Playing A Game BioShock 2: Minerva's Den PC

In the end, the story is a nice, compact little vignette about a bit-player in the world of Rapture; or, it would be, if not for some pacing issues and bugs that frequently upset the experience.

  • In the first level, Minerva's Den proper, many of the objectives can be done in a variable order; which I sorta enjoyed, until I got to the end and realized that I'd missed most of the chapter's voice-over guidance. Although the objectives can be completed at your discretion, the narration isn't able to keep up with it.
  • In the second level, the Operations department, this same issue is better but still not completely fixed. There were a handful of instances where the voice-over got mixed up, playing its response to event A after I've already completed event C. And this chapter was completely linear, so I don't know what the excuse was here.
  • In the third/finale level, The Thinker, a playable segment after the final boss encounter has you searching through some personal quarters and filling in some emotional story bits. This includes a final audio diary, but when I picked it up, the Play button didn't work; I had to listen to it from the menu instead.
  • The ending scene was, well, nice, but as a series of stills rather than a fully-animated cutscene, clearly lacked the production value of any of Rapture's previous storytelling.

These would ordinarily be trivial issues, but in a BioShock game, which prides itself in impactful storytelling - even BioShock 2 ended up doing some pretty cool things with the Big Daddy/Little Sister dynamic - Minerva's Den simply feels lacking.

And as for the gameplay, while it's certainly serviceable and just as fun as in BioShock 2, it completely fails to change that game's mechanics in any meaningful way. The closest it gets is arguably with the flying sentry robots -- though they've been around since BioShock one, they're numerous enough throughout Minerva's Den that you'll usually have two little robotic buddies following you around. It's a distinctive touch, although they still get in your way all the time, and you still have no direct control over them.

It's also a little curious why 2K decided to fill this DLC adventure, only a handful of hours long, with all the weapons and ammo types of BioShock 2 itself (plus the laser). In the first chapter, you'll be picking up a new weapon or ammo upgrade every few minutes, and even in the second chapter you'll be getting new weapons that absolutely aren't necessary.

Ultimately, while there's nothing holistically bad about Minerva's Den, it's immensely disappointing how little it does to mix-up or change the BioShock formula. Though BioShock 2 couldn't live up to the bar set by the original game, Minerva's Den isn't even trying, and that's a real shame.

Better than: Overlord: Raising Hell
Not as good as: Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
I wouldn't say I regretted it: but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, either

Progress: Finished on Normal

Rating: Meh