Hawksworth Reports: BioShock 2

Instead of the more exciting route of crashing a plane and going down a sub into the impressive city of rapture, you wake up in a pool of water and see yourself in the reflection. You observe those huge hands and the yellow window and you suddenly realise “I’m a big Daddy: FTW!”
His purpose is clear and is the same as any Big Daddy’s goal: FIND YOUR LITTLE SISTER. This little sister is unlike any other that you have encountered before. She has a name. A name in common with your new antagonist, Sofia Lamb. She took over from Andrew Ryan after he died 10 years ago. She was originally hired by him as a psychiatrist to help calm the citizens of Rapture during the chaotic times. She is the complete opposite of Ryan believing in religion and sanctity: the things which Ryan hated.
The Little sister’s name is Eleanor Lamb and your basic mission throughout the entire story is to find out who she is. As you go along you soon find that she is being worshipped by a cult of splicers and that she is of great significance to them. Why? Is yet to be revealed.
If you’ve seen any gameplay videos, you’ll know you aren’t any big daddy: you’re the first prototype and therefore have the ability to use plasmids like Jack from the previous game. These plasmids are much more varied in their upgrades rather than the old game where they only got slightly more powerful. For example the incinerate plasmid starts off as normal but when upgraded, it becomes a charged ball of fire or a flamethrower. Plasmids can also be mixed together to get better, harder hitting combinations i.e. you can set a cyclone trap on fire.
The weapons are of course big daddy badass kind of things; the drill being the most famous. However, there is a drill fuel gage meaning your splicer drilling is limited. Fortunately all is not lost. The rivet gun makes an improved appearance: as does the machine gun and there are a couple of new ones. There is a spear gun and a hack gun. The hack gun allows you to hack from a safe distance and the spear gun... well... fairly obvious isn’t it? And a fair few come early in the game; meaning more fun for you.
The splicers are more grotesque and more insane. Some have become so spliced that they have turned into a new brand of splicer: the Brute Splicer. He is huge and is not afraid to use his huge muscles to hit you or throw things at you. There is also a new big daddy called the Rumbler. He fires rockets from his launcher and throws out turrets to shoot you.
However, there is another enemy, more powerful than both of them. It’s called the big sister and she protects the ADAM economy of Rapture. ADAM is needed to buy tonics, boosts and plasmids. To obtain it; one must retrieve it from a little sister. Big Sister is always watching always waiting, until she snaps and comes to hunt you down. Ammo is expensive and in short supply making it a very supply exhausting fight. You know she’s coming to get you when you hear the terrible shriek which scares the crap out of you.
Some of the best parts of the game seen so far have to be the underwater segments. It gives great piece of mind to know you are safe for once and you won’t be attacked. All this is of course is courtesy of the huge diving suit your internal organs are stored in. Another good feature about the suit is that it has a torch allowing you to see in darker areas.
The multiplayer is what really is exciting me. The games appear to be fun and challenging and it is awesome how 2K has tweaked the games to give them Bioshock themes. For example ‘Capture the Sister’: a variation of capture the flag where you have to capture the sister and deposit her safely in the hatch. This is all set in the Rapture during the civil war (two years before the events in the first game) and Mr Sinclair of Sinclair solutions who wants you to test his products in the multiplayer games.
All in all, Bioshock 2 certainly appears to live up to expectations in all aspects and should be an excellent game to play. Until my next preview which will be posted whenever the hell I feel like it, goodbye.