Come to Daddy

The first BioShock 2 podcast shines light on how Rapture has evolved.

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By John Gillooly on 14 April, 2009

BioShock was one of the most refreshing gaming experiences in recent years. While it can be considered a spiritual successor to the System Shock games, it carved out its own very unique niche thanks to the beautifully crafted art deco city of Rapture, and the very memorable inhabitants therein. It provided a very different first-person shooter experience to other games of the time, which has led to a high level of anticipation for the sequel.

Take-Two has been teasing the game for a while now, but it has only been in recent weeks that the mystery revolving around BioShock 2 has become clearer. Speculation abounded after the launch of a website recounting strange abductions of young girls, that was somehow related to a strange red glow seen traveling through the ocean, which was later revealed to be a new addition to the franchise – the Big Sister.

We now know that the game does, indeed, mark a return to Rapture, putting players in the shoes of the first Big Daddy – a prototype that is more advanced than the lumbering menaces that provided so many memorable moments in the first game. This has raised more questions than answers. Rapture was so well realised in BioShock that it seems a major challenge to make the sequel an equally compelling experience.

This is one of the major focuses of the first BioShock 2 podcast, released overnight (the transcript can be found here). Taking the form of an interview with Jordan Thomas, the creative director at 2K Marin, and Hogarth De LaPlante, the lead environment artist on BioShock 2, it focuses largely on how the game differs from the original. It is relatively spoiler-free, touching on details already known.

What is most interesting is how it answers the niggling question of how playing as a more powerful version of one of the original game’s challenging enemies will work. It seems that BioShock 2 focuses on the effect ADAM (the DNA-altering drug central to the original game) has had on the closed ecosystem of Rapture. Time has passed since the original game, which has allowed splicers to further evolve. At the top of this food chain is the Big Sister, a Little Sister who has returned to Rapture and watches over the ADAM-gathering Little Sisters that she has introduced to the environment. The Big Sister will be a recurring enemy in the game, hunting down the protagonist as he encounters the Little Sisters in Rapture.

It also seems that there will be more of an emphasis on groups of splicers. This scaling of threat is an important way of providing a challenge when the player is much higher up the food chain than they were in the original. Also promised are more evolved splicers, and the fact that just because the protagonist is a Big Daddy doesn’t mean that the other Big Daddies are friendly.

Overall, the podcast gives an exciting insight into the thought process behind BioShock 2. It gives a good overview of how 2k Marin is creating an experience for both veterans and newcomers to Rapture. It remains to be seen as to how well this different take on the BioShock world comes out, but it really does appear that there is serious thought going into creating another engrossing experience under the sea.

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