Bioshock 2 hands-on impressions

I saw the Big Sister as I rounded the corner.

It was only a fleeting glance, through the frosted glass of underwater city Rapture, but it was enough to make me realise she was a likely to be formidable adversary, sporting a large needle-like appendage on one of her arms. In an instant she was gone, fluttering away in a flurry of bubbles. I'm sure it wouldn't be the last time I saw her.

The build of Bioshock 2 that I spent an hour playing was in an area called Ryan's Amusements, a sort of amusement park cum museum built by Rapture's former leader, Andrew Ryan. The sequence takes place in the early stages of the game and the area is almost a homage to Ryan, with dioramas and voice overs telling anyone who's interested about the history of Rapture and why it was built.

Bioshock 2 is set 10 years after the original game and this time you're in the lead-toed boots of a Big Daddy, the lumbering deepsea-diving-suit-wearing protectors of the Little Sisters (the creepy little girls who harvest a precious commodity called Adam from dead bodies). But you're not just any Big Daddy: you're the original prototype Big Daddy, codenamed Alpha. Being the first Big Daddy means you're smaller and faster than all other Big Daddies, but that also means you're not as strong, so will have to take a more tactical approach when confronting larger adversaries.

There is so much secrecy surrounding Bioshock 2 that very little is known about the introductory movie sequence of the game and it had been removed from the demo sequence.  I was told that it contains a few spoilers that provide backstory.

While Bioshock 2 feels instantly familiar - it looks like Bioshock - a major departure is that you can now use both plasmids - special serums that provide a range of powers - and ranged weapons at the same time. In the original Bioshock, you had to swap between the two.

The sequences begins with "my" Big Daddy riding in a tram but the ride is soon cut short after discovering that the doorway the tram has to go through is frozen shut. I have to find a way to thaw out the ice and continue. Obviously, using a plasmid would be the ideal method, but at this point in the game Big Daddy only has the telekinesis, electrify and hypnotise plasmids. I'll have to search for the incinerate plasmid before he can progress.

A chap called Sinclair contacts me, through an audio log, offering advice on what I need to do.

Tapping the right bumper (the demo was being played on the Xbox 360 version) scrolls through the weapons in Big Daddy's arsenal: rivet gun, machinegun, a hack dart gun, and the drill, all mounted on Big Daddy's right arm. Using the electrify plasmid to stun a nearby splicer - one of the demented denizens of Rapture - I make quick work of him with the rivet gun, firing hot bolts into his body.

Keen to put the Big Daddy's drill to the test - something I'm sure that many players of Bioshock would have loved to do in the original - I approach another splicer, unaware of my presence, and wind up the drill. Pressing the B button swings the drill in a melee-style attack and pressing B and holding the right trigger initiates a rush attack, knocking down foes instantly.

As I progress through familiar corridors, I come across a vending machine and get the chance to use the new hacking mechanism, which is much improved on the frustrating experience of the first game. Now instead of the complicated puzzle-like sequence you had in Bioshock, it's a simplier button-pressing sequence where you have to press the A button three times when a needle passes over a green segment. The original's hacking sequence was tedious and detracted from the gameplay, so it's good to see this aspect improved.

I now come to an area where I notice a Big Daddy wandering around, his charge, a Little Sister, slightly ahead. The Big Daddies will not attack you unless you attack them but I'm told I need to get the Little Sister, so it means taking on the Big Daddy. Luckily, this is the chance to put some of the special weapons to use: the trap rivet.

The trap rivet is like an explosive trap that you can set around entrance ways and doorways, exploding when someone - or something - walks through them. Having set up a copious amount of trap rivets, it was time to attack the Big Daddy, which I did, but stupidly, I insisted on tackling him head on, which while reducing his health also meant I was close enough for his swinging melee attack. Pretty quickly I was dead and revived in the nearest Vita Chamber.

Suitably depleted, I managed to quickly finish the Big Daddy off with a few more shots of my machinegun. I'm given the option to "adopt" the Little Sister. Pressing X sees my Big Daddy pick up the Little Sister and place her on his back. It's now time to start searching for the much-prized Adam.

With the Little Sister on your back, pressing the X button sends out a ghostly trail that will lead you to the Adam. "Adam, Daddy. Over there," the Little Sister says, rather creepily.

After wandering through a few corridors and taking out a few splicers, I come across a splicer body riddled with Adam but before I have the chance to harvest the serum, my 2K minder suggests I search for as much ammunition and health that I can, because as in the first game as soon as the Little Sister starts harvesting the Adam, splicers appear, attracted to the scene, and you have to fend them off while she completes her task.

Stocking up on rivets, ammunition and first aid, I put the Little Sister down beside the splicer's body and she starts extracting the Adam with a scarily large needle. Instantly, splicers descend on the area, but with deft use of the electrify plasmid, trap rivets and the machinegun, I quickly dispose of them. Next, we search for the second body we need to harvest.

Upon finding the next body, I notice a disabled turret, which I hack using the hack dart gun. It provides some vital backup for when the splicers come calling while the Little Sister is harvesting the Adam. Right on cue, the splicers arrive, but using the recently discovered spear gun - which fires harpoons into the unwary splicers, impaling them on walls (you can collect the spears off them later) - and with the backup from the gun turret, the battle is short lived. I now have enough Adam to move on but have to take the Little Sister to a vent, where I get the option to "save" or "harvest" the Adam from her. Being the good guy, I let her live, meaning I get less Adam than if I had killed her.

Searching nearby rooms, I discover a machine that lets me upgrade my plasmids - giving me the much-needed incinerate plasmid which will let me unleash balls of fire, crucial to melt the ice encasing the door blocking the tram I arrived in. I try it out on a nearby mound of ice, uncovering money and some rivets.

Making my way back towards the tram station, I see the words "We will be reborn ... She is our salvation" scrawled on a wall - not sure whether they are referring to the Big Sister or Sophia Lamb, the new caretaker of Rapture.

I round a corner and see my first glimpse of the Big Sister, a glowing red eye visible through the glass in front of me. Although the glimpse was short lived, I realise that my first encounter with the Big Sister wasn't far away - and I was right: around the corner and through the next door I face off against her.

She's agile and fast and, unlike the Big Daddy, she attacks as soon as she sees you, whether you attack her or not. However, I found that using a combination of incinerate plasmids and machinegun fire soon made light work of the Big Sister, who, surprisingly, didn't seem as formidable as I first thought. It was time to make my way back to the tram station.

The journey to the station is fairly uneventful, apart from a few splicers. Remember the ice encasing the door? I make quick work of it using the incinerate plasmid then go to a control booth to open the doors. At this point, several splicers enter the room but after I dispose of them I enter the tram, activate it and that's the level done.

Bioshock 2 has the familiar Bioshock feel to it, which will please fans of the original, but the small tweaks to the game play should ensure that the tension and trepidation you felt as you wandered around dimly lit corridors in the original, not sure what you'd find around the next bend, should remain. In fact, I think I could enjoy Bioshock 2 more than the original.

Bioshock 2 is out in February.

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