My Time in Rapture
10.5.09 - Began Bioshock with great trepidation. I startle easily and was still not terribly used to games involving guns.
2.9.10 - Bioshock 2 was released and I observed my boyfriend playing said game.
2.10.10 - Continued my Bioshock journey
2.11.10 - Completed Bioshock
2.17.10 - Began Bioshock 2
2.21.10 - Completed Bioshock 2
I don’t like having an endless list of game saves. I typically have two - one primary and one backup in case I fuck something up. I’m sure other people have their own methods for dealing with multiple saves. Bioshock 2 has removed your ability to delete individual saves.
Bioshock 2 has also made it impossible for you to travel backwards. It makes sense in the context of the story, but if you’d like to go back and look for any audio logs or weapon upgrades you missed - you can’t. (Better make sure you research the Thuggish Splicers while you can, as once you leave Pauper’s Drop you won’t see another.)
Bioshock has separate 10g achievements for maxing out research for each individual subject on top of a 20g achievement for maxing out all research subjects and a 5g achievement for researching one of each subject AND a 20g achievement for getting the highest grade on a research photo AND a 5g achievement for researching one splicer. That’s 130g total for research. Bioshock 2 has 20g for maxing out research on all subjects, 20g for maxing out research on one subject and 5g for researching your first splicer. That’s 45g total for research. That’s a big disparity, obviously due to the addition of multiplayer achievements, and is massively stupid considering it is an easily missable achievement because of the disappearance of the Thuggish Splicer. I find it extremely vexing.
As someone who does not enjoy killing and being killed by strangers online it is quite annoying to have so many achievements within the multiplayer mode, as is the case with Bioshock 2. I played one round to get the two easiest multiplayer achievements (well, two rounds, as halfway through the first the host’s connection cut out) and called it a day, ignoring the other ten multiplayer achievements. I’d have been much happier if they’d gone the route of Call of Duty and kept achievements and multiplayer separate.
Why in god’s name did Bioschock 2 switch the Harvest/Rescue buttons?! I actually made a point of playing a different game in between 1 and 2 to prevent my hands from going on auto-pilot and accidentally harvesting a little sister.
Little Sisters are vastly more adorable in Bioshock 2 and they have some dialogue that caused me to emit many an “awwwwww.”
Bioshock has a fantastic story. Through audio logs and characters the world of Rapture unfolds. The underwater land becomes much more than a gimmicky setting. Bioshock 2 adds a bit to the richness and history of Rapture, but not to the extent as the first. My biggest complaint is likely how repetitive the dialogue of the last third of the game is. Both Sophia and Eleanor Lamb say the same thing a hundred different ways and it grows old very fast.
I played both games on easy. I would not have a problem playing through on normal and am sure I could beat them on hard, but I play games for the story and for fun; I do not enjoy frustration. I don’t have to prove anything to myself or others by way of difficulty settings on video games. With that said, Bioshock is truly easy on easy. At no point was I ever in fear of dying regardless of the foe I was up against. Big Daddies went down with three frags. Bishock 2 on easy is not a breeze. Easy, sure, but the difficulty has certainly been increased from the first.
Ultimately I enjoyed both games but overall preferred Bioshock. It is my hope there is a third installment that reigns supreme.
