Reviewing: Bioshock 2

Well, there it is. My first video game review ever, hope I can do everything right.

At first, I got a bad start, receiving multiple negative remarks from some of my friends, especially Kinjry. If you cannot imagine, then he said the words "it's" and "lame" in the same sentence. Then, some weeks later, Notch posted a list of games he personally played and rated them. His verdict? "More of the same".

My, I finally have enough money to get it (during the Steam christmas sales, thank god for that) and I already fear or my enjoyment. Once back from vacation I jumped into the game. While I completely understand the "more of the same" statement, I must say it's a little bit more of that

Of course, it is a first person shooter, under the sea, in a sub-oceanic ruined city with the same atmosphere. You HAVE to expect that, especially if you look at trailers before buying games. However, they made the recipe a lot better. Most of the annoyances in the first opus are gone, either replaced by something easier, faster, a lot more reactive or simply removed. While the story is unveiled at the same pace (most of it is discovered with the help of voice recorders scattered everywhere, just like the first one), This time the direction it took is the complete opposite. In the first game, you desperately fight to find a way to escape this crazied hole. In Bioshock 2, you desperately fight to go deeper and deeper, struggling through the city to save your protégé. While this little detail may look small, it is a big difference. Your nemesis is, again, forever willing to sacrifice every single life in order to stop you, and there's still plot twists to make you say oh s***! If you loved the first one, there's no reason to hate the sequel. Plus, this time, you have this giant drill, it'll teach them good.

There is two main points that bothered me in the first game: Hacking and combat versatility. I hated hacking because it constantly stopped the flow of the game. It always took a long time, you could do it while in combat, and most often I simply didn't bother with it. Well, they fixed that. Now, it takes a couple of seconds at most, it's ultra simplified (meters goes left and right, stop it on green or blue, done), and it doesn't stop the flow of the action. Sure, doing it while enemies are pummeling you with lead may be a bad idea, but at least it's more realist. Or you can use a hack-dart (or even better, a auto-dart) to safely hack and corrupt something from a distance. I especially love doing this to those who have flying bots with them. Talk about a slap to the face!

Something else I hated about the first one was the combat moves, or plasmids in this case. I'll say it, I'm a sucker for spells and techniques you can learn. So when I upgraded my immolate plasmid to rank 2 or 3, I was expecting a little more than a few added sparks and damage. Well, FIX'D!  Now, everytime you upgrade a plasmid, it comes with a new way of using it. It goes from charging your fireball to call a bot from anywhere and giving it a name, if you had the good tonic, which is the passive kind of abilities. The Insect Swarm plasmid is especially devastating against fleshy targets. Rank 3 will transform your victims into nests full of blood-thirsty wasps. Lasts longer with more victims! You know I love flames and fiery stuff, so try to guess what Immolate rank 3 looks like!

There is also a multiplayer mode! It's basic, sure, but it's there, with plasmids and guns and some killing sprees to boot! Death match, capture points, capture the flag, team matches, the basic! Imagine COD mixed in the world of bioshock, and you have it. So I won't talk about it that much.

Other than that, the audio in Bioshock 2 is as good as the first one, if not better. Sound effects still makes you paranoid, the music is creepy (or jazzy sometimes) and the voice acting is really well done. Artworks is, in my opinion, even better  than the first one, letting you explore the city from the outside and showing quite a lot of details. It maybe lacks from a set of new enemies, but the few additions each have their cold signature. Especially the Big Sisters, who will make a hell of your life. For these hardcore players who plays without vita-chambers (capsule where you respawn if killed), it is a tremendous battle, and her screech announcing her visit will freeze your blood.

Overall, it is a good game that will take at least around 8 hours of your time. It is indeed  more of the same, but they polished it a bit, oiled some joints, and gave it a big'ol rivet gun. So go get that creativity of yours and show them the art of traps! I don't like the idea of "game scores", they're weightless and useless. Call of Dooooty: Black ops may have a 9.0 on Gamespot, I still prefer X-com: UFO Defense. I prefer talking about how I feel about the game, not giving it a medal. However their reviews by themselves are good, don't get me wrong.