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| Delta attacking a Big Daddy with his Electro Bolt plasmid power. |
Rapture, a failed attempt at building an Objectivist utopia on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with the finest minds in the world has been taken over by Collectivist psychologist Sofia Lamb. Lamb plans to use her daughter Eleanor, along with the superpower granting substance ADAM, to create a cult that will lead to a Collectivist utopia. Eleanor’s former Big Daddy Subject Delta is tasked with rescuing Eleanor.
Delta travels to different parts of Rapture with some objective in mind, usually hunting down someone for information. To get to the person or other objective, Delta has to fight through hordes of Sofia’s mutated goons.
Delta has two types of attacks. The first kind use regular weapons, like shotguns and mini-guns. The effectiveness of these weapons varies. Ammo is limited and is found either on dead enemies or bought in vending machines. There are other machines that give weapons upgrades, like a larger clip or a stronger attack, but there are only a set number of those machines in the game, so the player has to choose which ones to use carefully.
The other more interesting weapon Delta has are plasmid powers which Delta also finds laying about Rapture, like shooting fire or lightning powers. These powers act in support to the regular weapon, they usually act as a way to slow down and partially damage enemies while Delta finished them off with weapons, liking freezing a guy and shot-gunning them to death.
There are also passive plasmid powers that Delta can equip, like a power that makes vending machines cheaper, or heals Delta whenever he stands in puddles of water.
What differentiates BioShock 2 from other shooters is that it is not just about going to rooms and shooting everything, Rapture is a place to be explored. Levels are actually complicated and detailed and fill with money and ammo and audio recordings to find. Since Rapture was built in the 1940s it has a heavy art deco design which the developers put a lot of detail into, plus the look of a destroyed city built underwater. The developers put a lot of work into making every area unique and a joy to explore. Delta will only run into one or two enemies every couple of rooms, though their numbers increase as the game progresses.
Plasmids are bought with ADAM, the collection of which makes up a large part of the game. Delta has to find Little Sisters walking around Rapture. Then he has to defeat their Big Daddies, which are incredibly tough enemies. Then Delta has to escort her to bodies filled with ADAM, and guard her from enemies while she harvests the ADAM. Finally Delta can gently remove the ADAM from her body and turn her into a regular girl, or kill her and get a lot of ADAM. The game presents it as a morality choice, but since it is stated at the beginning that the player will get a bigger reward later if they save the Little Sisters, it is not much of a choice. And after all that, Delta has to kill a Big Sister, which is like a Big Daddy but stronger and faster.
Combat is not hard. Despite a good selection of weapons and plasmids it is easy to spam a few weapons and plasmids for most of the game. It only gets really dangerous when a bunch of enemies swarm when a Little Sister is harvesting. The game sets up these big areas for fighting the enemies, and includes trap weapons the player can use, but they are so cumbersome. And eventually Delta gets so powerful that the last few levels are not a challenge at all.
The back story is told by video recordings characters made and left around. They range from the big story of how Sofia Lamb came into power, to little stories detailing the history of individual areas. The main story is less interesting; Delta just goes from one area to the next, aided by someone and opposed by one of Lamb’s followers, until he reaches Lamb’s hideout. It is a good thing the video recorders are around to flush out characters and places, because otherwise the story would be pretty basic. The story has a strong Objectivist versus Collectivist, which is interesting, though I question how effective a satirical message the game can make with something as fantastic as ADAM. And anyone who has not played the first BioShock will not understand anything, even with the glossary the game provides.
What BioShock 2 has going for it is that it really encourages the player to explore all of Rapture. The levels look great and nothing looks duplicated, from the restaurant area to the park area, and there are enough things to collect like audio diaries, weapon upgrades, and plasmids to make the player feel rewarded for exploring.
BioShock 2 provides and fun interesting game that is entertaining from beginning to end.
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