14 DAY TRIAL // Bioshock 2's release date is steadily approaching, and one of the bigger things the game changed from its previous installment was the multiplayer. And while the ideas might look to us like they've come in pretty late, 2K Marin doesn't believe that at all. According to the studio, it has been cooking this one up for some time now, and it's in no way a rushed feature of the title. Talking to PC Zone about the subject, 2K Marin Senior Producer Melissa Miller made it very clear that the multiplayer wasn't “just shoved on.”
“Multiplayer is a big part of Bioshock 2,” she said, “and it certainly wasn't something where we thought: 'Oh, let's just shove a multiplayer mode on.' We went to a lot of trouble [to ensure] that it was something that would fit properly into the Rapture universe and gameplay-wise.” From here on out, while still focused on the multiplayer aspect of Bioshock 2, the discussion shifted over to Augustus Sinclair, and the character's importance in the game.
“While Sinclair is a chief character in the multiplayer game, he doesn't actually physically show up,” she explained. “But his presence is very much felt because citizens of Rapture have enrolled in his 'Sinclair Solutions Home Consumer Rewards Club' – this pyramid scheme he started up in order to promise these people new cutting-edge plasmid weapon technology.”
While it's good to see that the developers haven't neglected any part of the game, many will agree that a multiplayer for Bioshock 2 is a bit of an extra detail. The main attraction of the original game was without a doubt the universe, the single-player setting and the world of Rapture. The concept, along with the atmosphere, is what made Bioshock the hit that it is, and not things like “accessibility” and “market coverage.” While we understand that publishers feel that releasing a game in 2010 without a multiplayer mode is not something a respectable company does nowadays, very few people, if any, will pay more attention to Bioshock 2's multiplayer than they will to the single-player campaign.