2010 2K Marin - 2K Games - XBoc 360
Culture Shocked
I hate to admit it, but I never finished playing the original Bioshock and perhaps this review would be a little bit different if I have completed it.
For a decent amount of time I've been hooked on multiplayer and sandbox games and haven't played a quality single player title. Bioshock 2 ended that decent amount of time.
Plot overview time! I'll try to go easy on the spoilers, but I'm sure I'll accidentally drop one or two. Unlike the first title of the series, the character you commandeer is a Big Daddy. If you played at least 30 or so minutes in the first, you know exactly what they are. It's a rather different theme, going from a plaything of the ultimate threat to being the ultimate threat. You crash and crush your way through Rapture to rescue or harvest the Little Sisters, similar to the first, but with a different ultimate goal in mind.
Cutting the bull and giving the game a 9/10 for gameplay. Weapon and plasmid selections run smoothly, controls had zero issues, and frustrating backtracking doesn't exist one bit. I'd like to give the game a 10, but I just feel like it was lacking something that I can't put my finger on.
Graphics, graphics, graphics. Sadly, I've only played this game on a very small 15" or so sized TV with minimal HD capabilities. Actually, I don't even know if it is HD even though it's somewhat advertised on its old box. I do remember the first being rather eye catching, and the atmosphere is maintained at a high level. Despite looking dumpy on my "television," I'll hand the game a 9/10.
The game was a bit more music to my eyes than it was to my ears. Sound and whatnot was done fairly well, but not exceptional. 7/10, I enjoyed it, but it didn't have huge flaws.
Replayability? Hardly any. The campaign doesn't vary from each gameplay, at least not in my eyes, so I have to give this category a poor rating. Also, I tried the multiplayer mode, an addition that wasn't present in the first title. I do love my online FPS, but god damn, it is atrocious. The motions are choppy, experience and gained weapons severely makes the matches lopsided and hitboxes don't seem to make sense. I considered giving this game a decent replay rating, just so the overall doesn't plummet, but man, the multiplayer is something that the game could've benefited from not having. Going to put it smack dab in the middle of the spectrum and give it a 5/10. Sorry Bioshock 2.
Again, being lazy on the wittiness and writing flair, so I'm coming right out and granting this a 9/10 in originality. Like I said before, how often do you get to be the beast and make the AI look foolish? How often do you get to play in the retro-futuristic world (Oh yeah, Fallout!)? And how often do you have nifty super powers that all do different stuff? The game also has a modified "hack" feature that looks like stopping the needle of a fuel gauge in green/blue areas that no longer pauses the game. This makes hacking sentries and bots more interesting in the midst of combat.
Ratings
Storyline: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Replayability: 5/10
Originality: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
//Nate
