Welcome back to the Bioshock Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be covering Bioshock 2, a sequel commissioned by 2K Games while series’ creator Ken Levine was off working on a more ambitious follow-up. I have a bit of an interesting history with this game: I had always felt that Bioshock 2 looked like it was hewing a bit too closely to its predecessor, which had benefitted from its fresh setting and innovative design. Despite that, I bought the game around the time it came out… and I just could not get into it. I must have played for about an hour at most before I just gave up and moved on to other things. However, since then, Bioshock 2 has grown quite a cult following, with many series’ fans declaring that it’s the best entry in the entire franchise. While replaying Bioshock, I got really curious to finally give this sequel its due, which really solidified for me that I needed to make this Love/Hate series a reality. So, how is Bioshock 2, then? Is it indeed better than its predecessor, or are people just warming up to it after its more muted reception on release? Read on to find out…

Love

• Major Quality of Life Improvements – A lot of the first game’s rough edges have been ironed out in this sequel. In particular, hacking is now done in real-time and takes seconds to complete, which helps the pacing immensely. Levels have also been designed to be more navigable, and the in-game map is easier to read. Basically every complaint about the first game has been smoothed out here. If gameplay’s all you care about, then I can see how some people could say that it’s the series’ best entry.
• Improved Combat – Combat feels much better in Bioshock 2: most of your weapons feel heftier, more accurate, and combat has a snappier pace to it. In addition, allowing you to use both plasmids and weapons at the same time to dual-wield abilities is fantastic.
• Playable Little Sister Section! – Bioshock 2 features a short, but incredibly memorable sequence where you see Rapture through the eyes of a Little Sister. It echoes what I said about the first game: the best parts of these games is when you just get a chance to piece together more about this world. Seeing how the mental conditioning Little Sisters go through has affected the way that they see the world is fascinating and definitely one of the best parts of the game.
• Minerva’s Den DLC – Released in the peak era of obligatory DLC expansions, Minerva’s Den plays out like a super-concentrated version of Bioshock 2 condensed into three levels. This does mean that combat encounters happen far more frequently than in the base game, which can get a bit tedious at times, but the pace at which it gives you upgrades to plasmids, gene tonics, and weapons makes you constantly feel that reward dopamine rush. In addition, the research camera is gone entirely, so that means that you never have to waste your time juggling a damn camera to get special upgrades. The damn thing has always sucked and its absence here makes me realize that the stupid thing should never have existed. It adds nothing and serves only to nerf your damage against all enemies for no reason. Perhaps best of all, the DLC has a narrative which is conveyed quite subtly, until it reveals a very clever and satisfying twist at the end.

Mixed

• Sophia Lamb – So I wrote a whole damn article about my disappointment with Bioshock 2‘s weak critique of collectivism, but at the end of the day, Sophia Lamb just isn’t as compelling as Andrew Ryan. That’s not to discredit Fenella Woolgar’s performance (on the contrary, she’s doing a great job), but Lamb is so transparently trying to be “this game’s Andrew Ryan” that it ends up being disappointing in comparison. She’s still a decent villain, hence why this just in “Mixed”, but I can’t help but wish they had found a way to make her more distinct than “female collectivist Andrew Ryan”.
• Graphics – Despite feeling so familiar to its predecessor, Bioshock 2‘s graphics have noticeably increased in fidelity. While this is technically more impressive than the first game, I can’t help but feel that 2K Marin have accidentally lost the first game’s beautiful imperfections: its stylized and grotesque character designs, its dark and moody lighting, its slightly hazy look to everything… it just makes Bioshock 2‘s vision of Rapture feel too clean in comparison. The first Bioshock feels weird and grimy, which lends the setting so much of its creepy charm. Bioshock 2, on the other hand, feels way too… normal.
  • I will say though that the Minerva’s Den DLC improves this quite a bit, as the levels are in a far more decrepit state than the main game. These much more lusciously-designed levels make you long for a full game where the rest of the city is in such disrepair.
• Morality – Once again, I’m kind of mixed on the moral choices in Bioshock 2. Once again, we have the Little Sister ethical dilemma, but now that we’re familiar with it, it takes away any ambiguity about what the “right” choice is (especially when your character is a Big Daddy who is supposed to protect the Little Sisters). However, the game also lets you decide the fate of three NPCs. The writing for these moral choices is far more subtle, with compelling arguments that could be made to kill or spare any of these three NPCs. However, where I get really mixed is the way that your choices play into the finale, because there was basically no way for you to anticipate that a particular character was watching and judging you this entire time. Like… obviously there has to be some ambiguity to the end of a moral choice system, but Bioshock 2 feels like it’s pulling a fast one on you.

Hate

• CRASHES – Your mileage will definitely vary on this one, but good fucking God, Bioshock 2 crashed to desktop on me on four separate occasions mid-game. That would be completely fine if Bioshock 2 did regular auto-saves like every other game of its era. However, Bioshock 2 only auto-saves at the start of each chapter, so it’s on you to remember to manually save every once in a while. Over the course of my four crashes, I lost around two hours of gameplay (with one crash coming an hour and a half into a level, and another coming literally five minutes before the end credits). It got so bad that I started anticipating them: while playing the Minerva’s Den DLC, I got pretty far into the first level and thought “man, I would be pissed if the game crashed right now”, so I immediately saved… and then the game crashed five minutes later as expected. On top of that, you can’t really do anything to avoid it: it seems to happen at random immediately after you fire a weapon in combat after playing for at least half an hour… good luck avoiding that situation.
• ADAM Harvesting – While Bioshock 2 does fix most of the first game’s issues, it unfortunately adds a new one of its own: in order to maximize your ADAM harvested, you’re going to have to not only kill the Big Daddy, but then you have to defend the Little Sister as she harvests from corpses… twice. There’s three Little Sisters in each level, and each time you not only have to find the appropriate body, but harvesting it takes a few minutes in its own right (assuming you don’t die in the process and then have to redo it)… you can see how this gets old fast, right? It’s not even fun gameplay either, it’s just making you wait ten minutes to get your ADAM when the original Bioshock gave it to you immediately as a reward.
  • Now, I will say that the one “upside” of this system is that it makes harvesting the Little Sisters a more tempting option, but inducing players to take a certain option through frustration is not great design…
• Drill Fuel – Look, I get why they made Drill Fuel a thing: giving the player a giant motherfucking drill at the start of the game could make all future weapons useless. So they have to choose between making the drill powerful, but limited-use, or make it unlimited use, but give it some sort of crippling flaw that makes it worse to use. Logically, making it so that you can only use the incredibly powerful, giant motherfucking drill briefly is probably the best answer… but I’m playing Bioshock 2. 99% of the reason you want to play as a Big Daddy is so you can use that giant motherfucking drill. And you burn through that fuel FAST. So I, very realistically, will constantly get into situations where I want to use my giant motherfucking drill, but cannot because it’s out of fuel, leading me to just avoid using the giant motherfucking drill so I won’t run out of fuel for it for when I need it…
• Big Sisters – Big Sisters look cool and the game does a fantastic job hyping them up, but when you actually face them, they’re kind of a nothing-burger. They show up after you clear all the Little Sisters out of a level, but their appearance doesn’t really tie into the game’s story or themes… they’re just “here”. That might be fine if they were fun, but the actual fights with them are just a grindfest where you blast them with all of your guns for way too long.
• Just An Overwhelming Feeling of Familiarity – Yeah… unnecessary sequel that’s trying to be “more of the same” fails to really step out of its predecessor’s shadow. Hell, even Bioshock 2‘s “new” ideas are just riffs on the previous game’s (objectivism swapped out for collectivism, Big Sisters are just “new Big Daddy” with even more health, etc). Bioshock 2‘s a good game, but its inability to differentiate itself and failure to live up to the expectations of its predecessor make it feel kind of disappointing.

Bioshock 2 is, ultimately, a good time. I had a lot of fun with it, but I just can’t get over its disappointing art direction, narrative, and themes when compared to its predecessor. Taken on its own, it would probably be really well-regarded, but it’s so familiar and beholden to the first game’s ideas that it ends up feeling stifled. Still, I’m very glad that I gave it the chance and finally got the opportunity to experience it in full.