There is only one way to describe Bioshock 2’s multiplayer, and that is absolutely horrible. Without a doubt it is the worst multiplayer I have EVER played, and everybody knows how much I hate MW2’s MP. Theoretically it’s a good idea; set in the time of Rapture’s civil war, you have the command of weapons, plasmids and tonics. You can hack turrets and vending machines. You can even become a big daddy at times. Sadly, it still turns out to be awful.

  Yeah, you can hack turrets, but they are stupidly underpowered. I’ve stood right in front of one and hacked it while it’s been shooting me. You can hack vending machines to release a bomb if the enemy gets close, only it’s extremely easy to avoid and they can tell it’s been hacked anyway. Big Daddy suits make an interesting addition to the free for all mode, but they can be way overpowered in objective based games such as Capture the Sister, in which somebody starts with it by default instead of having to find it.
  Capture the Sister is the only mode I play now because it yields the most XP, and I want to stop playing this game as soon as I can (as I am being forced to go to level 40 to get the platinum), and this being an objective based mode you need a good team to do well, but therein lies a big problem in that a good majority of the BS2 community is comprised of complete morons who wouldn’t know what do with an objective if their lives depended on it.

    The developers tried to implement another unique feature but failed in that too. You can research dead bodies for damage bonuses, obviously meaning you can kill them quicker. What this basically equates to is that the more you die, the easier it is for you to be killed. Does that make sense?

    Weapon damage is incredibly variable. People have killed me with a seconds burst fire to the shins but in the past I have set someone on fire, shot them twice with a rifle and then with a crossbow, only to receive an assist. There are an odd number of assists received, despite it looking very much like you dealt the final blow. I once finished a match with one kill, 20 deaths and 25 assists. EVERYBODY seems to spam either the nail gun or the rocket launcher (which, in another genius move, can fire homing rockets), and it there is never a consistent amount of shots required to kill someone as half the time, they seem invincible. Plasmids vary from being extremely overpowered (usually when used on you) to being completely useless (usually when you use them).

    The biggest problem with this is that you are expected to get to level 40 for the platinum. You can get small 10xp bonuses for researching bodies, picking up ADAM vials or hacking, but these are basically useless later on. It takes a ridiculously long time to actually level up when you hit the late twenties. And on top of that, it takes an age to actually find a game in the first place, and half the time you lose connection (AFTER the game has finished) and you lose all the XP etc that you just picked up from it. Or you’ll lose connection halfway through and forfeit your valuable match bonus. In short, it’s completely fucking broken. And an extremely frustrating experience. I can’t say anything good about the gameplay, trying to get to level 40 is going to outright kill me. However, I applaud the story driven narrative, but it does not make up for having a shitty multiplayer. I wouldn’t mind it as much if it wasn’t necessary to get the platinum, and it stands as the perfect example of how NOT to do trophies.

Bioshock 2 multiplayer gets 4/10.