Game Informer Cover Story Reveals First Real BioShock 2 Details
This month’s Game Informer cover story provides the first preview of 2K Marin’s hotly anticipated BioShock 2. Having read the article, we can now confirm the following to be true.
BioShock 2 takes place about ten years after the player’s departure from Rapture in the first game. The player assumes the role of a Big Daddy for the vast majority, if not all, of the game.
But there’s a twist. “You don’t play just any Big Daddy in BioShock 2,” reveals Creative Director Jordan Thomas. “You play the first ever…and you have been cut off your leash.” As a renegade experimental Big Daddy, the player will have access to abilities that the Big Daddies in BioShock didn’t possess.
For one, the player can again wield plasmids, although this time there is more room to customize his powers by selecting them from branching “skill trees.” For example, the signature ‘Incinerate’ plasmid is back, but an upgraded form of it will be a “fireball” type plasmid, and then a further upgrade will turn your hand into a flamethrower. Best of all, players can now wield weapons and plasmids simultaneously, and the team even hinted at the possibility of allowing the player to apply his plasmid powers directly to his traditional weapons.
The player will have access to the Bouncer’s signature spinning drill arm, which he can rev and shoulder bash enemies with to create a sinister combination. He’ll get his hands on a rivet gun right fairly early, which can be outfitted with upgrades and customizable ammo, like in the first game. As a Big Daddy, the player can now wield massive weapons that a human would be incapable of lifting, but the team didn’t go into any further detail.
The team has implemented features that they feel will provide for a more consistent play-style. For example, the player can heal hacked bots and use them as constant companions for extended periods- a sort of mechanical army- to do his bidding in battle. Certain combinations of tonics and plasmids will allow players to complete missions in completely new ways, allowing for greater experimentation than even the first game afforded.
As a rogue Big Daddy, the player’s first responsibility will be to acquire his own Little Sister. To do this, he’ll have to battle a fellow Big Daddy to the death and steal the girl from him. Unlike in the first game, where Little Sisters were terrified of the player, they’ll be intrinsically trusting of him this time, as they are of all Big Daddies. If you choose to “Adopt” the LS, instead of “Harvesting” her, she’ll ride along on your shoulders and extract any Adam, at the player’s discretion, from corpses encountered.
Bands of splicers, even more demented and vicious than in the first game, will attempt to attack you and your Little Sister while she’s harvesting Adam, Rapture’s genetic currency, from corpses. While a Big Daddy typically won’t have trouble dispatching one or two Splicers individually, a whole mob of them can prove to be problematic, and players will need to take advantage of all their skills and surrounding environment to ward of Splicer attacks. Successfully defend your Little Sister while she’s extracting Adam and the two of you will split the fruits of your labor.
Most of the game will be spent fighting other Big Daddies, and freeing Little Sisters from their grasp. It’s no easy task. “You still have to invest in taking one out- it’s like fighting yourself, and that’s still a fairly significant problem,” says Thomas.
The game’s main antagonist this time will be the Big Sister, depicted on the Game Informer’s cover. A former Little Sister herself (and someone the player has had past experience with), she’s Rapture’s new guardian. Tenenbaum, who has somehow survived in the city since the first game, declares: “Not understanding this thing that she does. She is taking girls and turning them into creatures like her. All of this…it is my fault.”
Mentally conditioned to uphold the Rapturian way of life, she’s been kidnapping girls from coastal cities along the Atlantic, both in Europe and North America, and dragging them down into Rapture to serve as Little Sisters. And when she sees you starting to kill off Big Daddies and upset the natural order of Rapture, she’ll be none too pleased.
The Big Sister is a fierce and powerful adversary who will ambush and attack the player throughout the game. She knows Rapture inside and out and she’ll hunt you down and try to destroy you. She has a giant retractable Adam needle attached to her arm, used to pierce the player’s diving suit and inflict mortal wounds, and also will hurl debris and objects at anyone who is foolish enough to cross her. Thomas refers to the Big Sister as “the spine of the story” who will create a more “horror” atmosphere for the game.
There will be callbacks and refernces to the first game, undoubtedly pleasing true Rapturians, but there plenty of new twisted characters and situations to encounter, as well. Audio logs return, as does “VitaChamber-like functionality” (though they aren’t VitaChambers, specifically), which can be used to revive the player should he fall in battle (this can be turned off in the game’s options). New areas to explore include Fontaine Futuristics, and Little Sister processing facility (which sounds grisly), and even the sea floor, which can now be accessed thanks to the diving suit the player dons.
Thomas stated that series creator Ken Levine isn’t “substantially involved in BioShock 2,” but the series creator maintains a “voluntary arrangement” to be in communication with the team, offering input and guidance. However, he did reveal that most of the core BioShock 1 team is employed at 2K Marin.
The game will included multiplayer, but no further details were given. Thomas maintains “single-player is obviously BioShock’s legacy and it’s extremely important to us.”
Look for more press previews in the coming month. The game releases late this fall on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.