A sequel that feels too familiar and lacks the intensity from the original BioShock. Still a good game nevertheless.
BioShock 2 starts off ten years after the events of the first game where you suddenly awaken to find yourself as a Big Daddy. You play as the first Big Daddy ever created. Ten years before you were attached to a little sister named Eleanor. It seems that you have bonded so much with this little sister that your mission to rescue her. There is a new ruler in Rapture since Mr. Ryan has passed away with a golf club, and she is Sofia Lamb. She is a psychiatrist who believes that you are trying to destroy Eleanor's life and tries to kill you. The story is . . . . well, not as good as BioShock 1. I found the story to be boring and it is without-a-doubt the weakest part of the game. The gameplay we all loved from the first BioShock is back but they tweaked it a bit. As weapons go, you have a drill, a single shot rifle, machine gun, rocket launcher, nail gun and a shotgun. The drill was disappointing to use. I found that the drill wasn't as powerful as it should be. You do get your plasmids back as well. But I didn't find that there was any new plasmids. Perhaps I'm mistaken. You can upgrade your plasmids that can make them shoot out a huge lightning bolt for as long as you want or set a tornado on the for and add electric energy to it to make it even more powerful. You still require ADAM which is what you get from little sisters. You still have to face the Big Daddy and then you have an option to harvest the little girl or adopt her. If you decide to adopt her, you have to take her to some dead bodies so she can collect adam, but you have to protect her against the splicers. When you bring her to a vent you have another decision to either harvest her or rescue her. You won't get as much ADAM if you rescue but they might leave you something as a machine. Sometimes you will hear a screech and that means that a Big Sister is coming. These boss battles are difficult and well worth it. Unlike the Bid Daddy, Big Sisters are definitely a lot faster and can even use plasmids on you as well as a gun. These battles are probably the only boss battles in BioShock 2 with the Big Daddy's now becoming the mini bosses.
The game looks good but the same is so familiar. You are in Rapture for this sequel but the city lost a lot of the mystery and the dark intensity that made the original BioShock a classic. This time around, Rapture just seems like a regular city that games will use over and over again like NYC (used in Prototype, GTA IV). Some viewers might be saying "What do you mean?". Well Rapture lost it's touch. The city itself is still collapsing. In the original BioShock, you saw a splicer kill a person in a dark room surrounded by debris. It made the gamers feel frightened to enter the city of Rapture. Rapture now is too much like the first one. It is kind of difficult to change a city like Rapture.
MULTIPLAYER: BioShock 2 comes with a multiplayer experience. While it is no Modern Warfare 2, I found this multiplayer to be quite fun. You start off in your little apartment in Rapture. You customize how you want to look, your arsenal you want start out with and then you exit your apartment to an elevator where you are brought to a mutliplayer match. This consists of a free-for-all match, team deathmatch, capture the flag, etc. I found this multiplayer to be more complex. I'm mostly talking about the apartment. You don't see games these days that put something so simple into the mix that can make the experience more enjoyable.
***THIS NEXT PART IS ABOUT WHAT SHOULD BE IN BIOSHOCK 3. YOU MAY GO DOWN TO THE FINAL PARAGRAPH NAMED "OVERALL"***
What BioShock 3 should have is not have the collapsing Rapture but start out slow as a husband/father who all live in Rapture before the destruction. You hear that Andrew Ryan is giving out Plasmids to the people so you decide to try it. You are unconscious from the effects and you wake up hours later to see that the residents of Rapture has gone on a outbreak. You see that your family has been murdered and you go after Andrew Ryan and make him pay for what he has done. That's how it should be in BioShock 3.
OVERALL: BioShock 2 is a disappointing sequel but good nonetheless. The gameplay is still fun, a somewhat descent story and Rapture is back but it seems very familiar. While you can walk in outside of Rapture, it is limited and you can't go out whenever you want. Multiplayer is entertaining and a great installment to the series. Though it is not a classic like the original BioShock, BioShock 2 is still a good game to have. If you are a huge fan of BioShock, you might be disappointed. If you never played the first BioShock, I suggest you play the first one, see how it goes, and then play this sequel. BioShock 2 lacked the intensity that the original game had so much of.
PRESENTATION: 8.2 - Rapture is too familiar
GRAPHICS: 9.0 - Not as beautiful as the original but still looks great
SOUND: 9.1 - The music from the first game is there, voice acting is good
GAMEPLAY: 9.5 - Now can use plasmids and guns at once, Big Sisters are great boss battles
LASTING APPEAL: 8.5 - Story might keep you down but the multiplayer is a lot of fun.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5