14 DAY TRIAL // Ken Levine, the designer of the original BioShock, stated that the videogame was initially set to get a sequel and intended as a singular experience that would offer the same kind of atmospheric shooter System Shock and its sequel delivered back in 1999. Yet the success, both with critics and in terms of sales, of the first game determined 2K Games to authorize the development of a sequel, while at the same time taking it out of the hands of 2K Boston, a development studio now known as Irrational Games.
Despite the changes, one of the most striking features of BioShock 2 is the way it manages to deliver the city of Rapture, the underwater city built by a billionaire looking to escape the confines of the land-based world.
The first game established a certain style for the city, marrying the modern sensibilities of the mid-XX century to the disruptive reality of EVE, plasmids and hunger for power. There was exquisite beauty in Rapture but it was also threatened with destruction and decay, with the tons of water sitting on top of it ready to plunge down the hallways and rooms at any moment.
BioShock 2 is a game with many designers, with 2K Marin, Australia and China joining Digital Extremes and Arkane Studios in the development process, but it has managed to maintain and enhance the feel of Rapture. The game manages to both expose the poor and improvised belly of the city, which still keeps the style of the upper classes, and to expand on its technological achievements.
But there's also a change in tone when compared to the first BioShock. Rapture seems to have lost its soul with the death of Andrew Ryan and with the disappearance of its libertarian utopia. Rapture is a much more materialistic place in BioShock 2. Both trickster and lawyer Sinclair and psychologist and socialist Lamb are after the knowledge that is lined with Rapture, aiming to make it their own while caring little about its ultimate fate. The city, with all its beauty and grand designs, might crumble around them as long as they reach their goals.