Bioshock 2

I’ve never played a sequel that enriched the original narrative so brilliantly. In Bioshock 2, you play as one of the oldest “Big Daddies”, the monsters who watched over the valuable little girls in the first game. No one really questioned why these Big Daddies chaperoned the orphans around the underwater city – in Bioshock 1 you were just lucky enough to blow them apart before they smashed your head into a glass wall. Scary stuff.

Bioshock 2 reveals exactly why these lumbering tin men care so much for their surrogate little daughters, and why they’d fight to death to protect them. Think manufactured genetic link and thought control. The entire plot is about thought control (big Government, class issues) If that wasn’t enough cool back-story, there’s a liberal-psycho mad-woman named “The Lamb” who is threatening to take over the city. She’s like Charles Manson with cute librarian glasses. And guess whose little daughter you’ve been programmed to protect…

Moral choices bend the narrative much like the original game. Add a heaping amount of creepy, self mutilated enemies, clever genetic upgrades/munitions coupling, and film quality dialogue and you’ve got one berserk experience. Now I have to replay the original. Crap.