Suskie's BioShock 2 review

We might have disagreed over the first game, but we're in absolute agreement over the second, it would seem.

Does that include my gripes with the game's pacing? Like I said, I felt that was a major issue with the first game as well, and I never got the sense you were bothered by it.

I think BioShock overcame its occasionally clunky pacing by giving you a rather tasty carrot on a stick for the first two thirds. I guess you'd probably argue that doesn't excuse it, but it kinda did for me.

BioShock 2, however, just doesn't do anything particularly interesting for about five or six hours, preferring instead to spend a couple of hours teaching you stuff you already know, then send you on overly familiar fetch quests for the rest of the first two-thirds. The first level to impress me was the one with Gil. From then, it's phenomenal, but has kinda left it too late.

You're right, though: it's still a good first-person shooter that eventually becomes a very good one.

While I didn't agree with everything said (of course, that would be impossible), it was still an entertaining review to read.

Interesting to read what others had to say. I didn't realize there was a critique topic. Here's my rotw-ish shpeel.

This is a very good review--the best part being where you drop in the need to juggle plasmids and guns and that you -have- to use them even on normal mode, though it's set up well by the narrative. I can't really make any major big-scale suggestions to make it better, besides mentioning the Big Daddy a bit earlier, and maybe that's just because overall I'm a stodgy non-risk-taker and someone not familiar enough with BioShock.

Nevertheless I see how you're trying to build to a revelation, but I find it intriguing that the ancestor of the slow guys you had to blow up in BioShock is now under your control, where the powers and limitations are more realistic and believable. Then maybe you could throw in a sentence or two at the end about the useful things you notice as you trek back, which add to the plot. I know it's tough to work your way out of "It's a surprise, really. No, a different surprise than you'd expect."

Oh, I'd zap the "I mean" and "Truth be told" aren't necessary. And I don't like the shouting in the one-line second paragraph. But I already threw out a stodginess disclaimer. Maybe I haven't found a game worth yelling about recently, and that's my own fault.

Late thanks to Pickhut!

I'm glad you liked the review despite its conversational tone, Schultz. There's nothing at all wrong with preferring a more formal tone; it's just not the way I write and there's not much that can be done about that. I could certainly afford to trim the fat in places, though -- not just in this review, but in all of them -- so thanks for the suggestions.