| BioShock 2 First Look
Going back to Rapture with a bigger pair of boots.
US, April 23, 2009 - This fall 2K Marin will give Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC users the opportunity to return to the water-logged city of Rapture in BioShock 2, the sequel to 2K Boston's original. While it's set in the same place, it'll be 10 years later, and you won't be playing as the same protagonist. You'll be exploring new areas, slaughtering more genetically-enhanced splicers, and interacting with Little Sisters as an actual Big Daddy, a concept anyone who played through the original will be familiar with. You won't be playing as just any Big Daddy, either, but as a special breed; a prototype of sorts that's broken out of its role in Rapture's bizarre social order.
Many of the systems from the original game seem to be making a return, something we were able to hear more about at a recent demo session with the game and creative director at 2K Marin Jordan Thomas. Back when the original BioShock was in production at 2K Boston, Thomas put together the memorable Fort Frolic section, and later set out to the newly-founded studio in Northern California to work on the sequel.
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In case you didn't check out the first game (which you really should), the underwater city of Rapture was built by a megalomaniacal fellow by the name of Andrew Ryan. It was supposed to serve as an escape for talented people seeking an alternative style of existence free from the conventions and restrictions of life on the surface. Eventually the society was ruined as the practice of splicing, genetically modifying your body, expanded throughout the populace, introducing an unfortunate element of violence into an already strange and isolated world. Monstrous beings in diving suits called Big Daddies started following around little girls who'd undergone heavy genetic alterations. Rapture's residents, referred to as splicers here, were driven insane. The city started caving in on itself and in some of the surviving corners of Rapture dwelt twisted personalities fueled by psychotic and deadly ambitions. All these elements meshed together, along with an enjoyable style of gameplay, to make the original one of the most memorable gaming experiences of 2007 when it was released for Xbox 360 and Windows PC platforms.
So how does the story of this sequel hook into the end of the original? We were told the results of the major events of the first game, specifically the 'boss' encounters, remain unchanged. "There's a ton of controversy amongst the splicers as to which of the choices the player made," said Thomas. "The knowns are Tenenbaum and her safehouse full of Little Sisters returned to the surface and most of them led normal lives…One Little Sister did not acclimate. She wasn't able to fit in. She wouldn't let Rapture go for some reason…In the late 60s she returns to Rapture and she finds it a wreck. A lot of it has been reclaimed by the ocean, there's this new growth that's taking parts of it, and it's chilling to her."
According to Thomas, the splicers still remaining in Rapture are the stronger than before, as only the most powerful were able to survive in the chaos following the events of the first game. But there will also be folks in Rapture walking around who've never spliced before who are now tempted. "The first generation splicers are these really disturbing post-humans," he said, "and then the more generic melee splicer guys are the new generation, the ones who had been incarcerated or otherwise non-accessible to the player in the first game. And they're coming streaming up out of the walls to find these new Little Sisters. The pressure of the Rapture world is very much a survival one. Anything that can help you live is at least worth considering."
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/975/975686/bioshock-2-20090422113309983-000.jpg)
A Big Daddy on a diet? Nope, that's the Big Sister.
BioShock 2 will still be a first-person shooter, will still feature upgradeable weapons and plasmids for special attacks, and will still let you battle against Big Daddies to gain access to the Little Sisters they guard. Your arsenal will be a little different though, as it'll be tailored to what a Big Daddy would carry around. A drill arm can be revved up and slammed into splicers, there's a modifiable rivet gun you can fire at foes along with other new weapons, and you'll have the option to shoulder charge any hostiles to send them reeling backwards. The ideas of combining weapon and plasmid attacks to more effectively eliminate your enemies are being expanded upon, as plasmids will alter in their functionality as they're powered up, and more interesting combinations are being built in.
As was shown to us in the demo, a cyclone trap placed on the ground can be lit on fire with the incinerate plasmid. Whichever splicer is unfortunate enough to stumble upon it will get tossed skyward and engulfed by flames, doing damage and providing an opportunity to land a few easy shots with your rivet gun. Since as a Big Daddy you're a more imposing presence, you'll also find splicers have a somewhat different reaction to you. They tend to attack in larger groups in BioShock 2, and if you happen to corner a single enemy, it might just pull a quick 180 and flee.
It's not just the enemies that'll be treating you differently. Little Sisters will still be wandering around in Rapture, and after taking out their Big Daddy guardians, they'll regard you with more of a degree of trust. They'll still serve as the primary means of accumulating Adam, the stuff you use to upgrade your powers. If you're feeling particularly greedy, they can also still be harvested if you wish, a process which essentially destroys them but nets you a larger quantity of Adam. A new option in BioShock 2 is to choose to bring them along with you, in which case they'll hop up onto your shoulder and ride around. Doing this opens up a new kind of gameplay sequence, which seems to be an extension of sorts of the escort and defense portion near the end of the first game.
While moving through the world, an 'adopted' Little Sister riding on your shoulder will identify locations from which additional Adam can be extracted, and if you want to get at it, you'll enter an area defense sequence. The Little Sister will pop down to the ground and go about extracting Adam from whatever body she singled out. This takes time, and you'll have a moment to set up a few traps in the area and familiarize yourself with the environment's layout before groups of splicers start to pour in. From what we were told, it'll be possible to even harvest little sisters after you've gone through this extraction defense sequence, or you can choose to set them free and send them through to Tenenbaum. Though you'll be rewarded for your success in different ways depending on which choices you make, any kind of meddling with the Little Sisters runs the risk of angering one of the game's new foes: the Big Sister.
Clad in armor similar to the Big Daddy, the Big Sister is responsible for a lot of the activity in BioShock 2's version of Rapture. Encounters with her will trigger every so often as you interact with the Little Sisters, at which point she'll launch an attack. Being much more agile and powerful than any of the splicers running around the world, Big Sister encounters will be sure to challenge you to utilize weapons and plasmids creatively, much in the same way battles against Big Daddies in the first game often drained your ammunition reserves…unless you took advantage of the respawn system, something 2K Marin is switching up in the sequel.
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/975/975686/bioshock-2-20090422113249827-000.jpg)
Don't be surprised to find yourself occasionally outside Rapture's walls.
"One of the best things from BioShock 1 was the completion rate," said Jordan Thomas. "A lot of people who wanted to make it through BioShock 1 were able to at their level of difficulty and we owe some of that to the death mechanic. That said there was this giant 'sploit smack-dab in the middle of the Vita-Chamber system that was sort of sad. It was like 'hey look, I've got a wrench, I've got infinite lives, therefore I am going to whittle down this Big Daddy in the least fun way possible.' We called it Vita-thrashing. So in Bio 2 specifically, while you don't ever lose quest progress, the world does kind of move on without you while you're regenerating. We're not really talking about the fictional treatment of how you are brought back each time, but I can say the Vita-thrashing thing no longer works. If you want to take out a Big Daddy you're going to have to invest. Meanwhile, if you've completed an objective as part of the progress gating of that level, you never lose it."
Since we haven't yet had a chance to play, it's difficult to say much about the game's feel. From the brief demo we were shown it certainly looks pretty, and a sequence where a Big Sister broke apart one of Rapture's walls, letting the fury of the ocean crash in was particularly impressive. Since you're a Big Daddy you can survive underwater, wandering amidst floating furniture and even out onto the ocean floor in some parts to observe the city from the outside. We were told you'd even be able to grab a hold of Adam slugs attached out on the ocean floor for an extra boost.
And in case you're wondering how playing as a Big Daddy will control, Thomas said things will feel much like they did for the majority of the first game. "The game begins with you very much a human in a diving suit with augmented strength and that's about it. As time goes on an ally gives you access to using plasmids, actually frees your will, kind of cuts you off your leash. Big Daddies are kind of like sleepwalkers. In BioShock 1 you saw them walking around very slowly. In Bio 2 you're this kind of balanced hybrid which is not nearly as beefy as the other Big Daddies but…you're not slow in any way."
We know at least one of the original game's characters, Tenenbaum, the protector of the Little Sisters, will make a return, who we saw in the demo communicating via radio in a manner similar to what was seen in the original. Digging into the mystery of who your Big Daddy character is and why it's moving against the fabric of Rapture's society is a major draw of the game, and we're certainly interested in learning more at this point, though most of the questions regarding the fiction and plot likely won't be answered until everyone actually gets a chance to play through the game.
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/975/975686/bioshock-2-20090422113246358-000.jpg)
As a Big Daddy in BioShock 2, you'll be able to use some pretty heavy machinery.
Aside from playing as a different protagonist, one of the other major differences with the sequel it that it'll include multiplayer. While no solid details are yet being made available by 2K Marin, Thomas did let us know that, "While our team at Marin and [2K] Australia are focused very heavily on the single-player element, the idea of 'Hey, we should build the BioShock name and try to bring some of the combinatorial magic of the gameplay into a multiplayer component' was a pretty natural question to ask at the beginning of the BioShock 2 development cycle…We talked about 'Hey, what if we did multiplayer?' throughout the development cycle of the first game and from there, it was like, this is the sequel, this is an entry we should make. Our goal is to make sure the story of BioShock 2 doesn't suffer in any way from the presence of multiplayer. It is a fine line but one that we're happy to walk."
Does that mean story will bleed over into the multiplayer? "I don't think it would be BioShock if the multiplayer experience didn't live in the world in some way. I can't really give you much more than that. It's just ok for us to be like 'oh yeah, we just put a splicer skin on some other game.' It really does have to be Rapture."
The system of upgrading your character with tonics and plasmid power-ups is being switched up in the sequel, as there'll be more options to diversify your arsenal. Plasmids, like incinerate, change their functionality as they're improved, letting you blast out jets of flame from your hand at higher levels. You'll also be able to heal friendly security bots and turrets, making them a more effective means of attack. There'll be another research system that's connected to a camera built into your Big Daddy suit. The more interesting a scene that you're able to capture, the higher the value, though we didn't get to see this in action. Hacking will still be in the game as well, but unfortunately 2K Marin isn't yet talking about how it's being changed around.
It seems we'll have to wait until later this year for more details, as this was just an introduction to what's being done. "I will say this," said Thomas. "I will say that what you guys saw today, the kind of 10 years later, Rapture under incredible decay, being reclaimed by the ocean side of it is just the beginning. There are mysteries related to other things that people really wanted to see out of BioShock 2 that we're not even revealing yet. We're psyched to see what people think when we touch what means BioShock in another way."
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