BioShock 2: A Rapturous Conference Call

I originally contacted 2K Games to see about getting someone to interview for Distributed Failure and I was surprised when I was invited to be a part of a developer's conference call the next day covering their newest game, BioShock 2. I was asked to send three to five questions in advance, which a mediator would then ask the team; and if there was extra time, there would be an open Q&A for questions not answered. It was a very rewarding experience and I’ll try my best to summarize all the newfound information.

BioShock 2 takes place ten years after the events of the original game. Your character is a prototype Big Daddy called Subject Delta that has been separated from the Little Sister that he was originally bonded with; every Big Daddy is bonded with a unique Little Sister. You wake up to find that Rapture has become a much more dangerous place. You eventually come into contact with Dr. Sofia Lamb, an altruist and political rival of Andrew Ryan. She is considered to be a sort of progeny of Richard Dawkins, with other philosophical influences like Mark Mills and David Pierce. You are seen by her as the ultimate individual and a threat to her self-made cult, Rapture Family. Subject Delta focuses on choice and free will; Delta is not enslaved to Rapture like the other Big Daddies.

What's new to BioShock 2? One of the biggest differences is the addition of the Big Sisters; grown up Little Sisters who are physically unstable from all the Adam they’ve ingested over the years. When asked about the inspiration for  the Big Sister’s design, Zak McClendon (a Lead Designer from 2K Marin) said,

"The obvious touchdown for the Big Sister design is, of course, the Big Daddies and the classic diving suit motif, but where Big Daddies have this sort of, kindly old man weary, lumbering appeal to them; the Big Sisters were, sort of, more meant to embody that awkward adolescence phase, where you're a little larger than your body is used to dealing with."

The Big Sisters have that gracefulness you see in a preteen, mixed with the awkwardness of leg braces and puberty. 2K Marin has attempted to bring a softer edge to the Big Sisters with little touches that you may not notice upon first glance, such as ribbons on the Big Sister's baskets and child-like drawings in their surroundings. One of the things often mentioned about the original BioShock was its feeling of isolation, as you were the only "normal" person in Rapture. To rectify that, there will be a handful of “normal” people to interact with, who will also be important to the story. There are still plenty of freaks in rapture as well; BioShock 2 introduces new splicers and at least one new Big Daddy called Rumbler. The splicer’s AI has also been upgraded, making the characters smarter, as well as improving their facial expressions.

The only returning character you’ll see in person is Tenebaum, but Andrew Ryan's messages and ideas are still apparent in Rapture. Jack Ryan's story arc finished with the first game and 2K Marin saw no need to include him in BioShock 2. 2K Maris also addressed the morality choices featured in the original game; the choice between harvesting or saving a little sister. Many people felt that there wasn’t much difference if you saved Little Sisters or killed them; either way the advantages evened out. Admitting that this was a constant criticism from the previous game, the team tried to add more of a gray area to the morality choices in BioShock 2. Jordan Thomas (Creative Director at 2K Marin) commented that, "It's both harder to be good and more rewarding to be truly evil with the Little Sisters." It will also be more obvious from the beginning that the choices you make influence how your game will play out in the end.

Player's concerns that BioShock 2 would turn into nothing but an extremely long escort mission were nullified by the developers. Adopting/escorting Little Sisters is entirely up to each individual and you can do it as often as you’d like or never at all, but not doing it can leave you starving for Adam like a crackhead itching for a dime bag. Some other areas improved (or changed) from the first title are the vita-chambers and the final boss. Vita-Chambers are now able to be turned off from the beginning of the game (no patch needed) if you want to challenge yourself. Fighting other Big Daddies is also a bit more challenging as their Little Sister will begin to heal them to make the fight tougher if you die in battle. The team felt that the final boss was one of the biggest faults of the original game; if you fail in your effort in BioShock 2, the boss mobs will regenerate health while you are making your way back to them.

In single-player, all the areas will be new to a returning player; in multi-player, you’ll see some familiar areas, but they have been re-imagined to make them feel fresh. The multi-player aspect was something I was excited to hear about and they covered it as well. It was developed by a separate team, Digital Extreme, but both teams worked together to keep the game consistent. Multi-player is set in 1959-60 during the civil war that tore Rapture apart; you get to be a part of Utopia becoming Distopia. It was felt that this was an extremely honest way to tell that part of the Rapture tale. Some of the game modes feature a Big Daddy suit that randomly spawns somewhere on the map. One exception is Capture the Sister mode, which is obviously similar to Capture the Flag. In Capture the Sister, one person on each team is randomly chosen as the Big Daddy. The advantage this gives you the strength and weapons of a Big Daddy, but your health doesn't regenerate and you're a big target. Some of the other modes are Civil War (Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch), Survival of the Fittest (Free for All), Last Splicer Standing, and Adam Grab (Oddball). The maximum number of online opponents will be ten and there’s no split screen co-op or offline multi-player; your rank is determined by how much Adam you’ve collected.

One of the first new additions they mentioned was the ability to dual wield plasmids and a weapon, which allows you to be more creative with your combat. The developers are very proud of the drill and promised that it would be a very fun tool and weapon. Besides the drill, every weapon and plasmid has been revamped; every weapon and plasmid is upgradable up to three levels. There are brand new plasmids for both single-player and multi-player. One of the single-player plasmids mentioned is the Scout plasmid, which allows the player to leave their body and scout ahead so they can be better prepared. Different plasmids were created for multi-player, which would be fun to use on other players as well as yourself. For example, there is the Arrowdraft which makes you run fast and the Houdini which allows player to go invisible and teleport around the map like Houdini Splicers.

It seems that the developers were focused on giving the player the ability to make the combat as creative as they want; you can work with your favorites and make combinations that work for you. An example that was given to us was using the upgraded Winter Blast and Telekinesis; you can freeze a splicer and then throw him against a wall. If shattered pieces hit other splicers, they would freeze and give you the chance to take them out with your drill. In addition, the hacking and research systems have been reworked to make it less interruptive to the combat experience. It was stressed by both teams that the game is the same experience on all platforms. Hogarth De La Plante (Lead Environmental Artist for 2K Marin) answered this with,

"It is difficult to develop a game for three platforms simultaneously. I think what we have to do, basically, is compromise what the strengths and weaknesses of each platform are; and the main goal we set out with at the beginning was that we wanted the experience to be basically identical. We don't want to reward anyone for owning a particular platform or punish someone for owning a different one."

One of the developers from the first game told us that in one of the very first concepts, Rapture was a top secret underwater lab with Nazis running around and Little Sisters were actually little slugs. I’m sure I’m not the only one happy that they didn’t stick with that initial concept. I really appreciated getting the chance to do this and I'm sure different people came away with new information that was important to them. Be sure to check out other reports on this conference call to get as much information as you can and don’t forget to pick up a copy of BioShock 2 (available in stores on 2/9/10)! I'll echo the parting words from developers to us: "Have fun and enjoy the game!"