Bioshock 2 Review Thread

[Mr Bean]

Well what can I say. Bioshock 2 dropped today. I'm about two hours in going to play some more tonight and I've already got a good impression with it.

It's cinematic to the extreme, as in things are happening all the time around you. The new villain "Lamb" is far more present than Ryan was and she's a much more Shodan like villain who's in your face about being your villain. However unlike Shodan, she's much more almost kind about it. Yes she's order every splicer out there to kill you, but please understand that it's nothing personal. You just can't exist in her version of Rapture.

There is a huge bonus to being an audio log fiend from the first game as we meet new faces and find out what happened to old ones after your player left.
The plot you find out in the first twenty minutes is as follows. Nothing further is spoiled, you could get the same info by reading a review of the game.
Spoiler

It's been ten years since the opening cinematic which gives you a great insight into what life was like the year before everything went to shit in Rapture. Everything fell apart in 1959 and the cinematic is from 1958 a few weeks before the Atlas new years riots when everything went to shit. The first game takes place in 1960. This game takes place in 1969 or 1970. Not sure which but our old doctor friend Brigid Tenenbaum is back. She went back to Rapture after a rash of kidnappings caught her attention along the eastern seaboard of the United states. So called "Big Sisters" are going out to steal young girls away to bring them back to Rapture, convert them into little sisters and keep the Adam cycle going.

The only comment I make tonight is this, Lighting + Big Daddy Drill? Fun for the whole family!

[General Zod]

I'm not sure what to think about it yet. I've only played a little bit through, so I'm still trying to get a feel for the story. It's a rather drastic departure from the Randian themes of the original, but it's not setting itself apart significantly yet. I expect that'll change once I get out of the early areas. (I just teamed up with Sinclair and killed the first Big Sister).

[Vympel]

In the room where Lamb first talks to you (i.e. locked up etc, just like Ryan did in teh first game) her voice was incomprehensible - it cut out and looped and shit and I had no idea wtf she was talking about. Is this deliberate? Or a bug?

[Mr Bean]

In the room where Lamb first talks to you (i.e. locked up etc, just like Ryan did in teh first game) her voice was incomprehensible - it cut out and looped and shit and I had no idea wtf she was talking about. Is this deliberate? Or a bug?

Bug, I could hear here fine

*Edit by the way since it's a concern for some, the subtitles are rather good but every one in awhile they go on a five second delay. Not sure why, reloading the last save corrects the issue.

[General Zod]

Couple of other things I've picked up on. Little touches from the original like the loudspeakers blaring Rapture propaganda commercials and the vending machines playing jingles when you come up to them are decisively missing. Maybe it's just me but not having these makes the city feel somewhat emptier.

I've also noticed combat seems to be more difficult this time around. Also, it's nice to have additional sources to gather Adam that's not just the Little Sisters. Killing Big sisters will net you Adam, and when you're outside the city itself, you can harvest the slugs mentioned in the audio logs of the first game, which is a nice touch. I still haven't decided what I think of the game as a whole yet though.

[Mr Bean]

Still up in the air as well. Just met Sinclair in the flesh and drilled my first big sister. Yeah it's a bad idea in to try and fight the 2nd generation big daddies with your drill but fighting the big sisters is horribly easy with the drill plus lightning. Just wait till she's jumping around. Zap her out of the air, and she will fall stunned. While she's down shove a drill in and start the rotation Just make sure you have a full tank of gas at all times. It's fun fighting splicers with the drill but better to save it for Big Sister fights.

Yes I miss the jingles of Bioshock one but let me just say the helicopter turrets are ten times less annoying than the first game in that they try and guess where you are headed and push ahead of you. Nor do they run into you as often or block your gunfire. They go high or low and start firing, rather than hovering at head height directly between you and the enemey.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Couple of other things I've picked up on. Little touches from the original like the loudspeakers blaring Rapture propaganda commercials and the vending machines playing jingles when you come up to them are decisively missing. Maybe it's just me but not having these makes the city feel somewhat emptier.

I've also noticed combat seems to be more difficult this time around. Also, it's nice to have additional sources to gather Adam that's not just the Little Sisters. Killing Big sisters will net you Adam, and when you're outside the city itself, you can harvest the slugs mentioned in the audio logs of the first game, which is a nice touch. I still haven't decided what I think of the game as a whole yet though.

Yes, combat seems much harder this time. Sure, you're a dude in a big armored suit, but the stock cannon fodder have all upgraded their weapons and have learned to duck ("Ah yes, the usual crazy fucker armed only with revolv . . . wait, did she just throw a grenade at me?") I admit, I started in "Easy" mode. Even "Easy" mode here plays like the first game's "Medium" difficulty setting.

[General Zod]

Couple of other things I've picked up on. Little touches from the original like the loudspeakers blaring Rapture propaganda commercials and the vending machines playing jingles when you come up to them are decisively missing. Maybe it's just me but not having these makes the city feel somewhat emptier.

I've also noticed combat seems to be more difficult this time around. Also, it's nice to have additional sources to gather Adam that's not just the Little Sisters. Killing Big sisters will net you Adam, and when you're outside the city itself, you can harvest the slugs mentioned in the audio logs of the first game, which is a nice touch. I still haven't decided what I think of the game as a whole yet though.

Yes, combat seems much harder this time. Sure, you're a dude in a big armored suit, but the stock cannon fodder have all upgraded their weapons and have learned to duck ("Ah yes, the usual crazy fucker armed only with revolv . . . wait, did she just throw a grenade at me?") I admit, I started in "Easy" mode. Even "Easy" mode here plays like the first game's "Medium" difficulty setting.

I started off in Medium as usual. It's not quite "Hard" from the last game, but the splicers take more ammo to put down, you use up Eve easily and you aren't as resilient to damage. On the other hand, it seems like Big Daddies are easier to deal with this time around.

[Aaron]

Do you have to look through the helmet ala the first game or is it standard first-person fare, with unobstructed vision?

[General Zod]

Do you have to look through the helmet ala the first game or is it standard first-person fare, with unobstructed vision?

It definitely makes it clear you're wearing a helmet, but it doesn't blur anything like the original. So you shouldn't have any problems.

[Mr Bean]

Do you have to look through the helmet ala the first game or is it standard first-person fare, with unobstructed vision?

It definitely makes it clear you're wearing a helmet, but it doesn't blur anything like the original. So you shouldn't have any problems.

Zod's right, when your standing still you can't see the helmet except at the extreme corners of your vision (Like 2% of the screen) when your stomping around that goes up to 3%-10%. The most you notice it is during in game cut scenes where they turn you head but keep the helmet the same (It's a nice effect, it simulates well turning your head inside the helmet without turning the helmet) and I've only see it used once like that. Or when you get tossed around during fights. For example a big sister threw me into the wall with telekinesis and I not only heard a "clang" but I had the drunk visual effect from what I guess was Concussion-0-vision. It went away about five seconds later.

[Ford Prefect]

Standing under falling water is a good way to remind yourself that you're wearing a helmet, simply from the sound. There's quite the effort to at least make it seem like you're really heavy, though sometimes i find myself jumping at my own footsteps, which is pretty funny.

[Vympel]

Fixed the bug - it was because the sound was set to Stereo. WTF. Anyway, enjoying it so far, but the plot isn't engaging me (I've played for about less than an hour so I think that's not a reasonable complaint).

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Plot? There's a plot? I jest. So far, it's been: Kill all the crazy fucks you can see. Loot them. Seek out audio tapes like they were crack. Hack everything in sight. Mug some poor Big Daddy for his Little Sister. Take it to the chin for a bit. Lay out a carefully-planned ambush. Use Little Sister to gather ADAM. Watch as half the traps fail because the crazy fucks are jumping off the roof. Take it to the chin for a while. Loot more corpses. Do it again. Hear the Big Sister. Take it to the chin for a bit. Set Big Sister on fire. Bum-rush Big Sister with drill. Goddamn it, I missed a fucking splicer! Don't need this distraction. Rinse and repeat. Loot corpse for more ADAM. At some point, find a Gatherer's Garden. Pick up Insect Swarm. Cackle with glee. Realize it's half-past midnight, and that what was intended to be an hour of playing has turned into three.

[Setzer]

I'm having a bug that's kind of immersion breaking for me. Every few minutes the game lags, like I'm trying to play online with a 56k modem. The trouble is, this is in singleplayer. I don't know what causes it. I've checked my machine and there's no reason it should be having trouble running it. Anyone having a similar problem? Or figured out how to fix it?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I'm having a bug that's kind of immersion breaking for me. Every few minutes the game lags, like I'm trying to play online with a 56k modem. The trouble is, this is in singleplayer. I don't know what causes it. I've checked my machine and there's no reason it should be having trouble running it. Anyone having a similar problem? Or figured out how to fix it?

Huh. What setup are you running? I'm running the game on some ridiculously high level of detail at 1440x900 on a 64-bit Win 7 Pro machine with an Athlon II X4 and a bargain-bin Radeon HD 4670 video card and I'm experiencing no trouble whatsoever. Oddly enough, I had an identical issue with GTA IV, but it went away after I turned off Aero on the desktop.

[Ryan Thunder]

Perhaps your computer is overheating. I've seen that kind of behaviour from mine before.

[General Zod]

Plot? There's a plot? I jest. So far, it's been: Kill all the crazy fucks you can see. Loot them. Seek out audio tapes like they were crack. Hack everything in sight. Mug some poor Big Daddy for his Little Sister. Take it to the chin for a bit. Lay out a carefully-planned ambush. Use Little Sister to gather ADAM. Watch as half the traps fail because the crazy fucks are jumping off the roof. Take it to the chin for a while. Loot more corpses. Do it again. Hear the Big Sister. Take it to the chin for a bit. Set Big Sister on fire. Bum-rush Big Sister with drill. Goddamn it, I missed a fucking splicer! Don't need this distraction. Rinse and repeat. Loot corpse for more ADAM. At some point, find a Gatherer's Garden. Pick up Insect Swarm. Cackle with glee. Realize it's half-past midnight, and that what was intended to be an hour of playing has turned into three.

The plot development doesn't suck you in right away like the first one does, which is kind of weird. I think that's been the biggest disconnect so far, the pacing of the story.

[Setzer]

Terwynn, what do you mean by setup? I tried reducing all the graphics options to lowest quality and I still had to deal with that infernal lag.

Ryan, I don't think my machine is overheating. My apartment seldom gets warmer then 73 degrees, and the vents in the back of my laptop aren't obstructed by anything.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Terwynn, what do you mean by setup? I tried reducing all the graphics options to lowest quality and I still had to deal with that infernal lag.

Basically, what hardware is in your laptop and what OS is it running? A quick thing to check might be your power settings. Make sure that everything is set to maximize performance and assume the laptop is always plugged in, since your system may be trying to down-clock the hardware whenever it thinks it can get away with it.

[Setzer]

I'm playing it on an Intel Core2 Quad CPU with 300 GHz and 3.25GB of RAM.

[General Zod]

Incidentally, Hypnotize is possibly the best plasmid in the game. It's awesome to hypnotize a big-daddy when other splicers are around, so the splicers wind up doing most of your work for you. Or when you're getting zerg-rushed by splicers during big scenes.

[Mr Bean]

Finished the game

End of game spoilers and general comments below Spoiler

I died? I died? Come on, I'm subject Delta! Damn you I could have taken all those explosives to the face and lived fine... unless... oh no it was a cut scene aww man... I'm Aeris! I Aeris died! Dang it daughter of mine, I've got some med kits in my back pocket, stop crying I've got some fenix downs in my helmet. You can patch me back together again. Dang it game, it's ok if you nuke me but to kill me off at the end of the game right after I MDK'd over two thousand splicers, fellow Big Daddies and Alpha series.

All four endings are up on youtube, two evil endings, one neutral ending and one "good" ending which is BS because it's an sad good. I wanted my happy good ending dang it. Also I was so waiting for the heel turn of Sinclair but they faked you out, he's genuine, he's the real deal. He just wanted to escape rapture with enough advanced technology to make his money. He's not a good man nor a bad man but he is a confidence man. He's ready and willing to leave with you and your daughter except Lamb catches him and does the mind control trick on him and makes you fight him.

Also upgrade your rivet gun first and to the exclusion of everything else, damage+clip+final upgrade "set things on fire" makes it the go to weapon throughout the game. Seriously you shoot bolts that set people on fire, and once on fire they freak out and run for water or fight back while on fire and their aim is terrible. Once you've got a flame rivet gun get your other upgrades

Also the game morals
Spoiler

There are four main moral choices in the game. How you handle the little Sisters of course, and how you handle the three moral choices. Specifically the Singer in Sinclair Hotel, the Reporter in Sofia's old retreat. And the Doctor in Fontaine's old labs. Each has their own implications.

The Singer for example impends your progress and does her very best to have her splicers kill you dozens of times, but when you finally confront her, you find her hiding in a crawl space, not scared, but unable to fight and daring you to kill her. I let her live because she was fundamentally a good person, her actions against me were born of misunderstanding and ignorance. To think she could stop ME from getting my daughter back. However the actions were not, shoot her in the knee caps, kill her or let her go. Just kill or let go. So she got to live and it material benfited me as she helped me out several times as the game went on.

The Reporter meanwhile had hurt me, and was a mass murder to boot. However the murder he conducted was of cultists, and the method of murder was only possible because the Cultists ignored OSHA standards and apparently just hitting one pipe a dozen times with another pipe was enough to cause a pressure loss and flood the entire pod they were in. He was not a good man, he was in fact a bad one and he kidnapped my daughter and sold her into slavery as a little sister, again knee caps not an option. I let him live purely out of spite. I'll be dammed I was going to let Lamb have her way in anything. And besides he had helped me when I needed help. His help got me one step closer to finding Eleanor, and that's enough for Subject Delta to let you live another day.

The Doctor meanwhile made me hesitate for the simple reason of how he got into this predicament. He was human, Lamb tried to turn him into the Overmind by ODing him with ADAM. Instead he got turned into a Freaky Fish guy. And he could not kill himself, he knew he was going mad and he tried to end his life and was unable(Unable willpower seems to be the reason). So he set up journals and tapes explaining that he wanted to die, knew he was going insane and asked anyone to help, giving a clear instruction guide on how to trap and kill himself. However the Freaky fish guy he had become seemed to want to live. It wanted to live with a passion. And it begged me to let it live. It was mad, it was insane. But it was alive, it knew what I was going to do. It begged me to let it live. I had to stop for a moment, I even paused the game and thought about it for a moment. The Singer and Reporter? No question they lived, but him? He wanted to live, but he asked to die. In the end I honored his wish as he was not in his sound mind nor body as he begged to live. Never mind he also tried to kill me, and tried to kill me because he could. No, can't let the mad sea monster run lose.

[Zixinus]

I just upgraded my audio card to a Xonar DS. Am I the only one that has crackling? I disabled the GX EAX compatibility mode and it seems to be working. Now, I am just not sure whether I am getting subwoofer sound (I have to turn on FlexBass in order to get ANY subwoofer sound, otherwise I just won't get sound, no matter what I do).

So far the game is great. I also like how you can disable the vita-chambers. Makes the game a bit more challenging.
What I like less, is the zoomed aiming. Come on, if you bothered to make an iron sights, you might as well make it full-on iron sight and not bother with the crosshair.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Also finished the game . . . Spoiler

Hey, I died. Of explosions. Wait, what? I spent the whole game taking RPGs, grenades, fireballs, headbutts, about 10,000 rounds of assorted ammunition, and giant boulders to the face. Hell, I took a fucking torpedo to the face in a cutscene, and lived! Who knows, maybe I died of the bends; that was a really quick ascent to the surface, after all. But hell, I'm pretty sure I had enough medkits at the end to revive a small army! Yes, I got the best ending possible, but come on, I don't want to spend the rest of my existence inside Eleanor Lamb's head. I've seen it, it's a really fucked up place. Sure, I'll be sitting on her shoulder, whispering in her ear, going "Goddamn it, what the hell are you doing? Put me back in my body, you stupid kid!"

Other notes:

Hah, yes, Hypnotize is a great plasmid. So is Security Command. Especially when both are maxed-out and you can hypnotize all Big Daddies and Brutes to your cause, and summon elite security bots. Maxed-out Security Command is especially useful if you have the Handyman tonic, so you can fix those cheerfully homicidal flying chainguns.