Holy mother of Jesus, I loved Bioshock. A game with a brilliantly crafted story, guns and quite possibly the most demented horrifying setting found in any game. It had atmosphere and was a brilliant game to play, the graphics were stunning, I don’t have a single complaint. So how does the sequel hold up?
To put it bluntly, fantastic. Sure it could never surpass the utter brilliance of the first game, but that is a near impossible task. Seriously. It has the beautifully deranged atmosphere, the great first person gameplay. Essentially it’s the Bioshock package. It will become immediately evident that this game is extremely similar to the original. And to state that this is a fault would be a complete lie, I’ve heard countless reviewers complaining about how the game is too “much of the same stuff” yes it is. Why change what already worked perfectly?
Whilst it is a game that has very little changes from the first game there has been a view changes. Such as the ability to dual wield plasmids (Genetic weapons such as Thunder bolts or Telekinesis) and normal weaponry, this is a brilliant new addition to the game. Whilst something so small may seem not worth a mention. I beg to differ, it makes the gameplay much more fast paced and can really help in the more intense of battles. Another addition is to participate in a protection sequence whilst your Little Sister harvests splicers. One of the biggest changes is the fact that you play as a Big Daddy, these are the enemies that constantly terrorise you throughout the first game (They still do so in the second game too :D) and to be honest this change isn’t noticeable aside from of-course the fact that you wield a giant drill (It only is really noticeable when story is being told)
One major factors that contributed to the first game in the series’s eerie atmosphere was the music, In this game isn’t an exception the music is very relevant. I personally do not actually like the music as it is old 1940′s styled music, yet is definitely not bad. Songs that are usually unbearable become oddly acceptable. Whilst there is something disturbed about listening to a song about a little Doggie as you shoot the hell out of splicers.
As mentioned before one of the resoundingly brilliant factors of the first game was the story. In the second game the story is brilliant, but don’t expect an even more epic tale than the first as surpassing such a great story would be difficult. And in the second game, it’s well just got a worse story. In typical Bioshock fashion the game is not told through cutscenes but through the scenery of levels and various audio diaries found throughout rapture. This in my opinion is a much more sophisticated and interesting way of telling a story, many games rely on cutscenes or text to tell a story, Bioshock relies on the player to explore and listen to all of the audio diaries to tell the story. It’s generally a much more realistic way to tell a story as investigation is required, and if the player decides that they don’t care about the story they can simply avoid the audio logs.
And now for the graphics. Meh is a suitable way to describe them, the original game had brilliant graphics and this game has good graphics. This is probably partially due to the change of the people who made the game, whilst the graphics are by no means bad, it annoys me that the first game had genuinely better graphics. Whilst it is a slight downgrade it is noticeable and is probably one of the worst things about this game.
You may notice I have made no mention of the multiplayer. That is because I have not properly played it and therefore can not pass fair judgement on it, all I can say is that is looks pretty cool!
To conclude this review I’m simply going to state that this game is brilliant. It may not be as good as it predecessor yet it still is an astonishing game, any first person shooter fan should definitely check the game out. Just remember to embrace yourself for one surreal adventure that wont ever leave your mind, Embrace yourself for a masterpiece as a game and an experience.
