Bioshock. That was a great game, wasn’t it? Apparently it was just System Shock 2 but upgraded, although I never played that game, so I have no idea. Still, great game. Shooting bad guys underwater, great story with plenty of interesting stuff going on, and crazy plasmid mutation thingies going on. Naturally, a sequel had to be made. So, as you might have guessed, tonight’s review is of that sequel, Bioshock 2. And boy, does it suck.

Let’s start with the story. You’re a prototype Big Daddy who wakes up ten years after shooting himself in the head (this is not a spoiler, it happens right at the start of the game) with only one thought; save his old Little Sister. That’s it. There are no plot twists, no shock moments. The goal never ceases to be anything other than saving your Little Sister. There are times when you’ll be sat there thinking, “wow, I can see the plot twist coming up any minute”, and it turns out to be a red herring, and there is no twist. I guess in that regard it works, since it avoids being too obvious, but at the same time, not having any sort of deviation from the original goal is kinda lame. Bioshock’s story is practically a masterpiece in comparison.

Gameplay is… identical to the first game. It’s pretty standard first person shooter fare, with a variety of weapons to use and a whole bunch of cool plasmids you can throw around. Well, they’re cool if you’re new to the franchise, since they’re almost all the same as the first game. And the only actually useful ones are from the original. What is impressive is that actually, most of the weapons are brand new in the game, although they’re essentially the same weapon with a different model. The Rivet Gun is an oversized pistol, the machine gun is… a machine gun, and the launcher fires out different explosives. Aside from that, you’ve got a drill, which is actually a waste of time once you have the Rivet Gun, since more often than not you don’t want to be up close to an enemy. There’s also the remote hack tool, which is pretty handy for hacking cameras and turrets, and it can also deploy mini turrets, which are always cool. The research camera also makes a return, but this time you get grades for killing the enemies in interesting ways, which makes research more interesting, if a little more long winded. There’s dual wielding of plasmids and weapons now, which is cool? I dunno. I didn’t really find it that difficult to switch between them in the first game.

The major new gameplay system is the addition of looking after Little Sisters. Now, instead of killing off the Big Daddy and dealing with them there and then, you can pick up the girl and help her harvest ADAM for more plasmid-based goodness. These sections are basically just a defending scenario, where the Sister will sit in one place and you have to make sure no one gets to her. They’re not particularly interesting, but the arenas that they take place in allow for some cool trap set-ups if you’re into that kind of thing. Of course, you could avoid the whole thing and just harvest the Little Sister there and then. Actually, yeah, do that instead. It makes the game a lot faster.

The graphics are pretty impressive… for 2007. Yes, it’s the same engine that ran the original game, so the graphics are actually the exact same as they were back in the day. It’s actually pretty depressing to see lazy graphics in video games these days, particularly when you expect the production company to turn out great games. Ah well, the graphics do the job nicely, although the water effects aren’t as smooth as they could be, and the objects themselves are a tad rough around the edges. Literally. There are also cases where textures fail to load thanks to that crazy Unreal Engine problem, which basically cheapens the graphics somewhat. Not good guys. Not good.

And now, to mix things up a bit, I will leave sound and talk about the multiplayer! Yes, the multiplayer is actually quite good. It takes the levelling up system of the Call of Duty series and throws it into a frantic, plasmid-fuelled madhouse of thrills and kills. Or something. You can put together a load out of your chosen weapons, plasmids and tonics before the match begins to create your own personal killing machine, and somehow it all manages to work. The maps are well designed, with not much scope for camping snipers (and no sniper rifles to camp with, for that matter) so there’s always people running around, gunning others down. It can get pretty hectic at times with all the plasmids flying around, and lag can sometimes be a bit of a problem, but all together it’s damn good fun and probably the best part of the whole game.

Oh yeah, sound. Voice over work is pretty good, although the voice of Sinclair seems a bit heavy handed with the Chicago accent, and why Lamb needs to be British is beyond me. Probably the stand out actors are the Little Sisters, whose random playful quips are as lovely as they are terrifying. The guns sound great, and the background music shifts nicely between frantic orchestra to quiet orchestra to licensed old songs playing on gramophones to create a wonderfully atmospheric environment. Shame the graphics don’t maths the sound, eh?

Overall, Bioshock 2 isn’t that good. If you took the multiplayer element and shoved it onto the original game, it would be fantastic. As it stands, the single player just isn’t up to scratch, with a bad storyline, repetitive gameplay and an almost complete lack of originality. It’s a real shame. Still, if the ending is anything to go by, Bioshock 3 is in the works, so fingers crossed that the next one’s good!

Score: 6/10

Think I’m being harsh? Hated the multiplayer with a fiery passion? Let us know in the comments!