Bioshock 2 [PS3/360/PC]

[sailor-fuku]

Picked it up this morning from me local emporium (PS3 version). And after a good 10mins or so installing the game, finally dived back into rapture.. first impressions on the cut scene movie at the start were a little worrying, as the frame rate was a little juddery. But once in-game - smoothed out to the same rate as the original.. You can hack directly as in the first - or with the hack-pistol, can do it from a safe distance which is ideal for the security turrets and alarms, giving you the oppotunity to make a room safe before entering or clearing a room of splicers before continuing.. All in all its pretty good fun so far..

Had a quick attempt at the multiplayer - but no one was about.. But look's to run at a lower rez n does look a little scruffy within the confines of the set up area, where you can choose loadouts, look of your player etc before you enter the bathosphere to start searching for a game..

[AlonzoUK]

Quick impressions: the game is fairly slow to get going, the splicers attack in teams now and seem more organised and gathering adam requires a fair amount of thought.

Rapture, I've missed you.

[crocky-chocky]

Bioshock 2 [PS3/360/PC]

Put a coupla hours in to this and it’s superb so far. I was diving in a bit of a sceptic, as I really didn’t think something as epic as Bioshock’s opening could be topped. I mean, the developers don’t have the trump card of unveiling Rapture for the first time, and you start the game right inside the place. Thankfully there’s a moment in the first seabed walk (trying not to spoil things here) which rivals that shot in the first few minutes of the original, and there’s some lovely little touches that do a super job of putting you in a Big Daddy’s shoes. A ruddy fantastic opening, then.

I figured I’d have beef with playing as a Big Daddy too, seeing as they come across as emotionless, lumbering death beasts and this would effectively shift the story to the back in favour of action. But if the first hour or so is anything to go by, there’s been a great effort made to illustrate the bond between you and the Little Sister you’re trying to track. I’m already itching to find the poor gal. So at this stage at least, the story is really pulling me in.

In fact it’s snowballing just as nicely as the original’s so far, and hunting down recorded bits of dialogue is still a really addictive and engaging way of finding out more about Rapture. Any new characters introduced seem just as well written, and Sofia Lamb is looking to be a grand main villain. There’s a moment in the first few minutes that really illustrates her capacity to be a real heartless little chuff.

In terms of improvements, there’s obviously being able to use plasmids and weapons at the same time, which makes combat a little less fiddly. There’s a little more grim graphical detail on the Splicers too, and they don’t seem to have that weird ‘hand-wafting’ bug when you down the poor things. But the nicest addition so far is the Hack tool, which I won’t spoil.

I’m playing on PS3, and it runs decent and looks generally lovely despite the odd ropey moment and bleary texture. None of which bothers me mind, and it’s certainly much better than the PS3 originals port. There’s a roughly 10 minute install too.

So to sum up for now, it’s great. Every bit as detailed and well designed as the original, and to anyone who’s a little sceptical I’d say take the plunge. Also, might as well say that I have the Rapture Edition and the 90 odd page art book is really well put together, probably the best art book to come free with a game so far.

Off to play more…

[mr_woo]

Can't wait to get my hands on this, thought I'd have it today but didn't arrive The multiplayer is looking surprisingly good from what I've seen as well, watched a live stream last night and it looked like a lot of fun and very solid.

[Yakumo]

I'm looking forward to this once as well. Should be released in Japan later this month or early March. Fingers crossed they leave it in English like the original.

[Btang84]

Received this not long ago, was almost 3pm when the postie came. The Rapture edition artbook is hardback and has exceeded my expectations of what a £30 game's artbook would be like.

I've only played about 30 minutes of the game but it seems very similar to the first game, and that is definitely a positive rather than a negative. I have the PS3 version and the mandatory install takes up 4573mb, a fair amount. One complaint I had with the first game was that I was forced to use the R2 and L2 buttons to shoot the weapons and plasmids. This version allows me to customise the controls and use R1 and L1- a big plus in my book.

I had a go at the multiplayer too, but so far it does seem slightly tacked-on. The frame-rate takes a hit compared to the single player and it seems to take an age for the opponent to go down. It's probably my bad shooting though.

[Lebowski]

Put an hour and a half into it and the scale and atmosphere is still fantastic. love being a big daddy too. they seem to have nailed the melle combat too the drill is fantasticly satisfiying to use.

[stevie vip 99]

Played a few hours now, so far so good.
Had a go at the multiplayer earlier, seems ok. Considering it's not due out till tomorrow there were a lot of people on multiplayer ranked around level 40 with a 1000 odd kills!!!! Puts me off mutliplayer when you face highly ranked players straight away with better weapons but i'll give it another go

[Bassman]

Mine arrived at about 9am this morning.

It is a nice little book. 96 pages including credits and about the size of the game itself.

Put in about 3 hours on the game so far and enjoying it as much as I did the first. Not sure what percentage complete I am at. I just left the

->Open Spoiler<-

Amusement Park.

I like the new way of hacking though it would have been nice to have been told to aim for

->Open Spoiler<-

blue as first priority

when hacking (unless I missed it).

[stevie vip 99]

Mine arrived at about 9am this morning.

It is a nice little book. 96 pages including credits and about the size of the game itself.

Put in about 3 hours on the game so far and enjoying it as much as I did the first. Not sure what percentage complete I am at. I just left the Amusement Park.

I like the new way of hacking though it would have been nice to have been told to aim for blue as first priority when hacking (unless I missed it).

It sort of tells you to

->Open Spoiler<-

aim for blue

. Not the most obvious though

[ezee ryder]

When posting please think about spoilers. That would include not mentioning certain areas and features. I know some people (like myself) have kept away from news and previews. Thanks.

Just played through the opening and boy is it good to be back in Rapture. Granted the opening is not as good as the original game but it's still pretty damn good. I thought it would feel "weird" playing as

->Open Spoiler<-

a Big Daddy

but it doesn't at all. Awesome. Can't wait to play some more.

[Bassman]

It does sort of tell you what to do after you didn't do it, which annoyed me a little. Hacking something different brought up the same thorny issue, after which I had learned my lesson.

Thought by mentioning it someone might have been saved some aggravation.

[ChrisF]

I miss the Circus of Value voice

[jim g]

Question for those who are playing this; please answer, spolier free !. I gave up on Bioshock 1 because for it become more a game of sovliing stupid puzzles to unlock weapon upgrades. When it reached "not another f***in puzzle", I sold it.

if this is same I will skip it, please advise!

[ChrisF]

Seems the same to me so far Jim. I've played about an hour or so, and it's a lot like Bioshock 1 in respect to how the plasmids/tonics/weapons etc... work.