[Yellow]

Just ordered it off Amazon today (with AvP for the PC), so here's hoping. Thought the original got a little repetitive towards the end, but it was still great for the atmosphere.

[Sixty]

Been playing and it's awesome. Won't be logging on xbl / playing cod until I finish at the very least.

[Jusentantaka]

So since 'I HAVES TO NOU GO RENT DEMON SOULS' according to Obipoid, I have to ask: is the game as chalk full of Objectivist bullshit blaring from the loudspeakers at every turn as the first one? I ask for my poor children, who shall, if -The Plan- is enacted, never be subjected to such banal crap.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

The objectivist crap is not as front and center, I think it's taken for granted that we get it. It's still there, but not as much.

I'm getting hooked on the multiplayer, which is surprisingly fun. So far it seems like they didn't skimp on the single player, which is good.

anyone playing on xbox live hit me up, gamertag LuxuryYacht215

[Yellow]

I don't give a shit about the multiplayer... so tell me, is the single player story good? (that's pretty much all I care about)

This post has been edited by Yellow: 11 February 2010 - 07:00 PM

[Steamer]

My copy should arrive in letterbox this arvo


is story as good as first one???? i fell in love with that game

[Sixty]

I finished Bioshock 2 today and got the "good" ending out of 4 since I saved all the little sisters and spared all but one of the people I could choose to kill.

Story's just as awesome as in Bioshock 1. Excellent atmosphere/world, mainly. And still pretty damn fun: the mechanics are for the most part very similar, though they revamped hacking so it's a little more difficult and the world doesn't freeze while you're hacking. The little sister dynamic is slightly different: after killing a Big Daddy, you can adopt the little sister and carry it around to gather ADAM from two corpses instead of immediately harvesting; then, you take the sister to a vent and either rescue it or harvest it. I dunno how much ADAM you get for harvesting, but you get 80 for rescuing and gifts every 4 rescues. Also, they changed up the plasmid/gene/ADAM economy bit so that you have much more flexibility: for example, I didn't bother purchasing a few plasmid slots since I used almost exclusively incinerate/electrobolt/decoy/insectswarm; this freed up ADAM for me to purchase tonics I liked/wanted.

They also made the game harder. Until about halfway through (where the difficulty diminishes as you gain access to more tonics & plasmids), I was struggling to get by and constantly at 0-1 medpacks, scrounging for what ammo I could find wherever I could get it.

But by the end, I had more stuff than I knew what to do with it. The only regret I really have is (don't read if you don't want to "cheat" I guess...not plot related)

Spoiler

not having 250 ADAM before entering Inner Persephone (the last level), thereby being unable to Telekinesis 3 and gaining the ability to throw around live enemies).

In short:

+
Awesome story & atmosphere - like an extension of the original; it refers back to the original and makes frequent connections back.
Similar gun+plasmid gameplay as in Bioshock 1 (which was pretty damn good)
More balanced hacking
More flexible ADAM economy
More difficult (especially Big Sisters)
Better moral dilemmas ("villains" with morally grey stories whom you can choose to spare or kill)

-
Difficulty is a little inconsistent (I played on hard; it was very difficult at the beginning, got somewhat easy toward the middle-end, then just got absurd at the very end...at one point I was fighting a big sister and 2 big daddies all together. Not sure I would've beaten the game on hard if not for vita-chambers)
Somewhat short (8-10 hours on hard difficulty, so just a little bit longer than MW2. I got everything: every little sister adopted, harvesting, rescued; all the weapon upgrade machines; most of the diary entries; all of the maps explored)

Numerically I'd say it's about a 9.5/10.

If you're on the fence about this game, go get it. Assuming you liked Bioshock 1, you won't be disappointed--it's more of the same, just better.

This post has been edited by Sixty: 12 February 2010 - 05:07 AM

[drinksinbars]

rented this last night - am pretty much hooked can be a bit tricky but every bit as atmospheric as the first. biggest gripe a 5GIG install on ps3 that takes fucking ages with no progress bar or choice. boo hiss. i wanted to rent the 360 version but they didnt have it in stock in xtravision

game is brilliant though

[Traveller]

Is it bad to say that it looks just like the first one?

I mean, I liked the first one, but, well, this looks exactly the same to me...?

(To continue the heresy, I just finished Dragon Age, but before the end, I was getting bored. I couldn't really care about anybody in it by the end; and I'm quite glad I'm finished so I can
play something else!)

It just dragged on a bit for me.

[Yellow]

Been playing it for about 2 hours so far. Have to say, I'm kind of wishing I'd got it on the PC instead. My Xbox skills are extremely lacking - as soon as I come up to more than about two guys, I get my ass handed to me. I may even have to change my difficulty setting to easy!

I've just come up to the first Big Daddy. I lasted about four seconds. I just can't aim and move at the same time - so if I shoot at him and try to run away, I end up stuck in a wall firing my fucking hacker darts into my feet. Rubbish!

Plus - yeah, a bit disappointing how incredibly similar it is to the first game. I can't remember the first game well enough to be able to tell, but I'm sure they must have reused all the sets and everything.

[Mentalist]

and that's why I LOOOOOOOVE my Keyboard and Mouse. Strafe and shoot ftw!!!!

in a related story: unlike my XP, which was causing me no end of trouble, Windows 7 appears to be fully capable of running System Shock 2, so I should finally get to play it soon... and then i'll move onto BioShock.

[Dolorous Menhir]

A man chooses. A slave obeys.

This post has been edited by Dolorous Menhir: 15 February 2010 - 09:16 PM

[drinksinbars]

they do reuse all the weapons and plasmids from the first so its more bioshock 1.5 than 2.

[Tarcanus]

Yeah, I made it to Pauper's Drop and started getting my ass handed to me. I'm playing on the PS3 and have no trouble strafing around - it's just what you're used to, I guess.

It's a great game, but like everyone else has said, the atmosphere is more of the same. I think they also shortened the time it takes for Splicers to respawn. You can't even walk down the next corridor without a respawn happening behind you to complicated your attempt at sneaking around to set traps, gather adam, and research splicers. I don't like that.

THe best part so far, for me, was finding out that I could alternate electroshock and my drill to pummel a Big Sister unto death with minimal harm to me.

I think that now that I know where things start to get hairy, I'm going to restart and try to conserve more ammo and such so Pauper's Drop stops being such a PIA.

Of course, this is assuming my addiction to MAG lets me get back to Bioshock 2.

[Yellow]

Just completed it tonight. Really couldn't give a fuck by the end of it - there was nothing new in this game. Same mechanics, same visuals, same ending, less of a story.

[Aptorian]

I bought Bioshock 2 during the steam summer sale and I've finally gotten around to playing it during the past week.

I have to say that from what I remember of the first game, it is overall a great improvement.

The weapons are cooler. The enemies are beefed up a bit. The plasmids and tonics are more diverse. Hacking is upgraded. And the atmosphere is just as I remember it, creepy at first, but very cool once you get used to it.

Like the last game I feel like an asshole every time I have to attack a Big Daddy to get to the little sister. I don't know why but it just feels like a violation. They look so happy with the little sister skipping around and the big daddy lumbering behind her occasionally making those sad bass crescendos. And in I come and kill the poor big daddy and use the little sister for my deranged purposes.

I've read that I'd get a whole lot more ADAM this time around if I harvested the Little Sisters but that is just not going to happen.

Just ran into my first Tank splicer. Sweet baby jesus that guy is tough. He's at least as hard to kill as a Big Daddy.

[ansible]

I also bought this during the Steam sale and started playing it recently.

I'm enjoying the game, but to be honest I think I prefer the first one. This one feels more combat-oriented, and the story less compelling. There are splicers everywhere. I'm playing on hard, and like someone said above, it's pretty tough at first until you upgrade some weapons and plasmids. The city is still cool, the atmosphere great, but it's just lacking something. I'm enjoying it, though. I can't remember the first game well enough to know if this one is really worse or if the the whole thing just isn't as fun. Maybe a replay is in order...

[Aptorian]

Just managed to shoot a machine gun splicer in the face with a spear. It went through her mouth and pinned her hear on a pillar, her feet left hanging off the ground. That's fucking badass.

[ansible]

I finished this late last night. Some general thoughts:

I didn't like the hacking remake. It was clearly more streamlined, with hacking taking place in real time and obviously simplified, but it felt cheap to me. It wasn't even a real minigame and became quite boring. I know that some people didn't like the "pipe dream" game from the original, and I can agree that it got repetitive, but as a gameplay element it had more depth. The research mechanic was improved though. Doing different types of damage to enemies was more fun than just pretending to want to take their picture up close.

Although this was a sequel, many of the gameplay elements were simply reused and not even as well-introduced as the first time around. I mean little stuff, like the plasmid intro videos and the vending machines. Even Sinclair's first appearance seems random. Actually, the only side-plot surrounding a level that was remotely interesting was Gil Alexander's; the others were like, "They have a key, go get it." At least it was fun hearing Grace say "Tin Daddy."

About the last level:

Spoiler

I really enjoyed Persephone/Inner Persephone. Seeing the weird fever dream of the Little Sisters was great. There were some genuinely creepy parts that took me by surprise, like in the flooded Solitary Confinement area. You go down into a small room, the lights are out, you find a gene tonic, then suddenly your flashlight goes out too, and when your flashlight comes back on you are surrounded by crazy doctor splicers. I had the stationary camouflage tonic at the time, so I guess they couldn't see me the first time they appeared, which was a whole new level of fucked up. Probably one of my favorite moments in the game.

In general I thought this level was the best in the game. It even had a real puzzle, where you had to listen to an audiotape and figure out the keycode from the paintings on the wall, unlike every other keycode in the game which is either written somewhere or recorded (to compound this once you see or hear it the game shows it to you at the lock interface; am I stupid or something?). Those kid paintings were scary, btw.

Once you do some research and get tonics that upgrade research damage bonuses and weapon upgrades and some plasmid upgrades, combat is really easy, even on hard. You could basically Incinerate something, shoot it a few times, run away, and repeat. Using an upgraded Launcher and some nice traps meant everything died really fast. Even Big Daddies went down easily. The only real challenge was still Big Sisters, and two of them is pretty ridiculous on hard.

All in all it was a pretty fun game, and I imagine I'll replay it sometime to harvest the Little Sisters and mess around with some plasmids I didn't use this time around (like the tonic that limits you to the drill but reduces the amount of EVE plasmids use). Lamb was a much less satisfying villian than Ryan/Fontaine, and in general I prefered the Ryan/Atlas combo to Lamb/Sinclair. The original Bioshock seemed like a more satisfying experience because Rapture was new and really, everything was new. This was still fun but that sense of wonder was mostly gone.

[Aptorian]

Just found this guy after I melted a block of Ice. Nice little easter egg.

 Schroedingers Icecat.jpg (70.37K)
Number of downloads: 0