The Most Underrated Bioshock Is Free Right Now And You Should Play It
A return to Rapture.
The original Bioshock changed gaming when it was released in 2007. It represented a big step forward for the medium, as its distinct art-deco visual style, its melding of lite-RPG mechanics and first-person shooting, and its captivating and at times deeply meta story became the blueprint for a maturing gaming industry in the high-definition era of the late 2000s.
In just six years, the franchise it spawned became regarded as one of the most beloved and important game series ever. But while the first game is remembered for its impact and the divisive Bioshock Infinite is remembered for its mind-bending premise, the middle child of the series often feels left out of the conversation. The lack of buzz and discussion around Bioshock 2 doesn’t reflect its quality. In many ways, Bioshock 2 is actually the best game in the series. And right now, for Amazon Prime subscribers, the 2016 remaster of this excellent yet often overlooked game is available for free.
Bioshock 2 is a weird game. It’s a sequel that takes some big swings in the story department, ones that didn’t go over well with fans of its memorable predecessor leading up to its 2010 launch. Instead of filling the shoes of an outsider visiting the underwater city of Rapture, you play as a hulking Big Daddy, the scuba suit-wearing boss enemies from the first game. The new persistent boss enemy known as the Big Sister feels like an on-the-nose escalation of what came before it. And the fact that we are returning to this failed city by the sea was admittedly less exciting the second time around.
However, developer 2K Marin subverted all expectations by doing their own thing with the Bioshock mythos. Getting into the suit of a Big Daddy allows players to see this city from an entirely new perspective. The creepy Little Sisters take on a different role when they’re actively looking at you as a cuddly protector. Characters you meet along the way have clear connections to you as opposed to meeting them for the first time.
Best of all, rather than trying to repeat a big twist just for the sake of it, Bioshock 2 focuses solely on delivering a strong story. It’s a game about saving a loved one. It presents a compelling villain in the scorned Sofia Lamb who is the total opposite of Rapture’s visionary founder Andrew Ryan. Speaking of Ryan, fans of the first game will get more insight into who he was and the lengths he was willing to go to protect his flawed vision for society.
While the story is a focal point for Bioshock 2’s excellence, its biggest improvement over the first game is in gameplay. The sequel does away with the tedious hacking minigame of the first. The ability to dual wield plasmids, the projectile powers of the first game, with firearms adds a layer of frantic strategy and challenge to firefights.
The ability to wield a firearm and use plasmids at the same time makes encounters totally different from the first game.
The ability to set traps in the larger levels makes for some memorable encounters with normal enemies and bosses alike. And the fact that you’re a brutish and colossal Big Daddy makes combat feel just different enough to make it a fun twist on the first game’s more survival horror roots. Bioshock 2 manages to be a fun shooter, one that has aged a bit better than the first game.
It’s also worth mentioning that Bioshock 2’s Remastered edition includes the game’s revered downloadable expansion Minerva’s Den. Widely considered the best Bioshock game and one of the best pieces of DLC ever made, this separate five-hour adventure tells the story of another Big Daddy sent on a mission to retrieve crucial data from the city’s supercomputer. What unfolds is an intimate story set in this intriguing dystopia. Minerva’s Den is the precursor to award-winning narrative-focused games like Gone Home (which was developed by the leads of Minerva’s Den), one which we hope more people will discover.
While the original Bioshock deserves every single accolade it’s received over the years, Bioshock 2 builds on all of those revolutionary elements to create a sequel that is better in nearly every way. If you’re a fan of the first or its popular 2013 follow-up, you owe it to yourself to check out the most overlooked game in the series.
