Bottom Line: Single Player is fun, just as the first. A good story and in a fully realized world. Multiplayer is entertaining, taking several things from other games and making them it's own. Aside from a few minor complaints, it stands up to long standing series such as Halo and Call of Duty. And now...on to the review.

I was not expecting to get this game. Not at all. I do not have the money to get any new games any more (unless someone knows of a job that is actually hiring?). So it was a complete surprise when I received this on my Birthday (also, the release day for the game).

So I started playing...and now...a review.

The wonderful world of Rapture returns...but what has changed? It is still gorgeous in it's construction. The developers took a lot of time to put in little details for the player. More writing on the wall (figuratively and literally). There is a definite sense of 'I have seen this before, but it is still new'. There is still the post-modern/objectivist style of art that there is in the first one, but it is not quite so prevalent. You are not in the Upscale Rapture of the first game. This is the mean streets, back alleys, projects. And it comes across in the level design.

As for the story, You and early version of the Daddy. You are not the Alpha, but the Delta. The opening movie is seen through the eyes of your character. You are following 'your' Little Sister when she runs off. You follow her, running when you hear her scream. You fight off a few Splicers from her and get hit by a 'Friednly Big Daddy' ball from the first game (the plasmid that made Big Daddy's your ally). A woman appears and tells you to grab a gun, take off your helmet, and shoot yourself...and you do.

You wake up 10 years later and have visions about 'your' Little Sister. Tenenbaum (from the first game) enlists your help in taking down a woman named Sophia Lamb. On your way to meet Tenenbaum, you have a run in with a Big Sister. A female version of the Big Daddy that is very fast, very agile, and can use Plasmids (like you). While fighting, she decides the window separating the pretty ocean from you doesn't need to be there. And you get a view of Rapture from the outside...

I was struck by how similar the game is structured in certain ways. Lightening is still the first plasmid you get and it is still first used to open a door. Your first few levels consist of getting from point A to Point B to go to a different part of Rapture with not a lot of back tracking. And most of the back story is told through Audio Diaries, of which the numbers is more than twice what the first game had. Even your first encounter with a Little Sister is set up in nearly the same way, with someone telling you about Adam and better Plasmids.

Gathering Adam is much different. It is no longer a matter of just killing the Big Daddies (still a pain in the ass), but now you have to find a body full of Adam, drop the LS off, defend her while she gathers the Adam, and then take her to a vent. At the vent you can decide to rescue or harvest her. The former giving you less Adam (but they will occasionally leave presents or you, the latter giving you more.

The sound is just as good as the first one. The music being mostly subtle, but sometimes getting louder when certain things are going on. It fits the atmosphere superbly and gets kind of creepy at 2 a.m. with the lights off.

Controlling your characters is very similar to the first one it 3 notable changes. You can now melee with your weapon (no need for a wrench), the button to use first aid has changed, and you now dual wield your weapon and plasmid. As you walk around, you get the feeling that you are much heavier than the first game and get a real sense that you are in a BD suit. The noise you make in walking, the little screen shaking when you jump/fall.

Hacking machines is very different from the first game. You can still go up to the machine or, you can now get a hack tool and shoot a hack dart at a machine. No longer is hacking the pipe arranging mini-game (which I loved doing). Not it is a simple 'stop the needle in the right spot'. There are 4 colors on the meter: white, red, green, and blue. White simply gives you a shock and makes you try again (doing it remotely hurts less and sometimes not at all), red sounds the alarm and Bots come to shoot you (but redoing it successfully cancels it), Green is the successful hack, and Blue is the successful hack + bonus. Vending machines drop extra items, Bots do more damage, and Cameras sound the alarm faster and longer.

The single player campaign is entertaining, just as the first one is, and hasn't disappointed me yet.

Bioshock 2 also adds multiplayer in the mix. There is deathmatch (and team), a capture the Little Sister, a territories type game called Tur War, and an Adam gathering where you have to hold the Little Sister longer than the other team (like Domination). There is also a Last Splicer standing where you try to eliminate the other team each round. The games are played just like you think they would be. But still, so much fun.

You can choose between 6 types of splicers (each does different things better) to run around with and can customize your look a bit by putting on a new mask. You can also change the way your character loads out. Choosing different weapons and plasmids. Think Modern Warfare with guns/perks. Same thing. You start off with very few weapons and plasmids. You get new ones (like MW) by gaining experience (or Adam in this game)

In the games, turrets are setup in certain spots on the level and you can hack them to make them fire at other people. You can hack it after another team gets it too and turn it against them. Also, after you kills someone, you can take their 'research photo'. It gives you a boost in damage against them. But if they kill you, it goes away.

One interesting feature is in each game. A Big Daddy Suit will spawn randomly in the map. If you find it first you can become a Big Daddy. As a BD, you can throw out some proximity mines and shoot people with a powerful rivet gun. This lasts until you die.

One thing that is missing is customization of games in private matches. I wasn't able to find a way to change any settings for a game. Time durations, kill count, frequency of BD suit spawns...nothing. I think this might be a failing among the developers. It's not a big deal if you don't normally play private matches but sometimes they are fun.

Something else I noticed was that there is no way to check your signal. Most of other MP games will have some kind of visual indicator as to how well your signal is doing, usually on the score screen. But there is nothing on this game. Nor is there any place to see how many people are playing total or for each game type.