The world of Rapture, in theory, it is an utopia but indeed the human nature is unpredictable and bound to it's true instinct: destruction and rebellious. It's been 10 in-game years since the days of Bioshock and Bioshock 2 now tells of another story. Instead of the human you played in Bioshock, you now are what you've feared the most in Bioshock, a Big Daddy. Actually, I've finished this game a couple of days ago and only today I've decided to write an article about it. As usual, this review will talk briefly about the game on overall, the graphics, and also the gameplay.
The main backbone of the story is on you as the Big Daddy trying to locate back the child under your care, the Little Sister. Earlier in the story, the main antagonist, Sofia Lamb instructed the main character to shoot himself but revived 10 years later with the Bio-Tube. Throughout the game, there will be decisions to be made but most of them involves either saving or killing someone, which will affect the ending. Some of the story elements in the game are pretty standard after Bioshock 1 with someone taking over the helm of the administration of Rapture and the citizens themselves making a mess of everything, although there are small surprises here and there. On the story, I wouldn't say that it is marvelous but rather mediocre, in fact, I had to look up online for the actual story as from the conversations littered throughout the game, I couldn't get the big picture only rough sketches of what was happening in Rapture.
Graphically, the game does portray the city of Rapture rather realistically in the sense of the setting and mood. The timeline of the game which is in the 70's can be felt from the decor, the way the enemies dress and also the furniture. Lights and shadows are well made and sometimes you might look behind you for fear of an enemy due to some shadow of someone running behind you. Although this, I'm not too sure if it is intentional, but the citizens of Rapture has been portrayed to look rather less "spliced" than 10 years ago? In Bioshock 1, the enemies looks much more hideous, grim and of course, much more prone to attacking you but they look like they've become better after 10 years? Not sure on this though. But well, there's no complaints from me on other graphical elements. The underwater scene looks very believable and water looks like water.
It's good that Bioshock 2 did manage to change the gameplay from a human point of view to the Big Daddy. It sure did play differently in the second game. Although this, some of the game elements are seriously not fun, well at least not for me. Getting ADAM now means that you've to snatch the Little Sisters from their respective Big Daddies which is a routine, but what's with the extra ADAM which you've to defend the Little Sisters from the citizens of Rapture? I've seen Little Sisters (un-snatched yet) plunging their needles into any of the corpses while in serenity and no one disturbing but "our" Little Sisters are so selective with the corpse they get the ADAM from and is a sure-fire way of getting the attention of the citizens of Rapture? Hacking the different machines in Rapture requires for you to click with precision, having to click once the needle reaches the green / blue zone which was much simpler than the pipe-mania of Bioshock 1. The other thing of concern would be the lack of sounds of the machines makes me wonder if the machines' sound boxes actually got spoilt after 10 years that they don't make their distinctive sounds anymore. Bioshock 1 machines' each makes memorable sounds that make them somewhat in contrast to the environment which is an experience by itself which is lacking in Bioshock 2.
It is not fair to say that Bioshock 2 is a bad game, it is not too bad but in comparison to its prequel, it does not match up in terms of quality and gameplay. There are spooky elements in Bioshock 1 that just doesn't cut it Bioshock 2 which results in a rather tad plain experience and not the kind of awe generated by Bioshock 1. My score for this game:- 8/10
Graphically, the game does portray the city of Rapture rather realistically in the sense of the setting and mood. The timeline of the game which is in the 70's can be felt from the decor, the way the enemies dress and also the furniture. Lights and shadows are well made and sometimes you might look behind you for fear of an enemy due to some shadow of someone running behind you. Although this, I'm not too sure if it is intentional, but the citizens of Rapture has been portrayed to look rather less "spliced" than 10 years ago? In Bioshock 1, the enemies looks much more hideous, grim and of course, much more prone to attacking you but they look like they've become better after 10 years? Not sure on this though. But well, there's no complaints from me on other graphical elements. The underwater scene looks very believable and water looks like water.
