Rosie would wield, are your main weapon of the game along with the drill, Mr. B’s weapon of choice. The weapons you get later in the game are basically the same weapons you got in the first game except with a different look. You’re a big daddy though so this gives you some extra ammo that Jack couldn’t use. These new bonus ammo range form rocket propelled spears, mini turrets, and trap rivets.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6233/21244541.jpg
With these new weapons there certainly must be better upgrades right? Well of course. While the Power to the People stations are still operational, you are able to get a total of three upgrades per weapon. The first two upgrades are pretty standard; make your weapon more powerful, increased clip size, that good stuff. However it is the third upgrade that is always the best. In order to get the third upgrade you must get the previous two but it is worth it. These upgrades basically change your bullets. Heated rivets ignite enemies in flames, machine gun bullets ricochet; these are but a few of the upgrades that are available to you through out the game.
Along with deadly weapons there are weapons that are not meant for combat but used to increase your power against others. These weapons are the hack tool, which I will go over later, and the Research camera.
The research camera form the first one was a camera that took pictures, and while you had this camera you were pretty much vulnerable to attacks as alls you could do was just take pictures. That is changed as the research camera of Bioshock 2 is a video camera. Equip the camera and select a target and it will record them as you fight them.
Research points are gained based on how you fare against them and the variety of weapons and plasmids used to defeat them. This definitely made me happy as no longer did I have to stand their like a jack ass taking pictures but I could actually do something while I researched.
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1741/32805722.jpg
The weapons, while they are the same, do seem to be a bit more interesting with the changes that have been made to your arsenal. However that being said some of the weapons used in the game don’t seem as potent as they should be. The rivet gun and drill are the only ones that seem more powerful than the weapons you had from the first game, but it is the others that just don’t seem to pack the extra punch, at least not as much as one would think. But in the end they do their job and kill everyone in your path.
The enemies that you encounter are more or less the same as the last. Their deformities do seem to have worsened a bit more but I will delve into that later. Besides the regular group of splicers and big daddies there are new enemies that have come to Rapture, and they are definitely a harder challenge.
The big draw to Bioshock 2 is the Big Sisters. Your first encounter with one of them is intense as you see her running around, teasing you into chasing her, and that’s when she shows you what she is made of. It is the same wakening call we got when we were first introduced to the big daddy. But in good time you will fight her.
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/6995/bigsister5.jpg
There is more than one big sister in the game, and one comes every time you either save or harvest three little sisters. I would suggest that you prepare yourself thoroughly before you save or harvest the little sisters. While they wield the armor and force of a regular big daddy their acrobatic skills and use of plasmids definitely make for a tough fight. And while dieing was a sure fire way to get out of a daddy fight you couldn’t handle, don’t expect this to work on a big sister as they will chase you relentlessly until they are dead.
The other new attacker is the brute splicer. Think regular splicers except beefed up on steroids. They have a very simple set of attacks but each hurt quite a bit. One is the shoulder ram where he just charges at you and rams you up against a wall and just lands punch after punch into you. If the brute isn’t in the mood to punch he will retreat and grab something to throw at you which will knock you off balance and make you vulnerable for several seconds.
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/5683/brutesplicer6.png
The new enemies offer a more difficult challenge but I loved it. Unlike the previous Bioshock you are forced to combine your weapon and plasmid use to defeat these creatures. Cycling through your plasmids in order to stun a brute in charge or use telekinesis to stop the objects he throws at you are some ways you will have to gain mastery over the interface of the game, and the challenge is welcome.
Vendors are everywhere in Rapture, and sometimes you just don’t feel like paying full price for health or ammo, and that pipe mini game you were forced to play in the first one would get so old and sometimes impossible that occasionally I didn’t bother with the hacking at all and paid full price. Luckily Bioshock 2 has had a massive update for the hacking tool that has made it more bearable and more useful.
The hacking in this game is now radar across the bottom of the screen with a needle that goes back and forth. On this white bar there are green, red and blue sections. If you hit it on green you move on to the next phase of the hack, red triggers the alarm, if you hit the white area it’s a miss and you are hurt, blue gives you a little something extra. If you’re hacking a vendor and hit the blue area you get a free item or if you hit blue while hacking a safe you get some more cash. Hacking can sometimes go up to around three phases, each time the green and blue areas getting harder to hit.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1338/hacking7.jpg
Since the hack tool is used as a weapon, it has weapon like qualities, of course. Your hack tool can only be used by as many hack darts you have, except if you get up close and hack. However that is not advised as hacking is now done in real time. Since you can hack from afar, if there is a turret with some unknowing splicers around it you can hack the turret and watch as it wastes the splicers around it.
While there are vendors that take normal money there are machines that use only Adam, The Gatherers Garden machines are used to buy gene tonic, improved health/eve and better plasmids. But there are now more ways to get the Adam than just rescue or save little sisters.
So while you main source of Adam comes from little sisters you can get a lot more Adam from them in the form of escorting them to dead bodies. Using your little sister, she will smell sources of Adam for you and you will follow this cloud like thing as it flows down the halls. Once found, press x and she will start to gather the Adam. The process takes quite sometime and during this time splicers will come to get her, so it is up to you to protect her.
Preparation seems to be a big part of the game, and I like it. Sometimes the little sister escorting does get old, but the Adam rewarded keeps me doing it. With splicers coming out of hallways and the ceiling, ammo can run scarce; luckily the new plasmids can always help.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1015/plasmids8.jpg
The plasmids are the same as the last game, incinerate, shock, wind trap, however it is the upgrades that separate them from Bioshock. While in the first one upgrading them would just simply make them more powerful but in this one an upgrade to shock will allow you to chain splicers through one shock attack. It is more incentive to buying the upgrades and made me want to buy upgrades to plasmids I don’t normally use just to see what they do.
Besides the events of the main storyline, 2k decided to add multiplayer, and just the mention of it was enough to have some people on their knees and shouting at the heavens with a shaking angry fist. However I am here to say it is not terrible, but it also isn’t very good either. It finds a balance at mediocre.
The game developers added a reason to the multiplayer, basically after the events at the Kashmir restaurant; you are to test the new plasmids. You awake in an apartment, this is basically where you store you inventory. It is here where you can find games with your bathysphere, change your characters appearance, and customize your weapon/plasmid load out. While I liked the use of an apartment as your source of navigation, it would have been better if you could have made it look better by buying stuff for it, or having people in an xbox live party come to your apartment. This is just one minor knit pick I have with the game, but after playing assassins creed 2 I kind of have grown fond of the customization options.
The game play itself is the same as single player, use plasmids, shoot weapons, kill stuff. The multiplayer games can only have up to 10 people, which isn’t a whole lot considering a game of MW2 can hold up to 18. But while it can’t hold as many people as MW2, I did find it rather enjoyable for a good 30 minutes. It also added research to it, so when you find a dead body on the floor you can research them and gain a damage boost to that specific character, but not a whole lot to where they don’t have a fighting chance. The maps of the multiplayer are areas of the previous Bioshock, but with a less chaotic look to them. Maps are small enough to where players are always running and gunning.
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8331/multiplayer9.jpg
In the end the multiplayer was just something tacked on to increase the dollar. It is alright, but since most of the people bought the game for the single player experience I would suggest to at least giving it a shot. Even though it is not a multiplayer game I did find one enjoyable experience about it, and that is the fact that there are no campers.
Graphics/Audio-
The audio and graphics of the game still have that 1950’s feel to it, which makes me feel like Danny wandering the halls of the Overlook Hotel, except with more of a sea theme.
Graphically the game does not look to much different then Bioshock 1, which is kind of disappointing. While the graphics looked really good back in 2007, they just don’t look that good as of today.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/2348/comparison10.jpg
While the atmosphere over feels similar, players will also notice a more of the sea taking back Rapture. This is shown through coral growing on the walls, and the increased flooding in some areas. While some of the rooms look similar it is the growing sea life that looks truly awesome. While this may sound lame it does add some nice details to the ever aging Rapture.
Along with an aging city, the deformed citizens of rapture have grow themselves. Splicers now have a more eerie vibe to them, as it looks like their faces have a piece of cloth sown over it in some areas. The look of the new enemies is refreshing, but in combat situations, not much difference could be told between previous and the new splicers.
The music of the game still compliments the atmosphere as well as the previous Bioshock. This time there seems to be earlier 1900’s music, probably because of fallout? However, in times of traps or combat scenarios the music is traded out for more of a symphony type style of music. Plucks of violin strings and the notes of a piano being struck just build up on some anticipation.
Final Thoughts-
-It lives up to the hype.
-Manages to do some things better then the previous Bioshock.
-Graphics are so 2007
-Story is getting kinda old
8.5/10
http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5603/bioshock2o.jpg
Intro-
Bioshock 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Bioshock. Bioshock took players to a utopia, the remains of one anyway, and had you battling through crazed splicer’s as you fought your way to the surface. Bioshock certainly did set the bar as to how RPG FPS’s should be made, but the question is will its sequel be any good or just fail completely? Find out Below...
Story-
Its 1958, you are Delta, the first big daddy, and you are trying to keep up with your little sister, Eleanor, as she runs through a party. After some unfortunate events you awake from a coma like state ten years later.
The story is given to you pretty much the moment you wake up. Tenenbaum contacts you through a radio message and tells you to rescue Eleanor so you and she can escape together from the decaying utopia. However there is a certain bond between Delta and Eleanor which makes the search for her all more valuable.
So after the events of Bioshock and many people saying, “Would you kindly” people questioned how a story could be any better. While the story to Bioshock 2 is definitely not as good as the first the way the story and history are told is better.
The story is given to you when you wake up however additional details are dolled out through audiotapes. While this was the case with the first more of the audiotapes were for historical purposes instead of a focus on story, which was shown through ghosts or Atlas. But if you are not the search and find kind, then don’t fret, important audiotapes are places practically in front of your face, so you don’t have to search every nook and cranny.
History is another thing that is better than the first. The first one left many questions as to how Rapture was built, and who exactly were the previous inhabitants. The perfect example of the tale of Rapture would be the Ryan’s Amusements level. This was basically one of those boring amusement parks that were supposed to be educational; however this is quite interesting for the gamer as it shows how Ryan built his city, along with the propaganda he pushed upon the children of Rapture.
The story all together is pretty much stand alone and does not require you to have played the first Bioshock. However I must recommend playing the first as it will let you get the Easter eggs hidden throughout Rapture. I don’t want to give too many of the hidden surprises away, but in one part you may find sunken remains of the crashed airplane from the first one.
Game play-
Game play is pretty much identical to that of the first one with you being able to use plasmids and shoot guns. But the minor improvements to the game make the sequel a lot more of an enjoyable experience than the first.
I shall begin with the basics. Many weapons lay around Rapture, and there were some you couldn’t use it Bioshock. But with your new found strength in the form of you being a big daddy you can use these enormous weapons that no ordinary man could use. Rivet Guns, the weapons a Rosie would wield, are your main weapon of the game along with the drill, Mr. B’s weapon of choice. The weapons you get later in the game are basically the same weapons you got in the first game except with a different look. You’re a big daddy though so this gives you some extra ammo that Jack couldn’t use. These new bonus ammo range form rocket propelled spears, mini turrets, and trap rivets.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6233/21244541.jpg
With these new weapons there certainly must be better upgrades right? Well of course. While the Power to the People stations are still operational, you are able to get a total of three upgrades per weapon. The first two upgrades are pretty standard; make your weapon more powerful, increased clip size, that good stuff. However it is the third upgrade that is always the best. In order to get the third upgrade you must get the previous two but it is worth it. These upgrades basically change your bullets. Heated rivets ignite enemies in flames, machine gun bullets ricochet; these are but a few of the upgrades that are available to you through out the game.
Along with deadly weapons there are weapons that are not meant for combat but used to increase your power against others. These weapons are the hack tool, which I will go over later, and the Research camera.
The research camera form the first one was a camera that took pictures, and while you had this camera you were pretty much vulnerable to attacks as alls you could do was just take pictures. That is changed as the research camera of Bioshock 2 is a video camera. Equip the camera and select a target and it will record them as you fight them.
Research points are gained based on how you fare against them and the variety of weapons and plasmids used to defeat them. This definitely made me happy as no longer did I have to stand their like a jack ass taking pictures but I could actually do something while I researched.
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1741/32805722.jpg
The weapons, while they are the same, do seem to be a bit more interesting with the changes that have been made to your arsenal. However that being said some of the weapons used in the game don’t seem as potent as they should be. The rivet gun and drill are the only ones that seem more powerful than the weapons you had from the first game, but it is the others that just don’t seem to pack the extra punch, at least not as much as one would think. But in the end they do their job and kill everyone in your path.
The enemies that you encounter are more or less the same as the last. Their deformities do seem to have worsened a bit more but I will delve into that later. Besides the regular group of splicers and big daddies there are new enemies that have come to Rapture, and they are definitely a harder challenge.
The big draw to Bioshock 2 is the Big Sisters. Your first encounter with one of them is intense as you see her running around, teasing you into chasing her, and that’s when she shows you what she is made of. It is the same wakening call we got when we were first introduced to the big daddy. But in good time you will fight her.
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/6995/bigsister5.jpg
There is more than one big sister in the game, and one comes every time you either save or harvest three little sisters. I would suggest that you prepare yourself thoroughly before you save or harvest the little sisters. While they wield the armor and force of a regular big daddy their acrobatic skills and use of plasmids definitely make for a tough fight. And while dieing was a sure fire way to get out of a daddy fight you couldn’t handle, don’t expect this to work on a big sister as they will chase you relentlessly until they are dead.
The other new attacker is the brute splicer. Think regular splicers except beefed up on steroids. They have a very simple set of attacks but each hurt quite a bit. One is the shoulder ram where he just charges at you and rams you up against a wall and just lands punch after punch into you. If the brute isn’t in the mood to punch he will retreat and grab something to throw at you which will knock you off balance and make you vulnerable for several seconds.
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/5683/brutesplicer6.png
The new enemies offer a more difficult challenge but I loved it. Unlike the previous Bioshock you are forced to combine your weapon and plasmid use to defeat these creatures. Cycling through your plasmids in order to stun a brute in charge or use telekinesis to stop the objects he throws at you are some ways you will have to gain mastery over the interface of the game, and the challenge is welcome.
Vendors are everywhere in Rapture, and sometimes you just don’t feel like paying full price for health or ammo, and that pipe mini game you were forced to play in the first one would get so old and sometimes impossible that occasionally I didn’t bother with the hacking at all and paid full price. Luckily Bioshock 2 has had a massive update for the hacking tool that has made it more bearable and more useful.
The hacking in this game is now radar across the bottom of the screen with a needle that goes back and forth. On this white bar there are green, red and blue sections. If you hit it on green you move on to the next phase of the hack, red triggers the alarm, if you hit the white area it’s a miss and you are hurt, blue gives you a little something extra. If you’re hacking a vendor and hit the blue area you get a free item or if you hit blue while hacking a safe you get some more cash. Hacking can sometimes go up to around three phases, each time the green and blue areas getting harder to hit.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1338/hacking7.jpg
Since the hack tool is used as a weapon, it has weapon like qualities, of course. Your hack tool can only be used by as many hack darts you have, except if you get up close and hack. However that is not advised as hacking is now done in real time. Since you can hack from afar, if there is a turret with some unknowing splicers around it you can hack the turret and watch as it wastes the splicers around it.
While there are vendors that take normal money there are machines that use only Adam, The Gatherers Garden machines are used to buy gene tonic, improved health/eve and better plasmids. But there are now more ways to get the Adam than just rescue or save little sisters.
So while you main source of Adam comes from little sisters you can get a lot more Adam from them in the form of escorting them to dead bodies. Using your little sister, she will smell sources of Adam for you and you will follow this cloud like thing as it flows down the halls. Once found, press x and she will start to gather the Adam. The process takes quite sometime and during this time splicers will come to get her, so it is up to you to protect her.
Preparation seems to be a big part of the game, and I like it. Sometimes the little sister escorting does get old, but the Adam rewarded keeps me doing it. With splicers coming out of hallways and the ceiling, ammo can run scarce; luckily the new plasmids can always help.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1015/plasmids8.jpg
The plasmids are the same as the last game, incinerate, shock, wind trap, however it is the upgrades that separate them from Bioshock. While in the first one upgrading them would just simply make them more powerful but in this one an upgrade to shock will allow you to chain splicers through one shock attack. It is more incentive to buying the upgrades and made me want to buy upgrades to plasmids I don’t normally use just to see what they do.
Besides the events of the main storyline, 2k decided to add multiplayer, and just the mention of it was enough to have some people on their knees and shouting at the heavens with a shaking angry fist. However I am here to say it is not terrible, but it also isn’t very good either. It finds a balance at mediocre.
The game developers added a reason to the multiplayer, basically after the events at the Kashmir restaurant; you are to test the new plasmids. You awake in an apartment, this is basically where you store you inventory. It is here where you can find games with your bathysphere, change your characters appearance, and customize your weapon/plasmid load out. While I liked the use of an apartment as your source of navigation, it would have been better if you could have made it look better by buying stuff for it, or having people in an xbox live party come to your apartment. This is just one minor knit pick I have with the game, but after playing assassins creed 2 I kind of have grown fond of the customization options.
The game play itself is the same as single player, use plasmids, shoot weapons, kill stuff. The multiplayer games can only have up to 10 people, which isn’t a whole lot considering a game of MW2 can hold up to 18. But while it can’t hold as many people as MW2, I did find it rather enjoyable for a good 30 minutes. It also added research to it, so when you find a dead body on the floor you can research them and gain a damage boost to that specific character, but not a whole lot to where they don’t have a fighting chance. The maps of the multiplayer are areas of the previous Bioshock, but with a less chaotic look to them. Maps are small enough to where players are always running and gunning.
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8331/multiplayer9.jpg
In the end the multiplayer was just something tacked on to increase the dollar. It is alright, but since most of the people bought the game for the single player experience I would suggest to at least giving it a shot. Even though it is not a multiplayer game I did find one enjoyable experience about it, and that is the fact that there are no campers.
Graphics/Audio-
The audio and graphics of the game still have that 1950’s feel to it, which makes me feel like Danny wandering the halls of the Overlook Hotel, except with more of a sea theme.
Graphically the game does not look to much different then Bioshock 1, which is kind of disappointing. While the graphics looked really good back in 2007, they just don’t look that good as of today.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/2348/comparison10.jpg
While the atmosphere over feels similar, players will also notice a more of the sea taking back Rapture. This is shown through coral growing on the walls, and the increased flooding in some areas. While some of the rooms look similar it is the growing sea life that looks truly awesome. While this may sound lame it does add some nice details to the ever aging Rapture.
Along with an aging city, the deformed citizens of rapture have grow themselves. Splicers now have a more eerie vibe to them, as it looks like their faces have a piece of cloth sown over it in some areas. The look of the new enemies is refreshing, but in combat situations, not much difference could be told between previous and the new splicers.
The music of the game still compliments the atmosphere as well as the previous Bioshock. This time there seems to be earlier 1900’s music, probably because of fallout? However, in times of traps or combat scenarios the music is traded out for more of a symphony type style of music. Plucks of violin strings and the notes of a piano being struck just build up on some anticipation.
Final Thoughts-
-It lives up to the hype.
-Manages to do some things better then the previous Bioshock.
-Graphics are so 2007
-Story is getting kinda old
8.5/10