Does the sequel live up to expectations?
The first Bioshock game won numerous accolades, and was generally very highly thought of critically. The mix of the well conceived setting and the interesting twisting storyline made the game very memorable, and although some of the more straightforward shooting ocasionally lacked the snap of other first person shooters, it had a wealth of great ideas.
Returning to the underwater city of Rapture, you now play as a 'Big Daddy' one of the fearsome enemies you encountered in the first game. However, as you wake up, vague memories flashing through your mind, you are initially lost as to what to do. Through clever set pieces and recovered audio diaries of the residents of the city, you slowly put together an interesting tale, which fills in what has occurred since the last game, and serves to propel your character into action, through various areas and past many enemies.
Levels are well designed, and although a little too split into specific areas, the ghastly ruins feel very believable, and a lot of attention to detail has been put into desgins from everything from authentic posters to dripping water and views out to the seabed. Enemies too, are very cleverly designed, with several types all with their own abilities and attack patterns. Returning from the first game are the majority of the weapons and plasmids, the special powers you can use, and these can be very fun to use, with decent variety and some interesting and unique affects. The spear gun for example, which you can pin enemies to the wall with, or the Winter Blast plasmid, which can be used to freeze a foe into a solid block of ice.
Apart from the story, the other main additions to this game revolve around more emphasis on the utilisation of 'Little Sisters', orphans who have been brainwashed into scouring Rapture for 'Adam' the material used for learning new plasmids. By recruiting Little Sisters to follow you, you can get them to harvest Adam, but you have to protect them from other enemies, who all want to get at the Adam they collect. This adds a new level of tactics, as you can plant mines and traps before setting the Little Sister off to harvest. The other main new addition are the 'Big Sisters' who are some of the most difficult enemies in the game. Additions and refinements have also been made to the hacking and upgrading processes.
The main issues I have with this game is the stark similarity to the first game. In an already overcrowded FPS market, basically putting out the same game with a few refinements could be seen as a little money grabbing, and since a lot of content from the first game is re-used, weapons for example, it feels a lot more like an expansion of the first game than a full blown sequel. Rapture lacks the wow factor of the first game, and the storyline fails to capture the excitement and intrigue the first game built up. Even playing as a Big Daddy had been covered!
It's a real shame that this game doesn't quite live up to expectations, as the first one was fantastic- I would definitely reccomend anyone interested to play that game. However if you have played the first and enjoyed it, and want more of the same, this is definitely worth a look. Just don't expect to have the same sense of wonder the first game produced. Overall, good, but not the step up from the first game I would have liked.
3/5 stars
Thanks for reading! Andrew
*Version reviewed: PS3. This is a review of the single player portion of the game.*
No comments:
Post a Comment