Father's Day Bioshock 2

How fitting it is that I finish the game on Father's Day, of all days. As you control one of the first Big Daddies - Delta - seeking out your original Little Sister, you can explore the bonds of that father-daughter relationship. Or perhaps, you shouldn't be taking cues from a videogame where you, as the dad, are playing a grotesque monster who has been revived after being dead for ten years and living inside a steampunk style pressurized diving suit. Oh, and you inject yourself with various plasmids that alter your genetic code, enabling you to shoot fire, ice and electricity - among others - from your hand. Yeah, it is quite the ride and when you start thinking of these game worlds and the characters you play from a distance, you can completely understand some groups' apprehension towards the gaming industry. But that's all besides the point, cause the important thing here is your exploration of Rapture, it's inhabitants and your role as a Big Daddy.

I made a post last week detailing one specific story where I was in awe of the game; since then I have been playing the game religiously until I completed it a few days later. And I walk away in complete love of the game, and the series. As I previously mentioned there seems to be a bit of hate on for the sequel, and I can understand why. The story isn't as good, and the gameplay is similar. But I can't see how that's a bad thing. The story is intriguing and way beyond your average game. The gameplay is stellar; they took the already polished mechanics of the first and refined them even further. Allowing you to control a plasmid and weapon at the same time; advancing you with different weapons and more interesting upgrades, and providing an absolute boatload of plasmids and gene tonics. So many tonics, in fact, I was going crazy managing them. I wanted to equip them all. In the first game I don't think I even bothered to max out the slots while here, it was an absolute priority. I enjoy the hacking mini-game much more, not only because it was faster, but it didn't pause the game and seemed to play a more important role in the game. I was eager to turn bots against each other and allow them to help me. The ability to repair them (and subsequently get them names) was a nice touch.

One of the issues I had was my luck of using all the weapons: for the most part I stuck to the machine and rivet gun. Rarely did I switch up the gun I used or even their specialty ammo, although I kind of wanted to. It just never happened. I also didn't focus on using a variety of plasmids either, sticking to the same few in most cases. But near the end I was beginning to branch out and wished the game would go on longer so that I could experiment more. This leads me to the question of repeating the game. Perhaps on a harder difficulty? Perhaps to max out my research this time? I missed the achievement by just an inch, as I kept forgetting to scan in the spider splicer whenever he jumped me. Instead I went nuts and killed his ass, then remembered that I should have made that snuff film before opening fire. The audio diaries are back and absolutely fantastic as they bring a lot of intriguing depth to the world and its characters.

Playing the game on Father's Day is certainly no replacement or replacement for the relationship you would have with your real daughter (or son, I guess, but there are none of those in Rapture), but it's something. I couldn't harm those Little Sisters if I wanted to. In the beginning I wasn't sure if they were impervious to damage. I would make sure they were out of harm's way before I devastated her Big Daddy. I never wanted her to get caught in the crossfire. And I defended them with a newfound vigor as they were gathering, making sure those jerk splicers got what they deserved. When it was time to let them go, I always "rescued" them (I've never even see the harvest animation) and waited patiently for them to go safely into the hole in the wall to freedom. The process of adopting, then doing the gatherings numerous times in a level become a little tedious at times, but was always worth it. And most definitely worth the trouble when you see them without those zombie-esque glowing eyes at the end of the game. They were safe now, and being a father, that's all you ever want for your children.