Finished BioShock 2 this evening. You can read my initial thoughts on the game at the half way point here.

- Overall, it’s a very stylized game and was fun to play, but was fall short from the epic I was expecting/hoping to be delivered for the sequel.

- The setting is amazing. I love the whole universe they’ve created with this series. The overall design is amazing, the graphics are just stunning. The character design is super creative and the Big Sisters were especially spooky and cool. Level visual design is great, especially the outdoor jaunts. Just beautiful. I hope they make another sequel just so I can come back to Rapture and see what the developers can think of next in terms of pure visuals.

- The gameplay is more of the same; if you dug it in #1, you’ll like it here. Shoot, run, use plasmid, find cash, get items, get Little Sister, harvest ADAM, fight splicers, get key, kill boss, finish.

- I know I touched on this in my half way review, but they really went to the well on the game mechanics and level design. They have it down to a science, and I don’t begrudge them for using what worked, but in this game they felt like chores, while in the original they felt novel.

- You only need to upgrade your plasmid of choice; just max out whatever one you like and use it over and over. I chose Electro Bolt because of the stun effect. Save your ADAM for the health and eve upgrades.

- I had hoped the lack of character development would be remedied as the game went on, but it stays the same. I am sorry, but if I don’t know the background of the character I am playing other than a quick cutscene to start the game, I don’t see how you can expect me to care about him. The only character development really is the dialog of your daughter where she constantly refers to you as “father”. It’s as if the developers felt that if they said father 100 times, you might get attached. I didn’t. It was just annoying.

- The twist in this game is a shallow representation of the twist in the original. [SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE ORIGINAL BIOSHOCK] In the original, when Ryan has you murder him and reveals the reality of the situation, it was jaw dropping. It worked because it came in the natural flow of the story and was setup by the great development of your character. Without the great storytelling preceeding that moment, it would have been a gimmick. But with the backstory, it felt as if the rug had been pulled out from under you. Everything was a lie before that moment and now you knew the truth! And you were pissed! [END SPOILER] In BioShock 2, it all felt like gimmick. I didn’t care about the twist (and also, it lied about the twist, but that’s another issue). It didn’t have any of the drama of the original.

- Yes, the twist is a lie. No, I didn’t ruin anything for you because, well, it doesn’t matter because you don’t care about the character. It had the potential to redeem the whole story, but it doesn’t. It is just blah. I don’t want to get any more detailed, but lets just say I was really disappointed.

- The best part of the game doesn’t happen until the last hour of the game. Which is sad. It was the most novel part of the game and actually developed the setting for the character that you play (what they see v reality) and it just bums me out that the mechanic wasn’t more integrated into the whole game.

- The ending was pretty indicative of the whole game. Lots of “go and fetch” goals, highly scripted, and predetermined. That said, it was very intense but I think that had more to do with the fact that they just threw tons of enemies at you versus me caring if my character made it out alive or not. Either way, it was hectic, lots of explosions, lots of running and hitting the button at the right time. It was very much like the ending to an action movie.

Sitting here having just finished it, I would definitely recommend you play it. It’s fun and the setting is too awesome to not experience. The enemies are unique, the weapons cool and the world is way cool.

It’s just not the unique, well written epic that I was expecting it to be. Which is a let down, because BioShock was so good.