Bioshock 2

Well, at least for me, the first big disappointment of the gaming year has hit and hit hard. After the wonderful and almost transcendent experience of Mass Effect 2 - a game that opened up so many possibilities for gaming, Bioshock 2 has so little innovation it's actually feels embarrassing to play at times. Not only is the sequel unnecessary it's almost insulting in execution.

For the most part the game treads a fine line between copying the combat of the first game and continually coming up with sequences that remind you of moments that the original did better. With a very poor choice in philosophy for the grand story (are we really expected to believe that treating psychoanalysis as the loss of self is as interested as Objectivism?) the game has none of the emotional impact or thought provoking moments of the first game. I would have loved to have seen the game add in a post-modernist take and use this to play with expectations from the first game, but sadly that's clearly not happening here.

The vulnerability of your character is strange, the logic of the world following the events of the first game is strained and the experience feels tremendously repetitive. The original BioShock had some terrible sequences (such as the tedious trawl through a ramshackle hotel) but don't worry the developers haven't missed the chance to copy it almost room for room.

Although it looks nice I’m at a loss to understand where so much praise is coming from, this is from the moment it begins, an inferior version of the original. Despite what people are saying elsewhere, it really is a knock-off sequel simply aping and not really understanding the impact of the original.

It's worth playing through but so much of the time you will simply be anticipating every moment of the game. There's nothing here that implies developers interested in creating a sequel, taking the opportunity to build on the original.

I would have loved to have seen something special as a sequel to the flawed genius of Bioshock. Instead, to me, it's a game worth playing because you enjoyed the original and can't resist seeing this world again. But as a piece of entertainment in its own right, it doesn't come close.

So I'd like to think it's the result of a missed opportunity rather than a cynical exploitation of a new ip that's been intellectually castrated by people with dollar signs for eyes. Hopefully the producers will realise the team behind the game just don't have the same ability or intelligence to pull off something as good as what came before and will get some of the original staff back to work on the inevitable Bioshock 3.

If not then expect this series to drown pretty quickly.

Update

Finally finished it and it continued to disappoint.

Get the original. Treat it as a great, odd movie and you'll have a blast. This is a dull shadow of that great game.

Bioshock 2 may improve the gameplay a little (dual weapon/powers) but it also introduces some elements that quickly become tedious (gathering...)

There's a single interesting sequence in the game that shows something that doesn't happen in the original (a twisted/different perspective but I don't want to spoil anything) - but that's really the only significant improvement. In the end it's almost disappointing because it shows someone on the team had some ideas that could have made a great sequel. Sadly it's only for a moment.

By the final level the game seemed to have totally lost the plot - spitting out radio messages about people I'd killed minutes before and lacking any real impact.

But the fundamental problem remains the same - the philosophy of the world of Andrew Ryan (Ayn Rand) was so strange, so unexpected, that it significantly altered what a game could be. This game absolutely fails to do that.

Given the best sequence is about a different perspective I still feel there could have been something really interesting done around the writings of Derrida or Foucalt. Sadly that's all been thrown away in favour of a basic, insulting and misguiding mishmash of Marx and Freud.

In fact, I'm hard pressed to even describe it that way. It's more like what McCarthy would think Communism was if you added in a confused hillbilly paranoia of psychology.

A waste, from start to finish.

The only thing good that could come out of it would be if someone took the original and added the gameplay improves from the sequel, and maybe the events of this game as a 1-2 hour extra level half way through.

But I'll say it again - Bioshock 1 is a masterpiece of story telling, get that and love it and try to forget this ever happened.