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.
