This Week In Retro: BioShock 2

February 9, 2010: Welcome Back, Delta

by Diamond Feit

I went through a broad spectrum of fundamental changes in the early 2000s, so much so that my life in 2009 bore absolutely no resemblance to my life in 1999 or even 2004. During this period I found myself slowly drifting away from video games, a shocking statement to make given my current status as a writer and podcaster heavily invested in the medium. For a period of at least two years I bought no new or used games and either sold off or gave away the bulk of my collection. A big part of this was my impending move to Japan but even without a cross-Pacific change of venue I simply didn't view video games as a priority like I had in my young adulthood.

In 2008 I began to reverse course on this matter, creating a Steam account and, by year's end, purchasing my very own PlayStation 3. I did the former so I could finally discover why the entire internet had exploded over Portal, a game which lived up to the hype even when experienced via the lowest possible graphics settings on my non-gaming laptop. I had less of a plan when I bought a PS3; I just knew that if my computer struggled with the likes of Portal, it wouldn't fare any better with the latest and greatest in high-definition entertainment.

My initial taste of that great unknown arrived in October 2008 in the form of a downloadable demo for BioShock. If any game's reputation rivaled that of Portal the previous year, it was 2K Games' mysterious undersea adventure featuring a massive iron-clad brute on its cover. As I hesitantly wandered around BioShock's crumbling metropolis of Rapture, it frightened and thrilled me in equal measure. On my personal blog later that night, I put off going to bed to write "even at this hour I am positively blown away by what I saw tonight...BioShock...you son of a bitch...what if you are as good as they say?"

It took a few months to find out given that October 2008 was also when I learned my wife was pregnant with our first child, but when I made the time to play the game in full it did not disappoint. In fact, I would argue my passionate reaction to BioShock that prompted me to write about it on my website directly informed my decision to write about games on a regular basis. This means that in some small way, downloading that demo toppled a domino that led me to join Retronauts and write the very column you're reading at this moment.

With a personal and budding professional interest in video games brought about by this one title, you can imagine my emotional state when 2K Games announced a sequel. Better still, BioShock 2 would simultaneously launch on both consoles and computers, meaning that when it shipped this week 15 years ago, I could return to Rapture alongside every other eager fan.

The story of BioShock and Rapture—an art-deco underwater city built in the aftermath of World War II—begins with a plane crash. Players take control of the protagonist Jack as he gasps for breath in the middle of the Atlantic, utterly alone. Jack swims to a curiously convenient lighthouse which leads him to discover Rapture, although he arrives long after its best days have passed to find its population driven mad by internal strife. As Jack uncovers Rapture's history and defends himself from its frenzied citizens, he learns the once-elite society experimented with radical body augmentation and genetic engineering, innovations that directly led to an armed conflict and the city's descent into chaos.

Rapture's most memorable inhabitants are the preadolescent Little Sisters and their guardians known as Big Daddies. While not blood relations, these two generally travel in pairs with the Sisters collecting genetic material from the city's dead and the Daddies making sure no one lays a finger on their young charges. Big Daddies serve as optional boss fights in BioShock, as they only attack if Jack attacks them (or the Sisters) first—a classic risk vs reward scenario given the scarcity of the Sisters' resources and their value to the player.

BioShock 2 opens two years prior to the events of the first game, putting players in the large boots of a Big Daddy called Subject Delta. In the course of escorting a Little Sister named Eleanor, Delta gets hypnotically ambushed by Dr. Sofia Lamb who objects to Rapture's strictly-enforced Daddy/Sister societal relationship. Lamb claims she birthed Eleanor and wishes to retain sole custody going forward, admonishing Delta and manipulating him to shoot himself in the head.

A decade later, long after Jack's plane crash and escape from Rapture, Delta awakens and immediately begins searching for Eleanor. With the city in even worse shape after years of flooding, Delta makes his way through the ruins as he chases after visions of his missing ward. Based on scattered graffiti and radio reports from Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum—a returning character from BioShock 1—Delta learns Lamb assumed control of Rapture after Jack left and retains power over the remaining residents.

Beyond these authority figures addressing Delta via his built-in radio receiver, BioShock 2 introduces a more active threat in the form of Big Sisters. These hyper-agile figures initially appear in the shadows after Delta comes to his senses, but quickly move up the priority list when one seemingly kidnaps Eleanor right before his eyes. Big Sisters represent a far more ferocious threat than the Big Daddies thanks to their speed and aggressive tactics, though they make fewer appearances than their masculine counterparts overall.

I remember my excitement surrounding the release of BioShock 2 and my eagerness to receive my imported copy. That enthusiasm didn't last, for within minutes of assuming control of Subject Delta, a general sense of ennui took over as I realized just how familiar everything felt. BioShock 2 isn't just another shooter set in an art-deco dystopia, it takes place in the same art-deco dystopia as the first game. Granted, the names on the map and the layouts have changed, but a second visit to Rapture necessarily undercuts the sense of awe that once overwhelmed me when I rode that bathysphere all the way to the ocean floor.

Critics had a similar reaction to BioShock 2, praising it as a worthy video game while pointing out how it failed to reach the same heights (depths?) as its predecessor. In a very positive review for GameSpot, Lark Anderson wrote "the sunken tomb of Rapture has lost much of the mystery that made it so memorable." Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell scored BioShock 2 an eight out of 10 but wrote it "feels flat in the context of more daring and elaborate sequels like Mass Effect 2." On Twitter, Robert Ashley said "Bioshock 2 turns Rapture into something mundane and expected. A modern day lava level."

Revisiting Rapture 15 years later for this column, I find time has been kind to BioShock 2. I did not complete BioShock until the summer of 2009 with those memories still fresh in my mind when the sequel dropped the following February. Yet today I can recall only the broadest strokes of my time in Rapture, since more time has passed since I played either BioShock than Subject Delta spent laying face-down on the floor after meeting Dr. Lamb.

The similarities between BioShocks 1 and 2 still linger, but I now find it easier to appreciate the differences. Even though both games restrict the player's viewpoint to the first-person—never breaking away to show your character through another set of eyes—Jack and Subject Delta still feel distinct. Jack starts off braining enemies with a simple wrench, while Delta sports the Big Daddy's signature weapon, an arm-mounted drill. Jack finds a revolver, Delta picks up another Big Daddy special tool, a high-powered gun that fires rivets.

Since I caved to my displeasure and never came close to finishing BioShock 2 on my PlayStation 3, I looked back to see what I wrote after beating the original. In heaping praise upon BioShock, I said "There was once a time when all first person shooters were known as 'Doom-clones' because they sought to emulate the success of that title so closely. This name fell out of favor as new ideas crept in and the genre developed. If we video gamers are lucky, we can expect some BioShock clones in our future, and I very much look forward to seeing where the genre goes from there."

Ironically, BioShock 2 delivered exactly what I predicted and I rejected it for doing so. A second sequel followed in 2013 titled BioShock Infinite which took far more chances—particularly in ditching Rapture for a city in the sky—but it still proved disappointing in comparison to BioShock. Despite three well-received releases, today the series seems abandoned like Rapture at the bottom of the sea. Many traits of BioShock have spread to other games, such as telling the story through environmental elements and scattered audio logs, but I wouldn't say the BioShock-clones I imagined ever arrived in notable numbers.

Perhaps that's the real lesson we can learn from Rapture: Video game sequels can revolve around characters or play mechanics, but a single location—no matter how fantastic—cannot support the weight of franchise expectations. Like building a habitat thousands of fathoms below the ocean surface, you will never sufficiently compensate for such overwhelming pressure.

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.