“Welcome to Rapture…Again.”
It all started out kindly- I had finished my second sojourn through Rapture with a smidgen of optimism and left the single player experience pleasantly, if not complacently, aplomb with enthusiasm. There is no need to review what is already a gluttonous monster of Gamestop’s sales, as there is little need to attach the accolades of its predecessor to its already self-congratulating box art. However, there is another side of the Rapture experience that exhumes some of the pomp and circumstance from Ken Levine’s first masterpiece and then, like a hardcore Splicer addict, whittles away the soul of your very gaming experience into a horrific hallucination of what happens when video games decide to eat their young. This is essentially what happens 15 hours into the BioShock Multiplayer experience.
“Oooh…Purty!”
The headsets were afire with conversation the first few hours I sat down and got used to killing real people in Rapture. Many mature gamers seemed to be “oohing and ahhing” the detail put into the familiar and moody environments. Many of us were in accordance while playing Civil War that 2K and Digital Extremes had done it right. The controls felt fluid at first and the loadout system seemed to be more streamlined that MW2. The game types had taken the typical and thrown a few Big Daddies and Little sisters into the mix, creating a sense of dread and urgency that most multiplayer other than CoD is missing. In fact, its the very lack of innovative multiplayer on consoles (PCs are exempt from this disease) that has kept MW2 and Halo at the very top of the food chain. Remember Prey’s multiplayer when you could walk on the ceiling or walls and teleport everywhere? Nor does anyone else- because rarely are MP tack-ons given a chance to escape their own undeveloped, sickly placentas. To be wowed by the MP of BioShock 2 seemed an impossibly difficult task. And yet, as I dug my fingers into my controller and put in some serious time, exploring every nook/cranny/secret passage/vent shaft/dead-end in the maps of The Fall of Rapture, I was convinced this might be the next big online place to be seen.
“Join the Fight! Down with the Fascists!”
First thing I noticed is how much shit there is to trip on- whether its a corner of a stair or a poorly placed rock, Rapture is full of places to get stuck. Obviously, once you learn the maps it gets easier but should you take a stroll in the games, be sure to watch your step. It doesn’t help that “Jump” is mapped to the top button but a quick flip on the custom settings can map your controller better to fit your cramping hands needs. Second thing I noticed is how confusing the maps are for the first few hours; many have closed doors which require either a quick bolt or your arrival to open. Certain walls and vents need to be melee’d to open other rooms and there are plenty of hiding spots which create some bad camping moments, especially in either variation of Adam Grab. I would mention the “sweet spot” here, but too many already know of it and its a dog kicker. Throw a bunch of doors that look like they should open but don’t, and you have a lot of corner sulking wallflowers in the early games.
“Take a deep breath…this won’t hurt for long.”
But despite a few hiccups, Rapture was a welcome to change to the tactical breathless pace of MW2 and mouth breathing homophobia of Halo 3 at first. Sure, there might not be a lot of maps, but they’re all winners from a design standpoint and take you deep into the lore of the Fall of Rapture. Each player’s preffered character has their own apartment, wardrobe, weapons and recorded history which unlocks as you progress. You earn experience for all the Adam amass during a match through Kills, assists, vials, hacks and Big Daddy related tasks. Being restricted to 3 loadouts proves irksome later in the game as you pile up the tonics and weapon variations, but it also keeps it fluid. And the game variations grasped what works and threw a few much need Rapture wrenches into the mix. Instead of Capture the Flag, its Capture the Sister, in which each team tries to steal away the homicidal Adam suckling from the other. The defending team is awarded a Big Daddy in the beginning which makes for some fun initial assault scenarios. The key change in this game type is so much the design as it is the rule- Once you pick up the little sister and drop her, she doesn’t go running back to the original base. She stays right where you left her, crying and angry. Other nuances like hacking turrets, sabotaging vending machines and grabbing damage bonuses through researching fallen foes really create a unique and fun multiplayer experience. Plop the ability to grab a game-changing Big Daddy suit in the “Civil War” death matches and it all begins to weigh out like a shitton of fun.
Unfortunately, this elation is short lived. After grinding for hours in an effort to climb the seemingly forgiving level ladder, I was plagued with constant freeze ups, spastic lag and an unparalleled furor over the matchmaking process that resulted in several exceptionally painful aortic aneurysms. Welcome to Rapture, indeed. Message boards are drowning in their own weight with complaints on all platforms about the lag, menu delays, skull smashing freeze ups and the unbalanced gameplay around level 20. (Big Daddy, Insect Swarm and Electro Bolt are particular spots of contention) I made it to level 27 before throwing in the towel due to frustration of mix-matched teams, repetitive plasmid and tonic combos and overall ennui with the gameplay glitches. It is an unfortunate irony- 2K brought on Digital Extremes to craft a robust multi-player from scratch, not interfereing with the Single Player development whatsoever and ended up with a game that starts as an exhilirating dive to into Rapture and results in a drain-circling harrumph into Apathy.
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