Game Reviews

BioShock 2 has a big reputation to live up to. The critically acclaimed BioShock put together a stylized, provocative world; it wasn't a perfect game, but the story -- a red-herring-filled plot mixed with existentialist (and objectivist) philosophy -- turned the game into much more than a shooter; BioShock was a game that made you think. And while BioShock 2 borrows heavily from its predecessor's aesthetic and solid gameplay, it fails to provide the strong narrative that made the original so compelling.

In case you're not up on all your BioShock lore, here's a quick recap: Andrew Ryan built the underwater city of Rapture to be the first true Utopia. While living there, a member of his team found a species of sea slug, which excreted a substance called ADAM that allowed instantaneous genetic modification; ADAM serves as the in-game currency that allows you to purchase Plasmids. And Plasmids allow for a wide-range of swappable abilities, such as shooting fire or ice from your fingertips, or hypnotizing foes to fight each other instead of you. To harvest and process this material, young girls were turned into mobile ADAM refining units called Little Sisters, and Big Daddies were made to protect them. And the Little Sisters needed these Big Daddy bodyguards because of the ADAM-addicted Rapture citizens (called "splicers," due to them splicing genetic modifications into their bodies) who still patrol the mostly abandoned city.BioShock 2's story, set 10 years after the events of the first game, presents a Rapture in an even greater state of decline. Andrew Ryan is no longer in charge, but the city is still filled with wandering Big Daddies, splicers, and power-hungry humans. The game retcons in a few new characters, puts you in the roll of one of the original Big Daddies, and then sets you out to reunite with the Little Sister taken from you by central antagonist Sophia Lamb. Through audio diaries, you learn that Lamb has been stealing young girls from the surface to replace the ADAM harvesters that were rescued (or harvested; either way, the ones "taken care of") in the first game.

Yet despite the changes, you definitely get a strong feeling of the familiar as you make your way through the game. Not just in the look, but in the order that events unfolds. You'll find Plasmid powers in about the same sequence as the first game, and all the familiar ones have returned. Even though you're walking around in a huge metal suit with a drill for an arm, you don't actually feel like a lumbering giant -- you move like a normal, gun-toting human. The weapons are standard-fare from the first game, though modified aesthetically to fit your new Big Daddy physique.