bioshock 2

[essentialsaltes]

I raced through Bioshock 2 over the past week or so. Enjoyable, but (as how could it not be?) inferior to the original's utterly compelling story of charismatic visionary crackpot quasi-Randroid (yes, there is some redundancy there) Andrew Ryan, and the intertwined story of your humble protagonist. Fortunately, Ryan's disembodied voice continues to haunt Rapture, most amusingly at an amusement park designed by Ryan to inculcate children into his way of thinking.
The story of the sequel has some good scenes, but the overall structure seems much more mundane. With that falling shorter of the original, I had hoped that the gameplay would compensate, but for the most part it's a faithful retread of the original. But there's still a lot to like.
Rapture is still beautiful, and it's great to wander around another game's worth of locations. There is also a great sequence where you experience Rapture through the eyes of a Little Sister.
The music selection is excellent, though the implicit chronology favors Rapture's Art Deco styling over the nominally 1968 date. "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" is a natural, but far more eerie is "You Always Hurt the One You Love"

You always hurt the one you love
The one you shouldn't hurt at all
So if I broke your heart last night
It's because I love you most of all

Comments

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Oh, and by nothing new in the gameplay, I mean they added an all-new online multiplayer game. But I haven't yet given it a spin. Certainly the Uncharted 2 online game held my interest for a good long time.