Bioshock 2
yeah I know I just played the first one not too long ago, but I really enjoyed it so I wanted to play the only game in the series I hadn’t yet.
Ive heard a few people say that this is one of the most disappointing sequels theyve ever played, and I thoroughly disagree. Most of this idea stems from the fact that Bioshock 2 doesn’t really do anything that differently from its predecessor, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. The original was such an amazing game that it really didn’t need to change much, and unlike games like Mario Galaxy 2, the things that did change didn’t ruin what made the original so amazing to begin with.
One of the more major changes is the fact that you are now playing as one of the main baddies from Bioshock 1, the Big Daddy. This was an outstanding idea, as the Big Daddies and their “Little Sisters” were by far the most iconic part of the first game. All of the weapons have been updated so that they fit with the new main character (all except for the shotgun, that is, which looks severely out of place). There are only 3-ish new weapons, being the iconic drill, the spear gun, and the remote hacking device. All 3 are super useful, and I ended up using them more than almost any other weapon save for the machine gun. A few other unnecessary mechanics were cut, such as the crafting mechanic from the first game, which is a great change because it (like most crafting mechanics) added absolutely nothing to the game.
By far the biggest change to the game is the main sidequest and collectible, the little sisters. In Bioshock 1, the only thing you did with them was kill their Big Daddies, and from then you chose to either harvest them for extra adam, the currency used to purchase new abilities, or rescue them for significantly less adam but a better ending. In this game, you can still do that, but now you have the third option of protecting the little sisters as they harvest extra adam from corpses lying around before choosing to ultimately harvest or rescue them. At first I disliked this, but I came around to enjoying it as it forced me to use more defensive weapons and abilities than usual (the mini-turret ammo for the remote hack gun in particular was really helpful). Of course, all that extra adam really didn’t matter as I still struggled to really find upgrades that I really wanted, though that could just be because I’m terrible at actively using different abilities and mainly just stuck to the fully upgraded electric attack. Of course, there’s a new enemy that chases you down once you collect every little sister in the level, and it is legitimately terrifying.
The atmosphere and sound design are just as top-notch as prior, but I think the story is slightly less good. Not bad by any means, as the villain serves as a fantastic antithesis to the creator of the city, who was so heavily focused on in the first game, but it lacks that big gut punch of a plot twist that the first game had and ultimately the end kinda strikes the same beats as before.
Of course this game had DLC too. First there was the protector trials, which were effectively just more Little Sister escort missions. I didn’t play this at all. As much as I liked it in the main game, I didn’t like It enough to do it 23 more times. Then there was Minerva’s Den, a fully new story featuring a brand new protagonist. I loved this. While it was ultimately more of the same mechanically, the story did a fantastic job of showing an individual persons story inside the city of Rapture as opposed to a major event, and it had a plot twist that was even better than Bioshock 1.
Bioshock 2 as a whole is very similar to it predecessor, but in a good way. Everything that was so perfect about the original is here, with just enough upgrades to the gameplay to make this a terrific sequel. Throw in Minervas Den and you have what is easily my favorite Bioshock game
9/10
