REVIEW: BioShock 2

**WARNING - THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

Well, the time has come. BioShock 2 is now a few days old. And my god has it made a good impression so far!

IGN gave it a MetaScore of 91/100, Modern Warfare 2 only scored 4 points higher. The overall score from MetaCritic was 89/100, based on 12 different reviews and metascores from different people/websites.

Now, onto gameplay.

In general, things are the same in Rapture; no silly matrix style ninja fighting...you point and shoot (or throw a plasmid) then run the hell away as fast as you can!

The controls have been slightly modified from BioShock, but these can all be rebound to the old keys if you wish to do so (something I did, just like MW2).

BioShock 2 is still running on the Unreal 2.5 engine, with elements of the Unreal 3.0 engine; just like the original. 

The main difference in BioShock 2 is that this time, it was designed to work on a PC as well as on a console. BioShock 1 (PC Version) was a port of the Xbox 360 version, which meant lots of bugs/glitches/crashes that were never really fixed (BS1 was only ever updated to version 1.1 because 2K Games started BS2 development soon after the release of BS1).

Story time kids,

the idea this time round is that you are a prototype Big Daddy, the first one ever created that was forever 'linked' to a Little Sister. 

However, you pissed off the wrong woman and eventually she caught up with you and made you pay, by making you blowing your own brains out.

Game Over? I don't think so, you wake up on New Years Eve 1969 (10 years after the events of BioShock 1) and discover that there is much more to the situation than you thought!

Now you need to work out how and why you survived, and what you need to do to save the day.

That's all of the story that I'll share with you, I really wouldn't want to spoil it (and honestly I'm only about 2 hours into the game, so I don't even know how it ends yet!).

Changes from BioShock? Yes. Lots.

First (and best one), Dual weapon and plasmid - No more hitting RMB to switch between the two, you can wield both and really kick the living daylights out of everything in sight.

Textures - Much dirtier, more grungy and nasty looking. Remember, its been 10 years since BS1, the place with filthy back then, so imagine what its like now?...Yeah, not nice, looks way cool though!

Gameplay - Seems much more fluid, more dynamic. Levels seem to flow together a lot better than the prequel.

Music - The sound of BioShock 1 was amazing, the music was unsurpassed, until now. The music timing in this game is beyond belief, when you first spot a Big Sister sitting on a rock out in the sea the tone of the music drops and as you get closer to 'her' the sudden change and burst of loud music actually makes you sit there and say "Woah..." as she turns towards you and backflips off the rock and swims out of sight. Breathtaking. On another note, I purchased the special edition of BS2 yesterday, I have no intentions of ever opening it...But it does contain a CD with the entire soundtrack of BioShock 2, and a specially made vinyl record with a few musical pieces from the game on. I really want to open that and dust off the record player, but I must resist...for now! 

In short, everything that has changed, works beautifully. Even the new hacking system which I first struggled to get used to is now one of my favourite parts of the game.

Something has to be said about the Multiplayer aspect of BioShock 2.

Personally, I'm not impressed.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea. But I think they've gone about it wrong. 

Rather than sticking to the standard, renamed-Team Deathmatch, Capture-The-Flag, Domination and Free-For-All modes; they should have made a multiplayer mode where YOU can live in Rapture, have a profession, NPC's and PvP during the Civil War, think of a Fallout 3 MMO Hybrid, with added sea water, and you're getting there. Would have been amazing in my opinion.

Honestly though, I'm not playing BioShock 2 for the multiplayer, granted I may play with my fellow MWM members from time-to-time, but I won't be doing so off the bat. BioShock 2 singleplayer will be my primary choice in Rapture-fuelled carnage for the foreseeable future, but who knows...they might update and improve the multiplayer! 

Hope you enjoyed my review, if you're interested in purchasing BioShock 2, your best bet is Steam, No DVD's to lose and you can use the Steam application to keep in touch with your friends while you play.

Don't forget, BioShock 2 requires some fairly decent hardware, so check your PC will meet the requirements below BEFORE you buy, Steam do not offer refunds if the games you buy will not work on your PC.

BioShock 2 Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows XP (SP2+), Vista, Windows 7
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better
• Memory: 2GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better
• DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 11GB Free Uncompressed Space
• Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound device

Thats all for now folks. Come back next time for Aliens Vs Predator!

-TheDillusion

(Link Plug: MWM | Xfire | Steam )