BioShock 2 (2010)

An incredible sequel to the first game, which I consider a masterpiece. This game doesn't live up the highest highs of the writing of the first game no, but makes up for lot in a lot of ways with significantly improved gameplay and a very emotional story.

It definitely received a lot of hate when it came out but I think in retrospect people are starting to realize that there's a lot to love here too and this is worthy followup.

4 / 5 Stars

BioShock 2 builds on the eerie underwater dystopia of Rapture with improved combat and a deeper emotional story, improving in almost every aspect of it's predecessor. This time, you play as a prototype Big Daddy, which blew a lot of people's minds at the time, adding weight and power to your arsenal. The ability to dual-wield plasmids and weapons enhances gameplay fluidity, and the new hacking mini-game is faster and more intuitive. The story doesn't quite match the philosophical punch of the original, and this is why I prefer the first entry.

But it explores parenthood and identity in compelling ways, especially through the bond with Little Sisters. The atmosphere remains hauntingly beautiful, though less groundbreaking than BioShock 1, which is understandable because it didn't really focused on improving the visuals as much as it focused in the gameplay. While not as revolutionary as its predecessor, BioShock 2 is a solid, well-crafted sequel that offers both action and narrative depth, it is hard not to get sold when you simply introduce the idea of playing as a Big Daddy.

Enemy encounters feel more deliberate and intense, with smarter AI and more aggressive Splicers that take advantage of the environment. Big Sister fights stand out as some of the most memorable moments in the game, delivering fast, chaotic battles that test your mastery of plasmids and weapons. Resource management remains a core element, but the game is generally more generous, encouraging experimentation rather than punishing mistakes.

While the level design doesn’t quite reach the same iconic heights as the original, it remains varied and engaging, supported by strong sound design and a haunting score. Overall, the second BioShock entry may not redefine the series, but it successfully refines it, offering a confident and enjoyable return to Rapture for both newcomers and longtime fans. Definitely a must-play if you enjoyed the first title, a no-brainer since it is easily available for modern platforms.

This game feels so much better than the first one in terms of gameplay, but in terms of story it is clearly not anywhere close to as good. I do find the further context on the Big Daddies to be interesting but I find the driving conflict to be severely lacking. I had little to no investment in the main characters because they didn’t set it up to like, feel a sense of loss emotionally when we are looking for the kid.

But the game is beautiful and I loved everything about the gameplay and setting, and I don’t think that it deserves the amount of scorn that it seems to get. To me it’s still a 5 star game, or at least 4.5, if I could give half stars.

Finally finished this one. It’s insane how much public perception has changed about this one.

Back in the day, people were convinced this one was the weakest BioShock, but nowadays, that honor seemingly goes to Infinite.

Personally, I still think this is under the first one. Most of the time it doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself, and, when it does, it isn’t for the best.

Like saving little sisters, it used to be just killing the big daddies and done, but now you need to do that + help her harvest ADAM, protecting her from a small horde. It becomes VERY tedious because it isn’t particularly hard, just time-wasting.

Also, it’s an absolute BUGS GALORE, make sure to save every 10 minutes or so. Small indie company 2K can’t muster a good remaster, apparently.

Still, I don’t think it's a bad game. I guess I’ll just have to play Infinite to properly rank the series.

Bioshock is a tough series to rank. All three of the main games are great, yet somewhat flawed and it tends to keep them out of the conversation when it comes to all-time greats. The first Bioshock has a brilliant premise and incredible world-building yet falls quite flat in it's final hours. The third game, Infinite, is crazy ambitious and once again, visually interesting. Yet it failed to deliver on the promise of over-inflated expectations built up over a turbulent development cycle and is once again hampered by a weak third act. So that leaves Bioshock 2, perhaps the least interesting game in the series in terms of new ideas it's bringing to the table, yet the one that is often pointed to nowadays as perhaps the most consistently good game in the series. It's a take I can kind of get behind. Kind of. The big new thing is that this is the one where you play as a Big Daddy. It feels better than you would expect to control one of the big lunks and there's a focus on action and an overall streamlining of the gameplay from Bioshock 1. It's more of a shooter than a survival-horror game now. It's actually pretty fun and kind of breezy. The game feels a bit brief but the story is good and further fleshes out the city of Rapture from the first game. And maybe most notably, the ending is decent! In an era of western development that pivoted away from video game bosses because oftentimes, they were apparently just too difficult to design (okay?), this one chooses just not to have a final boss at all, more of a final mob. Sure! It's a good game, it's just not a particularly exciting one, which is sort of what Bioshock was all about. It was overhyped yes, but that hype played into the experience of playing it better and for worse. For all the failures of the first and third games, they at least felt very bold. This one is just kind of like "and I'm here too, being quietly good yet easily forgotten!" That’s a tough beat, Bioshock 2. Middle siblings always have it the worst.

*Google it, it makes sense. It's a great title.

The first BioShock was, and still is, the best game I played in my life and BioShock 2 is in every way an amazing sequel that follows the story from the first game very well. Everywhere are pieces of the story that fits perfectly with the whole series. History from the first game, the founding of Rapture and the many mad scientist experiments that happened there.

You play as a Big Daddy this time, so the perspective is completely different. You feel like a Bouncer Big Daddy right away from the start of the game. It is a really great idea.

The graphics and gameplay in BioShock 2 have been greatly improved. It has the same atmosphere and feeling like the first game but looks way nicer. The mechanics, like dual wielding plasmids and guns is also a big plus. The sound is also improved, when you shoot the living sh!t out of a splicer, you hear your bullets impact in their twisted body’s.

The new weapons and enemies in the game are very well balanced and add new strategies you can use to defend yourself against enemies, like the hack tool turrets for example.

The game has the same moral decisions from the first game. How you treat people in this game determines your ending. I, of course, am a good guy so I saved everything and everyone.

There were some minor irritations like the hacked security bots that constantly blocks your movement in small spaces and the same goes for Eleanor when you rescued her. Also, the constant “father, father I love you father, we will be together father, oh father” got really on my nerves sometimes but despite this the game was good, incredibly good.

I had some technical issues in the beginning where the difficulty kept resetting itself but thanks to a tip from a Steam community member if fixed this.

The DLC is fun to play and rewards you with special items.

The strong story is the best part of this game and because of it, along with the improved mechanics and pace, I enjoyed every minute of it.

The original game from 2010 still has the multiplayer function and it is, surprisingly, still active and has a whole community behind it that plays. With this people it is a lot of fun to do.

I definitely recommend BioShock 2.

Bioshock 2 had me gripped from the very start, being a far more personal story, being a bit less about the world around you and a lot more about you, subject delta, a big daddy, and his little sister, Eleanor Lamb, as her mother, Sophia Lamb takes her away from you to share her with the many splicers that call her "family". I preferred this plot to the original, it was a lot more about the big daddies and their important role in the original, and that opening where Eleanor drags you around as you look into the mirror to see what has become of your character, seeing these monstrous, horrifying creatures from the original as a sympathetic dad this time around. I loved it. The gameplay, in my opinion, was heavily improved. Tonics are universal now letting you apply different "skills" in the overall slot instead of having three separate sections. The level design is a lot more linear, but it was still pretty good. I really like having both the weapons and plasmids usable at the same time, made it strategic, letting you shock the opponent while you reload your weapon. The far bigger focus on traps also helps, with the focus here being a lot more on how you approach the adam extracting sections, returning from the original, but they're really enjoyable now, making you plan a defense before the enemies start flooding from everywhere, makes that one part from the original look awful in comparison, which in my opinion, it was. Now here's where I started going insane while playing this game. For some reason, just like the original, the remastered version of Bioshock 2 (and every 2k game out there) requires the 2k launcher, an unstable, constantly crashing piece of junk that barely opens half the time, takes up more resources while you already have the epic games open too so it becomes a double consumption making the game run slightly less than favorable. But that ain't the problem. Spoiler for anyone who hasn't played the game yet ( I recommend getting the original version if you can find it, or get it on console where the 2k launcher ain't a worry) So I reached Fontaine's futuristics, a late game area, probably, I don't know, it felt really close to the end, and while fighting a horde of enemies jumping at me while the little sister drains the adam out of its victim, the game suddenly tanks and becomes unplayable, slowing down to 5fps, then it crashes, do take note, this is not by any means the first time it crashed, it happened many times, in many locations. So I launched the game again, loading the most recent save file and... nothing... it loads, you press a button, it crashes again... Alright, I decide to open the autosave, which was around 2 hours ago, it might be a long time, but I was really desperate to see the ending. The game would load, you would press a button, and it would crash again. I quit and re-entered the epic games store and launched the game again, it would crash, I rebooted my pc and launched the game again, it would crash, I even went ahead, deleted the game and reinstalled it, it would still crash and the only option was to replay all 8 hours over again... and I wasn't willing to that .This game seriously made me question my reliability on companies, I knew replaying the game from the beginning would lead to another game breaking bug, it's what companies do, naturally, they release broken unfinished "remastered" versions of the original, without taking the time to fix old glitches, and while making new glitches now, why hasn't this game been updated to fix these issues, I'm going to go buy the original and soon enough I'll review that, yes I might be replaying the whole game again, but it'll be guaranteed that I'll be able to get to the end of the game without a single issue, I played the originals all those years ago, and not a single time do I remember the game suddenly just crashing, so why does the "remastered" version feel less mastered than the original? I don't want to ask anymore, this review has been long enough, and while I consider this game my favorite of the 2 so far, the remastered version is a disgrace and I hope whatever the next "remastered" version of a game I play will be, it will at least be stable from beginning to end.

Update: I bought the original 2010 version off of steam, by some miracle, I beat it in 5 hours without dying once or getting lost, and I'll say this, my game didn't crash a single time, and it made the experience so much better, I recommend that version of the game honestly, it's currently only 4$, and it comes with the remastered for some reason... But yeah, this game, deserves a 5 star rating, I prefer the story over the original, I prefer the gameplay over the original, and the little sisters no longer look like little goblins.

Like a number of sequels in my library, I've had Bioshock 2 lying around for years before I picked up and started - thanks to voted selection being made by the community here.

I'm not gonna lie, though, I have mixed feelings when it comes to both 1st and the current Bioshock game experience-wise. They are both set in a sophisticated, underwater city called "Rapture", during the 1960's era. Bioshock 2 puts the player in the boots of Subject Delta, meaning that you get to play as a hulking Big Daddy this time; setting out to reunite with his Little Sister called Eleanor, whom both got separated by her collectivist mother Sofia Lamb 8 years in prior.

The underwater city premise is obviously familiar from the previous game, but now the player's wet dream (no pun intended) to play as a Big Daddy has been realized here. Due to its nature, it will feel bulky in the beginning until you upgrade your stats and perks but I found it balanced enough when engaging in combat at highest difficulty level. The game offers a further variety of plasmids, but it is the hacking and mind control that turn foes against each other that remain my favorites. The research camera adds a nice touch to managing against enemies; putting them in exposure long enough will grant you permanent bonuses in both personal features and damage-dealing.

Bioshock 2 also exceed the standards of environmental rendering and atmosphere, aging quite well although I haven't played the non-remastered version for reference's sake. The water renditions are an eye candy to behold during the scenic moments and the airlock location in particular. Not much to complain about it, although it bothers me that the look design on Splicers are still too... diffused in an awkward sense? Instead of getting clear memories of how I would re-imagine their look - it's like I'm facing enemies taken directly out of vague monster arts - although this added mystique could be more to other players' taste, I guess?

My main problem with both Bioshock games I have is the immersion issue that stops me from getting the most out of the world and narrative that the franchise seems to stand well on. I have had memorable experiences with several other games that implement logs (both audio and texts) scattered about to fill out the world's background and characters in the periphery. In Bioshock, though, they're shoed-in tightly between action moments, more often than not, that I won't always have time to take in the tidbits for context's sake - and sometimes I didn't have time enough to catch on the dialogues from key people when I make progress! That requires me to not leave the room I am currently in, if I wanted to focus to understand what's (been) going on in this crazed world I am involved in.

User interface is another point of criticism here for me: Regardless of the vintage aesthetic, the menu is poorly intuitive and navigating around feels clunky. For every time I checked the map, log and plasmids in possession, I felt it could have done better requiring a single-or-two button pushes to get back into the game instead of over the double amount. Also, be aware that playing in ultrawide monitor resolution will make the "visions" and certain cutscenes out-of-place, though I understand they haven't been optimized for such settings at the time of development.

If you have a habit of saving the game every 5-10 minutes then all the better; the auto-save function is quite scarce in this game and I have lost over a half hour near the end of Minerva's Den expansion. If you happen to forget at critical moments, it's a daunting undertaking to catch up depending on your level of enjoyment.

Overall, Bioshock 2 has been lauded by gamers and critics overall and I can see by the amount of points I've stated in this review while I find other points being missed or just weren't my cup-of-tea. To be honest, the initial sections of Bioshock 2 felt barely engaging and like a chore playing through but at least the best experience picks up at the second half. The remastered release has been going stable on my custom PC build, though I've heard the crash issues for other players that give this a bad rap.

I appreciate getting through two first Bioshock games and as much as they brought refreshing experience, it's hard to say that I would like to revisit them in the future due to the user interface and the narrative that hinder the overall impact. Doesn't mean that you should stay away from them any more than giving a test run. With all that said, I am clear to start on Bioshock Infinite...!

After playing and loving the original Bioshock, Bioshock 2 feels like the quintessential blockbuster sequel, where they try to improve on the original by making it bigger yet they almost never manage to make it as good, let alone better. It’s what Aliens was to Alien, what Terminator 2 was to The Terminator, what Book of Shadows was to The Blair Witch Project, and so on. All these sequels opt to inject intensity by action packing its segments, and they do so in an attempt to replace that feeling of punchy originality that first movies can do really well but that subsequent ones, for obvious reasons, have a hard time replicating. This is how I started looking at Bioshock 2 as I was playing it: the battles are more chaotic, the levels feel wider and less claustrophobic, the pacing feels quicker, the atmosphere becomes more explosive than haunting, and the whole thing seems very intentional. But somewhere in the middle of all this, the atmosphere and narrative lose much of their grasp. It was always going to be really difficult to turn a completely finished product like the original Bioshock into a franchise, but in trying to spare the player from the tropes used in the first story, the end result is a convoluted, inconsistent, less pungent and relevant tale - and with a much less compelling villain too - that does little, if anything, to advance the Bioshock universe in a captivating manner (the only exception to this were the visuals, that did a good job conveying the passage of time in Rapture from the original game). To me, this is the biggest failure of the sequel, even if the decision to place the iconic father-daughter relationship centre stage was a logical one.

This does not mean, in any way, that I did not like Bioshock 2. Far from it. Although I don’t love them as much as I love the original, just like I find a lot of things to enjoy about Aliens and Terminator 2, I also really enjoyed my time with this game. For starters, there’s a big improvement over the original Bioshock when it comes to combat. They definitely addressed pretty much all issues I had with it in the first game, and the fact that you’re now able to use plasmids and weapons simultaneously is an absolute game changer that allows for several new approaches. Similarly, I cannot stress enough how satisfying it is to use the drill as a Big Daddy. I admit I had a bit of a hard time trying to reconcile playing as a one-dimensional, heavily mutated killing machine with my relentless scavenging nature as a gamer (I feel the game could’ve done a much better job of explaining how Delta rediscovered his 'humanity' and free will), but drilling through hordes of enemies in a bloody, gory, Doom-like way more than makes up for it, and it’s certainly one of the most welcome additions to this sequel. In fact, aside from the removal of the crossbow - why?!? -, the overall weapon revamp feels fantastic and clearly improves on the original from a strict gameplay aspect. At the same time, the inclusion of the Big Sisters, as much as it is a direct nod to the disappointing sequel formula I mentioned above, serves as a much needed influx of combat excitement that was lacking from the first Bioshock - I don’t think I’ll forget that pre-appearance screech anytime soon. Finally, and going back to the narrative, the story in Bioshock 2 is okay. In fact, when seen in a vacuum, I think it’s good. It’s just nowhere near as good as the original’s, and in a game that directly follows in the footsteps of a previous one, that is a comparison that will always be impossible to escape from. Having said that, I actually prefer the less black and white possibilities present in Bioshock 2’s ending when compared to the original, just as I appreciate the sequel’s approach to the final battle a lot more.

As a whole, Bioshock 2 is, in my opinion, a clear case of a sequel that is a step forward in most things technical and a step backward in most everything else. In 2021, I would absolutely recommend it especially if you played the first one, but to me, unlike Bioshock, this game is great, not fantastic. And after playing 1 and 2 back to back, I can understand both why it was so divisive when it came out and why it became more agreeable as time went by. I would give it a solid 8.5/10. Last word for Minerva’s Den, which was a surprisingly good DLC. It has a great story, and the added Gravity Well plasmid is really fun to use.

When BioShock 2 came out I, like many others, shot it down. I just played 1 and 2 back to back and for the life of me I can't recall why I didn't like it. The story is more mature, the gameplay is better in every possible way, it looks great it sounds great. The only thing keeping it from being as good as the first is the ADAM gathering sections (I personally don't care much for timed enemy wave things), and the fact that it wasn't introducing Rapture, but rather was expanding upon it.

2010 is when I was beginning to get jaded by practices in games. DLC, shoehorned multiplayer (both of which BioShock 2 had), and plus it was a new team. Maybe I was just primed to not like it as much? But I had a blast playing it. I chewed through the game on Saturday. One of those "Fuck it, I'm not going to bed until this is done" sort of things. That doesn't happen often to me anymore.

See, THIS is why I went back and replayed them. 10 years is a long time, and I've changed a lot in what I value in a game (and also probably in life?). I'm bumping BioShock 2 up to a 4/5. It deserves to be remembered and played. If I'm being honest with myself, I would bump BioShock 1 down to a 4/5, but I just can't bring myself to do that. It meant so much when it came out it feels "wrong" but some of the games...lesser moments...really came to light when I played it this time around.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date in Minerva's Den.

I played the remastered version of the game, expecting it to be a significant improvement over the original. However, based on what I saw myself and read in other reviews, this remaster was barely an improvement. I went into this expecting massive changes (I played the Resident Evil 2 remake last year and thought that there would be a similar amount of change between the remaster and the original when it came to Bioshock 2) but was massively disappointed. I experienced 2 main technological issues with the game, one of which being a few crashes - maybe 2 or 3 - in the earlier part of the game. There aren't very many autosaves, so make sure to manually save whenever you get the chance in case this happens to you as well. The second issue, which was a much bigger deal, was the fact that the brightness slider in the settings menu didn't work. Because of this I had to play the game on a very low brightness, which was problematic at some points, but was still bearable.

The gameplay itself is thoroughly enjoyable, with a plethora of abilities and weapons to choose between, and many different enemy types which you can scan while attacking to unlock perks and abilities. Navigating the weapons got difficult at times, as by the end you have about 8 to choose from and in the middle of a fight it's difficult to move your finger over to the correct number for the one you want to use, so if there was a weapon wheel like in DOOM (which came out the same year as this remaster), it would've made the weapons much easier to switch between.

There's a lot of abilities that you can choose from, but to me at least, many of them felt utterly useless, and I kept making use of the same few over and over. The resource you use to buy upgrades/perks/abilities is plentiful, and I finished the game with a lot of excess since I had already bought everything that I wanted.

I also enjoyed the many different types of enemies, although the most basic type shows up a little too often. The multiple variants of Big Daddies were some of my favorites, as they had special types of attacks and were basically mini boss fights. Big sisters were fun to fight against too, as there's a specific thing you have to do to summon them, and once one is on its way the game really makes it feel like you're in for a big boss fight. I played the game on the hardest difficulty, and it definitely felt like it. I'm not sure if the difficulty affects the amount of ammo and other loot you get around the game, but there were points where I was out of everything and it was hard to progress. Although I normally play games on hard, I'd recommend sticking to the normal difficulty for this game because in my case at least, I died so often that it started to be a nuisance.

There's a hacking mechanic just like in Bioshock 1, but this one is handled in a different way, with you needing to press a key when a moving needle passes over a certain colored part of a little path. I loved this mechanic since you could use it on all kinds of things, allowing you to get freebies from vending machines or take over drones and have them fight for you.

The story was well made too, although, I'm not very picky about writing in the slightest so my opinion on it may be much more lenient in comparison to others'. The game features several different endings (with a few of them being almost exactly the same), and it's not very difficult to figure out what choices you have to make to get the good ending and what choices earn you the bad one.

Overall the game was thoroughly enjoyable, with quality gameplay and a myriad of enemies and abilities. I wouldn't categorize it as one of my favorite games, and I doubt I'll be replaying it at any point, but I don't regret getting through it once. The game gets a bit overwhelming at points, with how many abilities you can choose from and all the items available at the shops (many of which I felt were completely unneeded), but I would recommend playing it if you're into this type of game.

Почему это назвали сиквелом?! По количеству изменений это максимум аддон.

Нас снова возвращают в Восторг, только на этот раз мы играем за Большого Папочку, а ругаются по рации другие люди. Протагонист опять немой и весь сюжет снова подаётся через дневники и записки. Господи, покажи мне того человека, который решил, что это крутая фишка! Это же напрочь ломает темп игры. Что в первой части, что в этой: приходится останавливаться и слушать, потому что невозможно же слушать две записи одновременно.

К счастью записок в игре меньше, и в общем игра не такая тягучая, как оригинал. В целом, если первая игра была довольно претенциозным, но неудобным шутером, то сиквел стал удобней и... просто шутером, без претензий.

Локации стали не такими тесными, плазмидами и оружием можно пользоваться одновременно, мини-игру «водопроводчик» заменили на «останови стрелку в нужный момент», что тоже скучно, но хотя бы намного быстрее. Проблем с патронами теперь нет, а взламывать всю херню можно на расстоянии — были бы расходники.

С другой стороны, сценарий лучше не стал: персонажи по-прежнему картонные (даже больше, чем раньше), внезапных поворотов ноль (против одного в оригинале). Да и став как шутер удобнее и лучше (стрелять тут приятнее, а интерфейс не занимает пол-экрана), игра этим самым стала злоупотреблять: сбор АДАМА «по-хорошему» превратили в утомительный отстрел волн врагов.

Недостатки другие, а оценка прежняя — посредственно.

Sadly I have to list this game as completed with a 1 star review. I think I will look on YouTube to see how this game ends.

To start with, I tried playing the "Remastered" version, which crashed repeatedly on the first level. (It doesn't make a huge difference but I have a modern PC with all the latest hardware.)

Then I played the regular non-remastered version figuring it would be more stable. It was. Until like the last level... I literally made it through what I think was the vast majority of the game only to find it crash on me over and over at one particular point, aka a game breaking bug.

I love the atmosphere of this game but yeah, this kind of stuff ruins it.

Following up on a game that is a genre-defining classic is difficult. On its own, Bioshock 2 is a good game. The game mechanics are solid and the story and the environment are well done. But fairly or not, Bioshock cannot be viewed on its own. The setting and the story itself only fully make sense in light of the first game. While the plot stands alone, there are subtle and explicit references to the first game.

The game play, weapons and plasmids are taken almost wholesale from the first game. The moral dilemmas or rescuing or harvesting Little Sisters for the ADAM is taken directly from the first game. While much is derivative, much is also new. Playing the entire game as a Big Daddy does not replicate the sense of overwhelming power that it had at the end of the first Bioshock. The need to upgrade health, ADAM capacity and plasmids follows the same loop as the first game. While much is familiar, there is also much that is new. One explores new areas of Rapture, and sees the results of the society's collapse after another decade. While some characters return or are referenced from the first entry, most of the central characters are new.

Because there are so many connections between Bioshock, the second game cannot be evaluated on its own. It is in comparison with the first game that the second falls short. One cannot fault the developers for maintaining what was effective in the first game in the second, however, there could have been more refinement. One cannot fault the developers for maintaining and building on the setting from the first game. Like the first, the environment itself is a character and tells as much of the story as the narrative set pieces themselves. Where Bioshock 2 falls short is whereas the first game is memorable in its novelty and its plot, Bioshock 2 is mostly forgettable. From the locations explored, the characters, and the game's plot itself, nothing stands out as memorable and epic as "Would you kindly" or the revelation in Andrew Ryan''s office. Underlying the Bioshock were ideas and concepts, a philosophy embodied in the residents and the environment of Rapture. The second game is not wrestling with such deep and abiding concepts as freedom and objectivism. While the game is fun while it lasts, there is little to ponder once the credits roll.