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BioShock is a great time. It’s an immersive action game that tells a good tale and features great world building, plenty of toys to play and experiment with, and I think the underwater city setting is neat. I didn’t play it at release but it’s one of those games that I remember everybody talking about. In fact, according to the internet, it’s considered one of the best games ever made and it did spawn a sequel. A sequel nobody talks about and that I find interesting. I remember people talking about BioShock and even BioShock Infinite but nobody seems to talk about BioShock 2 for some reason. I didn’t do too much research into it before playing but I do know it received good reviews.
Developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games, BioShock 2 was released for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in February, 2010. An upgraded version called BioShock 2 Remastered was released as part of BioShock: The Collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in September, 2016 and Switch in May, 2020. For this review, I played the PC version of the original game. Because of my experience with BioShock Remastered deleting my saves, I played the original instead and when it came time to play BioShock 2, I decided to avoid the Remastered version. I don’t know if it has the same problem but I didn’t want to find out the hard way. BioShock 2 does have a multiplayer component but I couldn’t get any online matches going so this review will only focus on the single player.
BioShock 2 takes us back to the underwater city of Rapture and in the main story, the player assumes the role of a Big Daddy, Subject Delta. In 1958, a woman named Sofia Lamb separates Delta from his Little Sister, Eleanor, and forces Delta to kill himself. He’s resurrected in 1968 by a Little Sister and learns that because of his psychological bond with Eleanor, he will die unless he finds her. Sofia Lamb plans to transfer the memories of all of Rapture’s inhabitants into Eleanor in an effort to create a selfless leader. As Delta moves through Rapture, he must face Sofia’s followers, The Rapture Family, who assumed control of the city after the death of Andrew Ryan. BioShock 2 did receive additional story content in the form of DLC called Minerva’s Den. The player assumes the role of another Big Daddy, Subject Sigma. Set during the events of BioShock 2’s main story, Sigma is tasked with helping a man named Charles Porter retrieve his plans for a supercomputer so he can recreate it on the surface.
I don’t think either story is quite as compelling as that of the first game. But that’s not to say they’re bad because I did enjoy them. They come with dramatic moments, solid performances, and the game as a whole retains much of what made the first so immersive. The world building is still excellent and if you were able to get immersed and engrossed in the plot and world in the first game, I don’t think you should have too much trouble here. If you played the first game, you should know all about Rapture so I think BioShock 2 doesn’t have the same edge, the same kind of mystery. The truth and details have already been revealed. You know what you’re in for. Still, I had fun revisiting the city. In some ways, BioShock 2 feels like more of the same or a continuation but with more of Rapture and its backstory fleshed out.
Since I played this fresh off the first game, I was able to get into the groove of things pretty quick. As indicated earlier, BioShock 2 does kind of feel like more of the same. Both the main story and Minerva’s Den play out in levels, not unlike the first game. You go from level to level completing objectives, killing bad guys, and you can explore for resources. You will get to navigate in actual water at certain points, most of the stations from the first game return, you can use weapons and plasmids to dispatch foes, and acquire different tonics to customize your character. BioShock 2 is another game that gives you plenty of toys to play with and experimentation is all part of the fun. Also, genes are no longer categorized. You can spend ADAM to unlock new gene slots and simply place any tonics you have in them. And research works slightly differently. The camera in BioShock 2 will film your battle with the enemy meaning you can attack while filming, and your score is based on the different ways you kill them, so it’s wise to use different combinations of weapons and plasmids.
There are some things about BioShock 2 I don’t really care for but for the most part, I think the core gameplay does feel better and much more refined. I still say there’s too many stations even with the U-Invent station cut and think it could have been streamlined. All of the basic mechanics from the first game return. But now you can equip and use a weapon and plasmid simultaneously, perform a melee attack with any weapon equipped, switching ammo types is quicker, and the gunplay feels much better to me. I do like the firepower in BioShock 2 and shots feel like they have more of an impact this time. Weapons look cool and feel good and, once again, most can fire different ammo types. Several ammo types allow you to set traps for foes which comes in handy for the new ADAM gathering process which I’ll get to in a bit. Just like the first game, much of the fun comes from experimenting with different weapon and plasmid combinations.
Hacking has also been improved or streamlined and this is one of the best changes in my opinion. Hacking comes with a new minigame that doesn’t take as much time as the pipe minigame in the first game. Not only that, you also get to use a Hacking Tool which allows you to hack things from a distance. I still enjoyed hacking my way through areas, making cameras and turrets work for me, and reducing the prices at Vending Machines. I found that I spent a lot less time hacking simply because the hacking process is much quicker. Furthermore, you can acquire additional bonuses from hacking. Ultimately, I found hacking to be a lot more enjoyable and I never felt burnt out from doing it.
The most common enemies you’ll face are Splicers and there are some new tougher types this time but I can’t say I had a more or even less difficult time getting through the game when compared to the first one. The beginning of both campaigns was a little more challenging than the later levels because I had more tonics and upgrades by then but I expected as much. One thing I don’t care for is how ADAM is acquired. You still need to find Little Sisters to get ADAM and if you decide to adopt them, the process is involved and can be repetitive and sometimes frustrating. Although, you can get small amounts of ADAM from pickups in the environments.
Once again, Little Sisters can be found in the levels accompanied by Big Daddies and you need to defeat the Big Daddies to get to the Little Sisters and this is where things stray from how it worked in the first game. You can either adopt or harvest the Little Sister. I chose to adopt which means taking them to specific corpses to gather ADAM. Gathering ADAM does attract Splicers so you will need to defend them during the gathering process. After she gathers the ADAM from the corpses, you take her to a vent and are given the option to rescue or harvest her and that’s how you get the ADAM. I chose to rescue them. But wait there’s more. After all the Little Sisters in a level are exorcised, a Big Sister comes after you and I found them to be really annoying to fight. I guess they’re like bosses and they can be a real bitch in the beginning. To me, the whole process feels like it just drags things out. Every Little Sister can gather from two corpses so if the level has three Little Sisters, that means six defenses and to be honest, I found fending off hordes of foes becomes repetitive as does engaging a Big Sister in every level. Not only that but Big Sisters are also encountered for story-related reasons.
Funnily enough, I guess the developer felt the defense thing was a great idea because DLC was released that centers on that specific aspect. Protector Trials. The objective is to protect your Little Sister as she gathers ADAM. You are graded based on how much ADAM is collected and can unlock additional trials and rewards. Minerva’s Den, on the other hand, is the better DLC in my opinion. It feels very much in line with the main campaign in terms of design but there are some differences. It comes with a new weapon and plasmid and three new levels with Vaccuum Bots to find and destroy in each. There are no weapon upgrade stations. Instead, you find upgraded weapons in the levels.
I would say that BioShock 2 is another entry that places a big emphasis on exploration and I love that. I love exploring the levels, finding resources, and discovering new areas. Much like the first game, you’re free to explore each level at your own leisure and you will need plasmids and items to access new and specific areas. There’s plenty of rooms, areas, and hallways to navigate with bodies and containers to loot and goodies to find. Levels do feature security in the form of cameras and turrets just like before and being able to hack them remotely makes them even easier to deal with. But you still have the option to evade and/or destroy them. You will typically be tasked with a series of objectives in each level and there will be backtracking whether it’s because the objective calls for it or because of general exploration. But no level ever felt too large or confusing or tedious to navigate and unless you disable it, an arrow will often appear on the HUD pointing you where you need to go.
BioShock 2 retains the wonderful art style of the first game and I think it does look better, overall. Things just look a little more crisp. The presentation is excellent and conveys some good visual storytelling, too. Just by looking around, you can see Rapture was a thriving location but shit went wrong somewhere along the line. Many areas look partially destroyed, water is leaking in, and bodies and debris are littered about. The environments are well detailed and the color work and lighting are great. It all comes together nicely, making for a unique atmosphere not unlike the first game. As for the audio, I did notice some sound effects like gunshots get cut off during battles, even with some tweaks applied that I got from the game’s PCGamingWiki page. Other than that, the sound work is good and the action is backed by another soundtrack consisting of licensed and original tunes. You’ll get to hear many oldies on your journey – songs from the fifties and earlier – which I think helps immerse the player into the world and time period and the original tunes range from sounding dramatic to intense, helping to elevate tension and emphasize certain moods. On the technical side, the game ran smooth but did crash on me numerous times and I’ve read this can be resolved by setting the graphics to low.
I really don’t know what the consensus on BioShock 2 is because I didn’t look too much into it and as I mentioned earlier, I don’t ever remember people talking about it. Maybe people are discussing it nowadays and that’s good because I think it’s a wonderful game worth talking about. Personally, I think it’s better than the first game. I may be in the minority that feels this way, I don’t know, but I feel the refinements and additions make for a more fun gameplay experience. I can see it not differentiating itself enough from the first game being an issue but, still, I like the underwater city concept and I had a great time revisiting Rapture. The game retains what made the first so great but the action and gunplay and many of the changes are just better. At least in my opinion. That’s not to say everything is great. I still say running back and forth to all the different stations feels unnecessary and the adopting Little Sisters process is repetitive, can be frustrating, and drags things out. Also, the Big Sisters can be annoying to fight. But these things didn’t ruin the game for me. I still had a great time exploring the levels and experimenting with the different toys.
I absolutely recommend BioShock 2. I think it’s better than its predecessor and retains everything that made it great. These are story-driven titles so I think you should still play through BioShock first. Not only will you get more out of the world and story of BioShock 2 but you’ll also be able to appreciate the refinements and additions more. Not everything about it is great, mind you, but I think most changes are for the better resulting in a more enjoyable gameplay experience in my opinion. Definitely check it out.