It's time to return to the dark Atlantic Ocean floor and visit our favorite, underwater city, Rapture. It's been eight years and Rapture is looking a little worse for wear. The city is only becoming more dilapidated and the people have continued to play Russian roulette with their own genetic makeup.

Review for BioShock 2

5.3

BioShock 2 is not great for most AbleGamers.

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You wake up in this world, but it's not all unfamiliar to you. You're one of the early prototype Big Daddies, and you're on the hunt for your Little Sister. Only thing is, you've been dead asleep for a while, and now she is all grown up. Explore your way through the city while standing up to Sofia Lamb - the one who's now pulling all the strings in Rapture. Lamb will stop at nothing to keep you and your Little Sister, Eleanor, apart. She'll even send the most formidable BioShock, the Big Sisters, to hunt you down.

First, I would like to say if you have not played the original BioShock, you probably shouldn't play this game. When the game begins, it does not go back over the story from the original or re-brief you. The developers assume you played the first game, know what is going on, and dive right in.

There are also a lot of references made to the first game, so unless you fully understand Andrew Ryan, Rapture, splicing, Adam, Eve, Bid Daddies, Little Sisters and the events of BioShock 1, you will be confused as all hell.

Now, once you've played the original, BioShock 2 is going to feel completely natural. The control scheme is the same, as are most of the plasmids, tonics, weapons and general game mechanics. Of course, BioShock 2 has had some tweaks.

To start with, you can now dual wield your plasmas and weapons instead of having to choose which you would like to equip. And along the line of weapons, you now carry a drill and rivet gun instead of a wrench and pistol, and you walk slower.

This all makes sense though- you're a Big Daddy now. They've also changes the hacking system, which is both for better and worse (explained more in the accessibility review.)

I'd say in general, BioShock 2 is harder than its predecessor. You carry less first aid, less eve, and the enemies now take more damage to kill. I guess that's what happens after nearly a decade of splicing.

In addition to tougher Rapture residents, there are tougher Big Daddies to face. Some now come equipped with rockets and mini turrets they can shoot at your location. Then, of course, there is the new super-fast, flame-throwing, and telekinesis-using Big Sister to deal with.

On BioShock's story – I really do think it's great, but I wouldn't say it's as good as the first. I wasn't surprised that it didn't impress me as much as the original, but what can follow the famous twist in the first one?

I don't want to go into any detail, because I'd hate to take that away from the game, but I will say this: it's good, and really fun, but lacks some of the memorable quotes and characters the first game had.

The biggest change in this BioShock is the addition of a multiplayer mode. You can go online and play as several different new characters who have just been introduced to splicing, and while doing so you can revisit some of your favorite BioShock 1 locations and weapons.

BioShock 2 has its own version of classic versus modes such as Free-for-all, Team versus, and King of the hill. Then it adds its own twist in games where you try to watch over Little Sisters.

The game offers some customization such as your character, your head gear (like a splicer mask), equipped weapons, plasmids and tonics. As you play, you unlock more items for customization and upgrades to beef up your character.

The multiplayer has been a blast so far, although my character is still low level, I plan on changing that soon.

All in all, BioShock 2 is a great game. I enjoyed playing it, and recommend it to anyone who has already played the first one. It captures everything that captivated audiences the first time around. Both the single player and multiplayer are fun, although I can easily say I prefer playing solo. I was almost sad when the game ended just because I wasn't ready to leave Rapture behind.

Accessibility review:

The modes in this game weren't created equally. Multiplayer is more accessible than single player, especially when it comes to the color blind gamer.

To start off, Deaf gamers should have no problem with this game at all. All the audio tapes, PA announcements, and dialogue can be subtitled, and a lot of the things that have audio cues also have some sort of visual cue as well. Such as when a camera spots you, it starts to make a noise, as well as begins to turn white.

The splicers rambling on before they notice you are often subtitled, but not always. Sadly, their screams and shouts are not, so if you can see them and they see you, it can be hard to pick up on.

You really don't lose much gameplay-wise though. In multiplayer modes, no one seems too keen on using the microphones, so you aren't loosing much there (if anything) other than some funny character quotes.

BioShock 2 can also be really helpful for those who find themselves dying a lot, not understanding how to use a new item, and those who have lost the location of their current objective.

There are three different difficulty levels in addition to the Vita-chamber, which respawns you nearby with all your health packs and eve if you accidentally die. You can turn on adaptive training that will help you utilize your abilities such as “Use your new telekinesis plasmid to free the pipe,” and “If you need a hint press SELECT.” You can also have a golden arrow at the top of the screen that points you in the direction you're supposed to go so that you don't get lost.

There is very little in the way of controller customization for single player. You can only change the y-axis (inverted or not), the controller sensitivity, and choose one of the preset controller configurations. This is very different from multiplayer.

In multiplayer, you can custom assign each button, change the controller sensitivity, invert the y-axis. and enable south-paw controls (switching the function of the left and right joysticks).

I'm not sure why multiplayer allows for these features when single player doesn't... especially when they both have the same default controls. And this isn't the only place where the multiplayer mode is better off than the single player mode. That's right – I'm talking about the known color-blind unfriendliness of single player.

As it's been reported, there are several problems with the color scheme in single player. In BioShock 2, they changed the hacking system to get rid of the pipe puzzles. And although I like the new system better, it does cause problems.

During hacking, the player must land his moving cursor on one of three color sections - red, green, or blue. Blue or green allow you to hack the machine or turret and move on with your life. Red sets off alarms and often causes you to lose life.

There are several places where hacking is required. If you are red-green color blind, this is an issue. The blue, the only safe bet, is the hardest section to hit and isn't present on all machines.

Furthermore, once something like a bot or camera has been hacked, it often changes from red to green to show it's friendly. That makes it nearly impossible for a color blind player to tell if it's friendly or not... unless they walk up to it and see if they get attacked. And also, friendly NPCs are green and enemy NPCs are red when highlighted with the reticule... causing the same problem described above.

Multiplayer, however, ditched the green and made everything friendly blue. Friendly turrets, hacked vending machines, friendly players... all blue. Once again begging the question... how could multiplayer have done so much better than single player?

For the one-handed gamer - I'm going to just go ahead and say, no. Sure, you may be able to play by doing some crazy leg-controller-balancing action, but I think it could get difficult. At least in single player since you can't remap buttons. Multiplayer may work for you, after a remap, but in single player you definitely need access to both trigger buttons at any time.

 

This game will require fast and often precision movement. If you have issues with fine motor skills, this game may not be for you. However, this game requires no gross movement so if you can move your fingers and hold the controller you are good to go.