BioShock 2 (Xbox 360)

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The Big Sister is by far the game's big new feature

When the inevitable BioShock sequel was announced we were both excited and somewhat concerned. If you've played BioShock to completion you'll know that the ending doesn't exactly lend itself to a direct follow-up, but that's more or less exactly what 2K has done. What's more, original BioShock dev team 2K Boston isn't working on the game, with 2K Marin stepping in to the Big Daddy's shoes. We got a brief look at the sequel and are glad to report that we needn't have been so worried.

10 years have passed since the original, although you're once again in Rapture, the dystopian city from the mind of businessman Andrew Ryan. Rapture became a scientific hotbed, with the leading advancement in technology being ADAM - stem cells from sea slugs that were found to regenerate damaged tissue. Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum was in charge of the project, who, in partnership with mobster Frank Fontaine, created the Plasmid industry - which is how you were able to use all those special powers in the original BioShock.

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For those keeping up, the end of the first game would seemingly throw a spanner into the works for a sequel. BioShock is nothing without plasmids, plasmids require ADAM and ADAM needs to be mass produced in the stomachs of young girls. Without any little sisters remaining in Rapture, a new game in the series would surely be rather different. Well, yes and no. After leaving the underwater city to a life of freedom, one of the little sisters struggled to settle into normal society. She longed to be back in Rapture, so set about re-populating it with young girls.

We don't know who this ex-little sister is (none of them had names in the original), but she's built herself an armoured suit (like the big daddies) and has slowly been kidnapping girls from dry land and taking them to Rapture. While Rapture is in an even worse state than it was in the first game, it's starting to function as it did, with little sisters once again roaming the city as living ADAM incubators. This is where you come in, this time cast as, in a neat twist, the very first Big Daddy (having been in hibernation). We're not sure if the final game will play out as it does in the demo we saw, but Tenenbaum is once again feeling guilt for what she did all those years ago and awakens the slumbering giant to take on the big sister.

The little sisters look different, but they're as creepily cute as ever.

What happens from here on in the story, or if that opening is actually part of the game we're going to play when the game hits stores, is unclear. While the prototype Big Daddy wants to protect the little sisters, as this is what the lumbering beasts were built to do, your goals beyond this aren't obvious. One of the unique attributes of the prototype Big Daddy is his ability to think for himself - he's not just a mindless drone able to do one specific task, so presumably this will play out in some fashion over the course of the game. 2K has said that moral choices will be more difficult this time around, so it's not just going to be a case of saving or harvesting the girls.

In fact, saving and harvesting has been changed somewhat. You now have the option to harvest or adopt. Harvesting the girls obviously gives you the ADAM they're storing, but adopting them gives you your very own little accomplice, just as the Big Daddies had in the original game. With a little sister on your shoulder you can harvest splicers (the violently mad ADAM users that are looking a little worse for wear) for their ADAM. When you spot a splicer that can be harvested you can send your little sister off to drain it of its ADAM, but doing so will put her at risk.

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