Far more common are the eye-rolling aspects of BioShock's interaction that haven't been rethought at all: You still have no inventory aside from ammo, so you're forced to eat or drink things you find, or leave them in place, which can make health and EVE (think: mana) management a pain. Yes, there have been some adjustments to gameplay-you can wield physical weapons and plasmids at the same time, for one thing and hacking is thankfully no longer an incongruous, Pipe Dream–style minigame-and these are welcome. Suffice it to say, none it seems quite as fresh this time around. It reuses many of the original's plasmids and gene tonics, species of splicers (the modified humanoids who are your most frequent enemies), and even the to-kill-or-not-to-kill Little Sister quandary. On one hand, this may be expected-how much can different sections of Rapture's closed environment differ from each other? But BioShock 2 takes things to unnecessary extremes. Yet after the intensely dramatic opening setup-you witness yourself aiming a gun at your head and pulling the trigger-BioShock 2 unfolds almost exactly as its predecessor did, and is functionally identical in look, sound, and feel. You have free will and can use the plentiful plasmid gene upgrades and tonics (for temporary powers), both of which make you a significant threat. Lamb may call you Subject Delta, and refer to you as one of the earliest, faceless Big Daddies, but there's nonetheless something special about you. The Little Sister you bonded to a decade ago-Eleanor Lamb, Sofia's daughter-has long since vanished, and now that you've come around following a forced suicide attempt, it's your calling to find her at any cost. This time you're a Big Daddy, one of the diving suit–wearing bodyguards who protect the Little Sisters and their ADAM genetic-upgrade currency. You're also related to one-well, indirectly. It's become a home-away-from-home for the displaced Little Sisters from the first game, many of whom are now Big Sisters: talented war machines who keep the peace among the new Little Sisters in Rapture and recruit new ones from the world above. Sofia Lamb, a major public detractor of Ryan's, has convinced many of Rapture's inhabitants to join her hippy-like cult, The Family. But if you did, you'll find few significant changes here to warrant dropping another $40–$50 on what's otherwise a carbon-copy experience.īioShock 2 is set 10 years after BioShock ended, just when Flower Power was blossoming in the United States-and the timing isn't coincidental. Oh, it does so with just as much panache, gore, and deft humor, but for how many is that going to be a big selling point? Because the game is crafted with care and taste, it's enjoyable whether or not you played the original. The biggest change in BioShock 2 ($59.99 list for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, $49.99 list for PC) is that this time it assaults Collectivism instead of Objectivism. Surely the minds that devised such a near-perfect combination of elements wouldn't push their luck by trying exactly the same thing again, with only the names changed a little and the locations changed even less. The success of BioShock meant that a follow-up was inevitable, and its daring led you to expect sequelitis wouldn't be the issue it so often is in Hollywood movies. Adding in elements of resource management and moral uncertainty-do you dare kill little girls to obtain the gene-modifying substance you need, or can you make do with less if you save their lives?-resulted in a captivating title that stood out in a field of increasingly indistinguishable shooters. If fans of the 1999 game System Shock 2 rightly detected some similarities in tone, style, and subject matter, BioShock's blending of the late 1950s' décor and music with the traditional expectations of a shooter made it unlike any other game. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security SoftwareīioShock enthralled not because it derided the notion that every man should live for himself, but because it was fun, thoughtful, and largely innovative.
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