Bioshock 2 has sat in my Xbox almost exclusively since I got it. Well as of 7:30 am on 2/11/10 I can add it to my list of beaten games. It wasn't as long as I hoped, but the ride sure was wicked awesome. I plan to play through again pretty soon, but for now I am satisfied with what I did/saw. I admit I sort of rushed through it, rather than exploring every nook and cranny of Rapture part two, I decided to stick with story over loot.

All of the reviews and opinions I have heard so far all point to the "if you haven't played the first you won't have much of a clue what is going on." ideal. Which I can actually agree with to an extent, however Bioshock 2 is not very similar to the first, and justifies being a bit unique in how the story changed a lot. I don't want to give up too much information since I am pretty sure my buddy Ebi wouldn't appreciate me destroying the story for him. But if he is like me he will have quite a lot of fun and quite a few WTF moments.

Combat was smooth and easily transitioned from the first, which had you switching hands to use plasmids or weapons. While this was not a big deal, it's a lot nicer having both available at all times. Freezing enemies while reloading seems a bit broken, but enemies are dangerous enough that you can't really consider it a way of making things easier on you. The drill dash is absolutely my favorite ability. When playing Bioshock and having bouncer big daddies charge me at high speed i always remembered saying, "man, why don't I get a charge attack with my wrench of doom." That also made me happy was that they kept the Wrench in the game, but not usable by the player.

The character design and art was amazing. The musical score was enthralling and creepy. And you felt a genuine urge not to go around a corner if you heard some creepy laughter. The new splicer design seemed a bit recycled, but was interesting enough to keep me from noticing too much. Being rushed by Brute Splicers was entertaining until I realized I could stand toe to toe with them with little trouble. The most annoying enemy in the game was the Houdini Splicer. Now you see it now you don't. I get tired of wasting expensive shotgun rounds on air.

One thing I do truly miss is the Creepy Statue splicers. On Cohen's collection level in bioshock one, walking into an empty room, searching, then turning around to see all these statues that weren't there when you came in. That was by far the creepiest thing about the game. They also didn't seem to have that many "sneaking up on you" moments. Enemies announced themselves like it was a party, "all welcome Lord Pipe Wielding splicer who wants to bash Subject Delta's face." or something along those lines. I also had an issue with the fact that you could pit all of your enemies against each other and just let one side kill the other. The Big Daddies are still against the splicers, and the Brute Splicer appear to hate their own non brutish kind.

Fighting a Big Sister was an eye opener, the thing was challenging and fun to take on, and I had a genuine sense of accomplishment after defeating my first. I did Notice an interestingly massive amount of loot scattered around and enemies not only dropped loot themselves but also lockboxes kept appearing all over the battlefield. Even with the high amount of loot though, you always felt the need to earn more because what you got wasn't enough, until of course you tried picking up more ammo and got the message, "you cannot carry anymore of that.", then you simply moved on.

In the end, I can say Bioshock 2 is one of my top games now, and I look forward to replaying it sometime. I think i'll switch back to Mass Effect 2 for now and let my memories of Rapture build a bit before restarting anew. Also, I think this is the longest blog i've posted yet. Thats awesome. Talk to you later!!