In a dark, underground room, VGM was offered a glimpse into the murky and mysterious world of Bioshock 2. 2K hosted an April 2009 media day at Le Poisson Rogue, nestled in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village on 158 Bleeker Street, with playable code of Bioshock 2 as the main attraction. I knew I was in store for something different when I arrived at the hotel and there was no visible hotel signage, only two nondescript doors with large red arrows pointing at the door handles. Inside I was greeted by a dimly lit lobby area, with a large cube-shaped fish tank that was tilted at a 30 degree angle. From there I was led downstairs for the Bioshock 2 presentation.
The room where the game was displayed was small and dark; the only light in the room came from a single TV and the room only allowed about 10 journalists and PR reps. The darkness added to the atmosphere but made note taking tricky (try jotting down notes in a near pitch-black room!). 2K’s Melissa Miller filled us in on Bioshock 2’s story. Ten years has passed since the events of the original Bioshock and along the Atlantic coastline, a new monster known as “Big Sister” has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to Rapture and pairing them up with big daddies to harvest Adam (the life source of Rapture and the key to all supernatural powers) from the corpses of the past. You find yourself on Rapture in the form of the first Big Daddy prototype, which unlike other later Big Daddy models, is equipped with plasmids, is faster, and has free will, hence giving the gamer full control of the creature.
The first thing you’ll notice about your new suit is the massive drill that you can wield on your right arm (the drill is interchangeable with other guns). You can use the drill to smash through wooden doors, or even better, use it to drill through a splicer’s skull. A separate meter will let you know if the drill is close to overheating. The splicers are more demented and deranged than ever, trapped underground for an extra 10 years to genetically modify themselves with Adam, and will try to tear your flesh off with their bare hands.
You now have the ability to swim underwater and explore the ocean around rapture. The underwater swimming scenes are serene and provide a nice change of pace from the frantic action.
The underwater scenery is simply stunning
One of the complaints that fans had about the original Bioshock was that it was so fast-paced; gamers often didn’t have time to stand still and listen to the audio tapes that you collect. Once underwater, you can listen to the tapes at will without fear of being attacked as there is no combat underwater. Watching the big daddy glide underwater with all sorts of ocean wildlife and algae looked beautiful, and the haunting violin-heavy music completed the atmosphere.
You’ll come across plenty of little sisters- those creepy blank eyed little girls with high-pitched mechanical voices- and the roving lumbering big daddies.
Don't worry, you won't feel a thing
Like the original, your battles with the big daddies are optional; you can choose to engage them or simply avoid them. Killing big daddies give you access to their now defenseless little sister, which you can harvest (a nice way of saying kill) for her Adam, or in a new twist, adopt her.
Adopting enhances the moral choices you face in Bioshock 2 as now you have a choice to create a bond with your new captive. Once you adopt a little sister, she sits on your shoulder and leads you to Adam. When you come across a corpse, you can let her down to collect the Adam from it, which starts to draw neighboring splicers hungry for Adam and initiates an intense action sequence in which you need to protect her and kill all attackers until she finishes collecting the Adam. It is wise to set up traps surrounding the corpse to help you deal with the onslaught. If you decide that you’re done with her, you can then choose to harvest her at any time. It was confirmed that you can only adopt one little sister at a time.
Sorry Octamom, you can only adopt one child at a time
At various point in the game you will encounter the Big Sister- in what looks like a cyborg version of a little sister with a nasty large syringe on her arm, presumably to collect Adam with. Big Sister will pop out of nowhere, probably providing lots of heart pumping ‘holy crap’ moments, like when the dogs jumped at you from the windows in the original Resident Evil. Big Sister is quick and agile; she will hop on top of various structures to attack you, and will use telekinesis to hurtle objects in the room at you. Supposedly she gets pissed when you interfere with her whole little sister-big daddy plan so if you do so, be prepared for an attack at any time.
Plasmids are back, and now when you upgrade specific plasmids, you will earn new abilities instead of having stronger and more visibly intense attacks. For example for the fire plasmid, when you upgrade to the second level you can charge your shot. The third level will give you a flame hand so that you can reach out and touch some splicers. You can also combine plasmid powers; set a cyclone trap to send your enemies flying in the air, but combine it with fire so that they fly upwards on fire (the dev team cleverly called this the hellevator). You can also simultaneously shoot plasmids with your left hand and your gun with your right hand. No word yet on other new plasmids, but knowing the sadistic minds at 2K Marin, there’s bound to be some fun ones in store.
There are many details that are still unknown about Bioshock 2, including the confirmed online multiplayer mode, but from what I’ve seen, the title is shaping up quite nicely and is on track to build off the success of the original. The world of rapture is as enchanting as before, and the intelligent use of historic music, art deco design, and horrific enemies promise to draw in gamers like never before. Bioshock 2 is schedule for a Fall 2009 release.
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