BioShock 2 is a strange sequel for me because, in many ways, it is clearly a better game than the first one, but it also carries over one of the main problems I had with BioShock while introducing a technical issue that eventually made me stop playing.
The first thing I noticed was how much better the presentation feels. Rapture still has the same distinctive visual identity, but BioShock 2 looks noticeably better and the cutscenes are more detailed and better integrated into the experience. The game feels like a more polished production overall, and the difference becomes even more obvious when comparing it directly with the first game.
The gameplay is also more enjoyable this time. Playing as a Big Daddy changes the way combat feels, and the game makes several improvements to the original formula without completely abandoning what made BioShock recognisable. I found the moment-to-moment gameplay more satisfying, and there is a better sense of progression as you gain new abilities and become more comfortable with the mechanics.
The biggest improvement for me, however, is the dialogue and voice acting. This was one of my main criticisms of the first game, where conversations often felt lifeless and characters rarely created the emotional connection the story was trying to establish. BioShock 2 feels much more natural in this area. The characters have more emotion in their voices, the dialogue fits the atmosphere of Rapture better and the writing feels more convincing. Conversations no longer feel like they exist purely to deliver information before the next section of gameplay, which makes the world itself feel more alive.
At the same time, the sequel still struggles with something that bothered me throughout the first game: giving me a strong reason to care about the world and my place inside it. BioShock 2 does provide more context at the beginning, but I still spent a large part of the game wondering what my character actually wanted and why I should become emotionally invested in what was happening around me.
You start as a Big Daddy, survive what should have been your death and are eventually given the objective of protecting the Little Sisters. The immediate goal is understandable, but the personal motivation behind it is much less clear. Why does this matter so much to my character? What does he actually want beyond protecting these children? Where exactly do I fit into the larger conflict taking place in Rapture? These are questions the game takes too long to answer, and because of that, I once again felt like I was being asked to care about a world before the story had given me enough reason to care.
This is disappointing precisely because the writing itself is better. BioShock 2 clearly improves how characters speak and how scenes are presented, but stronger dialogue cannot completely solve a narrative structure that still struggles to establish the player's personal connection to the story. The first game had the same issue for me, and I was hoping the sequel would take the opportunity to build that connection much earlier.
There are also some smaller changes that made the transition from the first game less comfortable than it needed to be. The keyboard shortcuts are different, so I had to change several controls because I was already used to the previous layout. It is not an important problem by itself, but it is the kind of unnecessary change that makes the sequel feel less consistent when playing both games close together.
Unfortunately, the Remastered version also introduced a technical problem that I could not simply overlook. The game crashed multiple times during my playthrough, and the consequences were much worse than simply having to restart the game. Saves were not always reliable afterwards. I could manually save, including using the quick save function, continue playing and then have the game crash later, only to find that the save was no longer available and that I had lost part of my progress.
That completely changes how I see the technical problems because I was no longer dealing with an occasional crash. I was losing progress that I had already saved and being forced to repeat sections of the game because the Remastered version failed to preserve that progress properly. Once that happens repeatedly, it becomes difficult to focus on the actual game because part of the experience is spent worrying about whether the next save will still exist after the next crash.
I know there are community fixes and possible workarounds for these problems, but I am not interested in spending more time trying to repair a remaster that should have been stable in the first place. BioShock 2 Remastered has been available for years, and these save and crash issues have been reported by other players as well. Even if there is an easy fix, I should not have to modify files or install unofficial solutions just to make a game preserve my progress correctly.
Because of that, I decided to stop playing this version. I may eventually play the original BioShock 2 instead, but I have no interest in going back to the Remastered version after already spending enough time dealing with crashes and lost progress. I have other games to play, and at some point you have to decide whether continuing to troubleshoot an old remaster is actually worth your time.
That is what makes BioShock 2 particularly frustrating for me. There is a genuinely better game underneath these problems. The gameplay is more enjoyable than the first one, the presentation has improved, the cutscenes are stronger and the dialogue and voice acting are a clear step forward. At the same time, the sequel never completely fixes the narrative problem that prevented me from connecting with the first game, and the technical state of the Remastered version eventually stopped me from finishing it.
I still think BioShock 2 deserves a 6/10 because the improvements are real and I enjoyed playing it more than the first game. My criticism is not based on whether I personally liked the direction of the sequel. It is based on whether the systems, writing and technical execution actually work for the experience the game is trying to provide. When something works, I have no problem recognising it. When something fails, especially when it directly affects my ability to continue playing, I have to take that into account as well.
[b]Score: 6/10[/b]
(1) Trash(2) Horrible(3) Very Bad(4) Bad(5) Average
(6) Fine(7) Good(8) Very Good(9) Great(10) Masterpiece
