Friday, September 4, 2009

Oh God: Our first look at Bioshock 2's multiplayer

Bioshock 2 multiplayer video from PAX.

Hoo boy, has Bioshock forsaken me. I shall admit that I was genuinely interested in Bioshock 2. Yes, it's missing Kevin Levine, brains behind the first spectacular Bioshock, and some people are worried that visiting Rapture after it's lost it's luster is a bit tired.

Lots of people thought it'd be more interesting to do a prequel while Rapture was in it's downfall, seeing how Rapture was like in it's prime and how it became a dystopian wasteland, but instead we play as a Big Daddy in the same dirty Rapture, but there were redeeming things like the mysterious Big Sister and the dynamic between you and the Little Sisters but this multiplayer is just something that just isn't Bioshock. Here's my case...

Why should I care?
You play as a random splicer trapped in some sort of twisted deathmatch in the name of testing new products. In Halo, you already develop a connection with Master Chief, a spartan. In Call of Duty, you learn to identify with people of your faction and their voices and quirks. But in Bioshock, you played as Jack, a no name mute the player gained an interest in for his mysterious circumstances. You're not playing Jack in multiplayer, but random, nameless splicers you should be used to killing by now. Splicers are meant to be cannon fodder to your weapons and plasmids. You shouldn't be playing them.

The controls
The aiming sensitivity in Bioshock was slow and precise. Enemies were large and methodical and you aim was slow to reflect the overall pacing of the. Sure you can just speed it up for multiplayer, but the controls have already taught us that Bioshock was a detail oriented, methodical monster. Not a twitchy fire fight crazy game.

Maps
I just realized this while typing this down, but all the maps will be indoors. What can expect from multiplayer map size and diversity when I know they will be first and foremost indoors? Ok, so it could take place in wide open rooms to simulate large open areas, but still...

It reeks of shoehorning
Come on, everybody should've been thinking the same thing when they announced this feature: Why? Bioshock was a beast of an immersive, single player experience. We've never thought of multiplayer before, so why start now? Are the guys over at 2K Games just itching to join the same bandwagon as Halo and Call of Duty?

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