Gadgetory

hey guys LP here from TechnoBuffalo and welcome back for yet another very exciting game review this time we're looking at a sequel to one of my favorite first-person shooters Myo shock I went and got the ps3 version of the game mainly because I got a cheap deal out of a Gamestop trade offer so that's what we're gonna be looking at they tried to sell me the special deluxe edition of the game with a vinyl of the first game soundtrack and a bunch of other crap but I decided that the game is going to have to stand on its own two legs before I buy into the merchandise three years ago in 2007 producer Kevin Levine and 2k Boston team introduced a new kind of first-person shooter in-between the action the game tackled social and moral issues and put the players in front of some pretty tricky choices but the single most interesting thing about the first game was a world in which it took place that world lies leagues below the sea and it's called rapture rapture is a beautiful art deco city an underwater utopia created by Andrew Wright the city was created as an escape from social political and religious anxiety of a post-world War two ridden world as you probably know not everything went according to plan in rapture its inhabitants became addicted to genetic modification turning the majority of the population into disfigured shadows of their former selves ten years have gone by since the first game and the city has fallen ever deeper into social and moral decay a new antagonist dr. Sophie L lamb has risen from the ashes of Andrew Ryan this time with an imposing altruistic ideology with some keen relations to Marxism turns out the dr. Lam's idea of turning rapture into an underwater socialist colony has gone a bit awry and things are worse than ever as you know the first game was a great success and Bioshock 2 has a massive set of shoes to fill especially because this time around it's not developed by 2k bossom but a subsidiary developer called to Cameron so the game definitely has some Big Daddy sized shoes to fill so in the second game you play as a Big Daddy clad in a deep-sea scuba suit and this dynamic brings a few changes to the gameplay first off your right hand is now equipped with a pretty big drill I'm not sure what the practical applications are for a drill of this sighs but the drill does work pretty well for making mincemeat of the inhabitants of rapture and other violent fell retards the left hand is now free to use for Adam induced plasmids so now you can shoot your double-barrel shotgun and throw lightning bolts with your lefty the story of Bioshock 2 takes you on a fairly linear journey towards discovering the fate of a little sister who proclaims herself to be the protagonist daughter along the way get some help from some inhabitants of rapture will begin not to come to the feet of the splicers located a new train car but the station still locked down and we're not alone in here I see a shadow in the security booth most of the stories unraveled much like the first game through recorded audio logs that you will find scattered around rapture the narrative of the sequel is quite a bit more straightforward and tangible compared to the first game which was more of an unraveling mystery novel appeal of the city is gone raptured self is pretty much the same a little bit more rundown but discovering the wonders of the city is pretty much left in curse floor the city is also a bit more linear and there's not much exploring you can do a minor complaint is that there's not much variation than levels the same shanty and decrepit scenery repeat itself mostly throughout the game and setting aside a few scenic underwater shuffles I would have liked to see some more variation between levels and no there is no underwater gunplay you just basically shuffle from one place to the next being a big Daddy brings its own set of responsibilities and the little sister dynamic and harvesting Adam has gone through a significant change after taking down a Big Daddy you can now adopt a little sister to harvest Adam for you and harvesting Adam from dead bodies always brings about a zone defense against hordes of splicers who also want a taste of their drug of choice defending the little sisters can get a bit repetitive but the trade-off reward of Adam which enables new plasmids makes harvesting dead corpses worthwhile another variation thrown into the mix are big sisters and if you thought Big Daddies were hard to take down Big Sisters are faster and more agile and a huge pain in her metal padded ass what the game lacks is storytelling and environmental versatility and gains in gameplay mechanics the new two-handed assault scheme with weapons in one hand and plasmids in the other work extremely well and make the fighting that much more injury and I can tell you that about 95% of Bioshock 2 is about shooting up the neighborhood with various weapons and plasmids most of the plasmids are familiar from the first game but there are some new interesting ones as well the Scout plasmid allows you to survey the area as a free roaming ghost you can now hypnotize and befriend the splicers to fight along your side you can also call in security bots which are a definite help in defending little sisters the amount of enemies you encounter in the game will overwhelm you at times and it seems that there's not a moment of peace you'll be attacked from all three dimensions and you will not survive if you don't use your weapons and plasmids wisely and recruiting help will play a bigger role in Bioshock 2 when trying to keep the little sisters safe I played through the game in hard mode with my two chambers switched off and I can tell ya I had my work cut out for me the game will challenge even the most experienced FPS fans and you will find yourself scavenging every corpse that comes along or corpse that you create and looting is essential in Bioshock 2 because ammo is scarce and every coin you find will count as you are in constant need of buying health packs and Eva fills while I'm not that keen on the low ammo situation in first-person shooters in general it does serve its desperation inducing purpose in Bioshock 2 hacking has also received a nice update in the sequel and has been simplified to the point where it's now possible to hack security BOTS for your aid during an ongoing gunfight VAD some I heard some caution here because I also found that it's still quite easy to fail of hacking and have the trap spring in your own face overall the gameplay mechanics have been refined from the first game and Bioshock 2 is fun to play graphics wise Bioshock 2 runs on the exact same Unreal 3 game engine as the first game while the game looks good after three years I really would have liked to have seen some improvements to the new underwater adventure it seems that they've even used the same texture packs from the first Bioshock some of which are bit soft and low res and I think some of the character models could have also used in tuning up I also have to bring to light the reflective surfaces for example the water effects are questioned to believe low res on the ps3 version on the PC with DirectX 10 support they look great but on the ps3 not so much the framerate is mostly stable but it will start to dip towards the end of the game where the action on the screen gets increasingly hectic the game is locked at a maximum of 30 frames per second but you are given the possibility of unlocking the framerate but I cannot recommend it because on the ps3 it will result in a quite erratic framerate and some serious screen tearing so I recommend leaving the framerate lock as is loading times on the console versions of Bioshock can be a bit lengthy it will take over a minute to load up a level which I think in today's centers is a bit long overall from the standpoint of graphics and performance I'm a bit disappointed with the ps3 version of Bioshock 2 mainly because there's very little improvement to be seen from the first game the PC version of the game of course runs at a 60 Plus frame rate but the port worth of the PC is a bit sloppy the wide screen resolution is achieved by cropping a four by three image and the textures of the game are adequate for council resolutions but not quite adequate for high res PC gaming the PC version of Bioshock 2 is a testament to the fact that game consoles are currently holding back the advancements in PC game graphics from an artistic visual standpoint the game excels the Art Deco architecture and decor of rapture really set the mood for the underwater utopia or dystopia depending on the perspective overall the game is not as impressive visually as the first game but it's still one of the best looking Unreal Engine 3 games made today the atmosphere of the game is nicely complemented by the music and sound design which is as good as in the first game the shrieks and agonizing wailings of the splicers will send a chill down your spine and annoy the hell out of your spouse this is confirmed Bioshock 2 also comes with a multiplayer component which is easy to consider as a bit unnecessary the story-driven first game really did well without the multiplayer but I'm guessing that the turn of games today is that no matter what the game it needs to have multiplayer if you play a lot of hardcore multiplayer games like modern warfare 2 I'm pretty sure you won't trade it off to play the multiplayer of Bioshock 2 the game has all your standard multiplayer modes with the rapture and twist I did enjoy the capture the little sister mode which really brings the defensive father dynamics nicely into the mix the game also has a progression and leveling system much like that of modern warfare the trial system lets you level up your weapons and plasmids by completing tasks within the game the Big Daddy suit is also included in the multiplayer modes and it is fun to play with but a bit annoying to play against the soo trillion sets the balance because for example in deathmatch modes it seems to be quite random who gets to find a suit and wielded the plasmids do introduce an interesting dynamic into the multiplayer games but they're mainly only supportive to the primary weapon - come to think of it the multiplayer in BioShock 2 reminds me of timesplitters which was a fast pace and chaotic multiplayer game from back in the day overall the multiplayer component of Bioshock 2 is fine but you probably won't find me playing so how did this equal to Bioshock stack up against the expectations overall Bioshock 2 is a good game but ultimately like many sequels it gets overshadowed by its predecessor the world of rapture is starting to seem a bit stale after very little of anything significant is introduced at the environment itself luckily gameplay wise it's fun as ever and you will play through the game solely because of the sheer fun of playing if you have the option the PC version is the one that get nothing beats a mouse and keyboard combo in the first-person shooter and the pc version also looks best and the high frame rate makes it that much better a lot was expecting from Bioshock 2 and for the most part it meets those expectations but still the game left me with a feeling that it could have been more I give Bioshock 2 an 8.8 for being a solid first person shooter that keeps the Bioshock franchise running strong towards most likely yet another sequel that's about it for my review follow me on Twitter LP signing out