So, I haven't picked mine up, yet, but Rob is totally playing RIGHT NOW :D

Game Informer gave it a 8.25, but their main gripe (from what I've read, I don't really want to read the entire review right now, cuz spoiler paranoia) seems to be that it's more of the same, up until the end of the game.

This complaint doesn't make much sense to me, because 1.) If what is already there is awesome, what's the problem? and 2.) It's a game in the same series, I'd certainly hope it has more of the same of what I love!

They complained about that with Silent Hill: Origins, too, so I'm honestly not too worried. Because we all know how awesome that is!

Spoiler tags are in full effect, I will delete posts~

The problem is, Bioshock wasn't all that awesome. The only nice thing about it was the atmosphere and that's not really going to carry two games in a row.

Also, you're awful.

BIG DADDY IS YOUR DADDY

Considering that I hated Bioshock, the news that the sequel is more of the same does not make me more interested. Definitely going to give it a pass.

:neg::neg::neg:

Don't have it. Probably won't until I hear something about a New Game+.

First ocean walk spoiler:
The tail of the plane! Ryan's bust! RYAN'S BUST ^_________^ Thanks for giving me the hint to look around, Rob <333333

Early audio diary spoilers:
ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG RYAN IT IS GOOD TO HEAR YOUR VOICE :D :D :D

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb1/ConstantMnemonic/andrew_ryan_was_right.gif

The hero dies at the end

That's not funny, even if it is a joke.

--Neg :-*

Good thing I looked around a bit for a Bioshock 2 thread...

Anyway, just finished the entire game. Will avoid spoilers.

I liked it. The ability to use melee attacks at all times (as opposed to having to pull out the wrench/drill every time) was a plus, as was the ability to always have your plasmids ready for firing.

Weapon diversity was...unique. A speargun? Sweet. Minigun (fuck calling it a machine gun, that damn thing is a minigun and you know it!)? FUCK YEAH! The upgrades were also fun, and on top of everything, I liked the splicer diversity as well...every enemy in Bioshock 1 seemed far too frail. This time, some of the enemies could give you a real run for your money on your first few encounters (even longer if they caught you off guard...does anyone else think the respawn rate for this game was insane?!?).

Gripes include the hacking minigame (dammit, I loved the Pipe Dream deal from the first game! Now I have to watch a needle swing back and forth?!? WTF?!?), lack of voice to the vending machines (the Circus of Values may have gotten annoying fast, but BIENVENIDO AL AMMO BANDITO never got old...MUCHAS GRACIAS, SENOR!), and the research. It seemed like things were simplified way too much in that aspect.

Atmosphere was solid throughout. Being able to wander outside of Rapture a few times (outside as in, walking underwater) added quite a bit, as well as the 'little things' if you knew what to look for. The audio diaries of those who came before were also helpful in adding to the atmosphere...especially when you listened to two particular guys talking during various points of Rapture's downfall...

All in all, I'd say this is a solid buy if you liked Bioshock 1. If you liked FPS games, I'd say rent just to check it out. Either way, go for it...unless you didn't like Bioshock 1, in which case, why do you care about my opinion? *smirk*

It's terrible, and I speak as someone who loves Bioshock.

The story is short and dull, the new characters are either poor (Sofia Lamb) or don't get enough to do (Sinclair).

The actual gameplay is more action packed, but at the SEVERE expense of atmosphere and story. So basically, you'll really like this game if you hated the original!

Seriously, it's an awful sequel. They pretty much did everything they shouldn't have and nothing they should have.

Welcome to the Circus of Valuuuuues, was the best! I miss it ;;

I actually like the new hacking :)

I've heard the game is so different from the original because not only was it lead by a different development team at its conception, it also passed through several hands during development. That's likely why many people feel it is inconsistent (or in some cases, way too consistent with its static environments). An example of this is how a key character suddenly disappears near the end without explanation. Her name escapes me right now.

BOYCOTT RESEARCH IN BIOSHOCK.

It was stupid in 1, it's even stupider here.

BOYCOTT RESEARCH IN BIOSHOCK.

It was stupid in 1, it's even stupider here.

Eh, I dunno Neg. At least this time you knew ahead of time what reward you would be getting next. Plus, I thought the whole 'movie review' made a lot more sense as far as research went compared to taking pictures.

Still didn't change how annoying it was

(especially when you realize on the LAST Big Sister that you haven't been researching them...>.< ).

I'm guessing that's a spoiler. Let's use our spoiler tags, please.

It's terrible, and I speak as someone who loves Bioshock.

The story is short and dull, the new characters are either poor (Sofia Lamb) or don't get enough to do (Sinclair).

The actual gameplay is more action packed, but at the SEVERE expense of atmosphere and story. So basically, you'll really like this game if you hated the original!

Seriously, it's an awful sequel. They pretty much did everything they shouldn't have and nothing they should have.


That�s your opinion. Mine is thus, where is the exact logic in despising a game for significantly improving on all the exact same elements you loved in the original? In that case, do you dislike the original? Bioshock just made an impact, now everyone is forgetting that the apparent (flaws) they point out in Bisohock 2, are actually present in the original.

The story for me is a lot more complex and utilizes the whole genetic implement in a more intelligent and interesting way. The gameplay also for me has (immensely) improved, more challenging/satisfying and improves on many of the flaws that people disliked in the original.

Finally, the original Bioshock you forget was merely a way of reintroducing the elements System Shock 2 was never recognized for, Bioshock 2 for me was (a lot) more independent. Your entitled to your opinion, but that�s mine.

I like you.

I'm never playing a multiplayer game again. There is no reason for voice chat, it's just an excuse for people to yell at you and call you names, when you are clearly following the directions the game gave you.

YOU PEOPLE ARE MEAN AND I HATE YOU ;;

You're entitled to your own opinion, of course. But for my money, the story in Bioshock 2 is appalling. It doesn't get going until the final level (which has its moments, but in no way excuses the game's general mediocrity up to that point).

The game is just a litany of errors and bad decisions. You're a Big Daddy for a start - the section at the end of the last game, which even its greatest fans thought was a chore.

So to mitigate that, the Daddy you use is no harder than a regular guy (it in fact seems significantly less hard than Jack), is just as fast as a man and can use Plasmids etc.

And it can still use the much maligned Vita Chambers. And don't give us any nonsense about playing on hard with the chambers turned off. The game is fundamentally designed on the understanding that the chambers can be used.

It makes the game pointlessly easy, because you know you cannot die. Why should you use ammo and resources, when you can come back straight away (as there is always a Vita chamber right nearby).

This if nothing else, should have been fixed.

But more than anything else, it's the drab, cramped locations, along with the almost non-existant story that sapped my interest. None of the decaying grandeur of the first game remains - now you're just tramping through slum areas and places that have been so water damaged, that they look disgusting.

Horror games of this kind, often work on the principle of Beauty and Ugliness. Resident Evil based its whole look around the idea of sumptous, gorgeous palaces and mansions filled with disgusting, rotting creatures, gleamingly sterile and sinsiter labs filled with bodies in freezerbags etc.

It's no surprise that the installments that moved away from that (Resident Evil 3, RE5 etc), fared worse, because the atmopshere was completely gutted, the further you move into industrial, rural, urban environs.

And Bioshock had such creepy little moments seeded throughout it, like the better installments of Silent Hill etc. Bioshock 2 has none of that, going simply for the 'more and more action and mayhem' route.

Which is a mistake IMO. You can get big action anywhere, Bioshock had more to offer than that.

I would have been much happier, if the game had gone back in time to when Rapture was at its height. Show us the city when it truly was a marvel to behold, and let us see its degneration as the splicers war between Ryan and Fontaine kicks off etc.

Bioshock 2 has some moments when it threatens to become quite interesting, but it doesn't capitalise on them. You can kill or spare Grace Holloway, but the game doesn't give you any reason at all to kill her IMO.

She's a weak old woman and short of cussing at you over the mic, she's not done anything so bad to Delta, that he should want to murder her in cold blood. It's not like the splicers wouldn't have attacked anyway, is it?

If she'd actually done something specific (like a section where she directs them to try and dismember you, when you're briefly restrained or something), then that would be different. It would be more of a choice then.

Anyway, you have your opinion, I've got mine. I'm not playing this game anymore, nor do I have any intentions of playing it again, so I'm not going to argue over and over.

You like it, I didn't, that's that.

The only thing I have a huge problem with is

Turning Sinclaire into a Big Daddy. Why? Turning Eleanor into a Big Sister is squee (and the Silent Hill-esque double vision of reality while you're playing the Little Sister is A-SOOOOOOOOM!), but Sinclaire? No point. Lamb could have tortured him or something, I dunno. Something other than something stupid like that.

Otherwise, I'm happy.

Neg's final verdict: It's not a perfect game, but it's a perfectly great game.

That doesn't even make sense. You're dumb.

There's no doubt that the last level (specifically the altered realty bit) almost made the pain of enduring the earlier levels, seem worthwhile.

But despite that section showing us how great Haze could have been, had it not been so ineptly made, it's a poor return for your money to have just that one section that stands out.

Characters like Stanley Poole and Daniel and Simon Wales, simply don't generate any interest whatsoever, compared to the manic narcissicism of Sander Cohen and Dr Steinmann or the paranoid ramblings of Peach Wilkins from Bioshock 1.

And it misses all those wonderfully macabre little moments from the first game. The doctor whose prominent shadow on the wall lures you in, then vanishes when the lights go out, only to ambush you from one of the freezers as you leave, for example.

Or the ballerina Spider Splicers from Sinclair Spirits, who only move when you aren't looking at them and hide amongst mannequins to confuse you. The bit where you inspect a desk in the dental surgery, a haze of cold mist comes down - and you see the shadow of someone standing right behind you.

There are none of these little touches in Bioshock 2. It's just bog standard run and gun.

it sucks

You suck~<3

OMG WHY ARE YOU REVEALING MY SPOILER THAT IS AGAINST THE RULES

I make the rules.

TYRANNY!