Bioshock sequel takes gamers to new depths

After huge success with the first Bioshock game, there was no way 2K could pass up making a sequel to one of the pioneering XBOX 360 games.

Like its predecessor, Bioshock 2 is set in the underwater dystopian city of Rapture. Taking place almost a full decade after the events of Bioshock, this sequel is also set in the 1960s of an alternate history where the Atlantean city of Rapture has been taken over by a new dictator, named Sophia Lamb and it has now fallen on your character, a prototype Big Daddy, to stop her from completely destroying Rapture.

With any sequel, it is important game designers not "reinvent the wheel" so to speak. This was not a problem for 2K, who took many of the great features of the first Bioshock, transferred them to the second one and even added a few more cool gameplay features.

Something new in this game is, instead of playing as a bottom-of-the-food-chain human, you are now playing as a Herculean Big Daddy. Big Daddies protect the ADAM-infused Little Sisters from the ADAM-hungry denizens of Rapture, called Splicers. As a Big Daddy, you are second fiddle to only one thing in Rapture: Big Sisters. Though players will probably not recognize them in the game, Big Sisters are Little Sisters rescued at the conclusion of the first Bioshock who have now grown up into horrifying monsters with great agility and the ability to use plasmids.

One of the many things revisited is the existence of ADAM, which are stem cells harvested from an unknown species of sea slug. ADAM has the ability to repair damaged tissue and even rewrite the human genome. This genetic alteration allows the player to utilize supernatural weapons called plasmids. There are roughly a dozen or more plasmids, ranging from setting an enemy on fire to tricking them into becoming your ally for a short time.

A massive improvement in this game is the ability to dual-wield plasmids alongside a slew of Big Daddy-sized weapons. This feature was not available in the original and allows the player to vary their fighting techniques during almost-constant warfare with Splicers.

As far as Big Daddy weapons are concerned, you can now carry a wide array, ranging from a large drill attached to your right arm to a spear gun that fires rocket propelled spears that can carry an enemy a long distance before exploding. As opposed to the weapons of the first game, these weapons were actually made for your character and were not pieced together by a bunch of detoxing ADAM junkies.

One of the few drawbacks of Bioshock 2 is the limit placed on the number of certain things your character can carry. For instance, you can now only carry five EVE hypodermics and five first aid kits. EVE is the ammo that fuels plasmids and when you run out, no more fire at your fingertips. Some plasmids take a lot of EVE to use and so you can see how this limited capacity could pose a bit of a problem at times.

One aspect of the first Bioshock that was really cool was the focus on morality and making morally responsible decisions as the player. If you make the right decisions you get a "good" ending, or vice versa. Well that concept was amped up quite a bit in the sequel, with the player having more chances to choose the path of good or bad. Every choice you make in the game changes the ending.

Most sequels are usually improved in some aspects that make the original game relatively obsolete. However, this is not quite the case with Bioshock 2. As cinematic as both of these games are, after playing through Bioshock 2, I had no greater desire than to play through each game again in succession.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars