BioShock 2 Single-player Impressions

By Patrick Shaw, Andy Burt
October 30, 2009 17:04 PM PST
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Patrick and Andy test out new weapons and explore the creepy Ryan Amusements in BioShock 2.

Patrick: 2K Games recently invited over a hundred people from the gaming press, including Andy Burt and myself, to go hands-on with BioShock 2. Held in a multileveled warehouse devoid of almost all light (which is fitting for a game like BioShock) the room was loaded with plasma TVs, game journos anxious to play, and a macaroni bar, where you could customize your mac 'n cheese to have everything from bacon to slivers of ham. I think Andy may have overdosed on the mac 'n cheese unfortunately.

But before we got to play BioShock 2's single-player campaign ourselves, the game's creative director Jordan Thomas introduced us to the non-playable "Big Sister is Watching" level, which is set in Siren Alley, Rapture's red-light district. Thomas showed us that hacking has been streamlined quite a bit since the original BioShock as it no longer pauses the game - instead, it brings up a meter where you have to time your inputs to land into a green zone. It may seem like a minor tweak, but it makes taking over bots and turrets a lot less maddening.

Andy: I did overdose on that delicious mac 'n cheese, but not before we were able to see how some of the new Big Daddy mechanics work in BioShock 2. In addition to the hacking elements Pat mentioned, it was also interesting to see how other Big Daddies interact with the player. Being a Big Daddy yourself you're not an immediate threat to them, so planning ahead when taking them down is integral to being successful. Thomas showed how players can set up security bots to begin attacking the Big Daddy once he's realized you are a threat to him. He also highlighted how the Little Sisters aren't concerned about which Big Daddy they have protecting them, as long as there is one. After taking down a Big Daddy in Siren Alley the Little Sister he was protecting warmed up to Thomas' Big Daddy; once she hopped on his shoulders she was able to give visual cues in the form of misty looking trails to the closest Adam source. This lead to a very strategic battle against a shit-ton of splicers.

Patrick: Employing more of a strategic approach to combat is crucial to surviving BioShock 2's hairier battles such as this one. Before letting his Little Sister extract ADAM from a nearby corpse, the player protected her by booby trapping the hell out of the area, loading it up with everything from mini-turrets to cyclone traps, which were combined with the winter blast plasmid to make them even deadlier.

By the time the horde of assorted Splicers came rushing at the Little Sister, all the offensive preparation paid off by ripping most of them to shreds. The Splicers that were left, including a monstrous Brute Splicer, were slain easily enough with some well aimed shotgun blasts to the face. This scenario proved that you can occasionally let your tools and plasmids do your dirty work for you.

Andy: I don't know about you Pat, but by this time I was more than a little antsy to get behind the controller myself. The last thing the team showed off before we were able to jump in ourselves was a boss fight against Simon Whales, one of new antagonist Sophia Lamb's brainwashed minions. I wish I had taken more notes during the fight but I was too busy watching, so sorry GPers. After the fight the team was given the option to either send the Little Sister who had been accompaning us through Siren Alley back up to the surface, or harvest her for Adam. The team chose to send her away through a chute back to the surface, and here ended our hands-off time with the game.

Patrick: Now that the BioShock 2 team had thoroughly teased us with their captivating intro to the game's campaign, so began our hands-on tour of Ryan Amusements, a themepark build by Andrew Ryan to fill the children of Rapture's heads with lies. It's basically a disturbing take on Universal Studios tram ride that tours the sets of King Kong, Jaws, and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. But instead of learning about film, animatronic men and women give you a distorted view of the dystopian city's history. You can't ride the train through Ryan Amusements, though. You have to walk through the attraction on foot, which forces you to take a good, hard look at the creepy fantasy Ryan created for Rapture's younger citizens. In one attraction, a giant mechanical hand, warning of the threat of coercion, popped out of the background, snatching an animatronic little boy watching TV with his family.