Last month PSM3 Magazine got down and dirty in the first BioShock 2 hands-on and yesterday morning, with notepad and extra strong coffee in hand, we travelled to Take-Two in Windsor to do the same.
Stepping into the shoes of the first Big Daddy, Delta, to stomp around the even more rapidly decaying streets of Rapture is, unsurprisingly, an instantly familiar experience.
The feeling of isolation induced by the drip, drip, drop of the Atlantic ocean from every crack and crevice - a constant reminder that you're imprisoned in this mentalist dystopia - is rekindled immediately as we pull into a battered train station.
The city of Rapture has slipped even further down the slippery slope to self-destruction. The desperate and Adam-obsessed locals have modified themselves into even more horrific creations, and destruction and graffiti tarnishes every once-beautiful surface.
Our hulking character stomps off the train - every footstep birthing a metal thud - as we manoeuvre our vision around the brass edges of Delta's visor to examine a wall of ice blocking the train's path ahead. We'll need to melt it to move forward - more specifically with the plasmid ability, incinerate.
Our quest for the fiery plasmid leads us through Ryan Amusements; an 'educational' theme park designed to teach the children of Rapture what they're doing several miles below the sea - and why they shouldn't ever go back up to dry land.
As you'd expect from BioShock the park's attractions are propaganda-filled, occasionally hilarious - and sometimes disturbing - with animatronic Andrew Ryans preaching the evils of land government through battered 1930s speakers.
One scene has a giant set of hands - presumably that of the US government - literally pulling the roof off a family's home to steal their well-earned cash from within. Another has a family enjoying themselves in front of the television, before young Jimmy is dragged off by the same set of anamatronic mitts to "go to war and die".
This is but one tease of a seemingly rich narrative set to return in the second game. Ryan Amusements alone is scattered with audio diaries, scribbled messages on the walls and splicers madly screaming their tales down the corridors - and every element tells a story.
This time around the splicers and inhabitants of Rapture have been allowed a more believable presentation in both look and voice acting. One wrench-carrying mentalist moaned of his wife's desire for more kids, while another madman went ballistic when we entered the room, certain that we were "the bank" coming to collect his debts.
It's probably fortunate that the mutated citizens have been fleshed out in this way, because as a powerful Big Daddy you'll be seeing - and fighting - a lot more of them.
Big battles - such as those triggered by the harvesting of a little sister (more on that in a second) - are real spectacles this time, with more enemies and fireballs raining down on you at once than at any point in the first game.
Thanks to your suit of armour, gore-fountain drilling and plasmid-weapon combo abilities, you can easily take on five or six baddies at once, nailing one to the wall and electrocuting another before darting in with your pointy melee weapon for a bloody finish.
Again, the splicers seem more believable in combat than in the first BioShock. If you swiftly murder half of the group the remaining few will flee, terrified of your gigantic frame. Similarly a violent spin from your drill will see the leftover aggressors tremble with fear. But not everyone in the new Rapture is afraid of a Big Daddy.
Half way through our demo we encounter our first rival Big Daddy with a little sister in tow. If you want precious Adam to boost your plasmid power in BioShock 2, you need to get your hands on the little one's harvesting skills - which means its time for a Daddy-on-Daddy ruck.
As before the gentle giants won't disturb you unless provoked themselves, which gives us plenty of time to set an ambush using the new Rivet Gun's trap ammunition. They're like darts that stick to the walls and fire when walked past.
Once we've lined the courtyard with glowing red pitfalls, we're ready to take aim at our rival's big metal bonce and fire. The adjacent walkway turns into an Indiana Jones-style corridor of shooting darts as the Big Daddy charges towards us in a furious rage. The darts do some damage but he's still left with more than half of his health, allowing the metal menace to charge into our slimmer frame for a brutal, vision-blurring punch-up.
Eventually - after dodging dangerous lunges and offloading more than 15 rounds of our Rivet Gun into Daddy's face - he goes down, letting us lay claim to the little sister and her precious Adam-collecting powers.
With the tiny one safely positioned on your back, hunting out delicious corpses to harvest is a case of holding down the X button (on Xbox 360, obviously), which generates a Fable II-style 'bread crumb trail' directly to your target.
Harvesting a corpse is one of the main events in BioShock 2 - and this time you won't get any Adam without risking it. Once you've ordered your little one down to the floor to harvest, a wave of splicers storm the surrounding area, attempting to snatch the goods from your companion.
As before these spectacular, fireball-flinging battles are intense. One gadget that eases the pain is the excellent remote hacking tool, which allows you to fire a dart at an enemy-controlled turret or security camera and quickly turn it on your foes.
The original's hacking mini-game has been replaced by a real-time (as in, enemies can attack you while you're doing it) interface that has you attempting to stop a swinging dial on coloured parts of a gauge. It's certainly less effort than the original's Pipe Mania-alike, but it's biggest strength is in allowing new gameplay ideas like the one above.
We're warned via radio that our Little Sister-snatching has angered a new threat; a Big Sister, who's spotted creepily swimming past a view port near our final prize, the incinerate plasmid.
From the psychic explosions erupting through the hallway, it's clear we've pissed off the slinky assassin. With a visceral, invisible shove we're smashed, along with half of the room's scenery, through a metal door thudding to the feet of our screaming aggressor.
The Big Sisters are fast, powerful and bloody angry, jumping off the walls, swirling scenery around their heads - and throwing it in to ours - while our Rivet Gun ammunition bounces off her pitch-black diving suit.
A combination of incinerate fireballs and spamming rivets eventually brings her down - literally as we're about to snuff it ourselves.
The battle's an angrier, more brutal side to the BioShock we're used to, and it seems the sequel's taking a more aggressive tone all round. Similarly nothing in our demo suggests that the follow-up won't be every bit as inventive, rich in narrative and immersive as the original. Good things to come, then, BioShock fans.
I agree! I can't wait for it's release next year. Should be - fingers crossed - absolutely brilliant. It's a shame it won't have the same media hype as MW2 did. It damn well deserves to considering how good the first Bioshock was.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
