Bioshock 2 Review

great review nick... im curious, why dont you add a score system? im not pro score system but i think is cool having one, im a person who likes to read the review and see the score

We are still shelling out the details of a scoring system that we can all agree on. Once we decide on one, we will go back and add scores to the reviews.

Scoring systems are dumb, people need to actually read the review and make their decision based on that. Some arbitrary number system is not a smart way to decide if a game is good.

Stopped reading at Drill being useless... are you kidding me? I played through on hard and I found it invaluable. I love watching you guys but this write up is questionable. "... you must kill more than ten of them throughout the course of the game." ???

ok I take that back but I still think drill dash is the most useful thing in that game

I did think that the drill was kind of a shitty weapon at first, but when you take the time to upgrade it, use compatible tonics, and whatnot, it's pretty useful. One of the things that bothered me about bioshock 2 is that it seemed to encourage taking the good side of morality. It seemed to me that you got more adam from saving sisters than harvesting them, and sparing the lives of certain characters would reward you better than had you not. It's this unbalance that makes me question why add in this choice at all. Also maybe I'm among a minority but I thought the plot in this game was much better than the first game's. I felt some pretty hard emotional moments (especially at the end), during the game, such as that jaw-dropping game intro.

I'm glad you ultimately enjoyed it. I gladly ate my words on this game. With each passing month leading up to its release I cringed more and more at the thought of this sequel, yet in the end it did what I deemed impossible early on...Made a game that may not be as good as the original, but is pretty damn close, and thats all I wanted of it.

The problem I had was that it became boring to be a good guy. I started out saving the Little Sisters, but it got to the point where having to take them all over the place to for them to do their thing got old. Eventually I just started killing them, not because I really wanted to, but just because it was a faster way to progress the story (and less of a pain in the ass).

Maybe it was just me, but toward the end I lost track of some of the plot and it all became confusing. I think this was because some of the voice-overs were happening during action sequences and it was hard for me to pay attention to them. I'm sure I could have gone back and figured it all out, but by that time I didn't really want to.

I thought the game was pretty good, but not as good as the original. I wish I would have waited until the price came down to $30 or $40 bucks, though.

LCT- I understand your frustration with my comment but here are the points I would like to make.

1- The number of times I found the drill to be the best weapon to use in any given situation I can count on one hand. Sure, the charge ability is fun and satisfying but it was never a better choice than a wise use of plasmid and gun combination. Perhaps the plasmids were just a tad overpowered.

2- The Big Sister would have been much more interesting if she were a single, recurring menace that stalked you throughout the game. It eventually became tedious and annoying when I had to take one of these enemies down.

I think both of these elements could have been better if they were handled differently. Of course, that is just my opinion. You are welcome to yours of course. If you want to hear more about my opinions on the game or hear Brad, Joseph, and Nolan chime in, feel free to download podcast 156, which will be hitting iTunes on Tuesday night.

Thanks for reading,

-Nick

In my opinion it was a good game. I must agree with the drill being bad, but it has it's good time as the drill dash is a really good move to hit enemies at distances. Just make sure that you don't get stuck on small objects will using this move. But as always the plasmids own ass. This was probly the rpg of this year for me, but for how long...

i think reviews are better without a score system, if you dont use one god forbid the reader might actually have to read the review rather than skipping to the end.

So many people thought this game would be a real let down because of your role as a big daddy. They thought being such a powerful character would ruin the experience within the city. I felt the opposite, and have been looking forward to taking the reigns of Delta. I'm just glad that it hasn't ruined, what still is a great IP for other people.

Also I agree that the big sister confrontations become tedious and boring, as you realise they aren't going to be random, instead you will always (speculation)have to fight one after you clear an area of Little sisters. But I will defend the drill, and as an extension of that the melee combat. The drill is simply a glorified wrench from the first game, except it has far more options, and say what you may a lot of people would argue that the wrench was by far the most useful weapon in the first game (mainly thanks to the "one-two punch" combo) and whilst the ability to melee with any weapon means that the combo is not tied soley to the drill, being able to combine the several different styles of drill attacks means that a group of four or so splicers can easily be defeated by a quick drill dash-electrocute-whack-drill-freese-whack attack.

However whilst the drill is far from useless, it is almost upstaged by all the other peices of weaponry available to you throughout the game. My favourite of ourse being the good old rivet gun.

Top notch review nick, and thanks for not including any spoilers (I havn't quite finished it yet, I've got up to fontaine futuristics, which is why I can't be sure that all the big sister fights are after collecting each little sister).

By the way did you play through as a "good guy" or "bad guy"?

The drill is not useless when you get the drill upgrades/plasmids and the drill dash. Now those will make things even fun.

that picture was rather amuzing. I really liked the game and I agree with you on the drill part, I rarely saw the need to use it.

you can get a tonic that makes it so plasmids use almost no eve and are more powerfull, but you can only use your drill. you'll learn to warm up to your drill friend then trust me. also not being slighting below average at shooters can slow the process of enjoying the harder combat features, nick.......

The original game had much better pacing and memorable characters, but I still enjoyed this game throughout the end.

Good review Nick.

I found the story to be better than the first Bioshock. A father that wont give up on his daughter and a daughter who could never let go of her father, the story was fantastic. The duel wielding was a nice improvement. I dont totally agree with you that the drill is "useless". I only wished that you felt more like a Big Daddy. The last fight sequence in the game was where the game really shines at showing that you ARE a Big Daddy.

Yes the drill is completely useless due to its slugishness but it becomes
pretty useful when you obtain the deill dash and uphrades. I found it iseful when protecting little sisters.
On a side note there wern't that many Big Sisters.

I didn't count the number exactly but I had close to 10 encounters throughout the game. (SPOILER) There were probably 6 or so plus the 2 you must fight at the end.

Thanks for your input guys. I realize that one sentence in particular was a bit confusing so I made a slight alteration and made not of it at the bottom of the post. Alterations made after the initial publishing date will be highlighted and noted with blue text.

Well first I used the Drill the most probably due to me getting a permanent 50% increase to drill damage for getting around 1000 research once on a big daddy quite early. Towards the end I ended up only using the drill and Rivet gun as offensive weapons and the rivet gun only for enemies I couldn't reach such as Houdini Splicers
Also I Welcomed the Big Sister Fights as They Give you significant boosts to your max eve. If I had to guess I would say the equivalent of 4 Gatherers Garden eve upgrades.
Next I don't think that many people have realized this but you can get up to 240 adam from one little sister without upgrades if you harvest bodies Then the sister herself.
Lastly I loved this game :D
P.S. I One shotted a Bouncer with full health with the drill dash I don't think this is useless at all :S

I loved the drill in a few fights with big daddies, I'd set them on fire and then charge at them, works like a charm. The Big Sisters were quite annoying indeed, however they weren't that big of a deal for me.. Incinerate + armor piercing rounds on machine gun anyone?

Nice review Nick!
I have only played the 1st games demo and enjoyed it so I am looking forward to picking them both up. However, I am disappointed to have seen that the Big Sisters are reoccurring tasks instead of being a main piece of the plot, as I here the 1st one was all about atmosphere.

I feel that they could have used the Big Sister as a threat/scare that progressed throughout the game, creating interesting and terrifying moments until you finally defeated it. Oh well, the game still seems interesting to me.

Great stuff Nick, I have some problems figuring out exactly what i don't like about a game, but this helps me out. I agree that the Big Sister could of been so much more than boss fights for every level. A friend of mine has said that Bioshock 2 was better when you play on easy or normal, I think the reason he says that is cause if you play any higher the enemies are stronger, taking away from the "You're a bad ass" feel of the Big Daddy. Also, feel of playing as the Big Daddy, story wise, didn't seem to make me think "alright that makes sense" like in the first one. I found myself asking "is this a little far fetched?" but maybe I just don't see what everyone else sees.

The first game was the best :D