Fucking nice.
That’s not a dig at the game’s difficulty level, or anything; on the whole, BioShock 2 is an unquestionably more difficult experience than its predecessor. Gameplay-wise, it’s also a much more enjoyable one. I just happened to meticulously plan out every little fight and carry around a shitload of health packs to the point where, at the game’s finale, I realized I’d never actually seen the inside of a Vita-Chamber. And that was awesome.
More after the jump.
Even though the game is technically more linear than the first (you can’t go back to a level once you’ve left it, for instance), it felt like I had a lot more freedom to do things how I wanted. You get quicker access to more plasmids, and most of the low-level versions of each plasmid are relatively cheap, encouraging experimentation.
Most of the plasmids are based around dealing indirect damage (cyclone traps) or creating status effects (winter blast), while at least 20% of your weapon arsenal consists of defensive items like trap rivets and mini-turrets. As a result, the wacky and player-driven combination of plasmids and weapons is now a much more integral part of the game.
You could get through of the entirety of the first game without ever quite knowing the joys of pumping a bunch of stickybombs onto a trash can and then lobbing that trash can at a Big Daddy. This time around, that sort of imagination is more or less required, especially in the bits where you’ve gotta protect a Little Sister as she harvests Adam. There’s much greater room and necessity for personal expression, and the remarkable balance between the player’s cash supplies and the world’s available ammo nicely puts you in a position where you never feel like you’re so overstocked that no fight will ever be a problem, yet you also don’t feel completely desperate and ammo-less for very long (though running out of armor-piercing ammo in the middle of a Big Sister fight is pretty exciting). Or maybe that’s just me; I could very well have lived through the entire game solely because I was constantly using up defensive ammo whenever possible.
If there’s one thing about the gameplay that could have used more work, it’d be the enemies — specifically, the fact that, while the Sister Defense sections require a lot of planning and forethought, none of your fights against single enemies necessitate the same level of deliberation. In the first game, taking on a Big Daddy was a Huge Deal; you’d have to set up tripwires and ready your plasmids and have as much health as possible. In BioShock 2, the daddies have had their health and damage scaled up a bit to account for your arsenal, but they don’t really feel like the walking boss fights they once did; any single one of your weapons probably has enough ammo in it to take down a Daddy without too much trouble, without any need for experimentation or intentionality.
The Big Sisters are presumably meant to balance out the newly-unimpressive Big Daddies, but they don’t quite satisfy; their crushing attacks and hellish speed make them a frightening foe — everytime I heard their shrieks steadily approaching, I’d start cursing aloud in fear — but the act of fighting them feels less like a high-speed version of a Big Daddy fight from the first game, where you’re constantly having to make strategic decisions and plan ahead, and more like just fighting a really powerful splicer. Since the sisters move really fast and don’t take all that much damage from your traps, it’s too hard and unrewarding to bother setting up defenses before they arrive. More often than not, my fights with the Sisters came down to me hitting them with as much anti-armor fire as possible in my machine gun, healing, switching to my shotgun, healing, swtiching to my drill, healing, healing, and then killing it. The quick drain on my resources kept the fights tense, but in hindsight they weren’t much more than pyrotechnic slap fights.
While the story is obviously less impressive than that of the first, the city is less mysterious and alluring, and the bullshit rewards for saving Little Sisters are still around, BioShock 2’s nonlinear gameplay makes its predecessor’s combat look downright unspectacular.
I’m off to replay the campaign on Hard mode. Thoughts on the multiplayer later.
As soon as I brought this game home my sister took it and has been playing it nonstop so I haven’t taken a shot at it yet, It looks pretty damn good from backseat playing my sister (SHOOT THAT; THERE’S A SHINY THING OVER THERE; LAY A TRAP HERE; DRILL THAT GUY).
This increases my desire to play it, and increases your level of badassitude all at once.
Heh, drill that guy.
That sounds like a good deal of fun.
Did you try the multiplayer?
I’ll pick this up eventually, but the whole game strikes me as unnecessary. I’m curious, Anthony, even though you like the game, does it’s very existence help or hurt the overall Bioshock legacy?
Wait, does this mean the abdicated throne of the King of Video Games now belongs to Anthony?
Jason:
If you go into it knowing that the story will be inferior to the first game’s, it does neither — it’s just an awkward little side-story that happens to take place in Rapture. You can take it or leave it pretty easily.
If you actually expect something affecting, though, you’ll probably get really irritated: it awkwardly retcons a bunch of characters into Rapture’s history, and has some serious issues of scale (it’s too intimate for the epic moments to work well, and too epic for the intimacy to hit home).
I actually didn’t realise I didn’t use any Vita-Chambers until you mentioned this. The game felt really difficult (on medium, at least), but I didn’t die once.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the shoddy story.
I just started playing the game tonight. I thought the opening sequence should’ve been playable rather than a cutscene and would up feeling like a missed opportunity to make the game more immersive.
I also agree with you Anthony, the Big Sisters and Big Daddies are underwhelming this time around. I do like the moments with the Big Sister stalking the player, but they felt less intimidating once I actually fought and defeated one.
Other than those two things, I’ve been having a really good time with the game.
Sadly, I ended up using a Vita Chamber in the area just after you get the research camera – whilst fighting a Big Sister, a stray shot dinged a Big Daddy who was wandering around fairly aimlessly. They might not be tough on their own, but together they kicked me in the new arsehole they thoughtfully ripped for me.
Yeah i have died a few times far. mainly because the Dpad sucks! i i could have swore in the first game you never had to manually heal yourself. As long as you had health packs save up it would just auto fill every time.
Congrats on the accomplishment. Though I’ve got to disagree that the Big Daddy fights were a huge deal in Bioshock 1; even when I beat it on Hard with no Vitachambers (I actually never used them because they felt too much like cheating). The first three or so were definitely tricky because of your limited resources, but once you got the Chemical Thrower, Electric Gel, and the Electric Buck…it was cakewalk. Not as creative as trap laying and mine hurling, but I quickly found on my first playthrough of 1 (haven’t played 2 yet) that it made all remaining Big Daddy fights effortless. All that being said, I’m glad to hear that the gameplay in 2 will mix things up just a bit.
I don’t know when I went completely retarded, but I died about 4 times before even finishing Ryan Amusements. I think I’m going to go with the excuse that I am too used to Mass Effect 2 combat, although there are probably very few people who didn’t play 20+ of that game in the last two weeks, so maybe I am just retarded.
Now in fairness I knew the main twist going in (thanks to the Bioshock HAWP) but I wasn’t blown away by the first game. It had some great little moments and a wonderful setting but I never felt compelled to see the game through. The Big Daddy aspect to the sequel does intrigue me though and as I only played Far Cry 2 and Half Life 2 thanks to your enthusiasm for them, I was wondering do you reckon the sequel’s worth playing on it’s own merits? Thanks
When you say “permadeath” – you just mean if you die you have to load a savegame, right?
Not actually start the whole game again.
Chambers:
The sequel is definitely worth it for the gameplay improvements.
beastrn:
It means you start the entire game over.
Just finished the game last night, died far more times than I care to admit. Shouldn’t have started the game on hard, I think. Once I scaled it back, the deaths were far less frequent.
I think I was a bit spoiled for choice, honestly. When confronted with the chaos that occurs every time you get into a firefight, I’d just use winter blast every time because it gave me more time to think. Then it was just a matter of shattering everything that got in my way. I set traps, sure, but mostly just the basic trap rivets, speargun traps and cyclone traps. And I just spammed them everywhere, nothing too elaborate.
Still, I never finished the original BioShock (lost interest after having it so thoroughly spoiled), and I’m now worried about going back. The gameplay won’t be as fun, I know, but after BioShock 2’s story kind of disappointed me, I’m wondering if it’ll be worth it.
I thought every single detail of Bioshock 2 was far superior to the first. Especially the story. Now true, it was quite shocking when in the first one, you found out the big twist (I’m not going to be the guy that spoils it for anyone who hasn’t played it yet), but this one had just an interesting of a shocker, and felt like it was much more thought out.
Me being the non thinking ahead type, I usually took the respawn. Forgot that there was an achievement attached. It’s funny though, most, maybe all, of my deaths came early on and stemmed from forgetting how Bioshock was played. I did not prepare and just went in, guns-blazing like it was Left 4 Dead or a paintball match with mentally disabled children. Ol’ Rosie the Riveter quickly spanked me usually and I learned (or, being a veteran of the first game, relearned) that in Rapture, that kind of play doesn’t float.
Although in my defense, playing as a Big Daddy really puts you in a somewhat false sense of security. I mean, where in some places I’d be freaked out in a dark room in Bioshock 1, electro bolting anything that moved or looked at me funny, in Bioshock 2, I walk wherever with no problem. Your a goddamn Big Daddy, you’ve got a drill, who the fuck do you fear? Not Big Sister, that bitch can’t handle my shit.
Of course, I know there probably isn’t any real difference between Jack and Delta in damage and health, but it’s great role playing material. And yeah, of course the game definitely can handle you, except till the end, which was probably one of the most enjoyable (and so awesomely broken) end game sequences I’ve had the pleasure of playing.
And I am going back in for that achievement too, on hard, without the vita chambers this time, because I like the challenge, and because I’m a goddamn Big Daddy and nobody in that town can handle my shit.
My wife is on her 3rd play through…lol. She started multiplayer and loves it. I suspect she loves it because she did pretty well. I think it draws in the more casual shooter fan rather then the hardcore types. I tend to fall in the latter. I have to play BS2 simply because Im just about to finish up the first one. I know..I know. Why am I just now playing it?!?! BS2 looks amazingly fun and I cant wait to dive into it. I know my wife can not wait because she is growing tired of not being able to discuss the game with me because I like everyone hate spoilers…lol