Review: Bioshock 2

Written by JB Thursday, 11 February 2010 17:01

Ready to go back to Rapture?  The crumbling undersea world awaits you with more weapons, more fucked up insanity, and more creepy girls than Toddlers and Tiaras.  But can it match up to it's predecessor?

The answer is, what predecessor?  This game picks up so smoothly from where Bioshock left off it's hard to even tell you're playing a different game.  Normally, that wouldn't be necessarily a good thing but when it's Bioshock it's awesome.  Playing as the Big Daddy in the original was kinda anti-climactic, and I had my doubts about being in an old diving suit the whole game.  That went away quickly, on account of the big-ass drill attached to your arm.  Soon, I was in my element- screwing a lot of crazy bitches.  Daddy's drill is a little bit bigger than mine though, and these lunatics weren't liable to show up at your house at 4 a.m.  

Ten years ago, you were a Big Daddy charged with the care of one little sister.  Everything is going fine until the director of the program, Dr. Lamb, takes control of you and forces you to Kurt Cobain yourself in front of your charge.  You wake up ten years later on a quest to find and save your Little Sister.  Things in the last decade haven't been kind to the underwater city of Rapture.  Graffiti is tagged on the walls, there are leaks everywhere- exactly how you'd think ten years of neglect would treat a city.  Things get deep and the storyline is immersive and disturbing as you uncover all the foul shit that's going on, like the kidnapping of girls from the surface to staff the Little Sister program.  The choices you make in the game shape the story around you and how the story ends.  Be an asshole and Lovely Bones all the little girls and you will have to live with it in the game. 

In the game, you are responsible for a multitude of Little Sisters, and you must protect them as they extract Adam, the gene currency of Rapture.  Protecting them as they do is the most intense part of the game.  As soon as they plunge the needle in, hordes of Splicers come to attack her.  You can't just go all Rambo on them, you'll need to do some planning to protect both you and your jailbait from the mob.  You'll need to set traps and hack cameras and security bots and turrets to help you fight them off.  Getting ready for this clusterfuck will have your heart pounding and nerves fried before it even starts.  These escorts are some of the most intense moments in gaming ever.

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