E3 2009: BioShock 2 impressions
posted:
6/9/2009 9:39:00 PM
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E3 2009
While BioShock’s ending had me feeling the story was fine as a one shot game, the business side of things wouldn’t have kept it that way and here we are with another visit to Rapture 10 years later. BioShock 2 has you returning to the underwater city but this time playing as the first Big Daddy. He’s faster and can use plasmids as well as other weapons so he’s a pretty formidable protagonist. While you’ll be tough to kill, a bigger threat called the Big Sister is looking to mold Rapture into her view of what the city should be and she’s quite deadly as well.
At E3, there wasn’t much shown or talked about for the single player portion of BioShock 2. What was emphasized though was the multiplayer part of the game. Digital Extremes is working on that aspect of the game and has a unique take on it. Rather than being set in the same time as BioShock 2’s single player game, the multiplayer component is a prequel to the first game as you are in the midst of the civil war in Rapture.
One of the ways you can experience the multiplayer game is to use your apartment as sort of a portal for the multiplayer experience. Now you don’t have to but it does look like it adds a nice little story aspect to it. You’ve decided to join Sinclair Solutions as a product tester. For your use of their items such as plasmids, tonics, and weapons you will provide them with field data on how things go.
As with most games you can setup your character’s appearance and weapons. Here you can customize three loadouts that consist of two weapons and two plasmids. These loadouts can be switched to during any time between spawning so you aren’t stuck to one setup while playing a match.
Your apartment is equipped with its own bathysphere which serves as a matchmaking hub. When you enter the bathysphere, you’ll be able to join up with other multiplayer games to battle it out in Rapture.
You’ll be fighting in many familiar places but they will have a little different look since you will be seeing them before the fall of Rapture. The demo was run on Kashmir Restaurant and had a few Digital Extreme employees fragging it out. Vending machines are in the levels but they operate at a quicker pace. Also to help quicken the pace is the ability to hack turrets with just a hold of a button. Digital Extremes has taken out the pipedream mini game in this area as who wants to try and figure out a puzzle while a firefight is going on. Hack a turret and these things will unleash gunfire and other projectiles on your enemies.
During the demo, there was a random spawning of a Big Daddy suit. Just as you would imagine, anyone picking up that suit becomes one of the feared creatures of Rapture. Because the person who is the Big Daddy poses the greatest threat, everyone will most likely gang up on this one target instead of fighting each other in a free for all deathmatch. Now, that’s not always going to happen but it’s probably a good strategy to put aside your differences temporarily to take out the drill killing machine.
From what I can see, the game doesn’t look any different than the first BioShock. It was hard to tell from where I was sitting but it looked exactly the same before. This can be good or bad as BioShock was visually very impressive. I’m guessing that some improvements had been incorporated into the engine for improved visuals but I guess we won’t know until later on down the road or when we get the game in house.
BioShock 2’s multiplayer aspect seems pretty interesting and I like the idea of putting some narrative behind it if you choose to go through it this way. Setting the component in the civil war era of Rapture and before the first game does help flesh out the story behind the underwater city even more for those who crave more detail about it. While I was disappointed that we didn’t see more of the single player portion other than a video, I guess its best that we are left to the surprises that the single player game will bring to us. Look for BioShock 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this November 3rd in the United States and October 30th everywhere else.
At E3, there wasn’t much shown or talked about for the single player portion of BioShock 2. What was emphasized though was the multiplayer part of the game. Digital Extremes is working on that aspect of the game and has a unique take on it. Rather than being set in the same time as BioShock 2’s single player game, the multiplayer component is a prequel to the first game as you are in the midst of the civil war in Rapture.
One of the ways you can experience the multiplayer game is to use your apartment as sort of a portal for the multiplayer experience. Now you don’t have to but it does look like it adds a nice little story aspect to it. You’ve decided to join Sinclair Solutions as a product tester. For your use of their items such as plasmids, tonics, and weapons you will provide them with field data on how things go.
As with most games you can setup your character’s appearance and weapons. Here you can customize three loadouts that consist of two weapons and two plasmids. These loadouts can be switched to during any time between spawning so you aren’t stuck to one setup while playing a match.
Your apartment is equipped with its own bathysphere which serves as a matchmaking hub. When you enter the bathysphere, you’ll be able to join up with other multiplayer games to battle it out in Rapture.
You’ll be fighting in many familiar places but they will have a little different look since you will be seeing them before the fall of Rapture. The demo was run on Kashmir Restaurant and had a few Digital Extreme employees fragging it out. Vending machines are in the levels but they operate at a quicker pace. Also to help quicken the pace is the ability to hack turrets with just a hold of a button. Digital Extremes has taken out the pipedream mini game in this area as who wants to try and figure out a puzzle while a firefight is going on. Hack a turret and these things will unleash gunfire and other projectiles on your enemies.
During the demo, there was a random spawning of a Big Daddy suit. Just as you would imagine, anyone picking up that suit becomes one of the feared creatures of Rapture. Because the person who is the Big Daddy poses the greatest threat, everyone will most likely gang up on this one target instead of fighting each other in a free for all deathmatch. Now, that’s not always going to happen but it’s probably a good strategy to put aside your differences temporarily to take out the drill killing machine.
From what I can see, the game doesn’t look any different than the first BioShock. It was hard to tell from where I was sitting but it looked exactly the same before. This can be good or bad as BioShock was visually very impressive. I’m guessing that some improvements had been incorporated into the engine for improved visuals but I guess we won’t know until later on down the road or when we get the game in house.
BioShock 2’s multiplayer aspect seems pretty interesting and I like the idea of putting some narrative behind it if you choose to go through it this way. Setting the component in the civil war era of Rapture and before the first game does help flesh out the story behind the underwater city even more for those who crave more detail about it. While I was disappointed that we didn’t see more of the single player portion other than a video, I guess its best that we are left to the surprises that the single player game will bring to us. Look for BioShock 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this November 3rd in the United States and October 30th everywhere else.
