Please refer to the sticky thread before you post in this thread.
This is your chance to tell us your opinion on Bioshock 2.
Reviews will be published on the main gaming channel. We'll let you know in this thread when they go live.
Thanks!
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Please refer to the sticky thread before you post in this thread.
This is your chance to tell us your opinion on Bioshock 2.
Reviews will be published on the main gaming channel. We'll let you know in this thread when they go live.
Thanks!
Thanks to GreenLizard0 for his input!
PLATFORM: PC
REVIEW:
I did understand what people were saying on the earlier levels, it was very similar to the first except eg. you made a lot more noise jumping around. However as it went on you became more powerful. But then so did enemies. Yes there were the same things as Bioshock 1 in the beginning, but they expanded it; hence why this could have been a large (but really good) expansion pack.
I completed it on hardest, without any real issues. There are far too many first aid kits and hypos, especially once you increase their capacities, and use other tonics that allow e.g. a bit of one or the other everytime you did a hack, or extra nutrition from eating food. Hacking a first aid point as well was too generous. I lost count of how many big fat deep voiced splicer men I got to 20% health who then went onto kill themselves. Eve Link was invaluable as soon as I could get it.
There's also too much money around, earlier on in the game I'd occasionally run out and have to drill/melée but not for long. Once a machine's hacked more effective ammo (armour piercing rounds, heavy duty rivets, solid slugs) with a good aim meant enemies were cheap and the normal splicers were easy.
The fact that there's too much money around is compounded by me being able to use Freeze III plasmid as soon as I could get it. I killed almost all the remaining fat men splicer and Big Daddies this way; by shattering them you don't usually get bodies to search but still found finances everywhere else. There's also something I think a bit too wrong and easy with being able to freeze and destroy a Big Daddy (or a better series) with one rocket spear in the head.
However there was one thing I couldn't do very well, and that was protect the Little Sisters from gathering Adam. Even with few entrances to the area in question, and me setting up defences (mini turret, trap rivets and proximity mines) I could barely do the first gather. And I couldn't do any more. However again, because of how effective Winter Blast III was, I didn't use any other plasmids (never even tried Insect Swarm, Hypnotise, Scout, Security Command or Cyclone Trap) and didn't bother with getting more tonics (once as said, I'd slowed down hacking etc.). This meant I had a huge surplus of Adam at the end with doing just the one gather. You also got them from Big Sisters, and if you healed all the Little Sisters, I was given a few teddy bears.
I'm a huge fan of keeping the good points of previous games, and the atmosphere and the "thrill" aspect of #2 was equally good. I jumped a few times, and the bit where you're the Little Sister and you see Rapture through her eyes, but then for a second it flips back to "normal" view.. creepy.
The game length and music score were pretty decent. I thought it was enjoyable. At the end I thought there was a good balance of keeping the best parts of the original and giving it a few expansions.
SCORE OUT OF 10: 8/10
SKIP, BUY OR RENT? Buy or Rent.
Bioshock 2 has one hell of a lot to live up to.
The first outing of the series put together an intense experience in an environment untouched by previous titles, paired with a heart pounding and thought provoking storyline. The question is, do 2K deliver?
The game is set in the fictional dystopian city of Rapture circa 1968, eight years after the events of its predecessor. You take control of an early model Big Daddy who reactivates with no recollection of the previous decade. All that's on your mind is your Little Sister, where is she?
Upon awakening in a war ravaged Rapture, it's not long before you get to grips with what's new in terms of gameplay, the ability to dual wield. Oh how I love those words, mmm.. dual wield. Anyhow, in this outing I found myself merrily roaming the halls, one hand full of fire and the other full of face obliterating shotgun, taking out Splicers at will and it felt oh so good.
However, while the gameplay is there I went through the entire story with the feeling that something's missing. I listened to every single recording, I explored every inch of Rapture and just couldn't recapture the sense of satisfaction I had with the first. I pushed forward in hope but as the storyline unfolded it just felt more of a let down, lacking the plot twisted philosophical craziness of the first.
I kept exploring the damp ravaged outcrops of Rapture, all in hope to stumble across something to give me a fright and a need to change my underwear but there was just nothing. Ok so yeah, maybe when you know there's a Big Sister on her way the adrenalin sets in but that's as far as it got. I was left missing the scary, intense and shocking moments that lept out at me on my journey through the under water city, for instance in the morgue and with the mannequins.. you fans know what I'm talking about, those moments of sheer wtf? and ARGH!
While Bioshock 2 borrows the solid gameplay, atmosphere and different approaches to combat it fails to provide the powerful narrative and shock that made the original what we know and love.
8/10.
Cheers guys.
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