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[phantomspiker]

I'm also replaying them right now.
I was as amazed as anyone else with Bioshock but in hindsight Bioshock 2's story did more for me with the whole

Spoiler

father/daughter relationship.

The Big Daddy/Little Sister thing is my favorite part of the whole Rapture lore so being able to

Spoiler

see the world through the eyes of a little sister was fascinating for me.

Gameplay has obviously been improved, being able to dual-wield makes such a huge difference, going back to the original is really jarring and makes you wonder why they didn't think of that in the first place.

So yeah, taking away the wow factor of the first game and comparing them objectively I'd say 2 wins, but of course that's unfair, the first was a landmark experience in gaming and you can't ignore that.

I completely agree with this.

 

[Romir]

Bolded part is dead wrong unless the development studio somehow created an alternate reality to dip into that allowed them free staff, free resources, and free hours.

A different studio handled it so it's debatable how much of an effect that extra money would have been worth at 2k Marin. On a positive note, the Bioshock 2 MP plasmids/gunplay development experience helped make the Darkness II a better game.

Anyway, Minerva's Den > 2 > 1 > Infinite for me. Not surprisingly I'd rank the gameplay in that order too. Maybe the experience of 1250/1250ing Bioshock soured me on it some, because I don't have fond memories of that.

 

[natsuyasumi]

The hell... Pc version of Bioshock 2 is gfwl and doesn't have controller support? The first game isn't gfw and has controller support? So backwards

It's even worse. As of the latest patch (the only one you can play Minerva with, I think) the PC version of BS2 has super-busted audio. The mix is all wrong, various sounds are muffled, the little sisters don't talk, the vending machines don't talk.

I went to play BS2 for the first time recently and was super discouraged to find this out. It needs a patch that will likely never happen.

 

[Lijik]

2 is definitely the best one for my money. Loads of fun to play, even if its not as atmosphere rich as the other two. 2 > Infinite > 1 for me. 1 has the best atmosphere by a longshot, but so much of the gameplay are really boring collectathon missions. Its open level designs are really just a front for "Go to these three rooms and fetch me seven things in each of them"

I did thread about BS 2 a few months ago. I still feel that BS2 is an unnecessary sequel, or at least was until Infinite came out. There actually seem to be more parallels between Infinite and 2 than Infinite and the original Bioshock (which I think the link is kinda flimsy)

Agreed. I always felt the people who said "Play 1 and Infinite, 2 isnt important" around Infinites release either didnt beat Infinite or didnt play/forgot about 2.

Playing all three back to back, and the parallels between 2 and Infinite stood out a lot and strengthened the finale in Infinite imo.

This is probably just me looking into it too much but I thought it was neat how

Spoiler

The father/daughter aspect of the narrative becomes more important with each Bioshock release, and "chronologically" the games provide players with more impactful choices as time goes along (i.e. nothing changes the narrative in Infinite, theres 2 endings in 1, and in 2 theres like six endings you can get through a number of choices)

 

[szaromir]

I'm also replaying them right now.
I was as amazed as anyone else with Bioshock but in hindsight Bioshock 2's story did more for me with the whole

Spoiler

father/daughter relationship.

The Big Daddy/Little Sister thing is my favorite part of the whole Rapture lore so being able to

Spoiler

see the world through the eyes of a little sister was fascinating for me.

Gameplay has obviously been improved, being able to dual-wield makes such a huge difference, going back to the original is really jarring and makes you wonder why they didn't think of that in the first place.

So yeah, taking away the wow factor of the first game and comparing them objectively I'd say 2 wins, but of course that's unfair, the first was a landmark experience in gaming and you can't ignore that.

BS1 could be considered landmark if and only if one didn't play SS2. BS1 has the exact same narrative structure and similar but watered down gameplay. So it's only fair to say that BS is better than BS1 without attaching any silly adjectives like landmark to BS1.

Bolded part is dead wrong unless the development studio somehow created an alternate reality to dip into that allowed them free staff, free resources, and free hours.

You're assuming the publisher would have had allocated more resources to the campaign had been it campaign only, but you don't know that.

 

[The Librarian]

I found the design structure behind Bioshock 2 to be completely tedious and annoying. You're told to go rescue all the Little Sisters in a level and have to redo the same gameplay segment several times in a row. It's completely dull. It's why I stopped playing.

You don't have to do any of that though.

 

[Curufinwe]

Agreed. I always felt the people who said "Play 1 and Infinite, 2 isnt important" around Infinites release either didnt beat Infinite or didnt play/forgot about 2.

Playing all three back to back, and the parallels between 2 and Infinite stood out a lot and strengthened the finale in Infinite imo.

This is probably just me looking into it too much but I thought it was neat how

Spoiler

The father/daughter aspect of the narrative becomes more important with each Bioshock release, and "chronologically" the games provide players with more impactful choices as time goes along (i.e. nothing changes the narrative in Infinite, theres 2 endings in 1, and in 2 theres like six endings you can get through a number of choices)

I agree. I actually played 2, then Infinite, then 1.

 

[Denzar]

Bioshock 2 was the better game.

Bioshock 1 was the better experience.

 

[diffusionx]

Bolded part is dead wrong unless the development studio somehow created an alternate reality to dip into that allowed them free staff, free resources, and free hours.

Take Two hired another studio and gave them extra resources to complete the multiplayer. It's not like, had that multiplayer not existed, those resources would've went to the people working on the singleplayer game.

 

[JudgeB]

Its a really tough choice for me. I LOVE both of them, but the more I think about it, I think I give the edge to Bioshock 2. Sure, 1 had an AMAZING story, and the twist left me in awe at how great it was executed and planned out. However, I like overall, BS2 was just more fun for me. I loved playing as a Big Daddy, loved the drill, loved the weapons, loved the levels, ect. The story wasn't on par with 1, but it was still done pretty well IMO. Fontaine Futuristics was a tad under Fort Frolic on the awesome scale, but then again, nothing can live up to Fort Frolic really.

As said also, Minerva's Den really was an amazing DLC, and personally, the best DLC I've ever bought for a game in my 7 years with the 360.

I give the edge to BS2, if only slightly.

Infinite isn't even close to either of them.

 

[RDreamer]

Still playing Minerva's Den. It's good. I like it, but I'm not entirely sure why people would be ranking it ahead of the full games. Maybe something happens later, I dunno.

 

[D-e-f-]

It's crazy to still read these dismissive posts full of ignorance in here abou the multi@layer in BS2 or how the sequel was farmed out to some throwaway studio. Both games are amazing but I give the edge to BS2 for its clever evolutions in terms of mechanics and narrative design. Plus that drill was bonkers!

Fun fact: I did a Survivor w/o Vita Chamberx playthrough of BS right before BS2 came out after which I was a little burned out on Rapture. I then took a break and actually started up the multiplayer and maxed out my level before touching the story again. The mp was fantastic with its brilliant use of the plasmids.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

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 it’s 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...it’s still good, but it has understandably lost some of its luster to me after I’ve played it so many times. It’s not quite as fun because after playing it through a second, third, of twentieth time, you know all the scripted parts, so there’s not as much tension. You know what’s around the corner, you know the places you’ll see. Overall, it’s still a wonderful presentation, but as with all things there’s only a first time for everything.

True, these type of games heavily rely on one time experiences delivered by the story, story telling and additionally world building.

Although, I think I enjoyed playing the shock games more then once due to the characters that populate the worlds that Irrational builds, I loved the psychopathic tendencies in Stienman and Sander Cohen. Compelling characters in compelling situations always make want to explore their reasoning further.

With someone like Sander Cohen, it really pays off depending on what you do or do not do when you meet him. I wish I was given more choices to interact with these characters in both BS1 and subsequent games.

The game’s 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 didn’t skip on anything. If approached unnoticed, you’ll 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. Lutz’s 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.

Agreed, however Infinite (yes, I'm going to talk about Infinite every now and again) pulls off the 'city that feels lived in' far better, for obvious reasons. I have to say it resonated far better with me, I enjoyed the hustling and bustling happening in Columbia and wish Rapture contained more friendly NPC's to interact with. But, both games contrast well with each other.

However, With BS2 I never got the feeling that 2K Marins Rapture was well realised. There were really promising signs that their ideas would catapult the sequel to interesting directions and world building such as the religion based on Jacks arrival. But, most of BS2 felt like an atmospheric repeat devoid of individual character.

Talking about character, I didn't think BS2 had a strong cast either, they were good but nothing like the eccentric Ryan, Cohen et al. I think the story involving Mark Melzter, a character strictly found within the audio diaries was the most interesting one in the game. Although, Gil Alexander was also quite good, but that would be it.

Given that the last game in the series I played was Infinite, I was curious to see how much I’d 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.

Yeah, I really missed the weapon customisation and RPG style options in Infinite, it was perhaps watered down to much in this area. I missed the u-invent stations which made the compulsive looting worth it and justified. Whereas in Infinite, there was no real justification to rummage through everything.

Like you said BS2 was really polished, taking everything in BS1 and not really changing it per se but smartly improving where it needed to improve. The camera system is amazing, bringing with it a neat meta game.

What I enjoyed most of all – and what was missing from Infinite – was the sprawling level design. There’s a sense of exploration in BioShock and BioShock 2 that’s missing from Infinite because it’s 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, I’m pretty sure I found some stuff that I didn’t find in my earlier play-throughs – which probably made me happy more than anything else while replaying BioShock. I haven’t played many of the old-school FPS games, but there are secret areas in this game that are an absolute joy to find.

That's the biggest crime in Infinite. They built a compelling wonderful world, but they didn't give the players interesting ways to explore comfortably what was in that world. Whilst they didn't rush you, the way the objectives guided you was far too linear. The sprawling levels/mini hubs would have really elevated the superb design the team put hours into. The sky rails should have been used more to connect you each level area, they were criminally underused, which is really weird because they made a very complicated piece of design very user friendly which is not an easy thing to do.

The sound design, while for the most part superb, isn’t too good when accounting for distance or physical barriers. It’s 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 don’t sound like they are.

I found the sound design average in both games, probably worse in the second. Infinite, I was pleased was far superior. The weapons have oomph, the plasmid sounds when in use or even when not being used, where it does that idle animation were crisp in their lethality. The footsteps echoing in the hallowed halls and the best being the wind that howls when you're outside in Columbia.

Which is another point, sound design adds as much to atmosphere as much as art style and graphics. In that sense BS1 and 2's was severely lagging behind its visual splendour.

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 weren’t that fun to use, and leveling them up only gave you stronger version of what it already did. I also didn’t 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 BioShock’s combat. There are so many things I’m trying to focus on I don’t want to have to worry about my health. Also, I’m pretty sure the game doubles the health of the Splicers sometime after Fort Frolic to artificially increase the difficulty.

Yep, clumsy is a great way to put it, but BS1 combat was also reliant on on player management to keep that clumsiness down. That's the thing about shields in games they take out much of the awareness needed, it boils down to shield go down, hide, shield come back.

With BS1/2 you have to be aware of the health at all times, which leads to voluntarily or involuntarily having to manage what you are going to use and when you are going to use it as to combat the games clumsiness.

At least the developers made sure it paused the action when you needed to change plasmids/weapons.

I must admit that I do not generally enjoy most of the levels. I was never too fond of Medical Pavilion and Neptune’s Bounty, even on my first couple of play-throughs of the game. Maybe it’s 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 it’s because I don’t 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 I’m going and have much the area laid out in front of me, like Fort Frolic.

I enjoyed all BS1 levels up until meeting Ryan. My enjoyment of the levels came from how fully invested in them I became. To be honest I didn't concentrate on the level design too much if at all in my first playthrough. I enjoyed Neptune's Bounty as it allowed me to digest BS1’s world more, and see where it lies in its narrative. The 'working man' nature of the level mixed in with creepy almost 'the fog' like atmosphere made it compelling. Seeing how the different cliques in Rapture worked and interacted was fascinating. I mean compare how the fisherman were presented in relation to the higher ups in Apollo square, each area was distinct, which brings me to...

Fort Frolic is the obvious standout. I know among GAF that Fort Frolic is adored, and with good reason. The area combines BioShock’s 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 game’s 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.

Ah yes, Fort Frolic (FF), I think my favourite level in a video game this gen.

So much to see so much to do, the level is far more then being in Sander Cohen's playground. This area was the bustling entertainment centre of Rapture and as a result seemed far more 'lived in' then any other level.

The level was ultimately just one surreal journey, you helping Sander build his artistic masterpiece was only the beginning, everything in FF pretty much distils the attraction of BS1 into a singular level and that's the highest praise I can give it. It also shows how diluted the level design in Infinite is.

Although I wish the developers had the time to add Dynosis park to FF, as stated by Eric Sterner

Level Architect, 2K Marin:

Originally the way you got into the Dionysus Park was through the Atrium of Fort Frolic from BioShock -- the big octagonal room that players who played BioShock would remember -- only it was completely submerged under water in this game. You'd be going through this totally sunken version of a level that you might remembered if you played the first game." This reveals that Dionysus Park was originally meant to be an extension of Fort Frolic and that the player would have passed through it in BioShock 2.

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 Rand’s 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.

Agreed no problems here, although I don't think I would define them as clumsy, they served as a great reward for exploration, being rewarded with extra narrative presented in an interesting way was awesome. I don't think they would have hindered a games story at all if a player didn't collect them.

Some of my favourite ones in the game were the 'ice man commeth', a 'wild bunny by sander Cohen' and the 'musical gremlin one', sorry I can't remember the actual titles to the audio diaries.

A wild bunny by Sander Cohen:

The Wild Bunny, by Sander Cohen. I want to take the ears off, but I can't. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It's my curse, my eternal curse. I want to take the ears off, but I can't! It's my curse, it's my fucking curse! I want to take the ears off! Please! Take them off! Pleeeeeeease!

As a contrast, BS2 didn't really have too many interesting dialogues because it didn't have too many interesting characters, however, I felt the audio diaries were far more explicit in regards to the inner working of Rapture mostly on a social and civil level. There wasn't to much about the creation of Rapture. Although, there were A LOT of diaries in BS2 I don't think I collected them all, so I'm not 100 percent certain what the subject matter of those I'm missing contain.

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.

A man chooses, a slave obeys - masterfully done. No subsequent game has quite done a confrontation like this.

And some of it is not so good. I’m 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. He’s a brute that repeatedly does brutish things and doesn’t show any complexity beyond being a brute. He’s evil because...well, he’s evil. For me, because the levels after Ryan’s death aren’t too interesting to explore, and I don’t have the narrative push to keep going, it’s 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 could’ve 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…

A game like BS could never keep up the intensity in its surrounding, atmosphere and levels. I detested the levels after killing Ryan, and I still believe the last boss was grossly unneeded. It felt to me that Ryan would be the perfect place to end it, which would obviously mean that Fontaine would either have had to be dealt with immediately or better yet, with him succeeding. Would have left a lasting impression.

No one likes escort missions, and to follow that up with a very 'traditional' boss fight, I mean I would not have minded if the creativity shown was extended to the fight with Fontaine, but to repeat something three times to kill it wasn't great.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

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. We’ve 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 hadn’t played BioShock 2 in a while, so by this point I’ve 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.

BS2 started great I agree, they were smart not follow in such a bombastic way as the first but bide their time until the big sister floods the atrium.

I also agree with the Eleanor part, a far more effective way would have been having little sisters delivering messages to you via the ducts.

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 that’ll 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, they’re off to the side which allows you to more easily aim them. You’re introduced to the hack dart early on in the game, and you’ll 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.

Completely agreed, almost everything was improved but it wasn't made alien to the fans of BS1 which is a great job, which some developers seem to struggle with. None of the improvements 'dumbed down' the game but rather let players experience the gameplay in the most efficient manner possible.

Although, I liked the drill, I found myself using the wrench in BS1 more.A fully upgraded wrench (and the drill) is incredibly OP but fun. I did find the drill to be sometime clumsy in some of its melee range, and the drill dash would sometimes cause you to hit a wall rather then the enemy. Saying that I liked the management that came with collecting drill fuel. Whereas with the wrench you didn't have worry about ammo.

Plasmids here are a lot more fun to use and upgrade. There’s a nice “oomph” every time you use a plasmid that was missing in BioShock. What’s more, visiting a Gatherer’s 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.

Plasmids were greatly improved, although I was surprised there more original ones in BS2, but like you said they did great with the ones they had and the upgrade ability was immense, it really felt like a power above when you used them which in part was due to the audio and visual feedback from use. One of the few areas where the audio design seemed good, not great still.

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.

Gene tonics being streamlined was great, allowed a lot of freedom to sculpt how you wanted you character to act and react. I loved that you could stack gene abilities as well for example research 1 stacked with research 2 gave an even bigger bonus then just having research 2 equipped. I also found most of the gene tonics to be quite useful which made it hard to just pick a set to rely one, each one had a distinct advantage.

In contrast to BioShock, most of the weapons are fun to fire, and just like BioShock 2’s plasmids, the upgrades for the weapons are better in the sequel. Each weapon has three upgrades as opposed to BioShock’s two, and the third upgrade acts as special unlock when you’ve bought the first two upgrades. Almost every weapon feels powerful to fire, especially in comparison to BioShock’s counterparts. The machine gun and the shotgun received the meatiest upgrades – both feel more effective than they did in BioShock. What’s disappointing, though, is the rivet gun. It feels okay to fire, but I don’t like it as much as the other weapons because the sound feels a bit muted. Like I’m 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.

I agree with the sound but apart from perhaps the machine gun, all the weapons felt muted to me. The rivet guns trap bolt feature is very, very fun though, far more then the rivet guns main ammo use. I enjoy using that a lot. Having three different upgrades and ammo types creates effortless variety in BS2's combat, which mixed in with the camera system allows for a lot of freedom and creativity which gets rewarded with damage boosts against certain types of enemies.

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 don’t 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.

I get what you're saying and also wish the little sister harvesting was reduced, see, I know there's a choice and all, but sometimes in games with choices I feel like I'm missing out on a chunk of a game if I'm not completing parts that are 'optional'. I guess, credit should go to fact that they made it relatively short, and upgrades allow the little sisters to gather more adam at a faster pace. But, ideally it should have been kept to a minimum of 1 harvest per little sister.

I also enjoyed the contrast between the big sisters and big daddies, the big sisters seem too overly aggressive, which sometimes can make you rush into fighting her prepared or not, but that feeling of relentlessness is exhilarating to me. It never let's up from the moment you hear the scream.

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 isn’t as...well-rounded as Ryan is. Whereas Ryan’s 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. I’m going to go a wiki to see what happened, but I was left a bit confused by the ending. Why did Eleanor drain Delta’s life out of him? I don’t 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!

The narrative was so and so, Lamb was dull compared to Ryan, and the story had very little eccentricity that BS1 did. The pace of the story also seemed lethargic at times, with characters interrupting your journey in Rapture without much enthusiasm. I guess I enjoyed learning more about Rapture itself and how it worked rather then concentrating on the main story itself. That's where I found my joy.

That all isn’t to say there wasn’t 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 don’t see any of the city’s depressing state. I liked Grace Holloway for the simple fact that we don’t 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.

Yeah, seeing through the eyes of the little sister was great, it was a shame that everything was covered in red drapes though. They missed an opportunity to populate that part with the ghosts of rapture to represent the bustling city before its demise. It was definitely unexpected. And unexpected is where the 'shock' series thrives.

While I do think the story in BioShock 2 isn’t 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:

Yeah, as mentioned earlier, I was more invested in the Meltzer story then the Lamb/Eleanor story.

I particularly liked the Ryan/Lamb debates beyond that I cant even remember the rest too much.

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 you’ll be exploring. Ryan Amusements doesn’t really fit this description, but I did enjoy it for the verticality of the design. In comparison to the first game, there’s a lot more verticality incorporated into the level design, most prominently in Ryan Amusements, Pauper’s 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. It’s an exploration level but the story is trying to rush you, so it’d probably be better placed at a different point in the game. The latter doesn’t 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 wasn’t 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 level’s 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. There’s 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.

I mentioned this to you over XBL, but Siren Alley (SA) remains my favourite level in BS2, perhaps it's because of the similarity between FF both in narrative (the eccentricity and surreal-ness (although not near the level of Cohen) rising from the 'religion of Jack' and its founder 'Father Wales' or rather Daniel Wales.

Lets take a look at the layout:

See the similarities to FF? SA serves as another entertainments hub to the citizens of Rapture, as a player their is so much to do and see, so much to consider in a narrative sense.

Whilst Fontaine Futuristic was/is a fantastic level, and Gil Alexander is one of the very few interesting characters in BS2 but, I still didn't like it as much SA.

Above you say:

What Sander Cohen made you do was cool, but it wasn’t all that relatable or understandable – in the end he seemed to go crazy just because.

I don't think there is any point trying to understand Cohen, Irrational were very strong in showing his psychopathic tendencies early on (no one can relate to that, apart from GAF's very own OddOne!). Irrational bedazzled the player by the grandiose behaviour of Cohen to set up FF and as player sometimes you have to just enjoy the ride. Certainly, the narrative had very little to do with Ryan/Fontaine but it also served as a 'getaway' moment to the player, and allowed them to concentrate on something completely out of tune to what they could have been expecting.

Which do I think is better? In the end, I’m a gameplay-above-all-else kind of girl, so I’d 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 original’s presentation and half a good story.

BS2 in no way shape or form a bad or even average game, it is a very good game, its only problem is that it falls short to the brilliance of BS1, a game considered by many to be one of the best this generation. Its improvement in the gameplay area are commendable and show the numerous smart decisions that were made in its development. It also gave birth to Minerva's Den...a piece of DLC that was superior to the main story and goes as far as justifying this whole DLC experiment this gen.

But, like I said, it is a follow up to BS1, and that is just too tough an act follow. Now...fly away little moth.