BioShock 2

"For every choice, there is an echo. With each act, we change the world. One man chose a city, free of law and God, but others chose corruption and so the city fell. If the world was reborn at your image, would it be paradise or perdition ?"

- Sofia Lamb

BioShock 2 is the sequel to BioShock, and is designed to continue the grand storyline of the underwater metropolis, Rapture. It was released on February 9, 2010. The Mac OS X version of the game was published by Feral Interactive and released on March 29, 2012.

BioShock 2 capitalizes and improves upon the high-quality effects, unique gameplay elements, and immersive atmosphere that defined the first game. 2K Marin was the development team for BioShock 2, continuing the work of Irrational Games, which developed the first game. Initially, a spokesperson for 2K Games stated that the "Sea of Dreams" subtitle had been dropped. 2K later stated that the subtitle was the title of the first teaser trailer, and not a subtitle for the game.

Gameplay
The player takes on the role of Subject Delta, an Alpha Series Big Daddy. Subject Delta's suit allows him to survive the pressure of the ocean, enabling him to walk outside of Rapture to progress, explore, take a breather from the action within, and even harvest ADAM-yielding Sea Slugs on the ocean floor. A flashlight is built into Delta's suit, and this handy tool turns on and off automatically as needed, allowing the player to investigate even the darkest hallway or corner with ease. When Delta is injured a great deal, his hearing will become muffled, his vision will become dark and blurred and his actions will slow down, to the point where he will die. First Aid Kits and other means can be used to return Delta to full Health before he dies. If Delta should die he will be respawned in a Vita-Chamber. As the game progresses the player can equip Delta with various Weapons, Plasmids, and Gene Tonics. Delta can also perform a melee bash with any weapon, dealing quick damage.

Like the first game, the player will have to kill the Big Daddy to get the ADAM from the Little Sister. However, the "rescue" option is not immediately available. Instead, the player can either opt to "harvest" or "adopt" the Little Sister. If the player chooses to adopt, the Little Sister will ride on Delta's shoulder until she finds a body to extract ADAM from. When Delta lets her down, she will begin to harvest from the body, causing Splicers to swarm and attack. Though she cannot be killed, Splicers will interrupt the ADAM progress bar by attacking her, meaning the player will be under constant attack until the progress bar fills up. After the gathering mission is complete, Delta will receive some ADAM and she will get back on Delta's shoulders. When the player comes to a Little Sister Vent, they will again be given the choice to harvest or rescue the Little Sister.

Hacking has been changed to a simpler, more fluid process than it was in the first game, and no longer pauses the game. In singleplayer, the player has to land a moving needle in a green or blue section of a bar, while avoiding any enemies present. A successful hack after landing into one or more blue zones will grant a bonus to the player, depending on the machine. Players have the choice to either hack from up close or from a distance with the Hack Tool.

Story
Set in 1968, roughly eight years after the events in BioShock, Rapture is now under the control of ex-missionary and psychiatrist Sofia Lamb, whose ideas for human progression are a sharp contrast to the city's deceased founder, Andrew Ryan. While Ryan believed in the genius of the individual, Lamb believes in collective effort and the power of the community, as well as a philosophy surrounding butterfly imagery, indicating rebirth. She considers Rapture's failure to be undeniable proof that the "self" is the root of all evil and suffering. Under Sofia's rule, the first generation of Little Sisters have matured into adolescence. The Big Sisters, as they are now known, are highly aggressive and have the ability to use Plasmids absorbed from gathering as a child. Sofia sends Big Sisters out to coastlines across the Atlantic, kidnapping little girls and turning them into new Little Sisters.

At a New Year's Eve celebration in 1958, Subject Delta- the first Big Daddy to be successfully pair-bonded to a Little Sister- is starting his usual rounds with his Little Sister when she races ahead and is attacked by a group of Splicers. Naturally Delta defends his gatherer but is stopped when the last Splicer hits him with a Hypnotize Plasmid. Sofia Lamb appears and informs him that his Little Sister is actually her daughter Eleanor Lamb, before forcing him to take a Pistol to his own head and pull the trigger. Ten years later, Delta is revived at a Vita-Chamber and begins to receive telepathic messages from Eleanor pleading for help. Delta encounters Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum, who tells him that in order to save Eleanor and stop Lamb, he must travel across the ruins of Rapture to Fontaine Futuristics, where Eleanor is held. If he does not, his bond will stop his heartbeat if he strays too far from his Little Sister, preventing him from escaping Rapture and eventually killing him. On his journey, Delta is aided by Tenenbaum's new ally Augustus Sinclair, a lawyer, business man, and confidence trickster. Delta also receives aid from Eleanor, who uses her psychic connection to the new Little Sisters to leave care packages and messages throughout Rapture.

Through the audio logs scattered throughout Rapture, Delta discovers that, against Andrew Ryan's better judgment, Lamb was originally brought to Rapture to help those who were struggling to cope with underwater life. However, Lamb used the therapy sessions as a means to brainwash her patients into joining a cult she called The Family. Soon, Lamb was confronting and defeating Ryan in public debates. In response to this new threat, Ryan asked Sinclair to deal with her. Sinclair used a spy within The Family to compromise Lamb, who was then arrested and sent to Rapture's prison, leaving her daughter Eleanor in the care of her trusted lieutenant Grace Holloway. When Eleanor confronted Stanley Poole, another member of The Family, about how he had bankrupted Lamb's property, Dionysus Park, Stanley panicked and kidnapped her. Eleanor ended up in one of Frank Fontaine's orphanages, which lead to her transformation into a Little Sister. Delta then discovers that Lamb plans to use ADAM to transform her daughter into a superhuman being with all the knowledge of Rapture's intellectual elite. Lamb will then use the same conditioning methods used on Jack to destroy Eleanor's sense of self, brainwashing her into acting only for her goals. Sinclair's agenda also becomes clear: he plans to take control of Rapture from Lamb, cannibalize its technology and sell to the surface world.

Delta's journey is halted first by a block of ice blocking the exit door to the train station at Ryan Amusements. He enters the park to find an Incinerate! Plasmid to melt the ice, and just after he does so he is attacked by a Big Sister, which he defeats. Lamb, however, is not eager to see Delta, and locks down the railway in an attempt to stop him getting to Eleanor. This forces him to stop in Pauper's Drop to get the override key from Sofia's lieutenant Grace Holloway, a singer who holds a deep grudge against Subject Delta. After exploring the district the latter discovers that he smashed Grace's jaw when she attempted to approach a transformed Eleanor, ending her career as a singer. As Delta battles through her Splicers and finally meets her face to face, he is given the choice of either killing or sparing her. After fighting through another wave of Splicers and with the key in hand he departs.

Delta's efforts are once again hindered by another one of Lamb's lieutenants, Father Simon Wales, a blindly zealous Spider Splicer who believes that Eleanor is the key to paradise. Wales fires a torpedo at Delta's train car which badly damages it and hurls Delta from his craft. To get to another functional train car in Dionysus Park, Delta must go to Siren Alley where Wales has set up a temple for The Family. After killing both Simon and his brother Daniel Wales, Delta overloads the pumps to Siren Alley, flooding it and allowing him access to Dionysus Park. After entering the park, Delta finds the trains cars are locked down, courtesy of Stanley Poole, a cowardly news reporter/mole for Ryan, who promises to open the trains up again if Delta empties Dionysus Park of its Little Sisters. As Delta takes care of them, Poole reveals he wrote an article about Delta. Delta was once an ordinary man, "Johnny Topside". He found Rapture all on his own and became something of a celebrity within Rapture's walls. Andrew Ryan, however, was convinced that Johnny was a spook sent by the CIA or the KGB (Much like he would when he encountered Jack, the protagonist from the original BioShock). Eventually, Ryan had him made into a Big Daddy, codenamed Subject Delta. After completing his mission, Delta is about to leave when Lamb informs him that Stanley turned him in to Ryan and is responsible for his becoming a Big Daddy. He is then given the choice of either killing or sparing the man.

After finally making it to Fontaine Futuristics, Delta is once again halted by a man (who has been mutated and now resides in a 50 foot-tall glass tank filled with water) named Gilbert Alexander, who is now deeply insane due to absorbing a massive amount of ADAM. Following a taped recording of Gil's sane self, Delta finds his way to the hidden Plasmid lab where a horribly mutated Gil awaits. Delta retrieves a gene sample and uses it to get to Persephone where Eleanor is held, but before leaving Delta is once again given the choice of ending or sparing Gil's life. Delta fights his way through Persephone until he finds Eleanor, locked within a quarantine chamber with Sofia. The latter summons two Big Sisters in a last-ditch effort to stop Delta. The two are defeated, but before Delta can enter the quarantine chamber Sofia smothers Eleanor with a pillow. This stops her heart long enough for Delta's body to shut down, and he is knocked unconscious.

Delta is captured by Lamb and his pair-bond with Eleanor is severed, weakening his heart in the process. However, Eleanor sends a special Plasmid to Delta that allows him to take control of a Little Sister. She reveals that she has been closely observing his actions not only through the pair-bond but through her psychic connection to the new Little Sisters, and depending on Delta's actions throughout Rapture she is either a spirited, rebellious young woman determined to win her freedom or a ruthless cynic who only thinks of her own welfare and survival.

Following Eleanor's instructions, Delta brings her part of the Big Sister armor, allowing her to free Delta and fight by his side. They resolve to make their final escape from Rapture using Sinclair's escape pod. Lamb, upon seeing her daughter defy her, plans to set off bombs that will send them plummeting to the bottom of the sea. During their escape, Delta is forced to kill Sinclair, who had been captured by Lamb and transformed into a Big Daddy. After a final climactic showdown with the remnants of The Family, Eleanor and Delta make it to the escape pod, but a final trap set by Lamb mortally wounds Delta. Trapped in the flooded escape pod with her mother, Eleanor makes the choice to either kill or save Lamb. Depending on the choices made by the player throughout the game, the player will receive different endings. In the good ending, Eleanor will use her Big Sister needle to absorb Delta's ADAM and conscience so that they can be together forever, with Delta guiding Eleanor's actions and drives. In the evil ending, she will brutally harvest Delta's essence and ADAM, heralding the birth of a monster. However, if Delta demonstrated some form of compassion throughout his journey then Delta will have the option to stop and sacrifice his life to give Eleanor a chance at redemption.

Main Characters

 * Augustus Sinclair
 * Eleanor Lamb
 * Sofia Lamb
 * Subject Delta

Enemies

 * Big Daddies
 * Big Sisters
 * Little Sisters
 * Security Devices
 * Splicers

Weapons

 * Drill
 * Hack Tool
 * Launcher
 * Machine Gun
 * Research Camera
 * Rivet Gun
 * Shotgun
 * Spear Gun

Plasmids

 * Cyclone Trap
 * Decoy
 * Electro Bolt
 * Hypnotize
 * Incinerate!
 * Insect Swarm
 * Scout
 * Security Command
 * Telekinesis
 * Winter Blast

Levels

 * Adonis Luxury Resort
 * Atlantic Express
 * Ryan Amusements
 * Pauper's Drop
 * Siren Alley
 * Dionysus Park
 * Fontaine Futuristics
 * Outer Persephone
 * Inner Persephone

Extras

 * BioShock 2 Credits
 * BioShock 2 Patches
 * BioShock 2 Special Edition
 * BioShock 2 Soundtrack
 * BioShock 2 Strategy Guide
 * BioShock: Rapture (Novel)
 * Deco Devolution: The Art of BioShock 2
 * Downloadable Content
 * Sounds From The Lighthouse

Official Sites

 * Official BioShock 2 site from 2K Games
 * BioShock 2 for Mac from Feral Interactive

BioShock 2 Launch Trailer
Released on February 3, 2010, this video shows a cinematic resembling "The Myth of Atlantis" video as a launch for BioShock 2. Seen on right.

Sea of Dreams Trailer
The PlayStation 3 version of BioShock contained the first teaser trailer for BioShock 2. Named Sea of Dreams, the cinematic teaser features a woman, presumably a grown up Little Sister, standing on a beach looking out to sea as she holds a small doll resembling a Big Daddy. Also, a butterfly is seen crawling out of a barnacle on the BioShock 2 logo toward the end. This resembles Sofia Lamb's belief that butterflies mark the rebirth of Rapture. Seen here.

The song that is featured in the Sea Of Dreams Trailer is Dreams by The Pied Pipers.

Hunting the Big Sister
This ten-minute walkthrough has provided much preliminary information on BioShock 2. It is analogous to the "Hunting the Big Daddy" video from the original BioShock. It has been featured and/or referenced by several different sources, including Game Informer and GameTrailers.com. The full video can be found here.

E3 Gameplay trailer
At E3 2009, 2K Games released a gameplay trailer for BioShock 2, seen here. It seems to be composed of free-camera shots of the beta level used in the "Hunting the Big Sister" video. However, since it was the beta level, it is assumed none of these shots have any bearing on the full game.

GTTV BioShock 2 Episode
On October 22, 2009 a new episode of Game Trailers TV was released on Spike. This episode, dedicated almost entirely to BioShock 2, divulged a huge amount of information about the game. Viewable here.

Additional Information
For more information on BioShock 2, visit these sites:
 * The official BioShock 2 Web site went live on October 29, 2009.
 * A viral website called "There's Something in the Sea" was released on March 4, 2009, giving hints and clues about BioShock 2. For more information, see There's Something in the Sea.
 * BioShock 2 wallpapers and icons (first added April 21, 2009) can be found at the Cult of Rapture's Download Page.
 * For more BioShock 2 related videos, go to GameSpot.com.
 * Kotaku
 * Game Informer Cover
 * Eurogamer Multiplayer unveiled
 * Game Informer interview with Garry Schyman
 * TechSpot BioShock 2 PC Graphics Cards Performance Guide