Bioshock 2

[Trolldor]

So, the game itself has some fairly sizeable shoes to fill. Anyone familiar with the original Bioshock will know why it's cult following is now considered an organised religion, complete with tax exemptions.

The game is, visually, as distinct as its predecessor. If there were any improvements in graphics, they are indistinguishable. Both run on an atniquated Quake engine. That said, the style is still as impressive and despite being uncannily similar to the original bioshock (There is one small part in a theatre which is oddly familiar) you never roll your eyes thinking "What, again?"

The level lay out can be a little frustrating at times. There are occassions where you'll find a little sister, check to see how many are left, and discover you've missed one. You will never find that little sister. There are other times where you haven't missed one at all, but for whatever reason the game has you finding them out of the order that they're marked in the menu display. You simply won't know which it is until you've reached the next train.
I should point out that on my first play through, I found all the little sisters simply by naturally progressing through the level. There were times when I had to backtrack after looking for medkits and hypos, but that's about as complicated as it got. The problem only arose on my second.

The "Power to the people" machines number two short of upgrading all your weapons. This requires you to think carefully and plan ahead about what weapons you're going to use. The moment you pick up the shotgun and the machine gun, you know you'll be using these babies pretty regularly. The rivet gun's usefulness deteriorates quite quickly after a point, making the upgrades you spent on it early - while it was impressive - seem a little silly. The more ambigous weapons like the spear gun and the grenade launcher are of debatable usefulness. The grenade launcher, in particular, only becomes useful once you've collected all three of its upgrades. The spear gun doesn't seem to improve at all even after upgrading.

On the subject of weapons, everything is a little more clear-cut compared to the original bioshock. You'll know in what situations to use which weapons, and that different approachs produce some tangible benefits. In the original bioshock the shotgun/machine gun combination was enough to see you through absolutely any encounter. Now you can imbue both the rivet gun and the shotgun with a flame and lightning element respectively. The machine gun's anti-personel and armor-piercing rounds seem quite a bit more effective than originally, and the drill is a whole style of gameplay unto itself. A decent charge will either kill the splicer, or knock it down for a quick blast from your preferred weapon to finish it off. (Almost always the shotgun for me.)

Money is a little more liberally distributed, and the hack bonuses from health stations and vending machines are - although they seem initially trivial - incredibly useful on the harder difficulty and later on in the game. Despite the profusion of aid items and money, the game can still be challenging if you are too conservative. Health stations are a boon, they save your medkits and cost only 9 dollars when hacked, while a replacement medkit is around 24 dollars on a hacked machine. Medkits themselves are increasingly rare. There are times when you'll find you have none at all, and curse the absence of the camouflage tonic early on.

Plasmids are a little more handy, with the different levels giving different abilities, but you'll largely be sticking with the main 2 - lightning and fire - to do your dirty work. Ice is useful for stopping foes, but you'll find that the loss of their loot outweighs the benefits of smashing them silly. Telekenesis is still just as fun, but still just as useless. The security plasmid is a little more useful, with the second and third levels producing bots to help you.

The auto-hack tool is a nice little innovation, but seemingly unwarranted. In the original bioshock there were a number of ways to approach anything you wanted to hack. Hacking them midway through a battle gave you a handy ally and, depending on your gene tonics, the occassional health and/or eve boost. In Bioshock 2 your hack tool pretty much determines how you're going to approach anything, with most turrets at the end of long hallways. The hacking minigame is now real-time, which means that you're better off killing any nearby enemies rather than hacking the turrets, thereby completely negating the use of the damn things.

The research camera no longer takes snapshots, but operates like a handheld. Hitting enemies ups your 'research points' gained from the shot,with repeated actions earning less points with each successive use. There is no real indicator of how close you are to the next level of research. The first level you're almost guaranteed to get with your first shot. After that it seems almost a little random. You can be getting close 800 points a shot and never get anywhere, only to start the camera, rack up a total of 3 points and suddenly you get a little message telling you about a damage bonus or new plasmid/ability. This new camera is particularly frustrating against the returned houdini splicers. There are certain moments when they're cinematically inclined to vanish, leaving you with a total of 3 points from the standard minimum of around 400. Not only that, but running around with the camera leaves you vulnerable to enemy attack. That said, it's rather enjoyable to use, knowing that the guy you froze, set on fire, and then shocked with lightning is immortalised on your little camera.

The enemies behave a little more appropriately, and have a nice mix during most encounters. Ranged enemies will now more readily seek cover while melee enemies will berserk you with no regard for their own safety. This can be a little more daunting while trying to do the little sister harvesting moments. Your health seems to drop a little more readily, but using the environment and plasmids, there shouldn't be an encounter you are incapable of getting through - even if you begin it with no medkits and no hypos. The new brutes are particularly entertaining, the first time you fight one it seems unnecessarily tough, but quite quickly you can finish them off with a plasmid combo or weapon spam. This forumla is pretty standard for all enemies. After your first encounter you'll be pretty familiar with how to dispose of them, and every subsequent encounter only further helps develop your method.

The little sisters are back, in more ways that one. This time, it isn't just the rescue/harvest choice. Available to you now is the 'adopt' ability, which allows you to find 'angels' for the little sisters to harvest. Doing this nets you a nice little bonus of ADAM which can be increased with certain tonics. You can't research the little sisters anymore, though, for a health or eve bonus. While harvesting, splicers will charge towards your adopted little sister with a vengence. Although the sister can't be killed during these encoutners, you can. if a splicer gets too close to her, the little sister will stop harvesting, meaning more time for more splicers. Don't fret, if you die you're revived instantly at a vita-chamber with your little sister waiting for you. This is true both in and out of these encoutners.

Overall, the game is different enough from its predecessor to be a new experience. The 'wow' factor isn't nearly as large, but for a sequel it managed to maintain not only the atmosphere, but still impress me in a number of ways. I consider this quite a feat given how many times I played through the original (double digits).