Review: Bioshock 2

You guys may not know this, but I've got a daughter. Her name is Eleanor. She's smart, precocious, crafty, has a penchant for getting into my head, and can kick ass when I need her to. She learns from me and grows with me.

But someone’s got her captive. So I'm going to level an entire city to save her.

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That's the premise of Bioshock 2, which is immediately a much more personal story for the player than the first game. In Bioshock 1, you "chance" upon a beautiful, haunting world that is falling apart, and learn how it has come to be this way. You listen to people talk about ideals, capitalism, communism, the Self, and politics, but you never truly feel like its your own story.

In the second game, you need to save you daughter, plain and simple. Everything you do and everything presented to you in this game is geared to this end.

You play the iconic Big Daddy and so have access to the most important character in the city of Rapture, the Little Sister. Whilst on your quest to save Eleanor, you'll come across Little Sisters attached to other Big Daddies. If you want Adam (the juju that'll make you stronger) you need to get that little girl. So far, same as the first game. Kill Big Daddy, then take little girl.


But where it gets interesting is that harvesting/rescuing the Little Sister there and then will not produce much Adam. Instead, you can take her with you until a corpse is spotted filled with more juju. This is where it gets fun. Set her down to collect the stuff and watch the splicers (the game's common enemies, bottom-feeders of Rapture) come out of the woodwork to grab her.

It's your job to defend the Little Sister until she finishes collecting the Adam. It's a phenomenally challenging experience; the game ramping up the chaotic tension almost instantly with multiple bad guys coming at you from all sides, throwing everything from fireballs, to hot lead, to grenades. It's not for the faint of heart.

Twitch-skills are not enough. Splicers, and later, brutes and prototype Big Daddies take a lot to kill, so it's a case of juggling all your skills at once, finding the right combination of plasmids and weapons. But as punishing as the combat can get, playing smart will get you through just about anything. It also emphasizes the need for survival - searching every little nook and cranny for extra ammo, researching, hacking shops to lower prices, and using traps to take out enemies so you don't have to waste any bullets.


Where fighting Big Daddies in Bioshock 1 was just a case of shooting them dead before they come charging at you down cramped corridors, Bioshock 2 excels for offering gamers much greater freedom to devise strategies against their foes. Environments are varied with open spaces and bottlenecks, have natural sweet spots for traps/defensive maneuvers, so there's no excuse to go into a fight unprepared. Juggling multiple abilities and weapons is definitely hard at first but once you get the hang of it, I cannot stress enough how fun the combat is. Bioshock 2 is truly the thinking man’s shooter.

And then you have the new Big Sisters. Big Sisters are grown-up Little Sisters jacked on plasmids, incredibly fast, and are the most formidable mini-bosses in the game, definitely striking fear in my heart each time they come around. When you've successfully harvested/rescued all the Little Sisters in a given level, one will appear out of nowhere, shooting fireballs and use telekinesis to throw large rocks at your face. So collecting Adam to power up is now a more difficult process: kill a Big Daddy to get Little Sister, defend Little Sister, and kill Big Sister. But the pay-off is worth it and it prolongs the game in a good way.

More about the story. The basic plot is that you need to save your daughter from the clutches of her mother, Sofia Lamb, who has taken over Andrew Ryan as top villain. She brainwashes people to her cult in an aim to create a new utopia and spews out lots of her personal ideologies which, whilst interesting to hear at first, soon becomes tiresome. Also, Sofia Lamb’s love for her own daughter Eleanor is warped, wanting to turn the poor, innocent girl into some relic of ultimate power.


Frankly, the story is not as complex as the one found in the first game. Nor is it anything completely new. It's more of a different perspective presented on the decline of Rapture. It's interesting to note that, though Sofia Lamb is a ruthless woman capable of making people suffer to further her own cause, she is essentially a megalomaniac trying to take over a "sinking ship". That she seems oblivious to this fact makes me pity her more. But really, the only thing that matters is that Lamb is using Eleanor against her will, and that will not stand in my book.

And those who couldn't get enough of Andrew Ryan will be happy to know he makes a post-humus cameo appearance through some audio logs early on in the game. It's nice to listen to some of his more personal entries, like his contemplation on whether or not to have a child. The writers at 2K are good at creating characters that are wholly human. As opposed to being one-dimensionally evil, the villains are instead deeply flawed, warped by their own desires and fears.

Also, unlike the first game, there aren't any "OMG WTF" surprises at the end; more of a quiet "Ah, I see" kinda' revelation. It's still good though, toning down the intellectually high-brow subtexts for a more poignant commentary on family and parenthood.

Not only is your role as a father emphasized by the protecting of little girls/saving your daughter, the game adds elements that further drills this responsibility into your brain. Like how as you progress through Rapture, you can follow the audio logs of one Mark Meltzer; someone from the surface who has his daughter kidnapped and taken to Rapture. The search for his missing daughter undoubtedly parallels your own.


Fans of the first game will be delighted with Bioshock 2’s reveal on the origins of Big Daddies and Little Sisters. A story that is both tragic and endearing, especially with the clever twist of gameplay near the end. As you care for Little Sisters, they’ll chirp in adoration of you, "No one is better than MY Daddy", "Are you going to take care of me, Daddy?" And they giggle with glee as you lay waste to the splicers, all for their sake. It's strangely encouraging.

Unfortunately, the most important aspect of the story: that of your daughter and you, I honestly found to be the most tenuous. Sure, Eleanor is my daughter and I'm supposed to save her but the game's writers didn't play up enough of that relationship. She flits in and out of my consciousness to speak with me, drops off surprise gifts to help in my battle against evil, and is generally a sweet girl... but I didn't feel all that moved by her.

Maybe I'm just cold-hearted, or not old enough yet to realize the beauty of having kids (or too cynical about it, for that matter), but whatever it was, I wanted Bioshock 2 to make me feel more like Liam Neeson in Taken. It was only towards the end of the game that my relationship with Eleanor started to take on a kick-ass dimension. Granted, I did feel a twinge of pride at something cool she did, "that's my daughter, right there".


I think the most important thing about Bioshock 2 is the impact on choices you make throughout. The choices aren’t as ground-shaking as in Mass Effect 2, but whether you choose to rescue or harvest Little Sisters, kill or not kill certain people, etc. is going to change the way the last half hour or so of the game plays out. Especially the ending, which there are about four dramatic and different ones in total. It is definitely less artificial then the choice-consequence mechanic in Bioshock 1. This is also where the twist is revealed, tying in cleverly to the overarching idea of parenthood.

Graphics may have gotten a new sheen of gloss, but for the most part, looks the same as Bioshock 1. Which is to say, it's still damn pretty. Rapture is even more richly crafted, highly detailed, with lots of secrets for the intrepid explorer to uncover. Water is as watery as ever, no qualms there. Overall the graphics may not be the best around, but it does the job. The only issue I have, that may affect some people and not others, which was also the case in the first game, is that there were too many contrasting strong colors in some levels that it may disorientate, making it harder to navigate.

Sound is great; the voice-acting superb, all characters are delectably interesting to listen to. Though some people, i.e. Sofia Lamb can start to grate after awhile. She keeps saying stuff like how she's going to kill me, or that I'm lame, a blight on the people, blah blah blah. Say something interesting for a change, or shut up bitch. And honestly, Andrew Ryan is a heck load cooler a villain than Sofia Lamb. Kudos to whoever played Augustus Sinclair though, that guy is awesome in his slimy, snake-oil salesman-like voice.


Music-wise, a highlight would be whenever you hunker down for the Little-Sister-defense bits, there is a cacophony of violins like an Alfred Hitchcock movie which is exciting in a heart-attack inducing kinda' way. And I just love period music, with its mellow jazz singers over languid trombones and pianos.

In conclusion, Bioshock 2 is a sequel-worthy game. 2K Marin did an amazing job balancing between great entertainment with a solid, free-form shooter, as well as presenting thought-provoking art. The plot may be simpler, but no less compelling. In fact, because it's a more personal story, I enjoyed this one better than the first game. So definitely a must play for the fans, and for newcomers, they'll be impressed by how different this is from a lot of other shooters out there. Bioshock 2 is a striking beacon of brilliance in a sea of shooter monotony.

PS. Not on a totally separate note, you folks should check out this song by Sade off her new album, called Babyfather. I reckon 2K Marin should've got it playing as the credits rolled. It's bittersweet and totally in line with what Bioshock 2 is trying to tell us.

Your daddy knows you're a flame,
For you, he's the best he can be,
Oh, child don't you know,
Your daddy love come with a life time guarantee...