Why Bioshock 2 is the best out of the Bioshock series so far. [No Spoilers]

[Psych the Psycho]

Note: Back in August I did a post about Mass Effect 2 being the best out of the ME series and it got quite a response to say the least, some agreed and some disagreed but I safely say some people were disgruntled, so a warning to all who read this: It's just an opinion.

Firstly, I just don't get why people (including Mr Yahtzee) didn't like Bioshock 2, from what I understand people thought it was "unnecessary" and that it didn't have a big "twist", which I think is a pretty weak argument against the game.

For me, Bioshock 2 had best combat, exploration, plasmas, weapons and (keep calm) characters and story.

Just a heads up: B1 = Bioshock, B2 = Bioshock, BI = Bioshock Infinite

Combat:
The dual wielding system in B2 met you didn't have keep swapping between plasmas and weapons making the combat smoother, while BI keep this it ditched the multi-weapons system in favour of a more generic two-gun system. The enemies in B2 were interesting and challenging especially the Big Sisters.

Exploration:
Rapture is just as interesting to explore in B2 as it was in B1, though areas in B2 feel less cramped. Environments in BI on the other hand, are a lot more linear and, ironically, feel less lived in. Also hacking in B2 is a lot less immersion breaking than B1, while in BI, hacking is traded for locking which is basically "Find X lockpicks to unlock door".

Plasmas:
In the first game, Adam served a big role in the story of Rapture, while its role in B2 wasn't as big it was still important to the story. In BI, vigors where just there, only two enemy types used them and it just felt shoe-horned into the game.
As for the plasmas themselves, B1 had a good variety of plasmas but it was B2 that got more creative with the upgrades like being able to lift enemies and throw them like projectiles, however, in BI the upgrades were basically "do more damage", "last for longer" or "turn enemies" into traps.

Weapons:
While weapons in B1 and B2 where similarly, B2 had the "3rd upgrade" mechanic that gave weapons a unique feature. BI, again, takes the "generic route" with weapons and upgrades.

Characters and story:
OK, this is the big one; for me, the story in Bioshock 2 is the best because it's more personal. See, in B1 and BI, the main character is thrown into a strange world and travels through the world doing things for vague reasons, however in B2 the goal of the game is more clear and worth emotional investment.
The characters in B2 are interesting and developed; in fact, Delta is more likeable than Jack and Booker and Lamb is more formidable than Andrew Ryan and Comstock. Also, I feel that Elizabeth (suffers from ludonarrative dissonance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludonarrative)) which sort of ruins her character, Eleanor on the other hand still helps you on your journey but doesn't "preach" to you.
Another thing about most of the characters in Bioshock Infinite is that most of the characters are underwhelming, mainly songbird.

TL;DR: Bioshock 2 took what Bioshock 1 did and improved it while took what Bioshock 1 did and make it more generic.

 

[Zhukov]

Ha!

It was just a tacked on follow-up to Bioshock 1.

It didn't do anything new or interesting with the setting, just retconned a bunch of stuff into an already completed story. "Oh yes, Dr Lamb and Professor Crazyguy were totally important figures in Rapture, see, here's a photo of them with Suchong, Ryan and Tenenbaum. Why didn't you ever hear about them in the first game? Um... retco... reasons!" "Oh yes, the alpha series big daddies were totally a big part of Rapture's history! Why didn't you ever see them in the original? Umm...?"

Eleanor had no discernible personality and spends most of the game asleep. When you do get to her she's reduced to a plasmid in terms of gameplay and and a copy-cat in terms of character. I can go along with the 'save the girl' motivation if that's all the game has to offer, but I'm not about to start trumpeting it as great storytelling.

Subject Delta was just a boring, blank slate. Once again, that will get the job done by the woeful standards of video games, but he's nothing compared to the twist regarding Jack's nature and Booker with his actual character and personality.

The gunplay and such is functional and generally fun. So gold star there I suppose. However, I don't play a Bioshock game to shoot things. If I just wanted to do that then there are hundreds of other games to choose from.

I basically enjoyed the game, but there's no doubt in my mind that B2 is the black sheep of the series. I'll take the all new world and story of Infinite with interesting characters anytime over the B-Team effort that was squeezed out to capitalize on the original's success.

 

[Pink Gregory]

The thing I see is that it's basically 'Bioshock : More' as opposed to 'Bioshock 2'.

Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that, I certainly enjoyed it, but people expected more. Then again, there are many that claim that Bioshock, Bioshock 2 are basically 'System Shock 2 : Again and underwater edition'; which from what I hear is a fairly valid criticism.

And this is coming from what is essentially a Bioshock fanboy. I even enjoyed the Adam-gathering.

 

[Silvanus]

People are too harsh on Bioshock 2. In terms of setting and atmosphere, it wasn't as successful as Bioshock 1, I agree; I wouldn't place it above the first in the series.

But it was more than a tacked-on follow-up. The reason being that combat was the weakest point of Bioshock 1, and Bioshock 2 improved it considerably. That can't be glossed over.

 

[go-10]

Bioshock 2 hasd better combat and a multiplayer mode for whatever reason, but other than that Bioshock 1 was far superior.
Character wise none can compare to Booker and Elizabeth and to that I'll add that Comstock I grew to hate, the racist pig deserved to die, if I was to compare him to say Fontain, Ryan, or Lamb... yeah Fontain felt really idiotic, Andrew always seemed more of a victim rather than an adversary, and Lamb... would you kindly never mention him again

the Big Daddies in the first game though were terrifying something that Infinite didn't have. When the Handyman showed up I didn't fret like I did with the Bidg Daddy, I would watch my shots and avoid his path if he had a little sister, the Handymen were just stupid and the Big Sisters, I dunno they were okay I guess

so really all the games have their strong points but 2 is in no way, shape, or form better than 1 or Infinite

 

[Evonisia]

I never really understood why people thought that BioShock 2 had better combat. For me being able to use plasmids and weapons at the same time made it too easy. Considering the fact that BioShock 1 was ridiculously easy that's quite an achievement. But then again does being smoother automatically mean better? The Big Daddys are just enemies with more health in this game, those big hulk lads are much more of a threat and are far more common. Oh yeah and the morale choice system is terrible, why does the good system have take longer and break the flow of the game while the bad system is done identically to BioShock 1? Both have a chance of spawning a Big Sister too which makes no sense, surely for balance then the Big Sister should only come when the bad choice is made so it balances the time consumed.

The story was erm... well it wasn't terrible but it relies more on ADAM than 1 did. Some of the plot points just have to be explained by "it's ADAM", the most notable of which is the fact that Eleanor can communicate and mind control Little Sisters. I know Sofia is trying to make Rapture this pseudo Communist state but I didn't think that this was possible. Characters are OK I guess but really they don't seem to react to the world around them. The ending isn't that terrible but it was rather strange and left me wondering whether it was supposed to be a happy ending or not (I got the Good Ending, in case you are wondering).

Rapture is ruined by this game because despite the degeneration of the Splicers everything in Rapture is just treated as if it's just normal buildings. Why is it that the Big Sister destroys an entire building just to get a chance to attack Delta? An entire district is just flooded for the lols essentially and it renders that part uninhabitable. There's also that bit where a missile of all things is launched at you which cripples an entire vital transportation system. You'd think that Rapture would be treated with more respect especially since it's the only place with ADAM and it's already been heavily damaged during the events of BioShock 1. The atmosphere is brought to the level of alright by the Splicers and how they have adapted to working in teams rather than lashing out anything that moves but some of the sillier aspects of the game (such as those big enemies) pummels it down again, as well as the aforementioned mistreating of Rapture.

As a whole BioShock 2 was pretty 'meh' and I quickly forgot about it, and we all know it was made just to get the developers some money rather than 1 and Infinite's efforts to entertain and tell a good story. It's not as good as BioShock 1 but then again it didn't irritate as much as Infinite did, so it stands as the "middle child" coincidentally for me.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I'm placing B2 below the other two, but even the worst Bioshock game is head and shoulders over certain other things. I didn't dislike B2, I just thought it didn't stack up to the others. Infinite is the best game I've played in a looong time.

 

[MHR]

When you set aside story, Bioshock 2 is the best because it had the best gameplay. Bioshock 1 was raw and was improved upon in 2, and Infinite was made generic and more boring.

But storywise it's the worst.

But gameplay is what matters most to me.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I agree that BioShock 2 is way better than Infinite on pretty much every level. However, I do disagree on it being better than the first game, though it was a good game in its own right.

Combat:
The dual wielding system in B2 met you didn't have keep swapping between plasmas and weapons making the combat smoother, while BI keep this it ditched the multi-weapons system in favour of a more generic two-gun system. The enemies in B2 were interesting and challenging especially the Big Sisters.

On one hand, I agree. The dual wielding system was a godsend after how horrible the switching in the first game was (though on PC, the switching wasn't that bad). To me, though, the game was too combat heavy due to the need to protect Little Sisters, so the actual pacing of the combat was worse than the first game, though Fort Frolic is still the worst offender of this in the whole franchise (damn you Spider Splicers! Leave me alone!).

Exploration:
Rapture is just as interesting to explore in B2 as it was in B1, though areas in B2 feel less cramped. Environments in BI on the other hand, are a lot more linear and, ironically, feel less lived in. Also hacking in B2 is a lot less immersion breaking than B1, while in BI, hacking is traded for locking which is basically "Find X lockpicks to unlock door".

Believe it or not, I actually preferred the puzzles in BioShock for hacking. Not to mention, once you research enough, you no longer have to hack, drastically reducing the number of hacks you have to perform. Again, though, the hacking is much better and faster on PC than it is on the 360.

As for the exploration...no, absolutely not. BioShock 2 might have had a more open environment, but the actual process of exploring it wasn't as enjoyable. This has more to do with the fact that the first game had a much better atmosphere than the second one rather than any mechanical problems with the second one.

Plasmas:
In the first game, Adam served a big role in the story of Rapture, while its role in B2 wasn't as big it was still important to the story. In BI, vigors where just there, only two enemy types used them and it just felt shoe-horned into the game.
As for the plasmas themselves, B1 had a good variety of plasmas but it was B2 that got more creative with the upgrades like being able to lift enemies and throw them like projectiles, however, in BI the upgrades were basically "do more damage", "last for longer" or "turn enemies" into traps.

The upgrade system was better in BioShock 2, but it didn't make that much of a difference to gameplay for me.

Weapons:
While weapons in B1 and B2 where similarly, B2 had the "3rd upgrade" mechanic that gave weapons a unique feature. BI, again, takes the "generic route" with weapons and upgrades.

Though I know everyone hates the weapon feel of the first BioShock game, I actually enjoyed it. The shotgun in the game is still my favorite weapon of the series. Most of the other weapons feel decent to use, and while I like the fact that BioShock 2 had the same weapon selection system, the weapons didn't feel as enjoyable to use, primarily the Rivet Gun and shotgun.

Characters and story:
OK, this is the big one; for me, the story in Bioshock 2 is the best because it's more personal. See, in B1 and BI, the main character is thrown into a strange world and travels through the world doing things for vague reasons, however in B2 the goal of the game is more clear and worth emotional investment.
The characters in B2 are interesting and developed; in fact, Delta is more likeable than Jack and Booker and Lamb is more formidable than Andrew Ryan and Comstock. Also, I feel that Elizabeth (suffers from ludonarrative dissonance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludonarrative)) which sort of ruins her character, Eleanor on the other hand still helps you on your journey but doesn't "preach" to you.
Another thing about most of the characters in Bioshock Infinite is that most of the characters are underwhelming, mainly songbird.

Here's the big thing for me: The first game had an interesting discourse about philosophy and forced us to make an introspective analysis of who we are and how we relate to this philosophical system. It was very personal on a psychological level, even if it wasn't that emotionally involved. BioShock 2 managed to capture the emotional connection of being someone's conscious, but it was more of a way of taking our introspective analysis of the first game and using our conclusions to that in how we influence other people through our words and actions. (Maybe I'm looking too deep into it, but that's how it felt to me) Personally, I prefer the analysis of the first game, though I can understand preferring the more emotional story of the second game. Then again, for me, the second game didn't have anywhere near the same impact in terms of any philosophical discourse it tried to have. Even Fontaine recognized that a lot what we heard in the audio diaries was somewhat stupid.

As far as characters are concerned, BioShock 2 really just felt like they were getting a new cast of characters to replace the old ones without ever actually creating new archetypes for the game. You still had your scientist, your engineer, your everything. The thing is, I preferred the vast array of characters in the first game more, as it had a much larger cast that still remained interesting. Granted, it didn't have anyone on the same level as Eleanor, but it was still a compelling cast. The protagonist doesn't matter as they're both silent.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

You're going to have a hard time finding people to agree with you, stranger. B2 was blacklisted as shyte when it came out and the masses don't tend to un-blacklist stuff once they're over with it.

 

[skywolfblue]

I also believe Bioshock 2 to be the best of the series.

Primarily for the combat. Like you said, the trap ammo and the way upgrades made weapons feel unique, contributed a lot. The setup before a little sister gather was a lot of fun "Where will the splicers come from? This door or that one, well, lets place some traps and see". There were several types of big daddies and then the big sisters, so enemy variety is the best of the series.

I'll give Bioshock Infinite the best Characters, Story, and Scenery though.

Eleanor is great, but you don't see her for most of the game, Elizabeth is a whole lot more fleshed out. Booker is much better then Delta (though that's not delta's fault because someone ripped out his voice box and turned him into a big daddy against his will). Sophia is better then Comstock, and equal to Ryan.

Bioshock 2's story is pretty straightforward. I enjoyed it immensely, but Bioshock infinite had a lot more involved and complex tale.

Rapture is pretty, but City in the Clouds takes all in the scenery department.

Eleanor had no discernible personality and spends most of the game asleep. When you do get to her she's reduced to a plasmid in terms of gameplay and and a copy-cat in terms of character. I can go along with the 'save the girl' motivation if that's all the game has to offer, but I'm not about to start trumpeting it as great storytelling.

I think the story gave a very compelling and valid reason for being a copy-cat. Sophia Lamb basically describes this towards the end.

Eleanor knows her mother and the whacked-out "family" of splicers plan to turn her into a multi-consciousness monster with or without her consent. Eleanor doesn't really have anyone else in the city to turn to, so she brings back the one person she remembers as being protective, her old big daddy. She's still a child, and she's never looked up to Sophia, but Delta on the other hand represents salvation from her miserable fate, so understandably, he'd become something of a role model to Eleanor.

I may be gushing a bit, but that was my favorite part of the story. A lesson in being a good role model, because children will watch and imitate their parents.

 

[maninahat]

I enjoy the gameplay and atmosphere of Bioshock 2 more. Though the story is somewhat weaker over all, I like its personal approach, the satire of the other side of the coin, and the clever way in which Sofia was retconned into the story. Why do we never see a sign of her in Bioshock 1? Andrew Ryan specifically was trying to suppress any knowledge of her existence. She only comes to light once his influence dissipates.

In otherwords, I felt Bioshock 2 is the best possible return to Rapture they could have made, and a lot of thought went into how they could stick with the same setting, even after the main story was so carefully wrapped up.

 

[LAGG]

Basically you're OP in B2, and in Infinite it's just plain dumbed-down.
Players who were/are in a more Power Fantasy mood at the time they played the games for the first time will prefer B2 or BI for the quicker reward loop.

 

[Auron225]

I have yet to play Infinite so I will just comment on 1 and 2.

I actually agree with you on most points - particularly the emotionally driven story. The ending stuck with me longer than the ending of 1 did (although I did love it too... the good one I mean). The moral dilemmas (who to let live and who to kill?) made it real interesting.

However, one thing B1 has over B2 is the mother of all plot twists. My mouth was hanging open for like 5 minutes as it all happened. B2 isn't worse for NOT having one, but B1 was a heck of a lot better for it. I find it difficult to choose between them... but I don't know why I need to