BioShock 2 details confirmed

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 March, 2009

You're a Big Daddy. They showed us.

2K Marin give you control of a Big Daddy roaming Rapture in the upcoming BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

You're not just any Big Daddy though - you're the very first one, and you've somehow acquired the ability to inject plasmids, like Jack in the first game.

Unlike the first game though, you will choose between harvesting a Little Sister for ADAM and adopting her, after which you will have to protect her while she harvests ADAM from corpses strewn around Andrew Ryan's failed utopia.

As previously leaked, you're up against the Big Sister, who has been kidnapping little girls from coastal towns and bringing them to Rapture.

The game will also feature multiplayer, although there are no details on that side of the game yet.

All that's courtesy of a Game Informer preview hitting subscriber's hands in the US at the moment, but it's also courtesy of our own recent trip to see BioShock 2 in action at 2K Marin's headquarters just outside San Francisco. Due to the nature of print and online embargoes, you'll have to wait a few weeks longer to read our and other internet thoughts, but they are coming.

We can also tell you that rumours of Soviets, co-op and, er, rhinos are wide of the mark. We'll get in trouble if we spill any other beans, but hey, we like getting in trouble, so we will say this: that Bouncer drill's a bit of a riot.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (70) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • YobRenoops #1 3 years ago

    GG

  • DanWhitehead #2 3 years ago

    I was actually looking forward to the splicer rhino...

  • mkreku #3 3 years ago

    Is it just me or does playing as a Big Daddy sound kind of.. lame? I really wish they would stop focusing so much on Big Daddy's and Little Girls. They weren't that interesting in the first game, and they certainly aren't enough to carry an entire game. What was good about Bioshock was the world, the setting and the atmosphere! Something which was hugely underused was the fact that we were playing UNDER THE SEA! I just want more choice and consequence, more feeling of a crumbling underwater city and more story. Not more focus on Big Daddy's.

  • Eraysor #4 3 years ago

    I'm a little worried they're going to overcook this game.

  • DFawkes #5 3 years ago

    Someone refresh my memory - do we know what happened to the very first Big Daddy? That would've been before the convertion process became more permenant, so did he leave Rapture and now needs to return?

  • bodypopper #6 3 years ago

    Cue copious 'Who's the Daddy? and Shirley Crabtree (Google him young uns) gags from now til release.

  • andywilkie35 #7 3 years ago

    Yeah I'm not just saying it to be difficult or anything, but these details make the game sound like its gonna be a bit...shit.

    Also if they're gonna put multiplayer in it, they better not fuck it up. Some games don't need multiplayer (The Darkness for example, utterly terrible multiplayer) and Bioshock got general kudos all round for shoehorning it into the last game.

    Still, not gonna pass judgement til more is revealed, the first game was a masterpiece and I'm obviously optimistic this will be also :)

  • Buztafen #8 3 years ago

    Come on peeps its still early days (atleast to us mere mortals who dont have the inside scoop), atleast wait till the rabies is evident before shooting the game in the head....

  • penhalion #9 3 years ago

    @mkreku

    sadly it's not just you mate........

  • kangarootoo #10 3 years ago

    "after which you will have to protect her while she harvests ADAM"

    So the little sisters can die if they aren't protected?

  • Tomo #11 3 years ago

    Hmm... I'm also sceptical about this now :/

  • DFawkes #12 3 years ago

    "So the little sisters can die if they aren't protected?"

    I'm assuming once they take a certain amount of damage they'll run into one of those holes, so it's up to you to protect them long enough to get something from them. They're nigh on invincible, and the 2nd game is a bit early to piss about with canon. Yes, I said the C word :p

    I still reckon this'll be awesome.
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/09 @ 15:53

  • Rodchenko #13 3 years ago

    Who needs a multiplayer in this?

  • Gurrah #14 3 years ago

    The game will also feature multiplayer, although there are no details on that side of the game yet.

    And that's the death of Bioshock appeal! The great thing about Bioshock was the total focus on singleplayer, no resources were spent on making another multiplayer-mode that people wouldn't play anyways. Nowadays that's hard to come by, because every developer thinks adding a multiplayer mode will up the game in a way, which usually never works, COD being the exception that proves the rule.

  • DFawkes #15 3 years ago

    Agreed, no multiplayer was the games great strength.

    8 words above, still managed to mistype 1 :(
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/09 @ 15:56

  • Widge #16 3 years ago

    I really hope they don't laden the thing with cameo and homage, while pushing to one side the story and experience.

    My big fear is that it becomes a substandard shooter with a Bioshock skin (and no that isn't an invitation to open up the "but it is a substandard shooter!" can of worms!).

  • kangarootoo #17 3 years ago

    @DFawkes

    What holes are these? I thought it was set on the coast of Cornwall or something :)

    I'm sure they will find a way of not making it annoying. Equally, protect missions usually blow because of bad AI and poor design decisions. They can work fine, they just need (unsurprisingly) to be good.

  • Widge #18 3 years ago

    Ok, first game spoilers if you are one of the 3 people who are yet to go through it.

    I didn't mind the Big Daddy/escort patch in the first game, mainly as it was a rather clever storytelling device. Whether I could handle a game about that, I don't know.

  • Peew971 #19 3 years ago

    Bioshock is one of my favourite game ever... This sequel sounds crap :/
    They needed Levine on board and on a prequel. This is just milking the franchise.

  • des #20 3 years ago

    Hmm,i am really curious how this will turn up,lots of experimenting going on...

  • levitate #21 3 years ago

    "So the little sisters can die if they aren't protected?"

    STDs are not prone to kill, but they might if you're unlucky.

  • Max_Powers #22 3 years ago

    Wow, talk about a downer!

    These details make the sequel sound pretty lame. The Big Daddy's and sisters weren't that interesting. And protect missions..? Bleugh. Some sort of alternative story in that beautiful setting was more what I was looking for.

  • Max_Powers #23 3 years ago

    Sounds like a bunch of suits with no idea of what made the first game great came up with this 'Play as a Big Daddy' shit.

  • thedaveeyres #24 3 years ago

    Less of the negative waves, Moriarty, less of the negative waves.

  • Xerx3s #25 3 years ago

    Am I the only one who has a really bad feeling about this?

  • thedaveeyres #26 3 years ago

    Seeing as every single comment apart from mine has been, "zOMG THIS IS TEH LAME!!11!! BIOSHOCK IS RUINED!!11one!1"... I'd say no.

  • HuggyAtHome #27 3 years ago

    Actually I think this could be rather interesting if they twist the plot accordingly. Totally agree on the multiplayer sentiments expressed above - spend the money on getting the single player experience right instead please.

  • wankerw #28 3 years ago

    Yeah not too sure about this

    Loved bioshock seeing as I did buy it twice but this just sounds lazy

    Just hope 2k have something up their sleeve

    And no multiplayer please =)

  • Dural666 #29 3 years ago

    I think that everyone here KNOWS that it is gonna be bad or at least sub-par with no Ken Levine and 2K Boston on board. Exactly as it happens with evrry instalment of COD that is not developed by Infinity Ward (well, at least World at war wasn't THAT bad..).

  • Bulbatron #30 3 years ago

    Protect missions, blurgh! The first one was indeed, a masterpiece. Playing as a Big Daddy at the end was a nice idea, but I don't think I would want to do it all the way through the game.[/sppiler] I was hoping you might be able to play as a resident of Rapture in a prequel or something and be able to pick a side in the civil war. I'd love to see Rapture in its former glory.

    (Cancels pre-order) :-)

    Seriously though, while I'm not convinced by this initial information, I will of course, wait and see how it turns out. Resident Evil 5 has taught me that much (hated demo, liked full game).

  • Bulbatron #31 3 years ago

    Forgot to end spoiler on last post and now can't edit! Grr!

  • chudders #32 3 years ago

    Sounds complete dogshit if I'm honest, every reveal of this game just sounds terrible ( a la, Big Sister).

    Mkreku nailed it on the head. I am firmly in the 'Bioshock was overrated' gang, but this art deco, brass and copper, crumbling underwater utopia had massive potential which I don't feel was really capitalised upon in the first. Instead, they concentrate more on what turned out to be a fairly poor moral choice gameplay mechanic. And I hated the escort missions.

    I reserve full judgement until release however. Let's hope they don't fuck it up and set it in sand world.

  • DFawkes #33 3 years ago

    Looks like a whole bunch of pessimistic gamers right here (thedaveeyres excepted) :p

    It's still the still development team except for Kev, isn't it? I'm fairly sure he didn't do almost all the game himself, and the rest of the people there deserve at least a little good faith from the first one. I'm still hopeful it'll be a cracking game.

    Fuck off with the multiplayer though. Even if that is good, it's unwelcome. Like if I won a Ferrari - I can't drive tthe thing, I can't afford to insure the thing, and Ferraris don't sell in my area. As nice as it is it's useless to me and I'd be happier without knowing I've got it parked outside waiting to be vandalised.

    I've lost where I was with that analogy, but I digress, single player will rule.

  • ChthonicEcho #34 3 years ago

    Female Big Daddy, a minor gameplay element from the first game made into the main element... Yeah, no.

  • Darren #35 3 years ago

    Yeah, BioShock was great because it didn't have its budget split between single and multi player MODES. I don't care whatsoever about online multiplayer for BioShock 2 as I don't believe it needs it.

    Why do developers think every game needs a multiplayer mode anyway?

    Why not just make a long single player game and give us a reason to replay through it again a la Resident Evil 4 for example? There's no evidence to suggest that the original sold poorer because it had no online mode. In an ideal world where time and money are no object then every game should have single and multiplayer modes but it isn't so there's an unfortunate tendency for games to suffer in length because developers insist on cramming in online modes. Not everybody wants them.

    A recent example is Resident Evil 5 which is almost half the length of Resident Evil 4, presumably because the co-op mode used up a big chunk of the development budget. Yeah, there's plenty of reasons to replay through it again but it doesn't change the fact that the actual game itself is a lot shorter.

  • wankerw #36 3 years ago

    One of the best elements of bioshock was the superb characters and how their unique personalities were shown... So of course it makes perfect sense to base the sequel around the original's most unrelatable figures

  • DFawkes #37 3 years ago

    And make him relatable since it's an early generation, human (or nearly) Big Daddy.

    I demand all this pessimism stops! By demand, I mean request politely. By which I eman take no notice of me and keep going.

  • Chufty #38 3 years ago

    Um, hysteric hatred of a game based on almost no facts whatsoever?

    Oh wait, this is an EG comments thread.

  • Monkey_Puncher #39 3 years ago

    Oh wait, this is the internet.

    It does sound a bit shit though, early days though.

  • Artemis_Matsas #40 3 years ago

    @Xerx3s

    No, you are not alone... I really hope that we are going to be proven wrong though :(

  • assache #41 3 years ago

    Worrying!

  • hoathenfold #42 3 years ago

    Would you kindly all stop worrying.
    This will be great.
    Its a great IP and Im sure they have an amazing storyline planned. And thats what made the original great - the FPS aspect of it was in my mind just the best way to tell the story - I enjoyed the story and exploring way more than the shooting aspect of it.

  • bad09 #43 3 years ago

    Hmmm, playing as big daddy? Multiplayer?

    Guess I'll wait to I see the game, but that has dampened my excitement a little.

  • kangarootoo #44 3 years ago

    Things do sound a bit worrying, but I'd like us to try a little experiment.

    Everybody say what feature the liked the most in Bioshock 1 (and use spoiler tags where necessary).

    Then say what (if anything) you DO like about the info we have on Bioshock 2 so far.


    I'll start (ignoring the story twists, which are the obvious best bit choice).


    The 1950s gone wrong setting was perfectly realised. I love steam punk settings, always have, and I thought Bioshock perfectly captured that whole "doing amazing things with what is really quite basic technology" fantasy that was so strong in Thief and Fallout. The underwater utopia as a refuge for the disillusioned was brilliantly contrsucted, and really created a feeling of "what would happen if lots of smart but self serving people were all locked in the same room - that shit is just bound to go wrong". Arriving after the disaster had struck, and piecing together the story from the remains was great fun.


    Stuff that looks promising in the new version... they have kept in the idea of plasmid upgrades, which is a great reward mechanism. It created a degree of strategy in BO1 so I would hope the same will be maintained in BO2. Everyone gets to create their own preferred type of Big Daddy? That has to be an interesting thing to explore.
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/09 @ 17:54

  • ChthonicEcho #45 3 years ago

    Um, hysteric hatred of a game based on almost no facts whatsoever?

    BioShock 2 details confirmed

    Are you sure you've posted in the right place?

  • fluff_the_tiger #46 3 years ago

    sounds rubbish! the appeal of the first one was the wonder of trying to piece together just what Rapture was, what was going on, sounds like this is more like a mod than a true sequel.


    I predict a 6!

  • InsoFox #47 3 years ago

    All I can validly say at this point is that I'm not encouraged.

  • Nithron #48 3 years ago

    No rhinos, no sale.

  • M-O-P #49 3 years ago

    The GI cover article has been scanned: [link url=http://allgamesbeta.net/2009/03/16/bioshock-2-game-i nformer/
    ]http://al lgamesbeta.net/2009/03/16/biosh...[/link]
    Read it; perhaps some of you will change your tune.

  • makeamazing #50 3 years ago

    A couple of comments do not make a game though.... though it does sound like it these days :D

    I agree with the multiplayer point though, not interested... it seems Single Player experiences are getting shorter and MP is being used as the "benefit" or gap filler.

    Ironically the public are behind the groundswell for MP in games. Over the years there have been many many complaints about games that do not have MP included. Even games reviewers mark down games without it... so you can see why lots of games now have it... seems gamers want their cake and eat it :D

  • Dop #51 3 years ago

    I'm prepared to wait until more information is available before making any judgment.
    However, I have to say that the city of Rapture was, from what we saw of it, wonderfully well realised, and what I'd been hoping for from a sequel was more of a sandbox game, a 'grand theft bathysphere', as it were, where you could roam the whole city of Rapture, maybe steal a diving suit and go out of an airlock to cross the sea bed and battle with deep sea creatures. Get mixed up with different factions within Rapture and depending on your decisions either save the city or ruin it.
    That would have rocked.

  • Dark_Stranger #52 3 years ago

    is this set after BS1? if so, how can you be the first big daddy.

  • RedSparrows #53 3 years ago

    Oh shut up the lot of you, sweet moses. It's almost as if you're all psychic.

  • munki83 #54 3 years ago

    All i can see is rapture in even greater decay than it was last time. Think of all that could of happened under the sea between the end of the last game and the start of this one

  • mkreku #55 3 years ago

    I agree with Dop!

  • Rack #56 3 years ago

    Multiplayer is a complete waste of development time but the game could be good in spite of not having so much attention paid to it. I haven't read the article, but maybe this whole "you are a big daddy" is just a smoke screen and you're a Big Daddy cut loose of the restricting suit. If you are forced to walk around in 50 tonnes of metal then yeah bury it right now.

  • clockworkzombie #57 3 years ago

    I too notice the short single player games and dislike it. I will play only one or two games online and they have Call of Duty in the title. Multiplayer for me is generally wasted in other games. I will have to make an exception for SF IV.

    Modern Warfare and World at War both have short single player campaigns compared to CoD 2 and 3 this is a trend that reduces my enjoyment of the game.

    There is an exception to short single player campaigns and multiplayer added and that is Battlefield: Bad Company, the single player campaign was the best. I played online but very quickly lost interest in it.

  • Slabbathepave #58 3 years ago

    This game is wrong.

    It doesnt need or deserve to exist.

    Like the Star Wars prequels, the third Terminator film, Alien Vs Predator(both) i am denying its existance. They do NOT exist and niether does the second Bioshock game.

    *closes ayes and puts on loud music for another 5 years*

  • Stoatboy #59 3 years ago

    @thedaveeyres: Kelly's Heroes ftw!

  • space_ace #60 3 years ago

    on a wave of mutilation...

  • Postumo #61 3 years ago

    Shitloads of bizarre nonsense... so you are Big Daddy? where are those charismatic characters that they used to make in the past?

  • jim1975 #62 3 years ago

    again... based on little more than a paragraph, the self appointed internet forum critics decided already bioshock 2 sucks. why dont you wait till you actualy know something about it before your hate it

    you've got nothing to say and your saying it too loud..... so bollocks

  • Linkified #63 3 years ago

    I would hazard a guess and say EG no nothing about the game apart from the info that was revealed in game informer. Hopefully this sequel will sort out a decent non clitche storyline, boring gameplay.

    A word to 2k something scary in daylight is more scary than something scary in darkness.

  • Linkified #64 3 years ago

    Oh and for all those saying bioshock didn't need multiplayer. It needed it, after the great graphics terrible everything else your left wondering whats the point to this game. And good multiplayer in games is usually done by a seperate team and then they can create something new and fun.

    So it could of been a good game but needed the mp component to make it good.

  • bad09 #65 3 years ago

    "Oh and for all those saying bioshock didn't need multiplayer. It needed it, after the great graphics terrible everything else your left wondering whats the point to this game."

    Eh, terrible "everything else"? Bioshock was a great engrossing shooter. Great story, awesome creepy character design, strange weapons, underwater city to explore (admittedly we should actually see more underwater stuff).

    There are not many games that hold me right to the end these days (especially shooters!) but Bioshock joins the the games this gen I loved playing so much I had to finish. Gameplay was simple but fun with plasmids and upgrades and the story drove you along.

    Oh and thanks to M-O-P, that article scan looks sweet (although I'm still not entirely convinced by the big daddy thing). I hope they pull this off, I want to go back to Rapture!

    I wonder what Les thinks of this? ;)
    Edited by 1 at 18/03/09 @ 07:36

  • bad09 #66 3 years ago

    Heh, all this talk of Bioshock made me think of the intro. Best ever! Not much to see but I sat in that water a good while before I move the stick and realised I was in the game!

    I think Mrs bad09 still has the first on 360. Can't have a go until tonight though. Damn you work!!!

    / shakes fist at the evil need for money!

  • metalangel #67 3 years ago

    Told you this was gonna suck! Multiplayer will almost certainly be Meatflag with a Bioshock skin. And the main game sounds like a training simulator for men who get 11 year olds to pose naked on PSN (oh yeah, Big Daddy wants you to guzzle the salty liquid you just sucked outta that guy) as opposed to a decent sequel.

  • kangarootoo #68 3 years ago

    "Told you this was gonna suck!"

    Look, can everyone stop with this bloody farse. We don't really know anything at this stage. Nobody has "proved" anyone else right or wrong. Stop trying to make it some kind of popularity contest.

    The only solid bit of info we have is that article which M-O-P linked to. An article that everyone seems to be ignoring (I know there are a lot of words, but persist if you can). For my eyes, the article makes certain aspects of the game sound quite interesting.

    What it certainly does is ask more questions than it answers. Which brings me back to the same point. We barely know anything about the game. Writing "details confirmed" at the top of an article doesn't make us all clairvoyant.

  • kangarootoo #69 3 years ago

    Just finished the whole article. Everyone on this thread should read it. To not do so is to be stupid, and that is true because I just said it :)

  • Grayvern #70 3 years ago

    Wed all do well to remember the game Bioshock was based on in painstaking if steampunk entirety was System Shock 2. Which was itself a sequel.

    It also makes a lot of sense bioshock was a small part of the story which included the thousands of inhabitants of a city. Who if you remember the scene in the first after your injected are still cognicent enough.
    Edited by 2 at 21/03/09 @ 10:34