BioShock 2: Hands All Over It

Jones talks to Creative Director Jordan Thomas; gets another look at BioShock 2.
11/5/2009 10:25 AM | 4 Comments | Page 1 of 2

I stopped by the Access PR offices this week in New York City to put my hands under the shirt (and the bra) of the latest up-to-the-minute build of BioShock 2.

The original was far and away my Game of the Year choice for 2007. But the sequel, since it was first announced, as it always is with games that I absolutely love, has been a cause for great anxiety for me. It is, and will continue to be, the Sequel I Am Officially Most Worried About. After seeing the game today, and talking to Jordan Thomas, the game's creative director, it's official: I'm a little less worried now.

Couple of things.

I confess, I'm really not all that excited about playing as a Big Daddy. And, after spending about 45 minutes with the game today -- the demo was a level set in and around an eerie carnival-type level called Ryan's Amusements -- I have to say, I didn't really feel like a Big Daddy. I just felt like a very slow-moving, lumbering thing in a first-person shooter. (I've been assured that Plasmids later on in the game speed up the Big Daddy's movements.)

Beyond that, the Big Daddy was the soul of the original game. I loved his odd loyalty, loved that he wouldn't pester you unless you pestered him. Yes, later on we discovered that Big Daddies were actually people who had been trapped/enslaved inside the diving suit. Which only made the Big Daddy seem more tortured and lonely.

But letting me walk a mile in his old-timey diving suit, as you do in the sequel, definitely diminishes some of the mystery and horror of this character. "We've talked about that issue a lot," Thomas said. "But there are things in [BioShock 2], we felt, that are even bigger mysteries [than the Big Daddy]. Things that will keep you interested and engaged; things that you will learn about the world that are so much more horrible."

One of those things, obviously, is the presence of the Big Sisters. Again, I wasn't all that thrilled with the concept of the Big Sisters. So, there are lady versions of Big Daddies? It didn't sit right with me; it just didn't feel like BioShock. (I even began referring to BioShock 2 in my notes during demos as "Fake BioShock.") And, when I was able to get up close and personal with one of them today in the demo, it was fairly anticlimactic. Yes, the Big Sisters are bad-asses. They're fast; they use Telekinesis with a great deal of effectiveness. They will make you die a lot. The one that I saw came after me with a bloodthirsty tenacity that made a regular Big Daddy seem tame by comparison. Watching the Big Sister dart around the room, I inexplicably found myself writing in my notes, "LOOKS LIKE SAMUS ARAN FROM METROID."

I kept waiting to feel something BioShock-y throughout the demo. And you know what? After seeing the game at various intervals over the past six months, after hearing about multiplayer (no!) and Big Sisters, and that Ken Levine wasn't involved, and all the other things that felt so much like core aesthetic betrayals of the original, today's demo actually did make me feel a little BioShock-y at times. First moment of BioShock goodness: I got to adopt a Little Sister. I was given an on-screen prompt: PRESS X TO ADOPT. I picked her up. Held her in my arms. Then put her on my shoulder so that she could ride around with me. I actually got a little emotional when I picked her up. Aw. Who knows. Maybe I was having a rare paternal moment. She kept referring to me as "Daddy," which I liked.

Also: I have a weakness for all carnival culture; I love the false cheeriness of it all. (Hooray for old Coney Island.) The Ryan's Amusements level feels like an upside-down Disney Land. There are little tableaus where a creepy animatronic Andrew Ryan, still functioning, comes to life and talks to you about his life and philosophy. Later in the level, scenes of oppression are played out via tin animatronic displays of his principles. We see a robotic farmer tilling his field. We see his robotic family standing on the steps of his humble tin home. We see a giant animatronic hand come out of the darkness and lift the roof from the farmer's house, and reach inside, taking whatever it wants.

I love shit like this. It feels very endemic to Rapture.