About Bioshock
If you have not played the original Bioshock, here is a little background. Bioshock 1 and 2 take place in an underwater utopia-gone-dystopian city “Rapture” created in 1940s in secret by industrialist Andrew Ryan. The architecture, culture, and dress are all from that period. The advanced technology throughout the game is of the “steampunk” Captain Nemo variety: Technology of today as if designed by folks from the 1920s.
While escaping the world into this utopian underwater city, a scientific discovery is made by analyzing the local sea life. A previously unknown species of sea slug contained unique stem cells dubbed ADAM that allowed for repairing or rewriting the human genomes. Thus, modifications in humans is born. In the first game, you learn that Dr. Tenenbaum then discovers a way to mass-produce ADAM within the bodies of “little sisters”, orphans specialized for the task of locating and recycling ADAM.
ADAM can be used to enhance your body in two main ways: Plasmids (which are genetic modifications that must be refueled with EVE serum), and Gene Tonics (permanent enhancements). As the humans became obsessed and more powerful their mental faculties faltered. Rapture disintegrated into a free-for-all hunt for ADAM and bodily enhancements to survive.
As utopia fell to dystopia, the Big Daddy was engineered from unwilling participants. Once transformed, a Big Daddy pair-bonds with a little sister for her protection. It is a symbiotic relationship: The Big Daddy protects the little sister as she must travel harvest ADAM from Rapture’s fallen, and he receives ADAM for his efforts.
For those forlorn Looking Glass Studio fans out there, 2K Boston’s highly original Bioshock captured the spirit of System Shock 2 and Thief series, while integrating the dynamics of a first person shooter. Bioshock was a tour-de-force in both graphics and story and thus proved quite popular. Now with Bioshock 2, developed by 2K Marin, we are in for more good times.
Bioshock 2 continues some 8 years after the original game: 1968. You wake up not knowing who you are nor anything about Rapture, yet you are a Big Daddy. It was originally assumed that Bioshock 2 was a prequel, but it is in fact a successor that tells the prequel backstory through diary logs and dialogue.
You will discover more about Rapture and the backstory of the scientists. You will also discover the current travails of the little sisters as the older ones become young adults. Some of these “Big Sisters” are the baddest enemies you will encounter.
The Environment
Bioshock 2 continues the immersive, well-thought-out fiction introduced in Bioshock. The architecture, vistas, clothing, weaponry, and manner of speaking all hark from a population that became isolated since the 1940s. Games that pull off a story universe fall in that extra special place in my gaming heart, and this franchise is one of the best. You will hear era music and dialogs, see architecture and graphic arts all from the classic timeframe that make this a steampunk adventure you have to take on.
 Rushing, moving water everywhere |
 Beautiful aqua vistas |
The gaming world’s rich vistas and well thought out time-period mechanisms make just walking your character around fun. Your experience may vary though based on the computer you use. Bioshock 2 allows you to turn off effects to gain framerate performance. Below is a picture showing the frame rate with all effects on and all effects off:
 All effects on |
 No effects on |
Sound also plays a role in the immersion. Dripping, running water (even beads of water running down your diving mask). Creaking pipes. Giggles and babble from deranged ADAM addicts. Steam hissing from cracked pipes. Time-era music. Conversations contain the colloquialisms we associate with the era’s old gangster movies.
There is game music in Bioshock 2 as well, however it is more subtle, similar to Fallout 3 or Oblivion.
Livin Large in a Deep Dive Suit: The gameplay
Vending and Hacking
If you have played Bioshock 1, you are intimately familiar with the layout of Rapture: Vending machines for everything from ammo (we said dystopia earlier, right?), to health packs, and ADAM-based plasmids and tonics are present everywhere.
There are also robotic camera and weapons systems. Don’t just go running into an area, look around on the floor or walls for the tell-tale red glow of a security camera’s search light sweeping the area. If you are detected, you must battle the summoned security bots.
Of course with all of this great technology, hacking plays a big role. You can hack vending machines for cheaper prices, or hack security bots to work on your behalf. And unlike Bioshock 1′s less-than-friendly water-pipe hack minigame, Bioshock 2 sees a huge improvement. I recommend you get into hacking throughout the game. You will immediately note the improvement.
 Hacking mechism is well done |
With hacking, you are presented a needle that moves from left to right. You must stop it when it is over a green or blue area. A red area will trigger an alarm and you will have bots all over you before you know it. If you continue to attempt to hack and are successful, the bots will back off. Keep in mind that in Bioshock 2 hacking is purely in-game and the action is not paused. You have to hack while folks are fighting you or cameras are searching for you.
| Spoiler Inside: How can failed hacking help you? | |
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| Spoiler Inside: Hacking Shooting Bots | |
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Enemies and AI
You have different categories of deranged lunatic ADAM “splicers” to defeat. Some easier than others. Early on the enemies all look and sound alike. I think I encountered the mad mime-looking-guy and killed him like 10 times. This does pose one of the problems with the game: You will see the same recycled enemy many times over. It does affect the immersion. Thankfully as the game goes on and more variations of enemies are thrown into the mix you don’t tell as much.
The AI however is quite good. They may be cookie cutter in appearance, but they sure do hide around columns and walls and understand defensive positions. You may also encounter a splice group raiding a Big Daddy for his little sister. You could choose to stay on the sidelines and observe or join in the fray. Like in Halo, battles can occur between factions, making you a third party to the event. It can be a lot of fun, and present an advantage.
One clever feature in the game that harkens back to Bioshock 1 is the research camera. Once you find it, you can “shoot” an enemy with the camera and then switch to a weapon and attack. The camera records the action and researches the enemy attributes. It will report back its findings and you can win an attack bonus when facing that enemy again and attacking using the suggested technique.
| Spoiler Inside: Using the Environment to Deal with Enemies | |
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And I should warn you, enemies are fast. When you progress far enough you will encounter “spider” splicers. These freaking folks can crawl on walls and ceilings and literally leap across large spaces. Its quite effective.
Chasing ADAM
You must obtain ADAM to improve your abilities or as the game progresses simply be unable to cope. Enhancements bring you better hacking skills, increased health, exotic weaponry such as the ability to throw electricity, and much more. Only once in the game is collecting ADAM ever a goal, and that serves more to teach you how to do it. From then on its your choice, but I highly recommend you take the time to pursue much ADAM in the beginning.
To begin the task you must first locate a little sister, and her ever present Big Daddy defender. And yes, you will have to whack Daddy. Once victorious with the little girl crying for her loss, you can chose to kill the little girl and obtain ADAM from her then and there, or adopt her onto your back and search for it.
Interestingly, its difficult to choose the evil path almost entirely because of the helpless nature of the little girl. The game developers even offer you more ADAM for doing the “wrong” thing and I still can’t do it. Oh well. Once adopted, a little sister helps you locate bodies lying around Rapture that contain harvestable ADAM. You can ask her at any time where the closes body lies and an eerie ghostly ribbon flows through the air leading you there.
Once at a body equipped with ADAM, you are presented a menu option to harvest. The little sister climbs down and starts operating on the body, and a progress meter shows up indicating the time remaining for the harvest. And now you will find out why they need Big Daddy protectors 
. Splicers come out of the woodwork to obtain the ADAM any way they can (which is typically killing you but they may go for the girl).
 Adopting a little sister |
 Chase the scent of Adam |
 An adam-rich body for harvesting |
 Defending the little sister |
Continue reading our in-depth Bioshock 2 review: Bioshock 2 Review Part 2
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