Bioshock II, worth it?

Going through this, still early, second level. But feels... weird, closer to half assed expansion.
Little ambiance, no sense of mystery/discovery, gun sounds seem amateurish, ( for some reason a lot weaker than in previous title), even splicers/audio logs don't have that "crazy charm".
Almost like they quickly wanted to quickly cash in on first one, but couldn't come up with anything interesting. This worth playing to end?

Yes, it gets better. The story overall isn't as strong as the other Bioshock titles, but the combat is probably the best of the three.

JDR13 said:

Yes, it gets better. The story overall isn't as strong as the other Bioshock titles, but the combat is probably the best of the three.

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Seriously? Enemy AI seems quite a bit better at dodging/taking cover, but gun sounds ( first two) are very weak. Imo, etc, of course.

I'm also playing the Remastered at the moment and it is my first playthrough of the game. I'm a little further in at 17 hours and two levels away from the end of the game.

I agree that it feels like more of the same and I would also consider the first game to be the better one.
It seems like they have kind of run out of ideas as far as the levels are concerned. It's all kind of same-y.

I'm still enjoying the atmosphere and the exploration of the levels and will finish the game for completeness sake but it is indeed a bit of a drag sometimes.

A few things are worse than the first game, too, like the research camera. It is pretty annoying with very fast moving targets like Spider and Houdini Splicers. It just breaks the flow of the gameplay.
I understand that they wanted to encourage the usage of all of the plasmids and weapons but they should have probably taken a more traditional approach with classic enemy vulnerabilities/weaknesses etc.

I'm also not a big fan of the "Defend-the-Little Sisters" mini-game and the Big Sister attacks (as well as the other mini-bosses like Brute Splicers and some Big Daddy variants). It feels like artificially stretching the gameplay. Meh.
The interface for plasmids and tonics is also crap, i.e. even crappier than the first game. More meh.

The choice of weapons is slightly better though and I also like the greater variety in the tonics. I'd say it's still a good game but it falls a little short of the great first part. My guess is if you do not explore as much as I do but kind of rush through it just for the story, you can probably do it in ~10 hours max so if you do not enjoy it very much but still want to get it over with for completeness sake (story) then just switch to run&gun and finish the damn thing!

Moriendor said:

I'm also not a big fan of the "Defend-the-Little Sisters" mini-game and the Big Sister attacks (as well as the other mini-bosses like Brute Splicers and some Big Daddy variants). It feels like artificially stretching the gameplay. Meh.

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I thought the Big Sister and Big Daddy battles were some of the best parts in the game. I like how you can maneuver them into fighting each other if you draw one into another's line of fire. It was fun watching a Sister taking on a Big Daddy and 3 or 4 Splicers simultaneously and then finishing off the weakened victors.

I wouldn't want to play it so soon after finishing Bioshock 1 though. The games are too similar for that, and that's probably one reason you guys aren't enjoying it more.

I thought the game was quite good - though it's hard to remember all that much about it. Big Sister battles were more interesting for sure. Defending an area was fun, too. The ending was definitely better.

JDR13 said:

I wouldn't want to play it so soon after finishing Bioshock 1 though. The games are too similar for that, and that's probably one reason you guys aren't enjoying it more.

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Maybe that's it. No way would I have noticed gun shots sounding different!

Well. you two guys must be suffering from deafness of some sort. Or it's a sign of old age and death slowly creeping in. ( Helloooo, can anyone hear me? )
Still doesn't seem like a bad game…made it to third level, seems like it's the same save vs. harvest moral dilemma. Is it anytime explained why everyone is leaving audio logs all over the place?

Because if they didn't then the impatient gamers would be whining about all the dialog they have to skip. Oh, you mean the IN game reason? Not that I remember. But I think System Shock had a similar system.

I played the game ages ago, and don't remember any details from it. Which actually says something about the game, as I do remember details about Bioshock 1, a game I played before. It's not nearly as memorable as the first one, but an alright game.

Was there not a big fuss about the big sister at launch? They had promised that she would show up randomly, and then it turned out that the fights were always at the same pre-determined locations or something like that.

Near the ending, the game did grew on me ( though those splicer swarms really are unnecessary). Main story is actually more interesting, but setting of course not as pulling as first game.
Hate Sofia Lamb, hate her, hate her with the power of a thousand suns. There's a drill charge coming her way with her name on it.
Hope it doesn't mess up the ending. So far been good( as always) but no way we're ending this on friendly terms.

Does BioShock 2 continue the theme of the madness of Ayn Rand's philosophy?

Actually I think it deals more with communism but there is a throwback area called Journey to the Surface (video with patriotic song!).

Zloth said:

Actually I think it deals more with communism but there is a throwback area called Journey to the Surface (video with patriotic song!).

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Excellent. Two of my favourite quotes about Ayn Rand:

”Atlas Shrugged is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."
Dorothy Parker

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
John Rogers

I thought the ride was brilliant! It seemed exactly like the kind of children's ride a fanatic like Ryan would make.

…aaand finished! Loved it and was pissed off at the end of it. Ending was great, though Psycholamb got out alive in cutscene.
Overall, would be a better game than I , but a few things were unnecessary and game would be better without…pacing ( back and forth, back and forth on same levels) , splicer swarms, heavy handed social commentary ( by the Gods! , all the endless preaching), damn hacking mini games and bit too familiar art and setting.
Will give it some time before Infinite, bit burned out on it, though games are definitely interesting in their own right. Did they improve on these things?

Infinite is different enough from Bioshock 1&2 that it shouldn't feel too familiar. You still might want to take a short break though as the mechanics aren't vastly different.

Infinite has some "well duh!" plot moments but the ending… wow. A save between the final fight and the start of the ending sequence would be most helpful because you might need to see that one twice.

Actually, here's some weird advice… if you happen to be the kind of person that gets nosebleeds in the cold/dry winters then you probably want to start playing soon.

Zloth said:

Infinite has some "well duh!" plot moments but the ending… wow. A save between the final fight and the start of the ending sequence would be most helpful because you might need to see that one twice.

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This would be great in theory but in practice you can not save manually in Infinite . I have also finished BS2 the other day and have started both Minerva's Den as well as Infinite but so far I am less than impressed with Infinite... in part due to the fact that there no longer is a manual save and, at least in the early game, save points are very sparse. The PC font is also very small (though I only play in 1440p resolution) so you have to pay very close attention to when the checkpoint save message comes up. This seems to be a common complaint on the game's Steam forums, too.
Oh well, I hope it gets better further in and that it makes you forget such shortcomings but the beginning is (IMO) very underwhelming so far.

Moriendor said:

Oh well, I hope it gets better further in and that it makes you forget such shortcomings but the beginning is (IMO) very underwhelming so far.

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It does. BioShock Infinite is somewhat slow to develop in the early going.

Read a hillarious article on it by Kotaku concerning Levine's complaints about some (ahem!) unsolicited artistic activities by it's fan base on one of it's main characters.