BioShock 2: A Lesson in Nuance | Full Video Essay 

Quick point of order but Sofia does not flood all of Rapture at the end, she just drops the isolated _Persephone_ into the trench.The place was made as a prison so It specifically has a self destruct in case of emergency feature built in. Sofia turned it into her headquarters and it can be assumed that a lot of her 'family' were in it at the end but the rest of the city would be just fine... well ok, fine is definitely a big stretch as it is still _slowly_ falling apart but it should be unaffected by the end of Persephone.

Sinclair will always be one of my favorite character in gaming, he's a reminder about the hopelessness of a video game protagonist, that even if we left all of lambs allies alone to the best of our ability that she wouldn't hesitate to take away our one and true only friend. I'm not normally emotional over a video game character but damn if playing "chasing shadows" right after the death of Sinclair doesn't bring a tear to my eye, it truly feels like you've lost a friend.

I still think Bioshock 2 has the best array of characters for a a Bioshock game great review I honestly believe Bioshock 2 is the series at its peak

Man, it's still astounding how well the writers of the second game elaborated and expanded on the first, every once in a while I find myself relistening to the audio diaries. What a great sequel.

BioShock 2 is my favorite. The gameplay is much better than 1 with the dual wielding. Plus the drill abilites were awesome af, the DLC was so captivating etc. It's underrated af

There’s a reason why Delta has been my pfp since I made this account. He’s just a mute fella but the story he had and the hell he went through always brings me back

There's something to be said about how this society, which was built on notions of self-determination, self-reliance, and lack of suppression, produced a framework for someone like Sophia to enact a plan premised entirely on antithetical ideals. It shows how self-defeating Andrew Ryan's philosophy was in, I feel, a more rhetorically engaging way than the first game did with its whole Fontaine storyline. Bioshock 1's social commentary was kind of missing its punchline, imo, and Bioshock 2 sort of provides that. I think this video shone a very clear light on the takeaway of Bioshock 2, being that neither "rational self interest" or "utilitarian altruism" are meaningful steps towards building a utopia, because such a thing should source, primarily, from pro-social behavior, love, consideration, etc. Subject Delta is granted personhood of a sense but his entire quest revolves around a biological necessity for his own survival. In that way he's almost the selfless being existing for others' sake that Sophia Lamb is trying to create. One could interpret that cynically, that Sophia Lamb's methods were ultimately sound in theory if they produced someone like the player, but I think her daughter put it best: "Love is just a chemical, we give it meaning by choice" is genuinely one of my favorite quotes of all time. It provides a moral background to understand Delta's actions, but it's also a skewering of Sophia Lamb's entire approach. Chemical is the only asset in Sophia's court. Choice is something she strives to strip away, and so strips away the foundation for love itself. How can a utopia be built in that environment?

One of my favorite things is how the characters from the first game are portrayed differently in 2. In the first game Ryan's audio logs portray him as this clean cut, idealized man. While in 2 he appears greasy and dull

insane that this only has 3k views- this is one of the best video essays on Bioshock i’ve seen in a while, came back for a rewatch.

The story of this game seems to get better with time and it had amazing gameplay

I always felt that Bioshock 2 had better replay-ability and I never got tired of the characters, aside from father wales, like I do in other games. They feel like real passion went into the writing and I never could explain why I enjoyed "2's" story more. Thank you for taking the time to put it clearly into words! I feel lucky I got to enjoy such a masterpiece so many times.

Bioshock 2 is the only game in the series I’ve personally played. As much as I enjoyed it back when I first played it in 2010, I feel far more connected to Delta now that I have 3 daughters of my own. Fatherhood definitely changes you for the better. Let us all be as brave and dedicated as Delta was. Awesome video @DutchRitz

Excellent and very well made BioShock 2 essay! B2 in my humble opinion is perhaps the "best" game in the series, whatever "the best" means. It has so much to it that it's crazy how it's so underrated and overlooked by so many people and fans of the series. Not that B1 and Infinite are not incredibe games and pretty much bonafide masterpieces in their own way, but BioShock 2 did something, truly, truly amazing, memorable and touched me emotinally like no other game ever did. It's a very, very "sad" and melancholic game overall and perhaps that's what the devs from 2K Marin were looking for, and they really nailed that atmosphere. I am still playing it after more than 10 years now and it also has one of the most original and amazing DLCs in the face of Minerva's Den ever made for a video game (my himble opinion again). This is a must watch video essay for folks like myself and fans of the series who appreciate BioShock and it's world. Brilliant stuff man and thank you for creating this presentation. I strongly feel like a lot of people need to watch it and ponder about the topics discussed here. Keep it steady and all the best to you!

I really appreciate your deep analysis and concernment about all the details of the game and it's characters, but I think there should be spoken another point of view on Sophia Lamb as an antagonist and a person. The point of view which I had when replaying this game recently. It's only my opinion, but I hope people will find that relevant. It might be a surprise to hear for most of people, but closer to the end I started kinda sympathise Lamb. Just look at this like that: you'd like her and her goals, IF it didn't take such sacrifices and terrible events to happen to be completed. Her goals are somewhat heroic due to the situation she sees in the city and has seen on surface. Rapture is ruins, the topside world is gehenna (as you remember, she witnessed USA gov. nuking Japan "for the greater good", and it's not hard to imagine how she could project this act on all the mankind and it's tendencies) that will not greet the monsters and dark secrets of Rapture, and you have no way to unring the jingle bell that was rung on 1959 NY eve. Yes, in DLC we get to know that Tennenbaum found the cure for splicing, but Lamb doesn't know that and it would take alot more then effort of just one person to cure the whole city. And then, what can you do, if you're still willing to help people even in this horrible situation? You give them something to hope for, to believe in. You let these broken victims of civil war feel that they're not alone. You unite them as a family. The Family. And give their lifes purpose. To become somewhat immortal. Even in the only way that's left. Yes, there are alot of proofs of Lamb being a very controlling person, and her cult is heavily founded on the real life horror of Jonestown, but there are aswell many proofs of her humanity. She feels sorry fo her daughter, for her people, for the methods she's using, even for Delta, as she understands towards the end that his intentions might be not just selfish, but pure and good. And besides, what's the point of you being in charge for the sake of just being in charge, if you outright lead your flock to their death? No, I see her as a person, who's trying to help, but in her own twisted and not certainly morally right way. But in the end, is there something or someone left in Rapture to be right and not twisted? And finally now we come back to the "IF" I stated above, that divides me from fully sympathising Sophia. IF saving the Family didn't mean to ruin numbers of families from above by kidnapping their daughters to turn them into Sisters, IF it didn't take killing dissidents or people who try to escape to keep your mission safe from topside world's interruption, IF fulfilling her goal didn't inflict infinite amount of suffering on her own daughter, a little scared girl who just wanted to have a loving family, IF... IF... IF... IF there were other ways to do achieve this noble goal, the RIGHT way to do all these things, I think, we would all say that Lamb is not a villain. But that she is a hero. Many people like her character in her manipulative villain role, but I love her for her humane traits and motives. And I hope the ones who have read it all would consider this opinion as well.

The ending of your video was very good! Well done!

Nice video deserves more views tbh, also absolutely beautiful ending

Great video. Hope it hits the algorithm

DutchRitz, This is fantastic! I subscribed right away!

Dude this video was actually great I watched the full thing I'm surprised that this video doesn't have very much views I really enjoyed it

Bioshock 2 sad ending is one of the best endings in any video game ever

WOAH didn’t realize you were a smaller creator!!! Says something about your quality !!! Keep it up brotha mayne I subscribed partner

You can tell Kenny didn't work on the sequel at all, because it came out in a timely fashion.

DutchRitz, Subscribed because your videos always make me smile!

Fantastic video, man!

I've only played BioShock 2 through twice since it came out, but I thoroughly enjoyed it both times.

"Fontaine is gone. Lamb is gone...or close enough. I am alone at last...alone with my city." - Andrew Ryan

To be perfectly honest this was more "video" than "essay", all I got was a summary of the plot. You have a great voice for this, but it's been playing the side role to the audio diaries for most of the essay. I know I'm 3 months late but for future vids focus on your own thoughts way more, they're what makes a video essay truly interesting

So in 1 of Daniel Wales audio diaries, it's stated that he and Simon are twins. It's was already bafling that the 2 were (I'm saying 'were' because they conanicly die at the hands of the player) brothers, but TWINS?! Really?! Simon looks and sounds way to old to be a brother. More like a dad or even a granddad. I haven't read the wiki in order to check how old all of the characters are, but if it turns out that Simon is the younger, then I'm gonna absolutly flip it.

fantastic essay, it sucks it hasn't gotten more hype!

Thanks a lot for your video.

Subject: Delta is my favorite character in Bioshock, he's both imitating and awesome at the same time.

I was actually very interested in the bloody and weird world of Bioshock when I was a kid lol

Amazing video of one of my favorite games 🔥

Bioshock 2 was the best one to me and it also has the best dlc in the series. Minerva’s den was amazing

This has been a very well done video essay. I hope that you keep it up and continue to push forward with what you make. I hope that you also are able to insert more of your own voice and well as bring in other opinions and papers that might relate to ideas given within your essays. Overall, I am eager to see how you go forward!

Really loved this video, thanks for posting!

Bioshock 2 is by far my favourite of the three Bioshock games, and is the only one I regularly play through. It improves upon almost every aspect of Bioshock 1, and is so much better than the beautiful but very simplified gameplay-wise Bioshock: Infinite. Minerva's Den is also extremely good.

It might not be much, but I just wanna say I loved the video :)

Im so happy we are past the "bioshock 2 was different from bioshock therefore its bad" era

Great vid my friend and one that does Bioshock 2 some real justice. Loved this game as a little human and loved the remastered version I just finished a few months ago. The voice acting is brilliant, I love how Elenor is compassionate and vulnerable when she speaks to Delta/Father, but when fighting by his side she's aggressive and a bit of a shite-talker to the Splicers and Brutes....just an incredible game and my fav among the 3.

my favorite bioshock game, and the one i finished like 15 times.

I think the point of these choices is to test just how "Good" you are. It's easy to decide to spare Grace, it's much harder to spare that Worm, and it's downright confusing to choose what to do with Alex. If you are a "good" person, you would forgive, empathize, and show mercy to all three characters. No exceptions.

Great video man! Just finished it and loved it. Also, I have a question as a fellow youtuber: Your voice sounds so clear and clean, *Would you kindly* tell me what's your setup? It sounds amazing.

I'm more then a year late but I'm still glad i found this. This is very impresive both from the analisys side of things as well as the execution itself. I've heard multiple times that one of the reasons that this game is not as good as its predecessor is because it did not have a big plot twist in the end. But does it to have to be there for the story to be good? It is hard to top what happend in Bioshock 1 but this game is not worse because of it. You did an awesome job on disscusing the political stucture and the moral principles of the game. Also you made me realize that I knew almost nothing and that I had a lot more to learn before I would hit the bottom of the sea. This is the first video of yours I'm watching and I wannt to say that you have done a great work.

Great video

My favorite game

The reviews kicked the shit out part 2. They bashed the MP really hard.

My only gripe with 2 is that it feels far less creepy than bioshock 1, splicers feel a little goofier like what the developers described with making bioshock 1 and ultimately made them more human. That and I feel like bioshock 2 overdid the amount of assets in some locations feeling a little less isolated than 1. Although at the end of the day you are a big daddy and splicers arent supposed to be as much as a threat so I guess from a design standpoint it makes sense

I have tried to love bioshock 2 as much as the first, (I have bioshock 2 collectors edition) but idk why I just CANT capture that creepy horror vibe that the first bioshock had, I think being a big daddy has a lot to do with it

Bs2 is Zizekian the more you look at it.

I know im gonna get alot of hate for this but i hated Infinite, it felt like the opposite of this. No matter what you did in that game it always resulted in the same ending, but in this game you can literally kill every main character (except for tenenbaum) with multiple endings and sub endings, i feel like Eleanor dies if you follow the bad ending because theres no trace of humanity left in her and you take control of her body. Its hard finding a game like this nowadays thats not super woke with some stupid morale message they are trying to force on you. The choice between choosing great good or becoming unspeakably evil is what made this game and its original truly shine and ive yet to see any game like it

1:07 no offense but speak for yourself became a gore hound at a young age 🤣