BioShock 2 Remastered – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 31]

31 August, 2019

Blaugust

Since my production pipeline is offset by a day, this should be my 31st and last “official” Blaugust post. However I’m still going to play at least one last game today on the 31st as well, which will get a blog post tomorrow.

Yesterday for the 34th day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza, I returned to Rapture with BioShock 2 Remastered. This is a game I’ve owned since 2010, but never played until now. The Remastered edition came out in 2016 I believe, which I got for free since I owned the original.

Most of what I’ve heard about BioShock 2 is negative. I can see why people might think it’s a let-down. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t have the same “spark.” BioShock 1 should go down as one of the seminal works in the shooter genre, alongside titles like Doom and Quake and Half-Life. It clearly elevated the genre to a new level. (Coincidentally, I just recently played BioShock Remastered.)

BioShock 2 is a game that’s basically the same as BioShock 1. It’s a followup that has the same elements that made BioShock 1 great. The art style is the same, the setting is the same, the mechanics are the same. The problem is: It’s no longer a revelation. It’s just a continuation.

There's a lot of interesting scenery to look at, if nothing else.

With the same shooter mechanics, the only thing left to be new is the story. Unfortunately it felt forced. Again, I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t feel particularly inventive. It was just … more of what we saw in BioShock 1, with different characters plugged in as the antagonist and protagonist. It might get better with time, but the first hour felt very much like a sequel made to capitalize on the popularity of the first game.

The gameplay mechanics are identical to the first game, with the exception that you play a Big Daddy, and thus have different weapons. You start with a drill and a rivet gun, and I imagine more become available later. You also have access to plasmids very early on, the same ones from the first game.

The hacking is altered from the first game, a little different and easier. The only other new element I saw is that you can walk underwater. There’s some nice underwater scenery to go through.

This was a particularly nice visual effect.

I’ve seen complaints about the Remastered editions of BioShock but I thought it was fine. Some portions of it looked really nice, in fact.

Will I play more? Maybe. But mainly just to check it off a list. I don’t feel like I’d be missing a whole lot if I skipped the rest.

Live Stream - BioShock 2 Remastered

Stream Production Notes: I got my Chromebook working again. I had to clear the browser cache and cookies so that I could log into YouTube. No idea why. Otherwise not much to report. I think I probably had the game sound too loud. Theoretically this is the second-to-last one I’ll be doing.

Previously on the Steam Backlog Bonanza: Mount & Blade: Warband.

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