Reviews// BioShock 2

Big Sisters are cool. Where Big Daddies are lumpen, rather dull of brain and - unlike Splicers - they won't attack until attacked, Big Sisters are quick, slim, vicious, eyeball-gougingly to the point, and will attack at any given opportunity. Fortunately, in the same way as you can hear Splicers coming due to their chatter; Big Daddies coming because of their bass vibrato, you can hear Big Sisters coming due to their screaming loudly in a very high-pitched manner.

Useful. Spooky. Atmospheric. Not quite as spooky or atmospheric as the sound of a witch in L4D2, but nevertheless Spookmospheric. Once they get to you, it's time for one hell of a fight, followed by respawing in 'Vita Chambers' (save points) and then going back at them again, this time with the correct plasmid.

Thoroughly enjoyable stuff is your progress through Rapture (think Pilgrim's Progress but with more dripping water, elegant story telling and hypo-corpse rape).

One other thing you've got to bear in mind is hacking. Yes, you may be a slow, rather undextrous creature charged with babysitting, but you've also got to be able to hack machines, gun turrets and security alarms. This too is fun. I am usually rubbish at this sort of thing. I sucked at Pipemania for example, and hacking in the first game (I snuck a look at Pocket Frenzy playing it) was indeed Pipemania. Hacking in BS2, however, is much less brain busting and ball aching: there's a gauge, there's a needle. There are colours: Red, Blue, Orange, Yellow. Stop the needle on Red and you get a shock (or the security system you're attempting to hack calls in airborne support). Stop the needle on Blue or Green and you've hacked. You now control that security system. In the case of safes of ammo and 'stuff' stations, you now have access to their contents. A thoroughly excellent video gaming hacking convention used elegantly. I liked it.

You may have guessed by now that I found the audio annoying. I certainly found the voice acting for the most part quite funny in a “Oh, cor lummy alawks criminy guvnor” sort of a way. Part of this is, I suppose, to do with the late 1950s setting in which even American folks all tried to speak like the Kennedys from Kennebunkport, Maine. Part of it is that unlike say a certain PS3-exclusive title that I'm not allowed to mention until tomorrow at 5pm, the voice actors weren't that good. Sofia Lamb excluded.

The music – one of the more evocative and underrated of video game techniques for atmospherics? It wouldn't find it's way into my Top 10 'most memorable' lists. In fact, at times the rapidly pinging violins got to the point of repetition whereby I had to turn them down. This was not because my pulse was racing, but because they were almost totally eviscerating the game, the plot and the environment of any tension at all.

That's a shame.

It's not a game-breaking, 'OMG you've ruined my life, I hate you' shame. It's more a “well, that's pretty average” shame.

Time to move on. What we have here is an above average FPS with more than a little plot to keep you interested in following what's basically a rigid line of exploration from point A (Who am I? Why am I here? What the hell is that? I am all alone and alienated. Why are they trying to kill me? Oh, I am dead. Oh, I have respawned) via all points in between (Nice underwatery bit! Jesus that's a big/quick/scary bastard I'll never beat that! I just beat that. I am awesome! Now I've got to make a moral choice. Bazinga! That changed a few things. Oh, I am dead. Oh, I have respawned!) to point Z (I rule supreme! Nothing can hurt me! Oh, that's what that plot device was for!).

In fact, if you're new to FPS, I'd suggest that this is a very good place to start indeed. The map is friendly enough. The combat is straightforward and requires some thought. The weapons and plasmid/tonic economics are immersive. The foes are scary and beatable. The whole place looks scintillating.

If you're wanting a follow-up – a Levineless follow-up to BS1 that goes by the numbers and remains faithful to the core of the original's moral choices, philosophy 101, with better graphics and nastier enemies, then I'd also suggest this may be fun for you.

I wouldn't suggest, however, that it's as deep or remarkable as the first one. But that's basically because I've been told that it's not as deep or remarkable as the first one. Then again, The Arctic Monkey's second LP wasn't as good as the first one, doesn't make it a bad album.

Conclusion
SPOnGScore (for the single-player): 90%
As an atmospheric FPS that does more than enable you to 'pwn n00bz', BioShock 2 is an achievement. It at least attempts to indulge in A-Level philosophy while retaining atmosphere and tension. The Splicers provide a sense of dread as well as humour. The other characters are slightly less well realised. Combat is elegant. Selection of materials provides that RPG element. Poor audio, dull music, illogical health/Eve selection, inconsistent, occasionally unresponsive weapon selection, serve to take it from game-changer to well above-average video game. That said, I liked it so much that I paid my own money for it.