Though not as widely discussed as the other entries, BioShock 2 is perhaps the most complex and fascinating in the BioShock series so far, presenting a nuanced sociological view of Rapture and its continuing decline. Born of high expectations and a tight schedule, BioShock 2's aspirations are best illustrated by its multiplayer, ``Fall of Rapture,'' which depicted the fall of the city as a civil war. violent, endless and against everything. In celebration of BioShock 2's XNUMXth anniversary, we spoke with the game's Creative Director Jordan Thomas and Lead Designer Allen Goode about the intricacies of creating its multiplayer spin-off.
The fall of the rapture
At first glance, `` Fall of Rapture & # 39; & # 39; is a standard PvP shooter that follows the Rapture-era dress code. It's packed with 50s-inspired weapons and retro-punk machines, as well as plasmids, BioShock-branded tonics, and a selection of match types, including deathmatch and capture-the-flag. But what lies beneath is something really deep, especially in the heavy rebalancing that went into reworking what has always been considered a solo experience. "Running while firing his Tommy Gun only to be hit by a Winter Blast Plasmid and completely stopped in his tracks, and ultimately killed, was not a fun experience," said system designer and lead designer Allen Goode. . in BioShock 2. "We had to examine how these mechanisms could work in multiplayer while maintaining your identity." "The hardest part was letting the playable characters feel like residents of Rapture, but still being the ghost of aspiration" Jordan Thomas - Creative Director Playing as a citizen of Rapture by the time the Civil War ends, your personal apartment acts as a hub central to fashion, where a message from Andrew Ryan tells you "Rapture is yours," and your force will be to "rebuild the city." Audio logs provide each character's story, and your corporate friends at Sinclair Solutions provide your plasmids, free prototypes of what's in the main games, when you enter the fray There are playable Little Sisters and Big Daddies - an early version had nine players fighting against one as Big Daddy, but was removed due to balance issues , and a roster of 11 splicers to choose from, each with their own unique experience that led them to the underwater utopia.The actors were crafted over a period of several months to find the exact harmony between acknowledging their humanity and making it clear that now they were murderous psychopaths. “The hardest part was letting the playable characters feel like residents of Rapture, but still being the ghost of aspiration,” says Thomas. "Often the reason people will play a domination-oriented multiplayer experience is because they're trying to express a part of themselves that wants to be more powerful or more interesting or sexier. And so, forcing that into a suit of splicing has been the work of some months."
Not everything is serious
A satirical vein has always permeated BioShock's sickening mix of body horror and Randian politics, fostering this balance of legitimate horror with a sense of the original's lightness in its aftermath. and `` Fall of Rapture '' was not an easy task. . Jordan mentions that he and co-writer Daniel Manley were wary of comparisons to Bethesda Fallout 3, leading them and Digital Extremes to further exaggerate the game companies' advertising and messaging. "All of Sinclair Solutions' communications with the player is like hype marketing designed to make the player feel like the customer rather than a pawn," says Goode. "By embracing dark comedy, we were able to explore this theme in a way that was engaging for our audiences but still moving." Ultimately, the player experiences the greed and self-interest of the companies that created the first Rapture junctions. "
Let's go back to the beginning
Being a prequel allowed Digital Extremes to work independently on core development, reusing many locations and visuals from the first game, while 2K Marin designed new assets for the second. The studio was able to flesh out the overarching story in more subtle ways, leaving secrets and titles for the player base to discover. "We got a chance to show what Fort Frolic, Arcadia, Neptune's Bounty and many others looked like before the events of BioShock." They were still pretty much wrecked but not completely altered," says Goode. "Every piece has a story to tell, even in multiplayer. There are clues on every map as to what life was like for the people of Rapture before its fall." Despite strong reviews and sales of over two and a half million, BioShock 2 was deemed a flop by parent company 2K Take-Two Interactive, and Jordan's team disbanded. The game has since developed a cult following with 2016's BioShock: The Collection of which remastered all three BioShock games and their DLC for modern hardware. Unfortunately, Fall of Rapture has been excluded from the re-release, leaving it only accessible via Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or the non-remastered version on Steam.