I was resistant to playing through Bioshock 2 for a very long time. I bought it when it was going very cheap, but even then it took months, possibly years before I actually played. I had been told it was an inferior sequel, it was deeply disappointing, that it was like a direct-to-video follow-up of a good film. In the end, I quite regret this, because I very much enjoyed Bioshock 2. In every way, I prefer it to Bioshock Infinite.
As to its relationship with the first game, well...the story of the protagonist is certainly nowhere near as interesting. It doesn’t have that wonderful twist that plays with what it means to follow the instructions given to you by a game’s set goals. It also doesn’t benefit from revealing Rapture in all its Art Deco glory – or, indeed, Columbia up in the sky. Its iconic enemy is certainly a long way beneath the Big Daddy or the Motorised Patriot – or the Songbird: the Big Sister is one of the most annoying parts of the gameplay. It feels much more limited, since backtracking is forbidden and the game must be taken chapter-by-chapter. It lacks a genuinely strong ending, though it was wonderful and hilarious to see Rapture as a Little Sister does, and of course we don’t have the fun of the first game’s post-mortem investigation: Rapture has clearly failed and fallen to pieces, but why? That’s all been answered already, replaced by the limited mystery of ‘who is Eleanor?’
However, three critical things made this a real pleasure for me, heightened by the fact that I expected something awful and got something good. The first was that while it wasn’t quite Bioshock in terms of plot and sophistication, it was almost there. The second was that the gameplay was more polished and varied, and there were some quite wonderful ways to fight off the waves of enemies that you have to face – my favourite mostly involving bouncing them about with the wind traps. But the third and most important part was that this game did much more than the first game in exploring the philosophical ideas raised in the original.
The original, you see, is sometimes called a ‘critique of Objectivism’. Now, obviously, there was a big and obvious influence from Ayn Rand: Andrew Ryan is clearly a play on her name, Rapture’s twee early-history ideals are those of Objectivism and all that talk about parasites comes from the Objectivist (and libertarian) views on the State. But I found it a long way from a ‘critique’. Sure, an Objectivist society gets set up, goes wrong and falls apart. But it goes wrong because (a) Ryan isn’t a very good Objectivist, ends up experimenting on human beings to remove their free will, effectively constructs a big utopian prison and spoils his version of the free market by removing the possibility of import and export, and (b) because magically powered sea-slugs are discovered that make society collapse and a civil war erupt, while also creating insane drug addicts and violent superhumans, which frankly isn’t very likely in Galt’s Gulch. It was a story set in a fallen Objectivist utopia, sure, but it wasn’t what you’d call a critique of Objectivism. Rapture didn’t fail because of Objectivist ideas, but because of the ways it deviated from Objectivism – though that can also be said of Animal Farm.
Which is where Bioshock 2 comes in. By having someone politically opposite from Ryan – Altruist Sofia Lamb – assuming power, there is a chance to explore these political ideas a little better. Despite Sofia Lamb’s bizarre attempts to create a true gestalt collective – in a rather Star Trek sort of sense – this game is also not a critique on Altruism as a political mindset, and also distorts the general concept with outlandish sci-fi, but after all, you need a driving plot for a shooting game. The real result, though, is that the conflicting political views lead to much more discussion. I absolutely loved angry Ryan’s little theme park ride ‘Journey to the Surface’, in which giant hands representing ‘the parasite’ in various acts of large-state theft, starting with the farmer’s possessions and culminating in a child conscripted for war. The obvious clash between Ryan and Lamb over art and its purpose shows a wider argument than the central one about money, and simmering beneath it all is the hint that the solution is between the two extremes...but not where American society landed.
To allow these ideas to be conveyed, a story about a prototype Big Daddy bonded to a little sister who just so happens to be Sofia Lamb’s daughter is developed. The child, Eleanor, was brought up considering the dog-eat-dog world of Objectivism was bizarre and selfish (she calls them ‘dog-eaters’), only to end up in the Little Sister programme after her mother is arrested. After her mother claims her back and undoes her programming, she resurrects her original Daddy, Subject Delta – which is you. Yes, you are a (rather feeble) Big Daddy for the entire game. Suits me!
Putting the game on hard was a good idea – it seemed just the right difficulty, though there was an overabundance of resources towards the end, making the last couple of levels a breeze, including duelling two Big Sisters and the final defend the flag battle reminiscent of that in Bioshock Infinite. A last boss would have been nice, but the general level of difficulty and the variety of ways it is possible to attack – or defend – made the rather short game immensely playable. That said, I got the good ending – and I doubt I’ll go back and replay the game for the others. I’ll just watch ‘em on Youtube.
Thinking back, as it came out in the period I wasn’t playing many games, Bioshock 2’s large posters were the first time I really knew about the series – though I likely had glimpses of the original game too. I remember it well – someone mentioned that Subject Delta was Bomberman, and I could never unsee it. Goddamn Bomberman.
