[Official] Bioshock 2

[soniqstylz]

Release Date: February 9th, 2010 (Worldwide)

Developer: 2K Marin, 2K Australia, Digital Extremes (multiplayer), Arkane Studios (art design assistance)

Publisher: 2K Games

Platforms: Windows PC, PS3, XBox 360

Plot:

Set on New Years Eve of 1970, ten years after the events of BioShock, Rapture is now under the control of a woman named Sofia Lamb, whose ideas of human progression contrasts with the city's founder, Andrew Ryan. While Ryan believed in the genius of the individual, Lamb believes in collective effort and the power of the community, as well as a philosophy surrounding butterfly imagery, indicating some kind of rebirth. This message is spread by a deranged ex-priest, who has created a cult-like religion around Sofia. Additionally, to maintain order in the city, Lamb has created an army of Big Daddy-like enforcers called Big Sisters. Sofia has dispatched these Big Sisters to abduct little girls from towns on the Atlantic Coast and bring them back to Rapture to create new Little Sisters. On New Years Eve, the prototype Big Daddy from the original production lines re-activates with no recollection of what's happened in the past ten years. After scouring the city in a vain attempt to find the Little Sister he was originally paired with, he realizes that Sofia Lamb will lead Rapture even closer to destruction. This leads him to form an uneasy partnership with Doctor Tenenbaum and the former CEO of the plasmid company, Sinclair Solutions, Augustus Sinclair, in order to overthrow Lamb and her army of Big Sisters.

* New plasmids such as "Aero Dash" allowing for bursts of speed over short distances, and "Geyser Trap" a stream of water used as a jump pad and electrical conductor, join the ample list of Plasmids from the original game.

* New game mechanics including the ability to dual wield plasmids and weapons; flashback missions detailing how you became the Big Daddy; the ability to walk outside the airlocks of Rapture to discover new play areas, and many more.

Special Edition ($99.99US)

Vinyl 180g LP with BioShock orchestral score

Audio CD with BioShock 2 orchestral score

Three vintage Rapture advertisement posters (rolled)

BioShock 2 Art Book, 164 pages and hardcover

Trailers

PS3 trailer

E3 trailer

PAX 09 Multiplayer trailer

Siren Ally Halloween Trailer

Previews:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/bio...p;mode=previews

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/105/1055988p1.html

http://kotaku.com/5433178/bioshock-2-multi...w-yes-the-lobby

Achievements/Trophies:

Bought a Slot

Buy one Plasmid or Tonic Slot at a Gatherer's Garden.

Max Plasmid Slots

Fully upgrade to the maximum number of Plasmid Slots.

Upgraded a Weapon

Upgrade any weapon at a Power to the People Station.

Fully Upgraded a Weapon

Install the third and final upgrade to any of your weapons.

All Weapon Upgrades

Find all 14 Power to the People weapon upgrades in the game.

Prolific Hacker

Successfully hack at least one of every type of machine.

Master Hacker

Hack 30 machines at a distance with the Hack Tool.

First Research

Research a Splicer with the Research Camera.

One Research Track

Max out one Research Track.

Research Master

Max out research on all 9 research subjects.

Grand Daddy

Defeat 3 Big Daddies without dying during the fight.

Master Gatherer

Gather 600 ADAM with Little Sisters.

Fully Upgraded a Plasmid

Fully upgrade one of your Plasmids to the level 3 version at a Gatherer's Garden.

All Plasmids

Find or purchase all 11 basic Plasmid types.

Trap Master

Kill 30 enemies using only Traps.

Master Protector

Get through a Gather with no damage and no one getting to the Little Sister.

Big Spender

Spend 2000 dollars at Vending Machines.

Dealt with Every Little Sister

Either Harvest or Save every Little Sister in the game.

Against All Odds

Finish the game on the hardest difficulty level.

Big Brass Balls

Finish the game without using Vita-Chambers.

Rapture Historian

Find 100 audio diaries.

Unnatural Selection

Score your first kill in a non-private match.

Welcome to Rapture

Complete your first non-private match.

Disgusting Frankenstein

Become a Big Daddy for the first time in a non-private match.

"Mr. Bubbles-- No!"

Take down your first Big Daddy in a non-private match.

Mother Goose

Save your first Little Sister in a non-private match.

Two-Bit Heroics

Complete your first trial in a non-private match.

Parasite

Achieve Rank 10.

Little Moth

Achieve Rank 20.

Skin Job

Achieve Rank 30.

Choose the Impossible

Achieve Rank 40.

Proving Grounds

Win your first non-private match.

Man About Town

Play at least one non-private match on each multiplayer map.

(Plus 18 hidden trophies/achievements)

Edited December 25, 2009 by soniqstylz

[metal_dragen Veteran]

I came late to Bioshock (only got it 2 months ago), but I am very much looking forward to Bioshock 2. The story in 1 was fantastic and the whole environment was very original - can't wait to see more.

Not too keen on the MP though. I've not been one for MP in a while and the first game set up such a great world for a single player campaign and story, so I'm hoping we haven't sacrificed that for the sake of tacking on MP. And I hate games that have MP achievements - it's such a letdown and a cheap way to pad out 1000 GS.

[Piggy]

This is going to be awesome. I absolutely loved the original Bioshock.

[pzykotic]

Don't you mean February 2010?

[soniqstylz]

Don't you mean February 2010?

good call. derp.

[Massiveterra]

I'm glad that social philosophy will still be a big part of the game (Altruism vs Objectivism). I really hope the WTF moments surpass those of the first game.

[Mathachew Veteran]

Awww heck, they just had to add multiplayer achievements. Those ruined my 100% score for World at War. Ah well.

[GameOverRob]

Why? The World at War Achievements were only for Zombie-mode and they were added as DLC. The full 1,000 was covered by single-player only achievements! There was two 0g achievements for Prestige one and Prestige ten but who gives a damn about 0g achievements?

[what]

Yeah the multiplayer achievements are a shame. Still looking forward to the game though. The original was epic.

[qdave]

I came late to Bioshock (only got it 2 months ago), but I am very much looking forward to Bioshock 2. The story in 1 was fantastic and the whole environment was very original - can't wait to see more.

I really wish i had your enthusiams :p I got bioshock just this week and already finished it. I was expecting to play it for so long (since it came out, cuz only now i got proper pc), and i was left dissapointed :(

Still will play 2nd just for the sake of it.

I wonder what pc specs will be like.

[soniqstylz]

I wonder what pc specs will be like.

Should be similar to the first, I believe it's running on the same modified Unreal 2.5 Engine.

Re: multiplayer achievements

None of them look especially tough, it's all "kill your first (whatever)", etc. The only tough one is reaching level 40 (which, for PS3 users, is the only Gold trophy revealed so far).

[Massiveterra]

In the recent IGN preview they said there is no grand opening scene like the first game, which was a little disappointing to me

[Viper_Maniac]

In the recent IGN preview they said there is no grand opening scene like the first game, which was a little disappointing to me

:( :( I was so hoping there would be. That's one thing I liked about the first game.

[ichi]

I hope it's not another dumbed down System Shock.

Bioshock had a nice story and great atmosphere, but the gameplay and the puzzles were somewhat lacking, being a SS successor and all... Zero Punctuation put it quite nicely :p

[soniqstylz]

Page 3? Wow. Anyway:

Two levels deeper into BioShock 2 and unwilling to spoil any of the major events in the game, I will instead share a feeling I've gotten from a preview of next month's sequel from 2K Games: Bad things are coming.

Previews hitting the Internet today, including this one, are being published based on the final two of levels of what is likely the final preview version of BioShock 2 to be released to the press. The game, a return to the failed undersea Utopia of Rapture is set, in its single-player mode, a decade after its 2007 hit predecessor. The game was delayed from its fall release and is now set to come out for early February. As of today, publisher 2K Games, which supplied the preview disc is allowing me to write about the Pauper's Drop and Siren Alley.

Unwilling as I am to spoil events in the game I'm left to describe technology, gameplay features and mood of this new BioShock that puts you in the drill-hand diving suit of a mysterious early-prototype Big Daddy with mysteries abounding as to who you are, how a woman named Sofia Lamb rose to power in the wake of the fall of Rapture and what the fate of this place at the bottom of the Atlantic will be.

Of the first, technology, my December write-up of the preview build's first three levels should suffice. The game looks quite good, runs smoothly, and only suffers, in its incomplete preview form, from the delayed loading of some textures, which can make detailed areas of the game world ? a sign on a wall, for example ? look a little blurry before they fully load in.

Of the gameplay features, the main one not addressed in my December piece is the introduction, in Pauper's Drop, of an upgraded research camera system.

The first game allowed players to snap still images of enemies and rewarded well-framed shots with points that accrued and unlocked new player powers or enhanced abilities against the type of enemy photographed.

BioShock 2's camera shoots video, sort of. If the player selects the camera option, points at an enemy and pulls the trigger to activate it, the enemy glows gold and a ticker on the bottom left corner of the screen begins to roll up a count of numbers. Those numbers roll faster if you engage the enemy in combat and kill it well. After the kill, the tally is graded (Did you get a C? An A?) and the numbers are added to the research total, advancing progress toward the next of four unlockables for each enemy. Those unlocked features, as with the first game, are anything from new powers to new player potency against the filmed enemy.

The video system is like the new game's system for protecting a Little Sister while she's harvesting Adam life energy (I wrote that in the last single-player preview). These are well-designed additions and alterations to playing a BioShock game. They incentivize players to do the things the first game made possible: Fighting0 strategically without fear of being aggressive in the process. What was largely an optional style in the first games isn't quite required but certainly more amply rewarded in this sequel.

Technology, further plot details and gameplay aside, what struck me most about the new levels I played was the mood. An early signal, seen in one of the game's first levels, is that this game does not allow backtracking to previous levels. The player takes a train through Rapture to each new level and is warned each time, without much elegance or narrative justification, that a return visit will not be an option. The elimination of the option to backtrack seeds foreboding.

Forging ahead offers many of the comforts of a BioShock: The reassurance of radio chatter from supposedly allied characters and even the orderliness of radio contact from one's nemesis. There are more moral choices to be made. Pauper's Drop offers one decision of life or death that would seemingly be without controversy. Little Sisters found throughout the game's levels, always accompanied by increasingly powerful Big Daddys, can, at any moment after their Daddy's been defeated, be harvested or saved, offering more choice, more sense of player agency and control.

Yet that inability to backtrack is coupled with something else that makes the mind wander to life beyond (after?) Rapture: The sights of the sea. The clouded green waters outside the Rapture of the first BioShock have been replaced with the unnaturally bright light blue aquatic jungle outside the windows of Rapture in BioShock 2. Sharks and squid swim out there amid sea plants on this Atlantic Ocean floor that are colorful enough to be inviting. And out into this beautiful landscape you will go, more than once and not by choice. The sea is inviting. It makes Rapture feel like a relic of the past.

The sense I get is that I am not long for Rapture or Rapture is not long for me. If Rapture is the star character of BioShock, I wonder with this new game, as I did not with the first, if it can die.

Misdirection is possible. If the first BioShock is any indication, misdirection might even be mandatory. The dread is there anyway, mixed with the joy that two more levels down, the new BioShock 2 plays very well, keeps doling out powers and weapons and new enemy types. It is a game that's coming together well even if there's something ? in terms of its fiction and the future of its famous city ? that seems like it could be on the verge of blowing apart.

http://kotaku.com/5445329/bioshock-2-previ...ne=true&s=i

[Spookie]

I hope it's not another dumbed down System Shock.

Little late for that. Anyway SS2 could have never survived on the consoles the 'complex' inventory would have put loads of people off. That and the pacing though it wasn't glacial but was slow to build tension wouldn't have survived on the 'OMG NEEDS MOAR EXPLOZIONZ' world of shooters these days.

On topic: Todays previews does nothing to alleviate my fears about the game loosing it's unique feel now it's changed developer. On another note nice to see Irrational Games reclaim their original studio name though. Wonder if that's a sign of things to come?

[ichi]

Little late for that. Anyway SS2 could have never survived on the consoles the 'complex' inventory would have put loads of people off. That and the pacing though it wasn't glacial but was slow to build tension wouldn't have survived on the 'OMG NEEDS MOAR EXPLOZIONZ' world of shooters these days.

Well, yes, but it could still have retained some of it's depth even while simplifying controls.

The FPS spoiled kids still have plenty of crappy action packed shooters to choose from, anyway :p

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

My expectations are very low without Levine on board.

I don't even know why I still have it on pre-order.

I hope in the end it surprises me though.

[soniqstylz]

My expectations are very low without Levine on board.

I don't even know why I still have it on pre-order.

I hope in the end it surprises me though.

Meh, I had similar thoughts about GoW2 with Jaffe gone, and that turned out well.

[LingeringSoul]

I didn't even realize that Levine isn't on board for this one. According to Giant Bomb, he's a "creative consultant", but he's not directly involved with the project. Here's hoping that the new team doesn't ruin the story in his absence.

And let's hope that this game is more challenging than the last one. I thought the original Bioshock was a good game overall, but it was just too easy. Having no drawback whatsoever for dying really ruined it for me, and it reached the point where I had to create challenges for myself (i.e. I would try to finish a section without having to use the respawning chambers or whatever they were called).

My sister was a huge fan of the original, so she'll be buying this one regardless. I'll definitely give it a fair shake.

[soniqstylz]

Having no drawback whatsoever for dying really ruined it for me, and it reached the point where I had to create challenges for myself (i.e. I would try to finish a section without having to use the respawning chambers or whatever they were called).

You can turn them off in the menu

[SkyyPunk Veteran]

They had a 360 multiplayer setup @ CES that a couple of us played. Seemed decent enough..but I've never been much of a fan of fps on 360, so I was beat down :p It was still fun though...sadly they were not allowing us to record it

[Xerxes]

Looking good :) loved the first one but have to wait and see about this one though, too close to Mass Effect 2 so it might need to wait a while! :p

[LingeringSoul]

You can turn them off in the menu

Damn, seriously? I wish I knew that back in 2007. May have to give it another shot :).

P.S. Multiplayer? Interesting stuff. Seems like an odd choice of game to put multiplayer in, although I suppose that's the point (i.e. create a multiplayer mode that sets itself apart from the standard formula). I found an article on Kotaku that talks about the premise behind the multiplayer, but I'm itching to see it in action.

[_I am Reptar]

do want. NOW