Obviously you won’t just watch the Splicer harassing a Little Sister- you’ll be having
none of that. Our host revved up his gigantic drill and slammed forward with a charge move, killing the Splicer in only a couple of shots. The Little Sister picked herself up and looked at the screen
with big, happy eyes, asking if that was “really you, Mr. Bubbles?”
And then you’re shown this.
That’s right, you once again have the moral choice of whether or not to
harvest ADAM from the Little Sisters… but that option on the right is
new. Our host decided to go the kind route and adopt her, and placed
her up on his shoulder. Doing so means you’ve got your own
Little Sister to protect now, with a little icon in the top left corner
indicating that she’s with you. With this, the biggest feaure in Bioshock 2 was ready to be unveiled.
Walking
around the ruined city we came upon a faintly glowing corpse. It seemed
that this was an indication that it still contained ADAM, and walking
up to it affords you the chance to place down your little sister and
have her collect it for you. Now, as the producers were quick to point
out- one of the most popular features of the original Bioshock was your
fights against Big Daddies, the roaming boss battles that could be
tackled at will. While they still have that in this game (yes, you’ll fight
other Big Daddies, and take away their Little Sisters) there are also
these Siege moments.
When you place your Little Sister down and she starts to extract
the ADAM from the corpse by stabbing it with a syringe Splicers will hear it and come
after her. So this time it’s smart to plan for their arrival and set
traps. Our host showed how you can now place the same Cyclone traps
from the first game and make them even more lethal by setting them on
fire with the Incineration plasmid. He placed a few on some nearby
steps and then brought the Little Sister over to the body to do her
thing.
Almost immediately you heard Splicers yelling in the background,
communicating to each other about an attack. And then they came at you.
Here the new combat was shown off. Not only can you use plasmids and weapons simultaneously (with the left and right triggers) but you can switch easily between weapons. I was shown this as he swapped from the drill to a rivet gun, something that will make anyone who played the original happy. It was so irritating to kill a Big Daddy and see that enormous gun on the floor and not be able to wield it. They won’t respond to me when asked if there would be any other weapons or upgrades for your right hand, so we can pretty much expect there to be a bunch.
The fire effects look even better this time, as you can see.
After dispatching a dozen or so splicers during a truly fierce and frantic battle (where the Little Sister was damaged a bit, but still got to finish her work) it was time for the end of the demo. Going back to pick up your young companion you heard strange sounds nearby. The Little Sister knows what it is… and warns you that the Big Sister doesn’t want you playing with her.
It’s then that the Big Sister comes flying into the room, jumping on top of the globe in the middle of the room. She then reveals that not only is she incredibly fast and powerful, but she also has some sort of psychokinetic powers. She drags up a bunch of items that start swirling around her faster and faster- and then the screen faded to black. Argggh!
So
how did I walk away from it? Still unsure of what the final product
will be. It does look promising and I like what they’re trying but it’s still too early to tell, and
not enough of the game has been revealed. I like what I see and it’s
probably my most anticipated game this year, but we’re going to need to see
more to prove that it’s not just a rehash.
It is unfair that Bioshock 2 has so much to live up to, but them’s the breaks. It may be silly to expect another masterpiece but the very worst this game could be is very, very good. I can’t wait to see more.