Bioshock 2 Review

Summary
Bioshock 2 is a First Person Shooter (FPS), set in 1968, 8 years after the events in Bioshock. You play as “Subject Delta “a prototype of the Big Daddies. You mission is to defeat the splicer’s, a race of deranged, maniac humans. You venture through rapture, once a city thriving with business, now a desolate, isolated, underwater, city.

Graphics
In Bioshock 2 there are many occasions where good graphics are needed to distinguish things, for example using the lightning glove and flamethrower glove. Well this game is certainly no let down, especially when it comes down to the smallest things. There is one thing for sure; the designers have taken lots of their time to develop the games graphics. Although there are one or two issues with the graphics. When attention to detail isn’t needed as much the designers have just forfeited the amazing graphics, for a more mediocre approach. All the time spent on those graphics and when it doesn’t matter, when it would have taken no longer to use all the same graphics throughout the game they opted for worse ones.

Gameplay
The experience of playing this game is immense. You feel a little like the terminator, an unstoppable killing machine, blazing everything in its path. Anything that gets in your way gets sizzled, cracked or electrocuted. There are, of course, bosses which take a while to defeat, but once you’ve got used to and mastered all the controls are not too big a deal.

Duration
There are 9 levels to complete in single player mode which is pretty average. Not the most amazing amount of levels, but not awful either. The levels start out really easy for a casual gamer, but as you progress you need plenty more shooter experience. Hardcore gamers will love this game as it provides more than 24 hours of gameplay, which is more than almost any other game in the whole world.

Storyline
Set in 1968, 8 years after the events in Bioshock, Rapture is now under the control of a psychiatrist named Sofia Lamb, whose ideas for human progression are a sharp contrast to the city's deceased founder, Andrew Ryan. Under Sofia's rule, the first generation of Little Sisters have matured into adolescence. The Big Sisters, as they are now known, are highly aggressive and have the ability to use plasmids absorbed from gathering ADAM as a child. Sofia sends them out to coastlines across the Atlantic, kidnapping little girls and turning them into new Little Sisters.

In 1958, the first successfully designed Big Daddy, Subject Delta, is forced to commit suicide by Sofia Lamb. She informs him that his Little Sister is actually her daughter Eleanor, who watches in horror as Delta shoots himself in the head. Ten years later, a Vita Chamber revives Delta, who then begins to receive psychic messages from Eleanor pleading for help. Delta encounters Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum, who tells him that in order to save Eleanor and stop Lamb; he must travel to where Eleanor is held. If he does not, a fail-safe device designed to trigger if he strays too far from her will activate, sending him into a coma and killing him. On his journey, Delta is aided by Tenenbaum's new ally Augustus Sinclair. Delta also receives aid from Eleanor, who uses her psychic connection to the new Little Sisters to leave care packages and messages throughout Rapture.

Through the audio logs scattered throughout Rapture, Delta discovers that Lamb was originally brought to Rapture to help those who were struggling to cope with underwater life. However, Lamb used the therapy sessions as a means to brainwash her patients into joining a cult she called The Family. In response to this new threat, Andrew Ryan asked Sinclair to deal with her. Sinclair used a spy within The Family, Stanley Poole, to get Lamb arrested and exiled from Rapture; Eleanor was then left in the care of Grace Holloway. When Eleanor confronted Poole, who had bankrupted Lamb's property, Dionysus Park, in order to cover up his actions, Stanley panicked and kidnapped her. Eleanor ended up in one of Frank Fontaine's orphanages, which led to her transformation into a Little Sister.

Upon arriving in Fontaine Futuristics, Lamb's plan becomes clear: she plans to use ADAM to transform and enslave her daughter, who can then be controlled using the same conditioning methods used on Jack Ryan. It is also revealed that Sinclair plans to take control of Rapture from Lamb, and sell its technology to the surface.

After infiltrating Lamb's base of operations, Delta is captured, and his pair-bond with Eleanor is severed when she is rendered unconscious. However, Eleanor sends a special plasmid to Delta that allows him to take control of a Little Sister. Depending on Delta's actions throughout Rapture she is either a spirited, rebellious young woman determined to win her freedom or a ruthless cynic who only thinks of her own welfare and survival.

Following Eleanor's instructions, Delta brings her Big Sister armour, allowing her to free Delta and fight by his side. They resolve to make their final escape from Rapture using Sinclair’s escape pod. Lamb, upon seeing her daughter defy her, plans to set off bombs that will kill them all. During their escape, Delta is forced to kill Sinclair, who had been captured by Lamb and transformed into a Big Daddy.

After a final climactic showdown with the remnants of The Family, Eleanor and Delta make it to the escape pod, but a final trap set by Lamb mortally wounds Delta and starts to send them to the bottom of the sea. Using the last of his strength, Delta manages to grab onto the side of the escape pod and climb on board. Trapped in the flooded escape pod with her mother, Eleanor makes the choice to either kill or save Lamb based on the player's actions.

A very controversial plot with good and evil influencing each other, sometimes leading to attacking your own.

Multiplayer
Personally the best thing about Bioshock 2 is the amazing different multiplayer modes. There are 7 different modes! Here is the long list:

Survival of the Fittest: A 'free-for-all' mode where each player gets points for killing each of the other players. Whichever player has the most kills or 20 kills at the end of the match wins.
 * Civil War: Similar to 'Survival of the Fittest,' but in this mode players are divided into two teams and the team with the most collective kills at the end of the match wins.
 * Last Splicer Standing: A variation of 'Civil War' in which players do not respawn after being killed. Each match consists of several rounds in which players attempt to outlive the players on the enemy team.


 * Capture the Sister: A 'Capture the Flag' style mode where players are divided into two teams. One team has to protect a Little Sister while the other team tries to steal her and place her in a vent on the other side of the map. The team protecting the little sister will have a randomly chosen player be a Big Daddy. After a pre-determined amount of time, the teams switch roles. Whichever team has the most captures at the end of the match wins.
 * ADAM Grab: In this mode there is one Little Sister on the map and the player must seek her out and maintain possession of her as long as possible. The first person to hold onto the Little Sister for 3 minutes wins.
 * Team ADAM Grab: A variant of 'ADAM Grab' where players are divided into two teams. The objective is the same, but victory is determined by a collective score rather than individual scores, and the first team to hold the little sister for 5 minutes wins.
 * Turf War: Players are split into two teams and each team must reach pre-determined points on the map to capture that point. The team with the most control points over the longest time wins.

The Results:

We like:

The mainly amazing graphics.

The awesome multiplayer.

The time taken to complete the game.

The feel of the game.

We don’t like:

The sometimes disappointing graphics.

There is too much similarity to Bioshock

The levels are so long, average about 3 hours that you will easily get bored.

Ratings:

Graphics: 91%

Gameplay: 94%

Duration: 78%

Storyline: 91%

Multiplayer: 96%

Overall: 90%

GOLD AWARD