Darling it's better down where it's wetter...

With all of the excitement surrounding Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2 – early 2010's other big morality-twisting RPG-shooter sequel – has been a bit overlooked. Perhaps that owes something to the stature of their predecessors.

Where Mass Effect felt like a taster for better things, BioShock delivered instant greatness. By contrast, their follow-ups have somewhat opposite fortunes. Mass Effect 2 made its progenitor look like a tech demo, but BioShock 2 was always going to struggle to put its BAFTA-winning big daddy in the shade in quite the same way.

BioShock 2 may not make a as deep an impact as it's forebear, then, but fans of the first game will definitely enjoy their return to the underwater world of Rapture – even if it's viewed through some very different eyes.

Daddy Daycare

This time out, you're a Big Daddy, the hulking diving suit wearing behemoths who protect the creepy Little Sisters – genetically modified little girls who wander around Rapture harvesting a gene-altering concoction called Adam from Splicers; Rapture's former inhabitants turned crazy by the tonic's DNA-bending powers.

You aren't just ANY Big Daddy, though – you're the first prototype, meaning you're more mobile and less armoured than the other Big Daddies. Essentially, that means you move the same as your character in the first game. Some will say this is a bit of a cop-out; that you don't FEEL like a Big Daddy, but we were quite glad not to find ourselves lumbering around like a big tree for the game's entire 12+ hours!

Being a Big Daddy also proves a clever narrative device, with BioShock 2's story sending you off on a quest to reclaim Eleanor, the Little Sister to whom you are bound for life. Unfortunately, she happens to be the daughter of Rapture's ruthless new leader Sofia Lamb, who's using a Splicer gang known as The Family to further her own megalomaniacal ambitions.

Luckily, you're not alone down there; the few remaining Rapture residents who have kept their sanity will be on hand to help guide you, and along the way you'll find compelling audio logs which chronicle Rapture's continuing decay in the decade that's passed since the events of the original Bioshock.

Splice up your life

As in the first game, BioShock 2 sees you seeking out the Little Sisters, killing their big Daddy, then either rescuing or harvesting them for Adam, so you can splice yourself up to the eyeballs. It's here you start to see the benefits of being a Big Daddy, as you're able to carry around Little Sisters and use them to harvest Adam from corpses, whilst Splicers flood in from all sides. With plasmids and weapons now dual-wielded, these sections throw up some of the most satisfying combat in the game, requiring madcap twitch skills and intelligent use of your ever-growing combined arsenal.

Laying down traps, setting alight oil slicks, hurling explosive gas canisters, electrifying puddles and impaling with the spear gun are just a handful of ways to take out enemies, who to compensate are now more deadly and diverse than they were in the original. Their numbers now include an enormous Splicer that's reminiscent of Left 4 Dead's Tank zombie, plus terrifying encounters with the agile mechanised Big Sisters which happen every time you clear an area of its Little Sisters. Even on the easiest setting, then, BioShock 2 will be a riveting and often unnerving challenge for experienced FPS players.

Perhaps to keep the tempo more consistent, 2K Games have streamlined the method for hacking cameras, turrets and safes. Gone is the pipe-placing water funnelling minigame; replaced by a system which asks you to stop a moving needle within coloured zones – with smaller, riskier blue zones granting you extra rewards. The big benefit is that this pops up over the regular FPS view, so you can hack in real-time mid-combat, rather than going to a separate screen and breaking the immersion.

With a bigger and more immediate arsenal, meatier combat, speedier hacking and all-around more demanding difficulty, BioShock 2 should on paper be a better game than its predecessor. But the freshness isn't quite there; nor is the story's climax anywhere near as surprising as THAT big twist in Andrew Ryan's office. It's still a quality shooter, however, with a joyous set of virtual toys, loads of scope for customising your character, and multiple endings that make it worth revisiting after your first run-through.

Wade into war!

On top of which, it's also a surprisingly accomplished online multiplayer shooter. Cleverly, BioShock 2's multiplayer is set in levels taken from the first game, against a backdrop of the Splicer war which started Rapture's downfall, and incorporates a rank-up system like Modern Warfare, plus elements from the singleplayer campaign to great effect; like a Big Daddy suit which powers you up, and a CTF mode entitled 'Capture The Little Sister'. You have to question the sanity of any developer willing to go up against Call of Duty these days, but 2K's multiplayer team Digital Extremes have done a great job here, creating a mode that's more than just a token gesture.

It may have flown slightly under the radar, then, but the good news is that BioShock 2 doesn't disappoint. It may lack the first game's freshness and narrative flair, but more challenging shooting, refined puzzling, loads of replay value and a fun multiplayer mode go a long way to making up for it. We wouldn't be at all surprised to see this, like its own big daddy, up there with Mass Effect 2 on next year's BAFTA Best Game shortlist.

GAME's Verdict

• Combat is more challenging, intelligent and diverse than BioShock 1.
• Multiple endings and signature big moral dilemmas mean tons of replay value.
• Multiplayer is surprisingly darn good fun!

• Lacks the first game's memorable story and characters.
• Doesn't have that same fresh sense of wonder as the original.
• We keep saying it with every FPS, but WHY oh WHY are the controls not FULLY customisable?!

Review by: Mark 'Nice N Splicey' Scott
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Review Published: 17.02.10