One of the things I want to do when playing video games this
year is to get through some of the series of games I’ve been hoarding. I’ve got
quite a few; the entire Gears of War series, Grand Theft Auto, Far Cry, XCOM to
name but some of them. The trouble is that by the time I get to the end of one
game in a series, I’m usually itching for a change of pace and playing the
second or third instalment of it straight away is the last thing I feel like
doing. The result is I’ve got games I haven’t even touched because I haven’t
finished their prequels. That’s something I’m hoping to address in the coming
months.
Take Bioshock 2 for example. My main incentive for getting
this particular game was that I’d downloaded Bioshock Infinite onto my Xbox 360
when it was released for free on Games with Gold. I’d already played the first
Bioshock game – a very good game, in my opinion – and I’d heard that the second
instalment was arguably the weakest in the trilogy, but as it had been a good
couple of years since I’d beaten the original Bioshock, I thought the time was
right to give its sequel a go.
This time, instead of playing a pure human, you play as one
of the Big Daddies; huge hulking lummoxes in diving suits that are genetically
engineered to protect the Little Sisters – strange, waif-like girls who walk
around harvesting corpses for ADAM (genetic materials that can be used to
enhance capabilities.) The story goes that ten years ago, you were forced to
shoot yourself by the game’s primary antagonist: Sophia Lamb. You awaken, and
have to re-connect to your little sister, now a young adult, in order to
survive and escape the huge underwater city of Rapture. Sophia, however, has
her own plans for Eleanor – her daughter, and your little sister – and will not
let her go without a fight. She has engineered a fanatical cult-like collection
of splices and bitter enemies, and will stop at nothing to impede your
progress.
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| Have a guess where I'm going to stick this... |
I didn’t find the change in character affected the gameplay
to any major extent; you can take as much punishment as Jack from Bioshock, and
apart from some changes in the weapons (rivet gun instead of a pistol, Big
Daddy Drill instead of a wrench etc) the game plays much the same as it ever
did. This is a good thing, since Bioshock played so well in the first place. It
is reasonably well-balanced; I died a lot but it was always because I was
rubbish rather than cheap deaths often put upon you in lesser games, and since
your only punishment for this is to go back to a Vita chamber – the game’s save
points – with half your health and EVE (mana,) the game is not harsh enough to
derail the whole thing if you make a mistake. The enemies are surprisingly
well-varied, and are all potentially a threat if you don’t take care as you go
through the levels. The game also rewards you for taking your time, exploring
and finding all the loot hidden around the city; ammo is not exactly scarce but
it’s very easy to burn through and you can make things a lot easier for
yourself by looking for all the ammo-dumps and med-kits.
One thing I did find a bit redundant was the Plasmids. While
they can potentially create a whole host of fun effects, I found myself
sticking with the Lightning Bolt – which has the additional effect of stopping
the enemy for a few moments – more often than not. It suited my play style but
it meant I missed out on a lot of the potential fun from the game. It is in
many ways a step backwards from the previous game, which required you to use a
certain plasmid in a certain area in order to progress. But that’s not a complaint
so much as an observation on my own particular taste.
Bioshock 2 does a very good job of blending gameplay with
storytelling, and the closer you get to your goal of rescuing Eleanor, the more
invested you get in the plot. It takes a few hours to get going, as you’re
introduced to various characters and mechanics, but once you’re in, you’re
hooked. The game lasts around 12-14 hours, which for a game like this is plenty
of time. The last couple of levels in particular have a feeling of frantic
desperation about them that keeps you going right until the end. There are a
few different variations of the ending depending on what moral decisions you
made during the game; always a nice touch but I can rarely bring myself to play
through a game to get the bad ending so I finished the game with the best
ending and looked up the rest on Youtube.
Bioshock 2 does enough things differently to Bioshock to
justify its title of ‘sequel.’ I think if it had come out the year after the
first Bioshock game it would have been a disappointment, but it looks like a
very well-paced series and if Infinite is the last instalment, I understand it
went out with a bang. I’ll probably play it at some point, but right now I can
feel accomplished at beating a well-designed enjoyable game that tells its
story brilliantly.
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