BioShock 2 Completed for the Third Time

Late last night, I completed BioShock 2 for the third time, my second on Hard, and once again traversing the ruins of Rapture was a very enjoyable experience.

The game isn't as strong as the original, but it's still a great and fun game. For weapons, I focused primarily on the Rivet Gun and got the Headhunter Tonic as soon as possible. Precision head shots ended many conflicts quickly, and when things got close in, I'd use the Shotgun or, on tougher enemies, the Drill. During Adam gatherings, I'd often used the Machine Gun for crowd control after laying down some Trap Rivets.

Plasmid-wise, I primarily used Security Command to keep bots by my side, and Hypnotize to have a friendly Alpha Series or Brute Splicer as well. Electro Bolt rounded out my main Plasmid use.

I maxed all research subjects faster than ever before, and equipped every Tonic Slot. My Wallet was almost always full, and I found and used every Power to the People upgrade station.

I rescued every Little Sister, spared Grace and Stanley, and "euthanized" Gilbert, so I got the good ending and Lamb lived, which is all fine with me. I honestly did find the bond between Subject Delta and Elanor to be very touching, and it's not often in a shooter that your primary objective is to get to your foster daughter, so the family element was certainly unique.

My major gripes with the game:

- I wish friendly AI would move out of the way a bit more. If I had a nickle for every time my Security Bots or Hypnotized allies were in my way and just wouldn't move... Still, their value outweighed this inconvenience.

- Hard Difficulty isn't, thanks to Vita-Chambers. There is no excuse at all not to be able to complete the game on Hard simply because you can not "die." Loose all your Health, and presto, out you come from a Vita-Chamber with half Health and some Eve, and the enemies that killed you are still as hurt as when you left them. This makes the game far to easy, and the only reason to keep healing yourself is to prevent the few seconds wasted from traveling back to the battle from the Vita Chamber. This was a problem in the first game as well, and I don't know why they didn't impose a Dollar penalty at Vita-Chambers; say $500.00 for resurrection. Yes, I know you can disable them, but it's not the same thing as Vita-Chambers are a cool feature.

- Still not a fan of Hacking, and I really miss my Pipe Mini-Game.

Overall though, a great job by 2K Marin. I picked up the Single Player DLC during the 2K sale on Xbox LIVE about a week ago, so I've started on "The Protector Trials" which I know won't take me long at all.