BioShock 2

Andrew Ryan built the happiest place on Earth…and even its kiddie rides have a hidden agenda. Don’t miss this world-exclusive peek at a new in-game mission where iconoclast Ryan himself wants to mold your mind…

“What? Andrew Ryan is in BioShock 2?!” If that’s how you reacted to the previous paragraph, then you know just how we felt hearing his voice in a recent demo of the upcoming sequel. Truth be told, the entrepreneur is not alive and well in BioShock 2: he’s still dead. But such is his presence, his power — and the impact of his death in the first game — that almost any BioShock fan will be a bit stunned to hear his recorded speech in this portion of the game.

“My name is Andrew Ryan. I built the city of Rapture for children just like you, because the world above had become unfit…” he intones. The place is Ryan Amusements, a theme park designed to show young children how scary the surface world is, and convince them never to leave their underwater home. The year is 1968 — nearly a decade after the events of the original BioShock. And you’re a Big Daddy — the very first one, as it turns out. For more details on where you are and what you’re doing, read on…

Before The Now

Before embarking on our demo of the Ryan Amusements level, which is about two hours into the game, 2K Marin creative director Jordan Thomas offers some more background info on the single-player campaign — with prominent gaps to avoid spoilers. Unlike BioShock’s hero, Jack, who arrived in Rapture as a stranger with no idea he was related to it in any way, your character in BioShock 2 is an important part of Rapture’s history. “You’re a living example of how good ideas went bad, and of how a city founded to exalt personal liberty ended up building slaves,” explains Thomas.

So the game’s intro depicts your life in Rapture’s pre-BioShock past. You were deployed as the first Big Daddy, you had a Little Sister with you, and something went wrong; now you’ve somehow awakened in 1968 wondering what the hell happened. Part of the story of BioShock 2 will be finding out what occurred right before your memory lapse and why you ended up where you did. Early in the game, you’ll encounter two familiar people: Augustus Sinclair (mentioned in one of the fi rst game’s diaries, and owner of Sinclair Spirits [BioShock] and Sinclair Solutions) and Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum (who freed you from Fontaine’s mental control in BioShock, and encouraged you to save the Little Sisters). They both agree to help you if you’ll help them, and your first stop is Ryan Amusements, where you’re currently trapped and need to find a new plasmid before you can move on.

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