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REVIEW OF VIRTUAL GAME - BIOSHOCK 2
"Ah! Finally good to be home...!" after about two years of gruels wait, the noble people at 2K finally bestowed us with the second, in the series of the most anticipated game of the year. A sequel to the highly acclaimed game of Bioshock incredulously titled as 'Bioshock 2'. Welcome to the city of Rapture folks. This time it's drowning and is more evil than before.
For those new to the game history, BioShock (The previous version) centered round a fictional city of Rapture. This city is a brain child of a scientist, who dreamt of creating an underwater world, simmering with vast possibilities. Something... somewhere went horribly wrong and the dreamed city went on to become the watery grave. The only thing that survived were, creatures transformed into some (or the other) kind of maniacal beasts. Rapture is quite literally littered with them and all the rust from the sea water. In the game the protagonist 'Jack' scours the rusty rummages with the task of bestowing peace and harmony, to a city; 'already falling apart into pieces. During his search, he is faced with the vicious terror inducing creatures, those ugly than the ones seen in his scariest nightmares; met in the worst of possible scenarios. 'How jack made it out of that watery grave... is a history!'
Bioshock2 is very much like a brand new product packaged in an old box. But it seems just an illusion, for the players. Underneath the same deja vu' visual elements, that in a way happened to revolutionize the graphical benchmarking for any game till date, 'lies a story that is distantly related to the previous happenings in the world of Bioshock. This time around (in the second installment to the game), the players step in the shoes of Big-daddy, "Quite literally!" Big daddy's are basically the ruthless (towards enemies) yet caring (little sisters) monsters, befitted in a gigantic metal suit. The only purpose they serve is in protecting the little sisters. There is danger lurking in every nook and corner of the darkened rapture city and the sisters are prone to each of these incoming threat.
Little sisters are a precious source of adam. These tiny girls (in the game) are assigned with the task of collecting splice genes from among the many dead corpses. The sisters have been mind controlled into doing this ugly sort of work. They enjoy it nonetheless, thus Little sisters are found as rich source for obtaining the desired powers. The key to powerful genetic source in the whole of rapture are these little monster accompanied sisters and the many slot machines just in the waiting of getting tapped. This is the very obvious reason why they are constantly vulnerable to attacks from the melee creatures. In protecting them is where the role of big daddy gets properly defined.
Bioshock2 is all about making choices. Either chooses to play the good guy with noble intentions or better still be really evil and hath a fury on each and every creature that crosses your path, 'in the game that is! This decision making is actually the brilliant part of the game. Quite subtly It leads to some very different endings to the game story, and it takes a while to realize as to 'just what is happening. This is the sheer brilliance of the team at 2K.
The striking feature of Bioshock2 is its visuals. The stunning graphic rendering, makes for an amazingly serious eye candy. Rapture is resurrected to life with amazing attention to every of the details especially the water element. During the game, the water splashing onto the (virtual) screen appears all too real, that for a moment or two one does forgets that it is a virtually rendered work. The use animation wizardry is that good. The game is resource hungry to say the least. With the entire visual treat turned up, entire hardware comes begging down to its knees. I.e. for playing on a PC, the hardware needs to be fairly decent in order to play at respectable screen resolution.
By far the game looks promisingly pretty on a PC platform. The title is also released on both PS3 and XBOX 360* - but I am sure, hardcore gamers will choose their (gaming) weapons very wisely.
