Bioshock 2

n starting BioShock 2, the player is confused. They vaguely remember the first game looking and playing pretty much exactly the same as this sequel, and they’re not too sure about being forced to play through it if it remains so strikingly samey. Still, off they trot, looking to see if things are noticeably different and find some answers to the questions that are swirling around their head – after all, how does a Big Daddy smoke?

There isn’t just one of these blighters. Numerous Big Sisters litter Rapture.

And that’s pretty much all we can tell you about BioShock 2 without ruining just about everything that is to come in the story. So, just be prepared for a great deal of half-explanations, allusions to something grander and brief descriptions that abso-defi-lutely will not spoil the game for you in any way. We would never do that to you.

BioShock 2 is, as we said just then and as we have said in previews before, a great deal like its predecessor. It looks nigh-on the same, sound effects are the same, splicers are pretty much the same (bar some mutations brought on from hanging around for ten years) and generally speaking – initially at least – it’s underwhelming. But it doesn’t take very long before you are totally sucked back into the underwater world. A brief foray onto the ocean floor and an unexpected reveal of Rapture is all you need to be reminded why, while some may not have wanted a sequel, in the end it’s one we are happy to have.

The familiarity that greets those who played the original BioShock game means it doesn’t take too long to get accustomed to how things play out. Basically, you will run around picking up hundreds, if not thousands, of items throughout the game; you will hack all manner of electrical items, this time with a simple ‘stop the needle in the right area’ timing challenge rather than the Pipe Mania of last time (oh, and you can repair and name your turrets later in the game, which leads to the hilarity of ‘Phineas’ blowing away another splicer); you will pick up countless audio diaries, filling you in on the story of what has happened in the ten years since Rapture’s fall; you will be a part of a story that will take you all over a previously unexplored region of the city with a narrative that – while not as twisty as last time around – will still make you think a little; and you will be involved in some satisfying combo-combat, involving both the magic powers of plasmids – electric shocks, flame-balls, telekinesis and so on – and the blasty powers of guns – machine guns, shotguns and other such boomsticks. Basically, you’ve seen most of it before. But that doesn’t stop it from being a lot of fun, and while we did fear familiarity would breed contempt, it actually ended up making us more comfortable and served as a driving force to progress.

Setting up traps becomes a necessity to protect your Little Sister.

… continued