The Librarian
Banned
Hello, GAF. After Infinite released earlier this year, I had an itching to replay BioShock and BioShock 2 games that I had not played since 2010. A respectable length of time to evaluate each game more objectively, far beyond any pre-hype and post-hype window. As July rolled around that itch became unshakeable, so here we are.
The topic of this thread is the following: Did you prefer BioShock 1 or BioShock 2?
Here is a summary of my thoughts. They may come off as a bit rambling, and its probably a bit too long for anybody to read in full. To be honest, I probably wouldn't. Anyway, I've underlined the topics of most paragraphs to make it easier to read. Also, spoilers.
BioShock
Well, where else to start but the beginning? Oh, what a first step. I remember lurking GAF back in 2007 as the reviews were coming in. Everybody was incredibly excited about the seemingly unimaginable number of perfect scores the game was getting. For a time, it seemed BioShock would surpass Ocarina of Time as the highest rated game ever made.
Fueling the hype, and perhaps driving it, was the praise generated by numerous gamers after playing the demo. I bet, for BioShock fans, we all remember the first time we set foot in Rapture, whether that was in the demo or the final game. Personally, I must have played through that demo a dozen times in my attempts to both quell and fuel my excitement for the release of the game.
Playing it today...its still good, but it has understandably lost some of its luster to me after Ive played it so many times. Its not quite as fun because after playing it through a second, third, of twentieth time, you know all the scripted parts, so theres not as much tension. You know whats around the corner, you know the places youll see. Overall, its still a wonderful presentation, but as with all things theres only a first time for everything.
The games strongest characteristic, back in 2007 and today, is its atmosphere. It holds up fantastically, and can act like a blanket to cover other aspects of the game that may not feel so fresh. The world is incredibly detailed and realized: Irrational here didnt skip on anything. If approached unnoticed, youll hear the ramblings of the crazed splices. If it is silent, you can hear the structure of the city defying the water pressure of the ocean. Water is everywhere: in its visual splendor of flowing down steps and gathering in puddles in hallways, and in a fine audio quality where you hear the splashing, dripping, and seeping of moving water in the environment. Each room seems to have been given its own unique attention. If I may recall Mariska Lutz and Mr. Lutzs apartment where their bodies lay rotting. Picking up the audio diary in the room will reveal a bottle with spilled pills over a picture of Masha the two killed themselves because their daughter became a Little Sister and they had no hope of recovering her. It is a city that feels lived in.
Given that the last game in the series I played was Infinite, I was curious to see how much Id miss all the mechanics present in BioShock 1 and 2 that were missing in Infinite. Turns out, I missed them greatly. I really enjoyed having three types of ammo to choose from so I can more effectively tailor my approach to each combat encounter. That my weapons changed visually every time I upgraded them only increased the fun factor. Though the hacking mini-game is something I avoided at all costs, I enjoyed hacking the turrets and security cameras for my own benefit.
What I enjoyed most of all and what was missing from Infinite was the sprawling level design. Theres a sense of exploration in BioShock and BioShock 2 thats missing from Infinite because its overall more linear than its predecessors. I loved going out of my way to explore every nook and cranny to see what I would find. Hell, Im pretty sure I found some stuff that I didnt find in my earlier play-throughs which probably made me happy more than anything else while replaying BioShock. I havent played many of the old-school FPS games, but there are secret areas in this game that are an absolute joy to find.
The sound design, while for the most part superb, isnt too good when accounting for distance or physical barriers. Its often hard to tell where voices are coming from: above, below, or from behind. When splicers are talking from another side of a wall, they dont sound like they are.
The combat of the game can be summed up in one word: clumsy. From the outset, hardly do any of the weapons feel fun to fire, even after their upgrades. I found most of them feel weak and underpowered, with some exceptions like the rocket launcher. The inability of the player to melee with any of the weapons besides the wrench was particularly annoying to me because of the tendency for the AI to rush at you during combat. Though sometimes they did hold back. The plasmids, while varied, simply werent that fun to use, and leveling them up only gave you stronger version of what it already did. I also didnt enjoy having to give myself health during combat. I thought it was awkward that I had to worry about healing myself during the frantic battles that compose BioShocks combat. There are so many things Im trying to focus on I dont want to have to worry about my health. Also, Im pretty sure the game doubles the health of the Splicers sometime after Fort Frolic to artificially increase the difficulty.
I must admit that I do not generally enjoy most of the levels. I was never too fond of Medical Pavilion and Neptunes Bounty, even on my first couple of play-throughs of the game. Maybe its the designs of the levels themselves, but they always felt a bit same-y to me. More importantly I never found either of those two levels interesting to explore. I suppose its because I dont find them too inviting. Same goes for later levels like Hephaestos, Olympus Heights/Apollo Square, and to a degree Point Prometheus. I enjoyed exploring the rooms of the Little Sisters in Point Prometheus, as well as Mercury suites in Olympus Heights (or was that Apollo Square?), but the rest was take it or leave it. When it comes to level design, I suppose I like to be able to see where Im going and have much the area laid out in front of me, like Fort Frolic.
Fort Frolic is the obvious standout. I know among GAF that Fort Frolic is adored, and with good reason. The area combines BioShocks second most compelling character (though some can very well argue the most compelling) in Sander Cohen, and weaves a weirdly compelling and fascinating tale that makes the player trek throughout the level to complete it sstory. In this level we have, despite my earlier lamenting of the games combat, one of my favorite gameplay moments of this past generation: When Sander Cohen gets irrationally mad at the player and sends more than a dozen splicers, puts a spotlight on her, and forces her to fight against the backdrop of Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker. I always reserve plenty of shotgun ammo for this moment. At the end of my adventure this time, in contrast to most times I play through the level, I killed Sander Cohen and took a photograph of him. An almost musical fate, you might say.
For good and bad, the most memorable thing about BioShock is its narrative. Some of it is incredibly good. Andrew Ryan, masterfully played by Armin Shimerman (Quark!), is a man as daunting as the city itself. He is one driven by his ideals which are mostly associated with Ayn Rands objectivism and through audio diaries one learns that, as he is increasingly backed into a corner by Atlas/Fontaine, he compromises those same ideals to save the city he loves. The game has audio diaries that delve into topics that range from the mundane lives of ordinary citizens of Rapture to the events that led to the fall of the city. The audio diaries are a bit clumsy as you have to piece together the events on your own, but every audio diary helps to fill out the world. My favorite out of all of them is the one where Suchong asks young Jack to kill the puppy. D: There are a range of good characters like Bill McDonaugh, Sullivan, Tenebaum, Diane McClintock.
Your final encounter with Andrew Ryan is one of the most significant story moments in the 360/PS3/Wii era. Andrew Ryan, a man driven by his ideals, dies for them, and in doing so hopes to make a point for his illegitimate son Jack. More to it than that, BioShock seems to make fun of how gamers so readily accept commands from elements within a game without questioning them.
And some of it is not so good. Im probably just repeating widespread criticisms at this point, but the story does fall apart halfway into the game. Fontaine, while clever, is almost entirely flat. Hes a brute that repeatedly does brutish things and doesnt show any complexity beyond being a brute. Hes evil because...well, hes evil. For me, because the levels after Ryans death arent too interesting to explore, and I dont have the narrative push to keep going, its a little bit difficult to play to the end. Indeed, I was in Point Prometheus, having just put the helmet on to further look like a Big Daddy (the helmet itself is an annoyance) when a group of splicers poured in and killed me. While I was being revived, I again contemplated the possibility that the game doubled the health of the Splicers, which made them a chore to fight against. Sure, I couldve turned the difficulty down to Medium, but knowing what was ahead completing the Big Daddy suit, the Little Sister escort mission, and that horrible final boss fight I had decided that I was done with the game. Later that same day, I booted up
BioShock 2
The sequel to BioShock was not highly anticipated on GAF. Most saw it as a quick cash-in to a surprisingly popular title, and many criticized it for returning to Rapture. Weve already been there, so why do we have to go back? A valid criticism. By setting the game in Rapture again, BioShock 2 was risking player fatigue at the outset. However, due to some vast improvements upon the fundamental mechanics of the first game, having a more prominent secondary story with Mark Meltzer, adding new mechanics to vary up the experience, along with improvements in level design, BioShock 2 avoids any sort of fatigue for me.
BioShock 2 starts off, in some ways, as exhilarating as its predecessor. You watch Delta commit suicide as Eleanor cries out. Then you wakeup on the floor outside a Vita Chamber. Now, I hadnt played BioShock 2 in a while, so by this point Ive forgotten how the main story ends. The weakest part of the opening is certainly when you get locked inside of a room, Lamb tries to frighten you, then send a whole bunch of splicers at you just like a part in the beginning of BioShock. The whole deal with Eleanor comes off a bit strange because of the visions you get and how poorly modeled her character is.
Immediately evident, though, is the improvements to all the mechanics from BioShock. When you wake up, you wake up with the drill which, for me, is far more fun to use than the wrench, especially when you get the drill dash. When you get electro bolt, you realize you can use both your weapon and your plasmid at the same time. This makes the combat smoother on your end and makes it easier to control a crowd, and thatll come in handy for the new mechanics BioShock 2 introduces. When you get telekinesis, here, too, you immediately notice an improvement: Rather than the items your holding being front of your view, theyre off to the side which allows you to more easily aim them. Youre introduced to the hack dart early on in the game, and youll see that the pipes mini-game is gone. In BioShock I always bought out machines to avoid hacking whenever I could, but in BioShock 2, hacking is more fun. I love hacking turrets/cameras from a distance and watch them turn on the Splicers nearby. The research camera also makes a return, but instead of you awkwardly taking pictures, you set the subject you want to film and the camera records footage of you fighting the subject free of any hindrance.
Plasmids here are a lot more fun to use and upgrade. Theres a nice oomph every time you use a plasmid that was missing in BioShock. Whats more, visiting a Gatherers Garden will yield upgrades to your plasmids that are beyond just doing more damage than the basic version. Each time you upgrade, the plasmid will add an ability. Electro Bolt 2, for example, has a chain reaction benefit that enables the player to zap a group of splicers by holding down the trigger. Incinerate!s third level is a stream of fire. When you upgrade to the third level, the second level becomes your default ability. Another improvement 2K Marin added was the hand animations for each plasmid. Incinerate! is incredibly cool to have out.
The gene tonics have been streamlined all into one group, so no more worrying about physical tonics and whatnot. I found it easier to keep track of what I had this way.
In contrast to BioShock, most of the weapons are fun to fire, and just like BioShock 2s plasmids, the upgrades for the weapons are better in the sequel. Each weapon has three upgrades as opposed to BioShocks two, and the third upgrade acts as special unlock when youve bought the first two upgrades. Almost every weapon feels powerful to fire, especially in comparison to BioShocks counterparts. The machine gun and the shotgun received the meatiest upgrades both feel more effective than they did in BioShock. Whats disappointing, though, is the rivet gun. It feels okay to fire, but I dont like it as much as the other weapons because the sound feels a bit muted. Like Im firing something mushy. That may not make any sense, but I remember trying out the rivet gun first time and being disappointed. I still am.
The newest things BioShock 2 brings to the franchise are Little Sister ADAM-gathering encounters and fights with Big Sisters. The Little Sister encounters can be a great deal of fun in the way you can set up traps to prepare for the coming rush of Splicers. Big Sister fights are harrowing and adrenaline rushes on a whole other level. Big Sisters are fast and agile compared to the slow, brutish fights of the Big Daddies. I also really like the terrifying scream that notifies you that the Big Sister is coming. However, as the game goes on the Little Sister fights got a little tiring for me. Now, you dont have to get every Little Sister for every level and you can always harvest them instead of adopting them. You can also bypass the LS fights entirely and save them by directly taking them to a vent. If you want to be good and somewhat of a completionist like me, though, they become something you want to get done and over with by the end of the game.
The story is...okay. It can be argued that it was a bit lazy, because BioShock dealt with objectivism, that 2K Marin decided to go to the other end of the idealogical spectrum and deal with socialism in the form of Lamb. Lamb isnt as...well-rounded as Ryan is. Whereas Ryans story was one of being backed into a corner and lashing out, Lamb just seems willing to step into insanity. BioShock 2 makes heavy use of audio diaries like its predecessor, but because of that I also found it difficult to keep track of the backstory, and thereby the overall story, of the game. Im going to go a wiki to see what happened, but I was left a bit confused by the ending. Why did Eleanor drain Deltas life out of him? I dont know. I also think the ending level goes on for a bit too long. After playing as a Little Sister I was pretty much done. But, hey, at least I finished the game!
That all isnt to say there wasnt some cool elements to the story. Eleanor dressing up to be a Big Sister and teaming up with you was pretty badass. Probably the best thing to come from the main story was the part where you played as a Little Sister. It was fascinating to see the world through their eyes how everything is perfect and you dont see any of the citys depressing state. I liked Grace Holloway for the simple fact that we dont see a lot of female African American characters in videogames, let alone ones with any depth, and Sinclair was a pretty well rounded character. Seems he had the best interest of Delta at heart.
While I do think the story in BioShock 2 isnt anything to put on a pedestal, I did find it had some of the same emotional highs of the first game. There are two such moments. The first was in Ryan Amusements, when you find the final audio diary of the babysitter of a group of children on the eve of the civil war. The second is when you gun down a Big Daddy and find out what happened to Mark Meltzer. On both occasions I was left going D:
I found the level design to be an overall improvement over BioShock 1. Most of the levels have what appeals to me, which is a huge open spaces where you can see a good chunk of the level and what youll be exploring. Ryan Amusements doesnt really fit this description, but I did enjoy it for the verticality of the design. In comparison to the first game, theres a lot more verticality incorporated into the level design, most prominently in Ryan Amusements, Paupers Drop, Siren Alley. I also really enjoyed how the game mixed up settings on you by making use of areas without light so you have to use your flashlight, and how you can go outside the city, which allowed the ending of Siren Alley to be incredibly cool.
There are some dud levels in there like Persephone and Dionysus Park. The former is a result of going on too long. Its an exploration level but the story is trying to rush you, so itd probably be better placed at a different point in the game. The latter doesnt really have anything going for it. It felt like a pitstop to me to the best level in the game.
I know this may be somewhat of an unpopular opinion on GAF, but I do believe that Fontaine Futuristics is the best level of the two games. Yes, even better than Fort Frolic. To start off, it has the strongest narrative tied to a single level. What Sander Cohen made you do was cool, but it wasnt all that relatable or understandable in the end he seemed to go crazy just because. As far as I can recall, you never really find out why he went crazy. Being led by prerecorded messages from Gil Alexander, and your conflict with his insane self, Alex the Great, allows for a stronger connection between the player and the character. What I witnessed of Alex the Great made me see why Gil would take measures to ensure his eventual demise; I felt more tied to him. The question of killing Gil or leaving him as his mutated self is a central part of the levels narrative, and it is all the stronger for it.
Fontaine Futuristics is also very fun. Alex the Great is a lot of fun to interact with. My favorite gameplay part was the ADAM testing theater. Theres also the unstable teleportation plasmid you have to follow throughout the level, the introduction of the Alphas, the live testing facility, and that office area where you can choose to jump around on furniture to avoid the water contaminated by electricity.
Which do I think is better? In the end, Im a gameplay-above-all-else kind of girl, so Id have to give the edge to BioShock 2. The improvements to level design and gameplay mechanics is more than enough to put it over the originals presentation and half a good story.
The topic of this thread is the following: Did you prefer BioShock 1 or BioShock 2?
Here is a summary of my thoughts. They may come off as a bit rambling, and its probably a bit too long for anybody to read in full. To be honest, I probably wouldn't. Anyway, I've underlined the topics of most paragraphs to make it easier to read. Also, spoilers.
BioShock
Well, where else to start but the beginning? Oh, what a first step. I remember lurking GAF back in 2007 as the reviews were coming in. Everybody was incredibly excited about the seemingly unimaginable number of perfect scores the game was getting. For a time, it seemed BioShock would surpass Ocarina of Time as the highest rated game ever made.
Fueling the hype, and perhaps driving it, was the praise generated by numerous gamers after playing the demo. I bet, for BioShock fans, we all remember the first time we set foot in Rapture, whether that was in the demo or the final game. Personally, I must have played through that demo a dozen times in my attempts to both quell and fuel my excitement for the release of the game.
Playing it today...its still good, but it has understandably lost some of its luster to me after Ive played it so many times. Its not quite as fun because after playing it through a second, third, of twentieth time, you know all the scripted parts, so theres not as much tension. You know whats around the corner, you know the places youll see. Overall, its still a wonderful presentation, but as with all things theres only a first time for everything.
The games strongest characteristic, back in 2007 and today, is its atmosphere. It holds up fantastically, and can act like a blanket to cover other aspects of the game that may not feel so fresh. The world is incredibly detailed and realized: Irrational here didnt skip on anything. If approached unnoticed, youll hear the ramblings of the crazed splices. If it is silent, you can hear the structure of the city defying the water pressure of the ocean. Water is everywhere: in its visual splendor of flowing down steps and gathering in puddles in hallways, and in a fine audio quality where you hear the splashing, dripping, and seeping of moving water in the environment. Each room seems to have been given its own unique attention. If I may recall Mariska Lutz and Mr. Lutzs apartment where their bodies lay rotting. Picking up the audio diary in the room will reveal a bottle with spilled pills over a picture of Masha the two killed themselves because their daughter became a Little Sister and they had no hope of recovering her. It is a city that feels lived in.
Given that the last game in the series I played was Infinite, I was curious to see how much Id miss all the mechanics present in BioShock 1 and 2 that were missing in Infinite. Turns out, I missed them greatly. I really enjoyed having three types of ammo to choose from so I can more effectively tailor my approach to each combat encounter. That my weapons changed visually every time I upgraded them only increased the fun factor. Though the hacking mini-game is something I avoided at all costs, I enjoyed hacking the turrets and security cameras for my own benefit.
What I enjoyed most of all and what was missing from Infinite was the sprawling level design. Theres a sense of exploration in BioShock and BioShock 2 thats missing from Infinite because its overall more linear than its predecessors. I loved going out of my way to explore every nook and cranny to see what I would find. Hell, Im pretty sure I found some stuff that I didnt find in my earlier play-throughs which probably made me happy more than anything else while replaying BioShock. I havent played many of the old-school FPS games, but there are secret areas in this game that are an absolute joy to find.
The sound design, while for the most part superb, isnt too good when accounting for distance or physical barriers. Its often hard to tell where voices are coming from: above, below, or from behind. When splicers are talking from another side of a wall, they dont sound like they are.
The combat of the game can be summed up in one word: clumsy. From the outset, hardly do any of the weapons feel fun to fire, even after their upgrades. I found most of them feel weak and underpowered, with some exceptions like the rocket launcher. The inability of the player to melee with any of the weapons besides the wrench was particularly annoying to me because of the tendency for the AI to rush at you during combat. Though sometimes they did hold back. The plasmids, while varied, simply werent that fun to use, and leveling them up only gave you stronger version of what it already did. I also didnt enjoy having to give myself health during combat. I thought it was awkward that I had to worry about healing myself during the frantic battles that compose BioShocks combat. There are so many things Im trying to focus on I dont want to have to worry about my health. Also, Im pretty sure the game doubles the health of the Splicers sometime after Fort Frolic to artificially increase the difficulty.
I must admit that I do not generally enjoy most of the levels. I was never too fond of Medical Pavilion and Neptunes Bounty, even on my first couple of play-throughs of the game. Maybe its the designs of the levels themselves, but they always felt a bit same-y to me. More importantly I never found either of those two levels interesting to explore. I suppose its because I dont find them too inviting. Same goes for later levels like Hephaestos, Olympus Heights/Apollo Square, and to a degree Point Prometheus. I enjoyed exploring the rooms of the Little Sisters in Point Prometheus, as well as Mercury suites in Olympus Heights (or was that Apollo Square?), but the rest was take it or leave it. When it comes to level design, I suppose I like to be able to see where Im going and have much the area laid out in front of me, like Fort Frolic.
Fort Frolic is the obvious standout. I know among GAF that Fort Frolic is adored, and with good reason. The area combines BioShocks second most compelling character (though some can very well argue the most compelling) in Sander Cohen, and weaves a weirdly compelling and fascinating tale that makes the player trek throughout the level to complete it sstory. In this level we have, despite my earlier lamenting of the games combat, one of my favorite gameplay moments of this past generation: When Sander Cohen gets irrationally mad at the player and sends more than a dozen splicers, puts a spotlight on her, and forces her to fight against the backdrop of Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker. I always reserve plenty of shotgun ammo for this moment. At the end of my adventure this time, in contrast to most times I play through the level, I killed Sander Cohen and took a photograph of him. An almost musical fate, you might say.
For good and bad, the most memorable thing about BioShock is its narrative. Some of it is incredibly good. Andrew Ryan, masterfully played by Armin Shimerman (Quark!), is a man as daunting as the city itself. He is one driven by his ideals which are mostly associated with Ayn Rands objectivism and through audio diaries one learns that, as he is increasingly backed into a corner by Atlas/Fontaine, he compromises those same ideals to save the city he loves. The game has audio diaries that delve into topics that range from the mundane lives of ordinary citizens of Rapture to the events that led to the fall of the city. The audio diaries are a bit clumsy as you have to piece together the events on your own, but every audio diary helps to fill out the world. My favorite out of all of them is the one where Suchong asks young Jack to kill the puppy. D: There are a range of good characters like Bill McDonaugh, Sullivan, Tenebaum, Diane McClintock.
Your final encounter with Andrew Ryan is one of the most significant story moments in the 360/PS3/Wii era. Andrew Ryan, a man driven by his ideals, dies for them, and in doing so hopes to make a point for his illegitimate son Jack. More to it than that, BioShock seems to make fun of how gamers so readily accept commands from elements within a game without questioning them.
And some of it is not so good. Im probably just repeating widespread criticisms at this point, but the story does fall apart halfway into the game. Fontaine, while clever, is almost entirely flat. Hes a brute that repeatedly does brutish things and doesnt show any complexity beyond being a brute. Hes evil because...well, hes evil. For me, because the levels after Ryans death arent too interesting to explore, and I dont have the narrative push to keep going, its a little bit difficult to play to the end. Indeed, I was in Point Prometheus, having just put the helmet on to further look like a Big Daddy (the helmet itself is an annoyance) when a group of splicers poured in and killed me. While I was being revived, I again contemplated the possibility that the game doubled the health of the Splicers, which made them a chore to fight against. Sure, I couldve turned the difficulty down to Medium, but knowing what was ahead completing the Big Daddy suit, the Little Sister escort mission, and that horrible final boss fight I had decided that I was done with the game. Later that same day, I booted up
BioShock 2
The sequel to BioShock was not highly anticipated on GAF. Most saw it as a quick cash-in to a surprisingly popular title, and many criticized it for returning to Rapture. Weve already been there, so why do we have to go back? A valid criticism. By setting the game in Rapture again, BioShock 2 was risking player fatigue at the outset. However, due to some vast improvements upon the fundamental mechanics of the first game, having a more prominent secondary story with Mark Meltzer, adding new mechanics to vary up the experience, along with improvements in level design, BioShock 2 avoids any sort of fatigue for me.
BioShock 2 starts off, in some ways, as exhilarating as its predecessor. You watch Delta commit suicide as Eleanor cries out. Then you wakeup on the floor outside a Vita Chamber. Now, I hadnt played BioShock 2 in a while, so by this point Ive forgotten how the main story ends. The weakest part of the opening is certainly when you get locked inside of a room, Lamb tries to frighten you, then send a whole bunch of splicers at you just like a part in the beginning of BioShock. The whole deal with Eleanor comes off a bit strange because of the visions you get and how poorly modeled her character is.
Immediately evident, though, is the improvements to all the mechanics from BioShock. When you wake up, you wake up with the drill which, for me, is far more fun to use than the wrench, especially when you get the drill dash. When you get electro bolt, you realize you can use both your weapon and your plasmid at the same time. This makes the combat smoother on your end and makes it easier to control a crowd, and thatll come in handy for the new mechanics BioShock 2 introduces. When you get telekinesis, here, too, you immediately notice an improvement: Rather than the items your holding being front of your view, theyre off to the side which allows you to more easily aim them. Youre introduced to the hack dart early on in the game, and youll see that the pipes mini-game is gone. In BioShock I always bought out machines to avoid hacking whenever I could, but in BioShock 2, hacking is more fun. I love hacking turrets/cameras from a distance and watch them turn on the Splicers nearby. The research camera also makes a return, but instead of you awkwardly taking pictures, you set the subject you want to film and the camera records footage of you fighting the subject free of any hindrance.
Plasmids here are a lot more fun to use and upgrade. Theres a nice oomph every time you use a plasmid that was missing in BioShock. Whats more, visiting a Gatherers Garden will yield upgrades to your plasmids that are beyond just doing more damage than the basic version. Each time you upgrade, the plasmid will add an ability. Electro Bolt 2, for example, has a chain reaction benefit that enables the player to zap a group of splicers by holding down the trigger. Incinerate!s third level is a stream of fire. When you upgrade to the third level, the second level becomes your default ability. Another improvement 2K Marin added was the hand animations for each plasmid. Incinerate! is incredibly cool to have out.
The gene tonics have been streamlined all into one group, so no more worrying about physical tonics and whatnot. I found it easier to keep track of what I had this way.
In contrast to BioShock, most of the weapons are fun to fire, and just like BioShock 2s plasmids, the upgrades for the weapons are better in the sequel. Each weapon has three upgrades as opposed to BioShocks two, and the third upgrade acts as special unlock when youve bought the first two upgrades. Almost every weapon feels powerful to fire, especially in comparison to BioShocks counterparts. The machine gun and the shotgun received the meatiest upgrades both feel more effective than they did in BioShock. Whats disappointing, though, is the rivet gun. It feels okay to fire, but I dont like it as much as the other weapons because the sound feels a bit muted. Like Im firing something mushy. That may not make any sense, but I remember trying out the rivet gun first time and being disappointed. I still am.
The newest things BioShock 2 brings to the franchise are Little Sister ADAM-gathering encounters and fights with Big Sisters. The Little Sister encounters can be a great deal of fun in the way you can set up traps to prepare for the coming rush of Splicers. Big Sister fights are harrowing and adrenaline rushes on a whole other level. Big Sisters are fast and agile compared to the slow, brutish fights of the Big Daddies. I also really like the terrifying scream that notifies you that the Big Sister is coming. However, as the game goes on the Little Sister fights got a little tiring for me. Now, you dont have to get every Little Sister for every level and you can always harvest them instead of adopting them. You can also bypass the LS fights entirely and save them by directly taking them to a vent. If you want to be good and somewhat of a completionist like me, though, they become something you want to get done and over with by the end of the game.
The story is...okay. It can be argued that it was a bit lazy, because BioShock dealt with objectivism, that 2K Marin decided to go to the other end of the idealogical spectrum and deal with socialism in the form of Lamb. Lamb isnt as...well-rounded as Ryan is. Whereas Ryans story was one of being backed into a corner and lashing out, Lamb just seems willing to step into insanity. BioShock 2 makes heavy use of audio diaries like its predecessor, but because of that I also found it difficult to keep track of the backstory, and thereby the overall story, of the game. Im going to go a wiki to see what happened, but I was left a bit confused by the ending. Why did Eleanor drain Deltas life out of him? I dont know. I also think the ending level goes on for a bit too long. After playing as a Little Sister I was pretty much done. But, hey, at least I finished the game!
That all isnt to say there wasnt some cool elements to the story. Eleanor dressing up to be a Big Sister and teaming up with you was pretty badass. Probably the best thing to come from the main story was the part where you played as a Little Sister. It was fascinating to see the world through their eyes how everything is perfect and you dont see any of the citys depressing state. I liked Grace Holloway for the simple fact that we dont see a lot of female African American characters in videogames, let alone ones with any depth, and Sinclair was a pretty well rounded character. Seems he had the best interest of Delta at heart.
While I do think the story in BioShock 2 isnt anything to put on a pedestal, I did find it had some of the same emotional highs of the first game. There are two such moments. The first was in Ryan Amusements, when you find the final audio diary of the babysitter of a group of children on the eve of the civil war. The second is when you gun down a Big Daddy and find out what happened to Mark Meltzer. On both occasions I was left going D:
I found the level design to be an overall improvement over BioShock 1. Most of the levels have what appeals to me, which is a huge open spaces where you can see a good chunk of the level and what youll be exploring. Ryan Amusements doesnt really fit this description, but I did enjoy it for the verticality of the design. In comparison to the first game, theres a lot more verticality incorporated into the level design, most prominently in Ryan Amusements, Paupers Drop, Siren Alley. I also really enjoyed how the game mixed up settings on you by making use of areas without light so you have to use your flashlight, and how you can go outside the city, which allowed the ending of Siren Alley to be incredibly cool.
There are some dud levels in there like Persephone and Dionysus Park. The former is a result of going on too long. Its an exploration level but the story is trying to rush you, so itd probably be better placed at a different point in the game. The latter doesnt really have anything going for it. It felt like a pitstop to me to the best level in the game.
I know this may be somewhat of an unpopular opinion on GAF, but I do believe that Fontaine Futuristics is the best level of the two games. Yes, even better than Fort Frolic. To start off, it has the strongest narrative tied to a single level. What Sander Cohen made you do was cool, but it wasnt all that relatable or understandable in the end he seemed to go crazy just because. As far as I can recall, you never really find out why he went crazy. Being led by prerecorded messages from Gil Alexander, and your conflict with his insane self, Alex the Great, allows for a stronger connection between the player and the character. What I witnessed of Alex the Great made me see why Gil would take measures to ensure his eventual demise; I felt more tied to him. The question of killing Gil or leaving him as his mutated self is a central part of the levels narrative, and it is all the stronger for it.
Fontaine Futuristics is also very fun. Alex the Great is a lot of fun to interact with. My favorite gameplay part was the ADAM testing theater. Theres also the unstable teleportation plasmid you have to follow throughout the level, the introduction of the Alphas, the live testing facility, and that office area where you can choose to jump around on furniture to avoid the water contaminated by electricity.
Which do I think is better? In the end, Im a gameplay-above-all-else kind of girl, so Id have to give the edge to BioShock 2. The improvements to level design and gameplay mechanics is more than enough to put it over the originals presentation and half a good story.
