Orderoftheflame

Set eight years after the first game, Bioshock 2 from 2K Games returns to the underwater distopian city of Rapture in a sequel to the instant classic first game.

I found the original Bioshock to be an extremely enjoyable game, despite a few minor flaws, and fortunately my high expectations for Bioshock 2 were mostly met.
Whilst at its very foundation, the game play is the same, there are several new features that expand on the previous title. One of the key changes is between them the interaction with the Little Sisters. Where before after killing a sister’s guardian would allow only the options to free or harvest a girl, there is now an option to adopt the girl and allow her onto your shoulders, this sister can then be taken to an corpse and extract yet more ADAM for the player to purchase upgrades with.

The game is graphically stunning both technically and artistically, and as you’d expect from the first game there’s a great sense of depth and atmosphere to it. The story is solid and stands well on it’s own two feet away from the first game, but definitely adds to to overall narrative with new information on the first story, as well as increasing the lore surrounding Rapture and it’s inhabitants.
While not a particularly long game, like the first there are plenty to of collectable recordings search for and listen to, as well as plenty of side tasks to follow up on presented by some of these.

The few new tougher “big” enemy types that have been introduced help to push the challenge up a bit, particularly when trying to deal with a group of splicers at the same time,  and can be particularly challenging when  more than one of them are attacking.
Vita-chambers are still present in the title, but the option to disable them that was patched into the first game has been implemented in the sequel for those after even more of a challenge.

I’m keen on other changes that were made to the game play as well. I found hacking of machines in the first game to be an unnecessary chore. In Bioshock 2, instead of halting the game play and forcing you to play Pipe Mania for a minute or so, you’re given a needle to stop in several coloured areas on a dial. It’s pretty easy to begin with, but later in the game when the targets get smaller, the needle gets faster and you’re trying to fight of a party of splicers at the same time it can be somewhat of a challenge.
Research has also changed for the better, and rather than just photographing foes over and over, the player must record themselves “experimenting” to progress their analysis. By using more elaborate and inventive combinations of plasmids and weapons to dispatch an enemy, a higher research score is granted for that encounter.

To sum up, if your looking for a quick FPS blast with a good story and solid game-play, you could do a hell of a lot worse than Bioshock 2. If you want something with longevity, particularly after the main story has been completed, there may be other titles that may be more suited to your interests.