Another thing I love about Andrew Ryan are places like Ryan's Amusements and Burial at Sea's "Ryan the Lion" showing you Andrew Ryan's way to manipulate children to follow his ideology. I love how he basically requested a museum dedicated to himself and the Ryan the Lion room showing a bunch of children's drawings of one of their father's girlfriend, teacher and parent in the context of "Draw a Parasite". It's both disturbing and funny.
I hate how when you accidentally harvest a single little sister and save all the others you still get the semi bad ending. It also makes zero sense why killing Gil Alexander counts as an evil kill since he constantly begs you to kill him in his diaries.
One thing I'd love to point out about Bioshock 2 is Sophia Lamb as the antagonist is how equal and opposite a foil she is to Andrew Ryan. Not just in the obvious "collectivist vs individualist" or "libertarian vs communalism" spin but them as people. Ryan believed in his ideology (The great chain) and defended it to the death before going back on it. Whereas Lamb believed in her own ideology (the Rapture Family) up until it was no longer convenient to do so and put herself (how ironic given her supposed hated of the "self") above everything else. She had an Ego that didn't just match Ryan's but actually dwarfed it. And was more than willing to hypocritically defend her actions throughout as "for the great good" when in the end nothing mattered to her other than "winning" and "being right" to sate that ego. Not Rapture, not her "family", not her daughter and not even her own life. She HAD to be "right" and damn everything else. Also a great villain you love to hate. Like, who takes pleasure in forcing a man to kill himself as their own (Both her's by blood and Delta's by consequence) daughter is made to watch? What a psychopath. At least a well written one.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, but the short version of why you need to get Elanor or die is that the Alpha series (likely due to the greater intelligence and awareness they had/were allowed so they could be aware and adaptable/use a variety of weapons) tended to wander off if their little sister wasn't in danger. So their inventors created an intense emotional bond between one Alpha and one Sister, like that of an actual parent and child, and as a failsafe had it so the alpha would fall into a comma/die if they got too far away too long or she died/got saved. Problem is, is the bond was severed and the kill switch failed, they either become sobbing wrecks or kill crazy batshit insane, hence the Alpha's you fight in the second half of the game. And so they repurposed the other big daddy types (who were intended as maintenance workers) to act as guardians instead, using pheromones and the like so they could "bond" with any little sister.
In the very beginning of the game when big sister breaks the glass and you have to walk at the bottom of the ocean. You see the tail of the plane that jack crashed in from.
While I always go for the good ending, there's just something incredible about the sacrifice ending, it's like Delta acknowledges both he and sophia were different breeds of monster, and that Eleanor should follow her own path rather than either of theirs, I just love how sombre that is, she's free, but ultimately alone, what she does from there on is solely her choice.
gotta love how the guys behind infinite hated this game so much....that they ripped off just about every main plot point and added the dumb multiverse shit.
I can understand how people enjoyed the story better in the first Bioshock, but other than that, I don't understand how folks like it better than Bioshock 2. Rapture is even creepier because it's grown more and more desolate over the years. The combat flows better. The splicers look better. You get to walk around underwater. I just always liked Bioshock 2 a little better. Not by much, because both are excellent, but Bioshock 2 really did it for me.
The combat and overall mechanics were significantly improved in the sequel. The level design was incredible also. But idk, there's just a certain charm and atmosphere about the original that is unmatched. Also I personal prefer the weapons in the first game over the big daddy arsenal
This has to be my favorite game out of the Bioshock series because the Big Daddies themselves are so unusual of a mascot character for a game franchise. Deep dive suits from the late 19th century to be bulky and ultimately protective brutes fascinates me. What I like about this game is although it is shorter, it was the kind of game that feels better on repeat playthroughs. What I like about Subject Delta is that it can basically serve as a embodiment of altruism. As in, if Delta wants to be a good role model is to live within the gray world but not feel at complete odds against it. It's an interesting concept to me, if Delta actually cares for Eleanor out of self survival or genuine care. Lamp used her supposed altruism to manipulate and brainwash people. Ryan allowed his version to basically allow people to wallow in their encouraged selfish desires. Delta is nothing like that, sure he can be vengeful but I still think it's one of the better silent protagonists What I like about the story is that it is never explained how Eleanor and Delta became bonded in the first place. Did Eleanor find Delta when she knew her mother was going to be around. A true dedicated best friend to her bleak world? Or was it just Delta following its conditioning to be a servant to Eleanor?
Connection between Delta and Eleonor explaind, she remembers him even after everything her mother done to her and by controling the little sisters she reprogram Vita-chambers so they can revive Delta, which body she founds after years of searching. (sorry for any mistakes, not native language)
@@Brezz-22 That's what I use - bring two bots , hit the BD with SB , dodge BD's rockets , hit him the heavy rivets after dodging. ( Use trap spears later in the game.) Whenever I use TK , it grabs the mini-turret instead of the rockets , no matter how I time it or aim.
One thing I loved was that you could choose exactly how Stanley died, from each individual detail. You set him on fire and drive a drill through his stomach? You freeze him and smash him into a billion little pieces? All up to you.
15:49 You're literally mind controlled to oppose him, removing that mind control and getting revenge is the entire point of the last act of the game Also, you know, he tried to kill you with his similarly mind controlled splicers after assuming you were a spy
Lamb was invited to Rapture by Ryan during the time that the psychological effects of lacking sunlight, and an abundance of nature, were beginning to bother Ryan due to complaints by the masses of depression. This is all found through audio logs. Ryan invited her out of necessity, as she was the foremost psychologist at the time. This was a necessity as Ryan was becoming all too aware of the problem, watching the denizens of Rapture start to decline psychologically, as the city began to as well, with the building civil war and rise in mad splicers. All of this is explained in one or two audio logs, so it's understandable players would miss it. However, it is justified within the canon. How, and why she is in Rapture.
Probably the main reason why people like the first BioShock over the sequel is because of how the plot progresses so I'm very glad you mentioned it. Most youtuber don't. BioShock 2 is essentially a giant second act with the player having the same goal throughout. The runtime seems artificially extended by just having something stopping the train over and over so it feels like no progress is being made. You could skip from the end of Atlantic Express to Fontaine Futuristics and the overall story would be in exactly the same place. This is why the story feels much more lackluster. In the first fame though, the first few levels were to save "Atlas's family", then when they exploded the next few levels were to kill Ryan, and finally the end was Jack getting his freedom to defeat Fontaine. Big events happened, the story progressed, and motivations changed keeping it fresh. The twist helped but BioShock 2 didn't need a twist if it only progressed the story for like 6 hours of gameplay
What a good stating of the solid and bland points. Congrats, pal. This was my first Bioshock, and has a special place in my heart. The decisions getting more and more gray as they went on left such a big impression on me. (And I actually shed a tear again rewatching the ending xD)
For real. I’ve seen people cheesing the boss fight by planting all 10 proximity mines on the entrance of his chamber, taking him down within half a second. His fight deserved to be the grand finale akin to Fontaine from the first game. Would’ve been so much more satisfying.
Let's just hope bioshock 4 returns to rapture again. Or atleast in a bs4 dlc like burial at the sea. Rapture is one of the best settings for a game ever.
I havent played Infinite yet but so far I like 2 better than 1. I liked the game play improvements over 1. Both were incredible to me and 2 of my favorite games ever
@ 6:34 the spear is bugged in the remastered version it also pins enemies to walls which was fun AF, but the people that remastered the game forgot, hopefully 2k releases a patch to fix it. Cause it was definitely a fun weapon back in the original game.
@@misternolife2018 tho i do think, that while Sophia not as good as Andrew Rayan, who was a really outstanding character, she is a good villian in her own way, if only she were underdog, who took the power after Andrew's death, not the "important" character from the past, this could've solve some problems. Still loves Eleanor more than Elizabeth, she can kick asess like Delta teached her! (sorry for any mistakes, as you can deduct from my name, english isn't my native language)
I disagree about the ludonarrative dissonance in bioshock1, it doesn't matter whether Jack (and by extension, the player) agrees with Andrew Ryan or not, the whole point of the game is that, Jack, has no choice and neither does the player
6:00 Thank you! Finally, you are the first review to point that out, as most reviews tend to pay too much attention on the narrative rather environmental and player stories.
The thrower was good in the original bioshock. The nitri glyxeren was useless but the flame thrower was more useful than the Tommy gun or crossbow. And if you used the electric helicopter against big daddies you would trivialize that fight. If you had enough electric gel the "fight" would be the big daddy frying at 350 volts while you stand dead still waiting for him to die.
Personally I don't think you were supposed to care about Eleanor because the main reason you are trying to get to her is to prevent yourself from going into the coma
Bioshock 2 is just as great as the other two, including the story and characters. Eleanor Lamb is a character you bond with and learn of throughout the game. She doesn’t feel absent, you learn about her throughout the game through audio logs and other characters. Sofia Lamb is just as great of an antagonist as Ryan. You get so see how much of an impact she’s had on Rapture throughout the game, you see it all the time. It’s story is just as memorable. Sofia Lamb was invited to Rapture to be a therapist. The Audio Diaries are just as interesting as they were in 2. There’s nothing wrong with things stopping the train. Edit: Look at it this way, I was interested in the story from start to finish. I cared about Eleanor and wanted to see her safe. As someone who grew up with “imperfect” parents I know what she felt like. The more I learned about her situation the more I wanted to help. Same goes with every character, each one well acted and written, and very interesting. I wanted to learn more about each one, some I cared about and felt sorry for, others I hated and wanted to see fail, and some were just interesting. Plus Bioshock 2 expands raptures story a lot, it lets us know why people would fight against Ryan. Sofia Lamb is an excellent villain, the way she manipulated the splicers and citizens of rapture, as well as the pain she caused. Her philosophy was interesting, but also flawed. Plus seeing characters like Sinclair turned against you after all that happened was sad. Hearing the stories of grace Holloway, Stanley pool, Gil Alexander, mark meltzer, etc. Each one has an interesting personality and story. Plus given how well the characters tie into each game other, learning about one tells you so much about the others. The ending is also great showing the impact our choices had on Eleanor. I could go on forever. I hope I’ve helped explain more about why I love it so much. That’s why I don’t understand the criticism that some have, and why so many people love it so much.
All I can gather from your comment is that you disagree with a lot of what I said, but I have no idea as to why. Just saying the opposite of my perspective won't make me change my mind and it doesn't help me understand why you disagree.
Mister No Life. I know why I disagree, because it’s very good. I don’t know how else to explain it. The game I played doesn’t seem to be the game you’re describing. It’s like we played two different games. I just disagree and think you didn’t do the game justice (especially when it comes to story). I could tell you how much I love it, and give you tons of examples, but you likely wouldn’t change your mind anyway. Again, I think it’s a fantastic game, with a fantastic story and is just as good as the other Bioshock games (with little to no flaws). It’s one of my favorite games, so I am a little biased. To me the game is great and usually I can understand why people dislike something, even if I don’t agree with it. With Bioshock 2, I don’t understand the criticism for it. I’m not alone in thinking this either.
Mister No Life, sorry. It just sucks when a game/story you love so much gets hated on. Look at it this way, I was interested in the story from start to finish. I cared about Eleanor and wanted to see her safe. As someone who grew up with “imperfect” parents I know what she felt like. The more I learned about her situation the more I wanted to help. Same goes with every character, each one well acted and written, and very interesting. I wanted to learn more about each one, some I cared about and felt sorry for, others I hated and wanted to see fail, and some were just interesting. Plus Bioshock 2 expands raptures story a lot, it lets us know why people would fight against Ryan. Sofia Lamb is an excellent villain, the way she manipulated the splicers and citizens of rapture, as well as the pain she caused. Her philosophy was interesting, but also flawed. Plus seeing characters like Sinclair turned against you after all that happened was sad. Hearing the stories of grace Holloway, Stanley pool, Gil Alexander, mark meltzer, etc. Each one has an interesting personality and story. Plus given how well the characters tie into each game other, learning about one tells you so much about the others. The ending is also great showing the impact our choices had on Eleanor. I could go on forever. I hope I’ve helped explain more about why I love it so much. That’s why I don’t understand the criticism that some have, and why so many people love it so much. Sorry I didn’t do that initially, it was a kind of knee jerk response to seeing something I love be hated on.
gonna disagree with the point about being able to take more punishment. Honestly, playing Bioshock 2, I actually felt MORE fragile playing as a big daddy than the guy from the first game
remember that part in the first game where you had to take 3 picture of dead guys for the artist guy, for a key or a gate (forgot his name), that was an obstacle so I'm not going to fault b2 for it when b1 had just as much
Loved bioshock 2. My only complaint is it was too easy. Even survival mode in bioshock 1 was not to hard but 2 didn't have it. I'm currently playing bioshock infinite on 1999 mode and so far its a good challenge.
cool retrospective chief I have to say though I'm rather surprised how nobody brings up the way the devs smartly brought back or repurposed old scrapped concepts from the development of the first one like yea there's the rumblers, but also the rapture metro as the progression system and being depicted as an antiquated and fallen down service replaced by the batyspheres (not unlike how the team wanted to use a metro first and scrapped it for the batyspheres), sinclair the southern man guiding you like how atlas in the first one was supposed to be a southern man but was replaced to irish because testers didn't trust him (like how sinclair always keeps you guessing and mistrusting if he's gonna betray you or not, and doesn't) or hell even the concept of rapture having a religion of its own it was a v smart play by the devs
I still say minervas den was the definitive end to bioshock cause i felt very unsatisfied with infinite and burial at sea. Seeing how sigma essentially regained his humanity and how i thought the thinker was the bad guy leading reed wahl and how it was just reed lost to splicer madness
I just played all the Bioshock games for the first time, except for Minerva's Den. I accidentally harvested a Little Sister and reeled back in horror while mashing escape to load a save, then realize I was at the very beginning of it so I gave up and looked up the story a bit. So it's actually going to be the last Bioshock thing I play, because holy crap Infinite's combat pissed me off (and the story was not up to par), and I need that goodness 2's gameplay had to rinse my mouth out before playing Prey.
@@Horatio787 back in the day i enjoyed the gameplay thought it had potential like in the trailers at e3 but it was cut story was changed. If it had more depth along with falling through the sky throughout the city skyline i wouldve enjoyed exploring the city on the skyline i mean we got some but not much
The reason why Sofia doesn't quite cut it the way Ryan did was because Ryan WAS Rapture, while Lamb is just using what's left of it for her own purposes. I had the same issues with Fontaine, who wasn't that good of an antagonist either, aside from the big reveal. And again, there were other people opposing Ryan besides Fontaine and Lamb. Also the reason why Lamb was invited into Rapture was because she was the best in her area of expertise. Ryan didn't know how altruistic and manipulative she really was until she was already in Rapture. You think Ryan knew Fontaine was a smuggler when he invited him?
The one thing I really like about Fontaine is that he's sort of the end result of unchecked individualism, he's more the son of Andrew Ryan than Jack ever was. What would someone who looks out for themself and only themself look like? Fontaine. He's blunt and uncomplicated, but the realization of objectivist ideals.
@@Horatio787 That's an interesting interpretation. It's also because of Ryan's idealism why he allowed Fontaine to grow so powerful and didn't do anything until Fontaine got too much influence. In a way Ryan was proud of him before Fontaine became rebellious. With Lamb he didn't wait too long until her influence grew too strong to get rid of her, since she represented the very thing he stood against. She was a mistake of Ryans that he would like to forget about. But even Lamb is selfish in her own way despite her ideaology being about selflessness. Ryan knew that too much selfinterest could go too far, but he was way too stubborn and proud to admit when HE went too far.
@@nexusshark Ryan even admits in an audio log at the end that he's having doubts but can't bring himself to give Fontaine run of the place. That part where he's repeating, "A man chooses, a slave obeys." almost seems like he's trying to reach Jack since he's failed him so miserably as a leader and just wants validation for the strength of one man's will. Then you listen to Fontaine who always knew what Jack was and has to be beaten over and over to admit that he might have had any feelings for anyone. Ryan is a charismatic millionaire who never uses Plasmids and built Rapture, Fontaine is a brutal crook who wants every Plasmids and stole everything he has. Dual patriarchs or dueling father and son as you suggested? I felt Lamb was never explored very well because I'm too used to hearing monologues from religious cult leaders as generic bad guy speeches. They sort of blend together after a while.
@@Horatio787 The idea about Fontaine being Ryan's "son" was actually suggested by you, not me. As for Lamb, while she does sound fanatic, she's still a mad scientist and a hypocrite. But I know what you mean by "speeches blending into eachother" because I had a very similar feeling with Comstock, who wasn't explored much as a character IMO. I did not feel that way about Lamb though. And Fontaine could still have used more complexity than just being a crook.
@@nexusshark After playing through all the Bioshock games for the first time ever over the course of a month (gonna finish Minerva's Den as my final bit), I feel like there's this uber-game that exists in a timeline where all the Bioshock games were combined. Bioshock 1's story and atmosphere up until the twist, Bioshock 2's gameplay and last 1/3rd of the story where your decisions actually have this tangible impact on another character with a poignant ending, and Infinite's pacing where you're always making progress towards a goal and characters are progressing each chapter.
Gameplay Should always be king no matter what, I really hate "Experiences" were the story is king and gameplay is like an after though. I like good stories but we can have BOTH, we don't need to sacrifice one for the sake of the other, Although gameplay should always had the priority and I don't know why people keep thinking about fifas, call of duties or Fornite whenever I say that, People are fucking stupid sometimes.
Awesome video! I actually really liked BS2 and the DLC's story, it's hard to follow up a 10/10 story and I see why people sre disappointed Though the hate for it is a little beyond me personally (aside from the bad ending, which afaik they never wanted in the game)
Bioshock 2 improves on a lot of the gameplay mechanics from the first game, rhis is true, but it’s creatively bankrupt, rhe levels, while more complex on the surface, r dull and boring as hell.. graphically rhe first game holds up much better, and everything else is just almost a 1x1 retread of the first game but worse.. therefore anyone saying bioshock 2 is better than the original game has no sense of creative integrity what so ever
Bioshock 2 was disappointing indeed, especially how piss easy and dumbed down for consoles it was. Any semblance of survival challenge was completely removed as the game dumps enough resources on you to stay completely capped on ammo, medkits, hypos and money for the duration of the game. Money felt worthless because you're always capped and never need to buy anything, and there was no incentive to explore because you already have everything you need. Lamb is such a boring villain too, but that doesn't stop her from spouting dull dialogue at you every 5 seconds.
Literally everything you criticized about the second game can be applied to the first one. Have you even played the first game? Also, if you think Bioshock 2 is "dumbed down", then I'd love to see what you'd think of Infinite.
