A beautiful and creepy game with an inciting nature that instantly hooks you into Ryan's Rapture.
Gameplay; 9.0/10
Multiplayer; 9.5/10
Audio: 10/10
Bioshock 2, the offspring of 2K's child from the original Bioshock and 2K Australia or 2K China (making stuff up) is a beautiful game with an extremely creepy undertone that leaves us always wanting to figure out what happens next.
Although the story is not as strong as the first, it's still intriguing. The plot revolves around you, a Alpha series Big Daddy codenamed Delta by Dr. Lamb and her followers, trying to find your little sister, Eleanor among the ruins of rapture 10 years after the events of Jack Ryan's first appearance. The shadows of splicers running by in other rooms, the screeches of the big sisters and the stomps of the bouncers or rosie's always brought a shiver down my back. The reason being, you know exactly what's coming but you don't know when, puts you in a feeling of anxiety for a few seconds until you get rushed from above by a big sister pouncing on your helmet. You will also experience this throughout the game on many occasions.
The gameplay mechanics have mproved since the last Bioshock installment; most notably, the plasmid and weapon combination. As mosto f you already know, it's just a matter of hitting the L trigger (L2 on PS3 owners) to launch a bolt of lightning or dropping the freeze on enemies instantly. The R, as you know, fires your weapon; that's a given. The recoil on some guns however as extremely over the top assuming you use the iron sights. Even when crouching, for me anyway, the rivet gun hopped around like it's out of control; reminded me of the recoil off a barrett in the MW series. Regardless, the mechanics are great. There was never one time where it felt like a dull moment. The underwater sequences came at perfect times, normally after or before a boss fight or epic battle and were a nice break to collect 10 or 20 ADAM lying around the ocean bottom.
The new little sister system is also great. Take advantage of it! 40 ADAM (50 with the research) normally 2 times, roughly 80-100 ADAM from JUST harvesting splicers and then you get the option to either Rescue or Harvest the ADAM bug within her. Rescuing gives you 80 ADAM whereas Harvesting... I don`t know, haven`t done it. Assuming you rescue, you can cap from 180 ADAM PER little sister, on average, 3 per level, 540 ADAM per stage, roughly 5 stages, 2700 ADAM excluding the gifts they give you. The new system really does add to the customization and possibilities of how much ADAM you can capitalize on.
This time around, you also have a central antagonist, Dr. Lamb although at times you feel as if the Big Sister's are the biggest worry. Much like the first game, you have a newish face (referenced a lot in the original Bioshock although never made a full appearance) of Sinclair, a capitalist goon who profited from worker exploitation. He guides you through, helps you out and warns you of all the deviant characters that make an appearance. No more spoiling, play the game yourself.
In terms of graphics, not much has changed. In the two years 2K has had to develop this game, the water still looks as marvelous as it did before and a lot of texture upgrades here and there but they game essentially looks and feels the same as the first.
The audio is what really stands out in this game. There has always been the counter balance of music to what is happening in the game. For example, an upbeat swing song can be playin' overhear while you're gunning down two brutes and a daddy. The anti-climaticism (is that even a word?) is absolutely genius and I loved every bit of this game's soundtrack.
Multiplayer is where is stands out. Civil War and Capture the Sister; those two gametypes I am absolutely hooked on. Give it a chance, up until level 6 or so, Multiplayer doesn't feel as fun as it should be due to the lack of choice in Plasmid and Weapon combos, and also minor perks that slightly tilt the playing field. All the maps are sandbox and symmetrical for the most part so you'll find yourself around familiar corners that you'd visited to the extreme opposite of the map. Overall, multiplayer is an extremely fun experience (assuming you don't get those lag switching games where the host hops around like a mother.)