When BioShock was released in 2007, it helped to push the boundaries of immersive storytelling in a first-person shooter. So for its sequel, the team at 2K Games knew that they had to up the ante even further with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a bigger adventure, b💞ut they had to do so without losing the essence of what made the first game so great.
And while BioShock 2 had released in 2010 tℱo generally favorable reviews, most outlets considered it a step down from the stellar original. Here are a few things that would have ensured the game lived up to expectations.
5 A Less Familiar Setting 🙈
Like its predecessor, the events in BioShock 2 tak𒁏e place in Rap🐬ture, an underwater city that has fallen into ruin following a civil war. Originally envisioned as a utopia where its people could exist away from the rules and influences of established governments, its proverbial cracks began to show after a powerful drug turns most of its people into raging psychopaths.
The problem with returning to Rapture in ൩BioShock 2 was that the setting had already been explored extensively in the first game. So much of the novelty and sense of discovery were gone since players were basically retreading a very familiar path. There are only so many dimly lit hallways and 50s-inspired laboratories you can explore before you feel you have seen it all. Thankfully, 2K Games had taken that fatigue into consideration when choosing a setting for the subsequent gam🐼e in the series, BioShock Infinite.
4 A 💛More Engaging Story
The or♚iginal BioShock had players venturing into Rapture for the very first time, playing as a plane crash survivor named Jack. For its sequel, however, which is set eight years after the events of the first game, you play as a nameless character simplyꦛ referred to as Subject Delta. The catch is that Subject Delta is a Big Daddy, one of the hulking diving suit-clad enemies from the first game.
Having been resurrected after being forced to commit suicide ten years prior, Subject Delta must now reunite with his Little Sister, Eleanor, or risk dying yet again. Compared to the first game, the story in BioShock 2 serves as more of an excuse to traipse through Rapture once again, lacking a lot of the emotional heart or exploration of philosophical themes that defined its predecessor. It was always going to be difficult replicating some of that game's big moments and reveals but the ones in this one still leave a lot to be desired.
3 New Gameplay Or Play Style🥀s
One of the main selling points of BioShock 2 is getting to play as a Big Daddy. But anyone expecting that to feel drastically different from playing as Jack in the first game most likely came away from this one feeling disappointed. Most of your time will still be spent fighting your way through Splicers, the primary enemies in the game, with the key difference being 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the introduction of new weapons.
This includes the hand-mounted drill that is part of the Big Daddy's iconic look, as well as a number of guns that weren't available in BioShock. Each one handles the same as those other guns though, and the combat itself feels like a rehash of the same basic template we've played through before. No one was expecting a reinvention of the wheel in this area, especially considering how well received the gameplay in the first game had been. But it would have still been nice if playing as a Big Daddy actually felt as great as it sounded on paper.
2 💎 A Wider Variety Of Plasmids
Speaking of gameplay, the semi-familiar first-person gunplay of BioShock was elevated by the introduction of special abilities known as Plasmids. These make a return in BioShock 2, functioning much the same way as they did before. The key difference is that they can now be dual-wielded along with your current𝓀ly selected weapon, creating the opportunity 🃏for some interesting pairings.
You'll quickly discover though that there are hardly any new additions to the overall number of available Plasmids. All the favorites from BioShock make a return, including ones that help with crowd control like Incinerate and Insect Swarm. But it seems like a missed opportunity not to include some even more creative variants, especially considering that you are now playing as a Big Daddy. This would have helped to differentiate the gameplay between the two games even further.
1 ♒ A Stronger Ending
BioShock is perhaps most fondly remembered for its twist ending. And while we won't detail what had happened precisely, it is worth stating that the game remains worth playing today for that ending alone. Like one of the great M. Night Shyamalan films, the twist not only manages to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:catch the player off guard but does so while shedding new light upon everything ಞthat came before it.
So heading into BioShock 2, the expectation was that we would be getting an ending that either matches or manages to exceed the feeling of awe that players had at the end of the first game. But much like the later crop of Shyamalan films, the twist and ending in this one offer nowhere near the same level of tꦯhrills. Perhaps it was a bit too much to expect things to end on a high note, though one could argue that the precedent for that had already been set long before many of us even booted up the game.
