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BioShock 2's release is fast approaching. From its delay into the first quarter of 2010, it was easy to think that the sequel to one of the most impactful games this generation had a long way to go before hitting our game machines. However, now that it is only slightly more than a month away, our overdue return to Rapture is coming sooner than many are realising. What can we suspect from our latest sojourn to the ocean floor?
The second game takes place 10 years after the first, and the anarchy that was present a decade before has degenerated further. Rapture is now under control of Sofia Lamb, a new character who apparently is the ideological opposite of golf-clubbed Andrew Ryan – instead of the selfish, free-thinking attitude that he fostered, Sofia prefers a more altruistic, liberal approach. A religion called the Rapture Family has taken hold in the city, with emphasis on a sense of unity, as well as the first game's protagonist, Jack, and his contribution to the "liberation" of Rapture and also including the worship of the original Little Sister, Eleanor. Little Sisters are young girls infected with native, ocean floor creatures that produce ADAM, unstable genetic material that can be used to create plasmid powers. Sofia Lamb has created a force of Big Sisters, Little Sisters who have reached adolescence and become even more unstable, to maintain a loose definition of order, as well as kidnap little girls from homesteads along the Atlantic coast to make more Little Sisters, since Jack from the original dealt with many of them on his journey through the city. This time however, you no longer occupy the overly-spliced body of the former protagonist, instead controlling the overly-spliced body of the original prototype Big Daddy. Much like the final creation, you are a heavily-muscled, heavily-armoured abomination whose sole purpose is to protect the Little Sisters. Quite unlike the factory model, the prototype, for reasons not yet revealed, has the ability to use plasmids and has free-will – he is not subject to the mental conditioning that forces others to protect Little Sisters so fervently. He has been revived from stasis by Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum, the perfector of the ADAM-creation process, for reasons that are also not clear at this time. With weapons, armour, plasmids and an oxygen tank at your disposal, Rapture is now yours to wander.
The gameplay appears to be much the same as the previous game. You use weapons in your right hand, and plasmids, supernatural abilities such as setting enemies on fire or spewing lightning, in your left. This time however, instead of alternating between one and the other, both are on-screen at all times. We have been told that the ease of use of this makes advanced strategies involving the use of both of your arsenals more readily available. Being a Big Daddy, unique weapons are at your disposal, such as the drill. Acting as your melee weapon, it makes the first game's wrench look quite paltry, with gore and giblets painting the environment with each use. Other weapons, such as the Rivet gun that the "Rosie" Big Daddies have, a rotating minigun, and a crossbow that, aside from firing ordinary bolts, can fire Rocket Spears, which, while lodging themselves in your enemies at speed, spew flame out of their ends, igniting nearby enemies and combustible objects before exploding themselves.
Many areas of Rapture have flooded due to the decay of the city. Normally, these would be impossible to explore due to the intense water pressure and the lack of, y'know, air, but the diving suit of the Big Daddy allows you to endure these hazards. There are particular scenes when you must travel to these flooded areas, and even out onto the ocean floor. There is no combat in these areas we're told, these are meant to be just scenic, contemplative moments away from the constant threat of enemy Splicers.
Speaking of Splicers, we have been promised a much greater variety of enemy types this time. One example that has been revealed is the Brute, which picks out (and up) throwable pieces of the environment, and tosses them at you at crushing velocities. Another type of Big Daddy rears its enlarged head, also, called the Rumbler. He is able to throw portable turrets to hamper your movement by shooting you as you expose yourself to its line of sight. In the meantime, expect the Rumbler to fire heat-seeking RPGs at you, ensuring that this previewer, at least, dreads his first encounter.
Hacking has also changed this time around. Instead of walking right up to a vending machine or other machine and playing through a game of Pipe Mania to get your First Aid Kits for cheap, you now use a remote hacking device. This shoots a hacker into it, and a panel appears at the bottom of the screen, where an arrow moves left to right and back again. By activating it as it travels over a green marker enough times, you can hack into the vending machine, camera, or turret that you want on your side. Plasmids work differently now also, with evolutions acting not only as damage or effectiveness upgrades, but with actual aesthetic and functional changes. For example, while Incinerate! simply lights your enemy on fire, Incinerate! 2 tosses a fireball, and Incinerate! 3 sprays a plume a fire in front of you.
The first game, while loved by many, was criticised by some due to its lack of multiplayer. While hardly a requirement, 2K has employed Digital Extremes, who also worked on the PS3 version of the original game, to create a multiplayer component for BioShock 2. The developers decided that having a narrative in the multiplayer was very important as an addition to the BioShock franchise, and thusly takes place during the Civil War that led to Rapture's downfall, a year before the original title. You are an ordinary Rapture citizen (if such a description is possible) under the employ of Sinclair Solutions, testing plasmids. This plays into the character progression system, in which you grow through 40 levels. When you reach Level 40, a certain surprise is promised to be unlocked, but the details of this are not likely to be revealed until it's in a user's hands.
There are seven modes – five completely distinguishable ones, and two variations on those five. The free-for-all mode is called Survival of the Fittest, where total kills are the objective and it's every man, woman and Big Daddy for themselves. Civil War is a form of Team Deathmatch, where two teams duke it out for overall supremacy. Capture the Flag veterans have Capture the Sister to occupy themselves, with a battle to steal a Little Sister from the other team and safely depositing her in a vent. ADAM Grab is most closely resembled to the Oddball mode from the Halo games, with a single Little Sister on the map, and whichever player holds her for longest wins the game. In a similar way, Turf War is a Zone/Point Capture mode, where whichever team control certain points on the map for the longest amount of time wins the game. The two variations are Last Splicer Standing and Team ADAM Grab, with the former being Survival of the Fittest with no respawns, and the latter being a team-based form of the original mode.
Big Daddy suits are scattered randomly across the game's maps, and if you find one and decide to don it, you can bring its fearsome armour and weapons into play. Don't be fooled into thinking it's the prototype you play in the full game – you become an ordinary Rosie type, with a Rivet Gun as your death-dealer. While you will be capable of mass destruction, you also have the caveat of being a big, prominent target, so choosing your fights carefully should prove to be the defining factor of a skilled 'Daddy.
Stay tuned for our full review of BioShock 2, which releases on 9 February 2010 in both the European and North American regions.
