I will breeze a bit
over the story of the first Bioshock since I have discussed it in a previous
blog, but basically it covers the story of Rapture, an underwater utopia that
went to an apocalyptic hell. You play Jack, a man who fell from a crashed plane
and has to make his way through.
But in Bioshock 2, you
are a Big Daddy (again, warning video is graphic).
The introduction starts in
1959, before the Jack character in the first game comes down. You play a Big
Daddy guarding your Little Sister, Elenore. But at the end of the opening scene Elenore's real
mother, Sofia Lamb, takes back her daughter and forces you to kill yourself. 10
years later you reawaken alive in Rapture. Someone has started stealing girls
from countries surrounding the ocean and turning them into Little Sisters, pretty
much restarting Rapture's horror and war again. You have to make your way through Rapture to
rescue Elena, who is being held captive by her mother. Sofia Lamb is an ethical
psychiatrist who filled in the void of power Andrew Ryan left open; she controls the
splicers and starts harvesting of Adam again. She hates you and blames you for
stealing her daughter from her.
There are several
similar features that connect the two. You have the same splicer types from the first
game, houndi splicers, spider splicers, leadhead splicers, and nitro splicers.
There’s Adam and Eve, tonics, plasmids, weapons, cameras, turrets, robots, weapons, and the what
not.
But besides the story,
there are several upgrades.
HACKING: In order to
gain control of robots, turrets, and security cameras, or gain entry to a safe, you have to hack them.
In the first Bioshock, the game stops and you pretty much gain control of a machine though a
game of Pipe Dream.
But in Bioshock 2, you have a quick moving needle that you have to hit in the green area.
The game doesn’t stop,
so you have to keep dodging attacking Splicers. You also get a
hacking gun, so you don’t have to stand next to something to hack it. You can
hack from afar.
Also in the first Bioshock, when you hack a security camera an alarm goes off after you stay in its sight for too long. Then flying robots with machine guns attack you.
In the first one, you
are stuck with robots attacking you for 50 seconds while the camera is
unhackable. If you can find a robot shutdown panel the robots will stop, but you have
to find it and they are well out of your way. In Bioshock 2, as long
as you can hack the camera, even after the security alarm went off, the robots
will stop. After a few failed hacked cameras, you really start to appreciate
this difference.
GAME PLAY: In the first
Bioshock, one hand holds your gun and the other one controls your plasmids. You
switch between the two hands using the two triggers on the controller, but you can only
have one hand onscreen at a time.
In Bioshock 2, you get
both hands up and out. This immediately comes in handy because the main way of
defeating Splicers is to immobilize them with a plasmid, and then shot them
with one of your weapons.
LITTLE SISTERS: In the
first Bioshock, your interactions with the Little Sisters are pretty small. You
learn about their experimentation and see their orphanage, but you only spend a
moment with the actual girl after you kill her Big Daddy. The choice of harvesting or rescuing
the girl happens quickly, and you don’t have much reflection upon it until the
end.
In Bioshock 2 you have
to hold onto the Little Sisters, literally carrying them on your back. You use them to gather Adam from the various corpses
splayed around Rapture.
Splicers attack while
the Sister is gathering, so you have to guard her like a real Big Daddy.
You have several traps you can set up to protect her from Splicers.
You get more Adam than
in the first game, but you have to stay with the Little Sisters. They stick
with you through large chunks of the games, even waiting for you at Vita-Chamber
where you respawn after you die. They talk to you, giving you compliments when
you play good like “Daddy, you always protect me from the monsters” or “I’m
going to tell the other sisters I have the best Daddy”. If you are evil, their words will break your
heart: “Uh-Oh, Daddy’s home. I’ll be good, I promise” and “You’ll never hurt
me, right Daddy?” Harvesting the Little Sisters affects you more in the second
one.
WEAPONS: You get most
of the same weapons in Bioshock 1 and 2. There is the standard machine gun,
shot gun, and grenade launcher. You know, your regular video game fare.
Bioshock 2 starts you
off with a much better opening weapon. In the first Bioshock, you pick up the
first wrench you come across and just smack it around. The simple wrench
only works as a bludgeon, and you quickly move on to the more complex weapons.
In Bioshock 2 you
start off with a Drill, which is a very impressive weapon. It works well as a
large bludgeon, but with fuel you can simply drill through flesh in a symphony
of gore.
It is a weapon you use
throughout the game. With later upgrades, the Drill can even deflect bullets.
Bioshock 2 has better
weapon upgrades. The first Bioshock only has two weapon upgrades for each
weapon, one for increased capacity and one for damage. Bioshock 2 has three
weapon upgrades, and the third one has a special quality. For the Drill it is
the bullet shield and for the shotgun it is electrified bullets.
ENEMIES: While Bioshock
1 and 2 share most of the same enemies, Bioshock 2 has some new surprises.
There are Big Sisters, what happens to a Little Sister who grows up.
The Big Sister attacks after you either harvest or save all of the Little Sisters on the level. They
move swiftly and shriek at you, throwing things with psychic powers. They act
on pure, irrational rage and are some of the toughest opponents in the game.
SPECIAL TWIST: One of
my favorite things about Bioshock 2 is the part where you play as a Little Sister.
You see the world of Rapture as they do.
The Little Sisters have
psychological work in their brains to ignore the horror of Rapture, seeing a
bright shiny world full of pillows (non-Adam corpses), toys (guns), and snazzy, tuxedo-wearing
gentlemen (Splicers). They see the Adam ridden corpses as angels,
instead of damp, rusted
walls they see instructional posters,
and the Little Sister's eyes even show how they see you.
Overall, Bioshock 2 enhances the Bioshock franchize, but the first one does have a few things that are
better about it. I like the story in Bioshock better, especially with its big
twist. I always have a soft spot in my heart for beginnings. I also enjoy the two different
endings of Bioshock, the good ending and the evil ending, versus the two similar endings of Bioshock 2.
Also, Bioshock has
U-Invent machines.
The U-Invent allow you
to collect random bits of junk around Rapture and turn it into high quality
weapons, like automatic hack tools, antipersonnel bullets, new tonics, and
grenades. I honestly missed these vending machines in the second game; to have these items you
had to just hack more safes.
Overall, the people at
2K games did an incredible job of revamping and starting a Bioshock franchise.
They kept all the things people liked in the first game, but improved upon it. You
get to learn the backstory of how the Little Sisters and Big Daddies came into
being, and where your character came from. You get an expansion on the Bioshock story,
including an Amusement park covering how Rapture began. You even get to walk
around outside in the ocean, picking up Adam infused slugs. The game picks up
on the plot of the first, but advances it into an incredible father and daughter story full of jealously, love, redemption, and forgiveness.
It also adds a multi-player online option with plenty of games you can play against other Bioshock fans.
You cannot miss the
first Bioshock for the
continuity of the story, but also because it is still an incredible game. I find
Bioshock 2 the better game, the one I keep returning to. But maybe Bioshock
Infinite will be better. Maybe. But the real apocalypse will probably come
first.
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