BioShock 2

[OakTable]

Or: How a man in a wetsuit gets his ass kicked by a revolver despite him wielding a rivet gun.

They ratcheted the difficulty up in this thing. Just because you are a Big Daddy doesn't you are immune to getting shot to death by a swarm of splicers. Still pretty fun though, but the story could've been a little better. It's good, but it's not as good as the first one.

 

[Grimhound]

Yeah, it's a bit more difficult. I still have a gift copy on Steam I'm looking to sell for $35.

 

[Brother None]

They ratcheted the difficulty up in this thing. Just because you are a Big Daddy doesn't you are immune to getting shot to death by a swarm of splicers.

Yeah. What? Not really.

The AI is better. And respawning splicers keep you on your toes. Is it really difficult? No. Normal is still essentially very easy, and you have to play on hard just to get any kind of challenge.

The story is ridiculously derivative and trite. The gameplay surprisingly repetitive, since you're just given the same challenge (fight big daddy, defend lil sis, rince and repeat, fight big sis) over and over again.

Not impressed so far.

 

[OakTable]

They ratcheted the difficulty up in this thing. Just because you are a Big Daddy doesn't you are immune to getting shot to death by a swarm of splicers.

Yeah. What? Not really.

The AI is better. And respawning splicers keep you on your toes. Is it really difficult? No. Normal is still essentially very easy, and you have to play on hard just to get any kind of challenge.

The story is ridiculously derivative and trite. The gameplay surprisingly repetitive, since you're just given the same challenge (fight big daddy, defend lil sis, rince and repeat, fight big sis) over and over again.

Not impressed so far.

I liked the first story better. Lamb keeps blabbing about the "People's Child" and all that crap. She's more of a Political Strawman than Andrew Ryan, and that's saying something. And they really should have made the Big Sister a random encounter that shows up when you aren't ready. Make it even harder.

Still, the voice-acting is pretty good, the combat is fun when you get rid of Vita-Chambers, and I like exploring to find audio logs.

The difficulty thing might just be you gaining a lot of skill from playing FPS's for so long. You tend to learn general tactics you can use in every game. Older FPS's aren't that much tougher than most of today's stuff.

 

[sydney_roo]

I dont know why but it didnt have such an impact on me as the first installment but I still would give it A- (AAA for Bioshock 1) because it's much better than all these crappy games recently being released.

For me normal is normal. But I definitely buy more stimpacks in 2,

 

[Brother None]

The atmosphere and visual design in general are still awesome. But everywhere else, the game just feels derivative and unnecessary.

But I wasn't that huge on BioShock 1 either.

I liked the first story better. Lamb keeps blabbing about the "People's Child" and all that crap. She's more of a Political Strawman than Andrew Ryan, and that's saying something. And they really should have made the Big Sister a random encounter that shows up when you aren't ready. Make it even harder.

Big Sister should have been much more rare and much harder. She is set up to serve a very intimidating role, and then quickly reduced to another walk-over fight. But yeah, randomizing her would also have helped, and oddly enough that's how she is described in loading screens as well as in interviews, as randomly showing up.

Still, the voice-acting is pretty good, the combat is fun when you get rid of Vita-Chambers, and I like exploring to find audio logs.

First thing I did was turn off Vita-Chambers and the quest arrow.

Seriously, a quest arrow. How ridiculous is that?

The difficulty thing might just be you gaining a lot of skill from playing FPS's for so long.

If only. I'm afraid I'm not an FPS player, and generally suck at them. BioShock 2, like 1, is simply too easy.

 

[Aphyosis]

Story wasn't as good as the original. Lamb is a pretty poor main villain in my opinion. Overall i think its a fairly fun game though and i was sucked into the story a fair bit for the last 2 or 3 hours.

 

[Grin]

I stopped playing it for the moment, it's buggy as hell.

I was running around an entire level with a screeching violin playing. This is the music that plays when a Big Sister confronts you. Running around with this kind of music is like connecting a 12V car battery to your pectoralis major, I had to stop myself from destroying my apartment.

Besides that, the story was too linear and repetitive. Also, I played it on the PC, and I absolutely abhor the fact that they removed the weapon/plasmid selection screen. Scrolling to choose the right weapon, ammo type and plasmid out of 18+ choices tends to get difficult when you have a screeching horde of splicers ripping at your throat. Because of the absence of this option the gameplay seriously suffers, I find myself simply zapping them until they fall because I know I won't be able to light the oil slick they are standing in in time anyway.

I just removed it from my system and started replaying the first one.

 

[Duckman]

I loved the first play through of Bioshock 1, but on subsequent replays, it only got more and more... I don't know... Cliched? I tried playing 1 again in preparation for 2, but reading brief descriptions of the game, I only thought of it as being Rapture, only with a different storyline. I have no idea about what happens (have yet to buy/play 2), but it just seems like they've taken the setting of 1, and inserted a generic storyline.

Alas, I guess this is "Sequel Making 101" in prime example.

 

[Tagaziel]

I preferred this story to Bioshock 1's. Really, Subject Delta has more personality than Jack ever had.

 

[beans00]

i played both games on normal and never died once, i guess im just a better gamer then all of you

 

[AskWazzup]

I played the first one and really don't see where are the fun parts of this game. It's crap as a shooter, it's not an rpg and it's not a game with a huge free roaming enviroment, how exactly is this supposed to be interesting?

 

[Aphyosis]

I played the first one and really don't see where are the fun parts of this game. It's crap as a shooter, it's not an rpg and it's not a game with a huge free roaming enviroment, how exactly is this supposed to be interesting?

The atmosphere is fantastic, as well as some of the environmental detail. It's focused on a immerse, linear and story driven playthrough rather than giving you a sandbox. Plus, one of the things that sells games for me is a backstory, Rapture is a very interesting place to be in.

Also, i've seen far worse shooter mechanics. I actually can't complain about its gunplay.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Older FPS's aren't that much tougher than most of today's stuff.

At least most older FPS are substantialy longer then what you get today. Just by comparing Blood, Blood II, Quacke, Doom and what ever else you can find. Even HL1. All of them play much longer to what we have today. Though I would also argue that some of them are harder then what you get today. Playing Doom on hardcore ... or Blood I on the highest diffuclity level? Thats a challange I tell you

 

[Brother None]

i played both games on normal and never died once, i guess im just a better gamer then all of you

Didn't I just say both games have normal being the equivalent of "very easy"? I never died in either BioShock, including when playing on hard. Not much of an accomplishment, the games are stupid easy.

Plus, one of the things that sells games for me is a backstory, Rapture is a very interesting place to be in.

BioShock 2 kind of screws the pooch. I think I figured out why. More when I finish my review.

 

[Grin]

Doesn't anybody miss the weapon/plasmid selection screen from Bioshock? In Bioshock you could press "SHIFT" and the game would pause, giving you time to select the right weapon, ammunition and plasmid for the situation. This contributed to the gameplay greatly, you could take advantage of the environment and make strategic attacks.

This aspect is gone. The worst thing is, the opportunities still exist for this kind of strategic gameplay, but you simply cannot switch between your weapons, ammunition and plasmids quickly enough to take advantage of these situations.

 

[Alphadrop]

It's not that hard to just switch with the number and F keys. Though I did sometimes panic and shoot splicers with hack darts instead of bullets.

Some of it I liked, the interaction with Eleanor gave Subject Delta some oomph in the characterisation department.
I also liked how they tied Mark Meltzer into the game from the viral advertising they did on their site.

But jeez Lamb was just frikkin lame. Her ideas made pretty much zero sense and she just didn't seem as imposing as Ryan.
Also the ending just tapered off, it would of been nice to have more interaction with the new and improved Sinclair rather than just run around a small prison.

On a cool side note, if you shine a UV light onto the special edition posters they have hidden graffiti on them.

 

[Brother None]

On a cool side note, if you shine a UV light onto the special edition posters they have hidden graffiti on them.

They seem to have spent a lot more money and care on PR than on the game.

 

[Dario ff]

Doesn't anybody miss the weapon/plasmid selection screen from Bioshock?

To be honest, I didn't use it at all. It's not hard to switch with the number and f keys. And it didn't mater later in the game, because the only weapon I used was the crossbow. But I agree that games shouldn't downgrade themselves if there's no benefit at all. That's just developer laziness .

 

[Grin]

Doesn't anybody miss the weapon/plasmid selection screen from Bioshock?

To be honest, I didn't use it at all. It's not hard to switch with the number and f keys. And it didn't mater later in the game, because the only weapon I used was the crossbow. But I agree that games shouldn't downgrade themselves if there's no benefit at all. That's just developer laziness .

Crossbow? Never used it, not once. Strange actually, why didn't I?

Anyhow, the selection screen allowed some tactics to enter the frame, were splicers walking over water? Zap them. Big Daddy rushing you? Switch to Sonic Boom and blow him backwards. Not to mention all those time you walked around a corner and stood eye-in-eye with a rocket-launching-machine-thingie, NO way you can avoid that first rocket without the selection screen.