This game was like an albatross around my neck. I started it in February 2011 after David and Katie got me Bioshock 2 for Christmas 2010. I didn’t fancy diving straight into the sequel, so I picked up the original Bioshock cheap from Gamestation. I didn’t play it for very long, I admit. It just didn’t grab me, and the PC-esque UI put me off.
Thirteen months later, I picked up from where I left off, and within seconds I was hooked. Why? I had my first proper Big Daddy/Little Sister encounter. From there, I completed the first game within a week, and Bioshock 2 (Campaign modes and single player DLC, at least) was finished off a week later. I was actually obsessed with the thing, and Bioshock Infinite seems so far away. I feel sorry for anyone who played these games years ago and have had to wait even longer for Bioshock Infinite.
Caution – there will be spoilers for both games in this non-review. I’ll be focusing on the stories a fair bit as they are the strongest elements. The gameplay itself was great, but the grand stories, deep characters and super-imaginative world is what will make Bioshock stick in my head for a very long time.
Bioshock then. Do I really need to explain the basics? I’m sure that by now, anyone who is even remotely tempted to read my blog would know about Rapture. No? Ok then. Rapture is a city, the dream of one man, the embodiment of conviction himself, Andrew Ryan. Oh yeah, and it’s an underwater city. In Rapture, genetic engineering is prolific. “Splicing” is not confined to simply changing your height, build or skin colour – you could go as far as shooting flames, electricity or ice from your hands, or turning invisible when you stood still. We join the story just after a civil war – one that you can actually play in Bioshock 2’s multiplayer – but we’ll get to that later. Splicing has got out of hand (excuse the pun), and things are generally quite fucked up.
You play as a seemingly random guy who has stumbled upon Rapture, and the first person you make contact with is a polite Irish guy named Atlas. He soon turns out to be Frank Fontaine, who is not Irish or very polite. Frank is a con-man, a crime boss, and Andrew Ryan’s nemesis (Fontaine and Ryan are the ringleaders for each side of the Rapture Civil War). And to top it all off, he’s your Daddy. Yeah, you’re a clone. The dialogue when “Atlas” is taunting you for falling for his Irish accent is top of my “Bioshock Top 3 moments”. I’ll see if I can find it on YouTube. You were sent away from Rapture so that you could return with the sole purpose of killing Ryan.
Couldn’t get more weird? Wrong. Splicers contain ADAM. Derived from sea slugs, ADAM is the highly desirable stem cell that is the key to the prolific genetic engineering. Created to harvest this ADAM from dead Splicers are Little Sisters. They used to be normal little girls, until they underwent severe physical alterations that made them crave ADAM, and cruel brainwashing that radically changed their perception of the world. Number two in my “Bioshock Top 3 moments” is the sequence in Bioshock 2 which has you controlling a Little Sister, and you see Rapture through her eyes. Instead of a rusty, old place covered in grime and dirt, she sees everything clad in gold and draped in luxurious red fabric. Instead of hideous Splicers, she sees sophisticated gentlemen. Instead of dead Splicers, she sees them as sleeping angels.
Protecting these Little Sisters are their Big Daddies. Their primary role in life is to protect the Little Sisters as they harvest ADAM. Their secondary role in life is to be the caretakers of Rapture, both inside and out, hence their massive diving suits. You, as a player, wouldn’t get very far in an underwater city full of genetically modified crazies, so you have to beat them at their own game and splice up. But where do you get ADAM from? Well, all you have to do is take out a Big Daddy and steal his Little Sister. That’s all. Not hard at all. That was an understatement, by the way.
To be fair, you do have a wide range of toys to play with. The guns feel a bit weedy, but combining them with your other abilities is where things get interesting. Your left hand is the product of your splicing. As I mentioned earlier, you can shoot fire from your hand, freeze things… The list gets weirder. You can control Rapture’s security forces, create decoys, summon vortex-like traps and even hurl angry bees at your enemies. They aren’t just for offense either, some Plasmids affect the environment, allowing you to find secret areas full of goodies. Alongside Plasmids are Tonics – passive abilities which enhance your character in many different ways. Some lower the prices in the vending machines, some make hacking easier. Some turn you invisible when you stand still, some refill your health when you stand in water. There are just so many ways to kill Splicers, yet there is so little time…
Bioshock 2 is set in the same place, a few years after the events of the first game. Elenor Lamb rose to power, abducted girls from the surface and turned them into Little Sisters with the intention of collecting enough ADAM to merge everyone’s consciousness into one. As Subject Alpha, a Big Daddy (Yes! You play as an actual Big Daddy!), you are tasked to stop her. At first you don’t feel as powerful as a Big Daddy from the first game, but once you start building up your Plasmids and Tonics and get to stretching out that health bar, it’s like you’re a walking tank, nothing can stop you. Some Little Sisters from the first game have grown up, and taken on the protector role themselves. So pumped full of ADAM, they are extra strong, super fast, and very deadly. They do not take kindly to you meddling with their Little Sisters.
Gameplay-wise, it’s much the same as the original, only a bit more thought out. The crucial change is that you no longer have to switch between Plasmids and firearms – your left hand is always on screen, as is your chosen gun. It makes combining effects a little bit swifter – and much more satisfying. In a similar way to Dead Space/Dead Space 2, the second game abandons the open world structure and takes on a more linear approach, sending you on a one way trip to fuck Lamb’s shit up.
I played two of the three DLC add-on’s for Bioshock 2. I didn’t fancy getting more maps (and going by the comments on TrueAchievements, some glitchy and annoying Achievements), so I just went for the single player offerings. First up, The Protector Trials. Basically, this a challenge mode comprised of one of my favourite elements of Bioshock 2 – guarding a Little Sister while they harvest ADAM from a dead body. A genius addition, which really tests your harvesting skills. Not only do the maps make a difference, but you have a different selection of firearms, Plasmids and Tonics every time. This forces you to be creative – In the main campaign I just set up my preferred defences and rarely tested out new strategies, I just stuck with what I knew. Protip: Pay attention to the challenge specific loadout, because to survive and win you need to utilize it to the full.
Then there was Minerva’s Den. Cast as Subject Sigma, you are summoned to the computerised heart of Rapture to rescue Charles Milton Porter and his creation, “The Thinker”. A bad chap named Reed Wahl set up Charles, got him shipped out to Rapture’s prison and took control of The Thinker (which is an incredibly powerful computer, especially for the era the game is set). Gameplay is slightly different to the main game – while you are still a Big Daddy, you have a new weapon and a new Plasmid to play with. Just like in Bioshock and the main Bioshock 2 campaign, there is a pretty big surprise/twist. The revelation of who exactly Subject Sigma is, and why he specifically was sent to help is number three in my “Bioshock Top 3 moments”.
All in all, Bioshock is fucking awesome, and Bioshock 2 is fucking awesome. Buy them, play them, love them. And wait impatiently for Bioshock Infinite.
Atlas Demotivational credit: Aetherartist
Frank Fontaine taunting the player on Youtube
