Obviously you won’t just watch the Splicer harassing a Little Sister- you’ll be having
none of that. Our host revved up his gigantic drill and slammed forward with a charge move, killing the Splicer in only a couple of shots. The Little Sister picked herself up and looked at the screen
with big, happy eyes, asking if that was “really you, Mr. Bubbles?”
And then you’re shown this.
That’s right, you once again have the moral choice of whether or not to
harvest ADAM from the Little Sisters… but that option on the right is
new. Our host decided to go the kind route and adopt her, and placed
her up on his shoulder. Doing so means you’ve got your own
Little Sister to protect now, with a little icon in the top left corner
indicating that she’s with you. With this, the biggest feaure in Bioshock 2 was ready to be unveiled.
Walking
around the ruined city we came upon a faintly glowing corpse. It seemed
that this was an indication that it still contained ADAM, and walking
up to it affords you the chance to place down your little sister and
have her collect it for you. Now, as the producers were quick to point
out- one of the most popular features of the original Bioshock was your
fights against Big Daddies, the roaming boss battles that could be
tackled at will. While they still have that in this game (yes, you’ll fight
other Big Daddies, and take away their Little Sisters) there are also
these Siege moments.
When you place your Little Sister down and she starts to extract
the ADAM from the corpse by stabbing it with a syringe Splicers will hear it and come
after her. So this time it’s smart to plan for their arrival and set
traps. Our host showed how you can now place the same Cyclone traps
from the first game and make them even more lethal by setting them on
fire with the Incineration plasmid. He placed a few on some nearby
steps and then brought the Little Sister over to the body to do her
thing.
Almost immediately you heard Splicers yelling in the background,
communicating to each other about an attack. And then they came at you.
Here the new combat was shown off. Not only can you use plasmids and weapons simultaneously (with the left and right triggers) but you can switch easily between weapons. I was shown this as he swapped from the drill to a rivet gun, something that will make anyone who played the original happy. It was so irritating to kill a Big Daddy and see that enormous gun on the floor and not be able to wield it. They won’t respond to me when asked if there would be any other weapons or upgrades for your right hand, so we can pretty much expect there to be a bunch.
The fire effects look even better this time, as you can see.
After dispatching a dozen or so splicers during a truly fierce and frantic battle (where the Little Sister was damaged a bit, but still got to finish her work) it was time for the end of the demo. Going back to pick up your young companion you heard strange sounds nearby. The Little Sister knows what it is… and warns you that the Big Sister doesn’t want you playing with her.
It’s then that the Big Sister comes flying into the room, jumping on top of the globe in the middle of the room. She then reveals that not only is she incredibly fast and powerful, but she also has some sort of psychokinetic powers. She drags up a bunch of items that start swirling around her faster and faster- and then the screen faded to black. Argggh!
So
how did I walk away from it? Still unsure of what the final product
will be. It does look promising and I like what they’re trying but it’s still too early to tell, and
not enough of the game has been revealed. I like what I see and it’s
probably my most anticipated game this year, but we’re going to need to see
more to prove that it’s not just a rehash.
It is unfair that Bioshock 2 has so much to live up to, but them’s the breaks. It may be silly to expect another masterpiece but the very worst this game could be is very, very good. I can’t wait to see more.
Relax, it’s a joke. Besides another game (that is embargoed till next week) I was there for one main reason- to check out Bioshock 2. They were showing off the game in a room off the side of the bar, and I settled down on a little couch and prepared to sink back into Rapture.
The start of the demo I was shown by some folks from the company (yes, another game preview I was not allowed to actually get my hands on!) was familiar to anyone who’s seen the recently released gameplay footage.
It’s not the very beginning of the game, but it’s a place somewhere in the middle. You’ve been apparently knocked out, and it’s soon apparent what the big gimmick is for this game. As you glance at the pool of water you’re laying in before picking yourself up, this is what you see.
Yep… you’re a Big Daddy.
Not only a Big Daddy, but the first of the kind- a prototype, if you will. This means that you’re faster than the ones you faced in the first Bioshock, and also able to duel wield. Plasmids and weapons can now be used simultaneously, a fact that soon comes heavily into play. You’ve also been deprogrammed- unlike the other Big Daddies you don’t have a Little Sister to watch out after, and your moral compass is completely up to you. Despite taking orders from Tenenbaum over the radio you can apparently choose your own path, if you kindly wish.
As he wanders around a bit he immediately comes into contact with the main new foe this time- the Big Sister. She’s the one who saw how Rapture was falling apart after Jack’s actions from the first game and took matters into her own hands, heading to shore and kidnapping children to bring back into the Little Sister Program. It’s ten years later and things have been getting a bit better, so she’s not happy with your interference and will pop up throughout the game to fight with you. You’ll never come upon her- but she keeps track of your progress.
You catch a glimpse of her and follow her down dark, dimly lit
corridors, and it’s here that you’ll realize that if anything, they’ve
got the same atmosphere intact. It’s creepy and foreboding.
When you finally catch up to her in a room with a big beautiful picture window facing the ocean, it’s apparent that she’s just been leading you into a trap. She destroys the supports to the window and the water comes crashing down on top of you, dragging you out into the ocean.
Of course since you’re in a diver’s suit you can breathe, and here things changed completely. The first indication was the music- dreamy and oddly comforting, you walked around the ocean floor marveling at the things you could only look at in the last game. There were some pickups on the ocean floor (audio diaries return) but for the most part you wandered among the fish and fauna as you headed to get back inside Rapture.
This is a conscious decision to give you some breathing room, ironically enough. According to the producers they heard complaints that Bioshock never let up, and the feeling of doom and danger became almost too foreboding. Personally I loved that aspect of the game but here they’ve given you these underwater scenes to give you a break. That’s right- you’ll never get attacked during one of these sequences- erase all those awesome dreams about fighting a blue whale out of your head, for they’ll never be realized.
He continued on through the (really quite beautiful) ocean floor and walked through an airlock. With a rush of water, he was back in Rapture. The area was nearby Fontaine Futuristics, a place not shown in the original game that produced all the plasmids that the people from the undersea world (Splicers) have become hooked on.
Around the next corner a familiar event was taking place- a Little Sister being menaced by a Splicer.
Head to page two for the biggest new feature in Bioshock 2.
