My disappointment is overwhelming.
I loved Bioshock. Loved it. Loved everything about it. There was the engrossing storyline, the oozing yet exotic atmosphere, and of course, the kickass gameplay.
Bioshock 2 also has all these qualities, and yet I find it lacking something that the first gave me in wave after wave...
A sense of newness.
Because at the end of the day, there is not a whole lot of difference between Bioshock and Bioshock 2. Aside from the new plot, some new weapons, and some retooled plasmids, everything is pretty much the same. The worst thing I can say about the new game is that they took out some of my favorite features that were part of the first Bioshock. When you approach a Circus of Value or an Ammo Bandito in the first game, you were treated to some hilarious dialogue from the vending machines themselves. In Bioshock 2 they have completely removed those atmospheric treats. Unlike the first game, you can no longer bring random parts to a U-Invent machine and make ammo and tools.
The one thing I do really like about the single player experience is when your character, clad in his Big Daddy suit, steps out of a building and onto the ocean floor. But the experience is a limited one; the time you spend in the ocean is very brief, and only ever serves to move you character from one level to the next. You can't even swim, even though your nemesis the Big Sisters, are seen swiming all around Rapture. Also, you have no ability to use your weapons while underwater. One time, after the building I was in became flooded, I walked out into a courtyard, and the huge Great White shark swam right up to me.....and then swam away. It just seems as though there is so much lost potential with this game.
Aside from these issues however, the single player experience is an enjoyable one, although it is much shorter than the first player experience in the original Bioshock. The multi-player aspect is also quite entertaining. It is however hard to find enough people to get a game going sometimes, which leads me to wonder how long it will be before the new Battlefield makes the multi-player aspect completely unusable.
