RF Generation Message Board

Who's your Daddy?  Again.....


In November, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) keep that creepy vibe going by returning to the sequel of a former November playthrough with the second game in the Bioshock series, Bioshock 2.  Bioshock 2 is a 2007, first-person shooter that takes place 8 years after the events of the first game. You take on the role of Subject Delta, a Big Daddy brought back to existence by the Little Sisters and your companion Eleanor. In order to survive, you must track down her mother, Sofia Lamb and ultimately rescue your "little sis" no matter the odds or consequences.  What twists and turns await you in the dystopian city of Rapture?  Which of the multiple endings will you attain?  And will you ultimately show the citizens and your enemies of Rapture who's their Big Daddy?

Participants:
grayghost81
singlebanana
shaggy
Mr_Stubbes
Disposed Hero
MetalFRO
wildbil52
douglie007

Checkpoints
Week 1: Reach Pauper's Drop
Week 2: Reach Dionysus Park
Week 3: Reach Persephone
Week 4: Complete the game

The little sister?

Bioshock 2?

If it is Bioshock 2, I'm in.  I was listening to the latest Collectorcast and they mentioned the series and it made me want to get back into the series.  I've only played the first and was going to start the second one next.

I’ve played all three of them and they all definitely are worth a playthrough of there own. If it is Bioshock 2 I may have to play all three of the games since it’s been a long time since I’ve played them.

Nailed it guys!

Cool, I love the original BioShock but haven't played through the sequels yet, so I'm going to try to get in on this one. I tried to play BioShock 2 some 10 years ago and got about halfway through it but hit a glitch (?) at a certain point that would have forced me to load an earlier save and replay a chunk of the game, but I just stopped playing at that point. Always wanted to come back to it and continue the series.

I'm in! I still haven't got back to these games after we played the 1st one in a play-through, so now's a great time for me to jump back in.

I'm in as well and secured a copy of the Bioshock Collection for the PS4. If anyone is looking to pick up all three titles along with all single player DLC. Amazon has the Bioshock collection for PS4/XBO for just under $20 and the switch version for about $30.

Can I play?  Would Love to play Minerva's Den again if there is any extra credit for that

I'll do some bioshock, its one my wife likes so I might get more game play than I did in Oct.

We should all try to get together one of the nights and try the online multiplayer out.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!

I'll be curious to know what the checkpoints are. I started this afternoon, and already got my 1st 2 Plasmid upgrades, telekinesis, and incinerate. Like the 1st game, it often feels like I'm fighting for resources, because I often get caught off guard by enemies, and by the time I turn around, or find them, I'm down half my health, or more. Hopefully, as I go along, I can improve. I do feel like I have an advantage this time, since I've been playing the Gears games, of at least doing more aiming lately, so I'm more used to it. However, your character feels incredibly weak, especially since you're supposed to be a Big Daddy. Yes, I know you're an "early model" and technically, you were dead before, but even so, it seems like just a handful of gunshots, and you go down like a Big Wuss, instead. Hopefully, some future Plasmid upgrades will make your character a bit more hardy.

Already had my first Big Sister encounter - those ladies don't mess around! I wouldn't call it as difficult a fight as the standard Big Daddies, but she certainly cleaned my clock a couple times, before I was able to take her out. I'm guessing they don't get much easier later, even with Adam-based upgrades, because you'll maybe have to take on more than 1 at a time, or have to face off with one alongside regular enemies. Just thinking they'll repeat that kind of thing from the 1st game. But so far, I'm progressing faster than I did in the original, and I think I'm enjoying it more. The rivet gun is pretty sweet, and the hacking is so much easier. Big quality of life upgrade, there.

I got a big jump on the game over the weekend and am probably about halfway through it already. I'm not sure if I'm past the point where I stopped years ago, but I remember absolutely nothing about the game anyway. I'm really enjoying it so far though and am having a hard time putting it down. I'm playing on the Hard difficulty which I was worried would get a bit too frustrating for my liking, but I feel like it has been giving me the perfect level of challenge.

I'm hesitant to speak for Rich but he and I are a little behind, still working on Fatal Frame.

Steven, would you mind putting up a few checkpoints for the first couple of weeks? I trust your judgment and if you're halfway through the game already I think you're the right man for the job. Feel free to add them to the op if you're down for it. Thank you!

Added checkpoints for the first 2 weeks.

You are THE MAN!

I just got to the first Big Sister battle.  It's a tough go for me to play seeing the PS3 is in the living room and I have two kids.  It's tough to be able to play when they aren't around.

Wow, looks like I'm already creeping towards the week 2 goal. But, I'm having fun, so I see no reason to stop now.

I'm currently in the train station.

I started playing today. After finishing the first game last month, I think I might just take my time with this one and then see if I have time to play the third game.

***Edit***

For some reason I was having a weird issue where I couldn't save the game, so I had to go into my system memory and delete all of my Bioshock saves. Luckily I didn't get too far, but I'm able to save the game now and am currently at the amusement park/museum.

I just got to Ryan Amusement and I'm on my way to El Daredo to get my first Little Sister.

On another note, does anyone know how to take only certain objects when you search?  If I recall correctly, in the first game your could take all of the items or choose which items to take.  This would be very helpful if I could choose what to take as I want to take the Dollars but I don't want to take the health or eve replenishments when I have full health or eve.

I'm currently in Dionysus Park, and looking for the 3rd of 3 Little Sisters. I've found that, once you get the spear gun, assuming you can aim reasonably well, things definitely get easier. Also, once you pick up the grenade launcher along with some frag grenades and proximity mines, along with the explosive spears, each subsequent Big Daddy fight becomes easier, and I'm able to get through them w/o using up all my first aid kits. I definitely feel like combat is improved in this game.

I just got the machine gun but I feel it goes through ammo too fast and I have upgraded the Rivet gun to do more damage and I feel it does more damage than the machine gun.  I have yet to fight any Big Daddys yet so by the sound of it, I'm in for a battle once I start seeing them until I get the weapons you mention.  What difficulty are you playing on?  I'm on Easy.  I did that because I turned Vita Chambers off so I can get that Trophy so I'm saving a lot.

I started playing the game on Thursday and you guys are right, this game goes really fast and is hard to put down. I haven't finished it yet, but I have put up the rest of the checkpoints. Thanks again Steven for your help with the first two.

While this game doesn't quite have as strong of a story as the first, the gameplay and flow are much better. I have only had that "what the hell am I supposed to do next?" feeling once or twice in this playthrough, while I remember getting lost frequently in the first game.

I turned off the helmet in the HUD and I think it's way better that way. I have chosen Swarm and Incinerate as my go-to plasmids and upgraded them both to level 3. For the little sisters, I'm not trying to get every one and the ones I get I throw right in their hidey-hole unless there's a harvest point very close. Much like the first game, ADAM is not quite at the premium that I think the developers wished it was. Just make sure when they tell you they left a present by the Gatherers Garden that you go and get it because it will have a lot of ADAM.

I'll probably finish this one today or tomorrow. Severely underrated game and in many ways better than the original.

I finished Bioshock 2 this morning. I forgot how short this game feels because I was able to beat it within a couple nights. I’ll hold off on my full thoughts for now, until others have time to play/beat the game.

I finished the game last night and really enjoyed it overall. I've seen a few people say that the action was better in this game than the original, but honestly I didn't see a big difference, although maybe I would have if I played them closer together. And this may be a contentious point, but I actually really liked the hacking minigame from the original and was disappointed by what it was replaced with in this game.

Regarding ADAM, I saved every Little Sister and did as much 'gathering' as I could, and I had way more than enough ADAM to buy everything I wanted. I agree that it should have been at more of a premium. I'm also assuming that saving more Little Sisters meant more Big Sister fights, which was always pretty draining on resources.

I had some issues with the game freezing or crashing which was pretty annoying, especially when it happened right at the end and forced me to replay the entire final sequence. I'm not sure if this is common on all platforms or if this is just a shoddy PC port. I'm still not sure what point I got to in my original playthrough 10 years ago as nothing really jumped out at me as being familiar, but I think it was somewhere in Pauper's Drop.

As a huge fan of the original BioShock, I'm really glad to finally get around to playing through the sequel and really hope to get around to Infinite sooner or later.

I also finished it last night, and would agree, it was hard to put down. I enjoyed this more than the original. I think there are just enough quality of life improvements to elevate it. I don't know if the narrative is sufficiently better than the original, but it's an interesting extension of the first game's story. Strictly from a story perspective, I feel like I would have been a bit lost, had I not played the first game, though there's still stuff to be gleaned from the main plot points. I won't spoil the ending, but I'll just say, I should have expected it, from all the monologues Lamb does throughout the game, but it still took me slightly by surprise.

Anyone have a favorite weapon or plasmid? I really liked the Spear Gun, once I got it, and I had a lot of fun with the Incinerate plasmid. Electro Bolt is great to use in water, but Incinerate does so much more damage, and usually provides distraction for a bit, so you can unload on enemies for a few seconds w/o reprisal, before they start fighting back.

I recall the same with the original, not knowing where to go.  So far I've had no issue but I'm still fairly early in the game.  I just got the Incinerate plasmid.

I tended to leave Electrobolt equipped by default since it has so many applications, so that was probably the one I used the most. I didn't use it much, but Winter's Blast could be really effective since you could pretty much kill enemies while they were frozen. I think I rotated between all the weapons pretty evenly except for the Drill which I didn't use much. I used the Rivet Gun a ton early on, but used it less often later in the game when it took so many more shots to kill enemies and the slower fire speed started to feel like a liability. I pretty much just used whichever weapon I had full ammo for since I don't like leaving resources lying around.

Got to Pauper's Drop.  Getting me some ADAM!

Yeah, I think the Rivet Gun is good for one on one fights, or maybe when you have 2 you're dealing with at most, but it doesn't do enough damage to be good in a larger skirmish.

I don't like the machine gun because it shakes so much it changes where you're aiming.

My favorite plasmid was probably Incinerate 3! While it was helpful for inflicting burn damage, there is just something so satisfying about being able to shot a stream of fire from your hand. That being said, I didn't rely too heavily on plasmids unless of course there were a bunch of enemies standing in water I could zap for the easy kill. My favorite weapon has to be the shotgun, especially if you fully upgrade it to where it has 6 shots, does more damage, and has a chance to shock your enemies. The one weapon I really wanted to like but just ended up feeling disappointed with was the drill. I feel like the drill is supposed to be the embodiment of being a big daddy, except you are left with a subpar melee weapon the burns through fuel faster than the original hummer. Even with the upgrades and on the easy difficulty you don't get that satisfaction of ripping through splicers, but instead are left with a sort of unfulfillment.

I liked the shotgun A LOT MORE after the upgrade, for sure. Regarding the drill, I think it's situational, more than anything. I found myself using it when I ran out of other ammo, or when I was facing enemies that are more bullet spongy, like the Big Sisters, or the hulking dudes that rush you. It's good for draining off some of their HP, when you get caught by them, and can help give you a chance to inflict some damage, then give you an opportunity to regroup and back away.

I'm near the end of Pauper's Drop, I'm closing in on Gracie.  I've fully upgraded the Rivet gun and the Machine guns so we will see how the recoil is on the machine gun now.  What guns did you upgrade?  I'm rescuing all my Little Sisters so my ADAM will be limited.  What are you using your ADAM for?  How are you researching?  I'm trying to switch it up but it takes too much time and breaks up the battle to me to switch weapons and plasmids to get a better research scores.  How is/did researching go with you guys?

Made it to Siren Alley and got the Code to get through the door.  I'm liking this game like the first one.  This game is taking forever for me because I'm exploring every single part of Rapture like I did in the first game.  You know, though, for being a Big Daddy you sure move smoothly and fairly quickly.  I would think a Big Daddy would move slow and jerky but I'm glad they didn't make it that way as I don't think it would be as much fun that way.

I upgraded the damage on all guns that allowed for it, upgraded clip size on a couple, and I believe toward the end I got the upgrade for the machine gun to minimize the recoil. I almost got the zoom upgrade for the spear gun, but by that point, using it in a zoomed in manner was very situational, so I didn't think it would be worth doing.

I've gotten to Fontaine's area now.  So far I've completely upgraded the rivet gun, machine gun, and the shotgun and I have to say upgrading the shotgun is the way to go!  That gun is so awesome fully upgraded especially if you can shoot an enemy while they are in the water.  The one thing I don't like about the shotgun is the limited ammo capacity.

I'm sitting at 7 plasmid slots and not seeing an option to buy the last one.  I also have 10 out of 11 plasmids.  I'm hoping I'm given the last slot and plasmid because I have a feeling I'm near the end of the game. 

I have the Brute, Alpha, Big Sister, and Big Daddy left to research.  One more Brute and they'll be finished but I'm worried about the Big Sisters because they are so limited, I'm only a dash over level 3 with them.  This may be a case of saving right before them coming and loading if I can't get a good score on them.

One thing I liked about this game are the areas where you are actually traveling between areas in the water.  Yes, you don't do anything but pick up some items and ADAM slugs but I'm a Big Daddy and can survive underwater unlike the original so I thought this was a nice touch and I always knew I could take a breather and be safe.

Well, I'm nearing the end, I believe.  I think I should have this wrapped up by tonight.  After that, I'll have some final thoughts.

You guys should get on the Discord chat.  We have some great discussions on the game of the month there.

Once I upgraded the machine gun and shotgun those were my weapons of choice.  The plasmid I used the most was the Winter Frost (or whatever it was called).  I was able to find every Power to the People station and 122 out of the 129 audio diaries.  I was able to completely research every enemy.

I really liked the spots where you had windows out to the water, looking out and seeing Rapture from the inside.  Being a Big Daddy and going out into the water was neat and a bit different even though you really couldn't do anything, it was just there for travel.  I do wish that your movement was lumbered and slow like I imagine a Big Daddy should be but I understand why they didn't do that as it would take you forever to move in the game.  I loved the sound in the game, like when you jump down from something and you get that CLUNK.

I like the little things they did to make it look like Rapture was a city.  Such as in Fontaine's area you get to the offices and find out they are working on a Transport Gene Tonic as shown by signs in the office and other signage that shows they created and promoted the Audio Diaries.  Or in the cells how they is signage so prisoners could buy pictures mattresses and other items.  Reading the signage was enjoyed and breathed a bit more life into Rapture.

Overall, this is a great game but I have issues with the ending and some other things.

Spoiler (hover to show)

When you become a little sister you go into Lamb's office and where Eleanor was held in quarantine and there are items there but you can't pick them up other than the Audio Diaries.  You can't get into either area as your main character so why put the items there!  You can't pick them up.  As for the ending, I believe I got the best ending, I saved every little sister and saved the three characters where you had the choice.  The ending was hard to interpret, I believe Eleanor lives even though it seemed like her and Lamb died and it appears that I died but again, I'm not so sure.  I was very disappointed in that ending after doing all that work and having no payoff.  The whole game I was assuming Cindy was Eleanor but we never find out where Cindy is other than she become a little sister.  At least you find out what happened to Mark.  Seeing this little sub story was added to the game I figured there would be a payout.
 Things should have been more fleshed out instead of remaining a mystery.   I'm so disappointed in that ending.