Welcome once again to the underwater metropolis of Rapture, full of dark corners, psychopathic crazed residents and lots of creepy little girls. If you remember the spooky atmosphere which the first Bioshock placed you in then you will not be disappointed with this sequel. Two years on from your original under-sea experience, have the mysteries of the city of the abyss grown deeper?

The city of Rapture has not undergone many changes in the ten year gap since your last visit. The little sisters can be found wondering the corridors with their guardian angels, the Big Daddies, not too far away. The splicers, having failed to successfully harness the power of the plasmids, have corrupted their minds further with their failed attempts at genetic manipulation. So where you do you fit into all this madness? The answer is naturally going to be “right in the centre of it”. You start the game in the Big Daddy Prototype suit, also known as Delta. This time your mission is to find Eleanor, the Little Sister to whom you were dutifully attached to. Under the mindful eye of Dr Lamb, your journey is made ever harder when you are cast aside from society and essentially left to die. A bad tempered Big Daddy who has lost his Little Sister and armed with a whole bunch of weapons and plasmids is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Either way, drilling and gunning your way through the hordes of splicers shouldn’t be too much of a problem but coming face to face with more “Big” ones can lead to some pretty interesting confrontations.

If you have played the first game then there won’t be too much new in terms of combat gameplay. The only major change is that you can now have duel fire-arms by arming yourself with plasmids in one hand and your primary weapon in your other. Cycling through all the different plasmids and weapons can be done with great ease and gives you better co-ordination when uesing your weapons. Plasmids come in several differnt varieties to give you a range of powers at your dispposal. For example, picking objects up and hurling them them across at your enemies is great fun but if they’re still alive then you can finish them off with a quick bolt of lightling. Alternatively you can get the notorious drill tool out and drive it right through their bodies. Always remember to check you drill fuel supply so you know when its low on power. This is a really useful tool which is fun to play with and great for clearing areas of enemies and also breaking down obstructive barriers and obstacles in your way. Just remember it makes a bloody mess when used in the right way. The combiation of weapons works a bit too well in your favour at times as it does make you feel slightly overpowered. But oh well, you’re a Big Daddy so you deserve to be.

The game plays out in a very linear forward moving path. Aside from a few interactions, all you need to do is complete the objective[s] in order to proceed into the next section. There are a few RPG elements mixed in such as upgrading weapons and plasmids and looting dead bodies but these don’t have much direct impact on the gameplay The substance known as ADAM is a performance enhancing drug which has turned most of the civilians into splicers. The main role of the Little Sisters is just to scavenge and look for any traces of ADAM which can still be collected from the bodies of overdosed splicers. For a walking juggernaut of death, you too will need to stay well fed on ADAM to maintain your super-human powers in the Big Daddy Suit. The Little Sisters are the key to doing this but their Big Daddy guardians will not give up their precious girls willingly to an intruder and you will enter a fight to the death (in pretty much all cases their death) to claim your prize. Once their loyal protector has been slain, you are left with deciding their fate., you will be awarded a varying quantity of ADAM. On your journey you will face lots of moral decisions but few of which make much of an impact on the story. Arguably the Big Sister encounters are even more intense than the Big Daddy confrontations as they are tougher opponents that can deal heavy damage and have good maneuverability on their side. There are plenty of other memorable moments in the game such as using the hacking tool to re-program security systems and make them attack the splicers rather than you.

The new multiplayer adds greater depth to the game’s already submerged re-playability. Its not  not the most engaging online experience that money can buy but it is still fun and enjoyable with plenty of plasmid and weapon unlocks/customisations. The mysterious and haunting atmosphere looses its sense of suspense when you have lots of other players running round through gunfire with little sisters riding on their shoulders. Capture the flag and capturing locations are the typical game modes but the specific use of plasmids helps to create a more dramatic and exciting match. Things really get competitive when racing to find the all powerful Big Daddy suit. However, after the novelty wears off you will probably not focus as much on the multiplayer side so getting to maximum level is not quite as incentivised as it could be.

There are veryfew technical flaws with th game. Light and shadows look great with the gloomy haze of water contrasting superly against its surroundings. The blood stained corpses also help depict a more sinsiter looking environment. Sound and voice acting is done well throughout the game. The crackly audio diaries help to keep the realism high and offer a bit more skope for exploration.

Whilst Bioshock 2 has touched on a few issues present in the original but falls short in other areas such as the level of suspence that the original had, it is still a sequel worthy of merit and fans of the first game will definitely enjoy a second voyage to Rapture.

+ Great creepy atmosphere.

+ Plenty of Moral decisions to make.

+ New combat mechanics work well.

- Playing as  Big  Daddy feels overpowered at times.

- Very few differences to predecessor.

8.5/10

By Ian Ratledge Posted Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 9:36 pm