Sequel to the 2007 Game of the Year welcomes players back to the decayed magnificence of Rapture with rave reviews from the industry’s top critics

2K Games announced that BioShock®2, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2007 Game of the Year, is now available worldwide for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows-LIVE. Building upon the original game that shipped more than three million units worldwide, BioShock 2 delivers a single and multiplayer video game experience that is both an artistic achievement in entertainment and a highly addictive first-person shooter.

“BioShock represented a watershed moment in the gaming industry when it illustrated that games, like feature films, can be viewed as art – both in art design and in the rich depth of the narrative,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Most importantly, the media are stating what we’ve known all along; that whether or not you’ve played the original, BioShock 2 is a worthy successor to one of the best games of all time that should not be missed.”

The single player serves as a sequel to the original game and provides fans with an unsettling storyline, dazzling visual design and the evolution of the genetically enhanced shooter gameplay. Set almost a decade after a grueling civil war consumed the once magnificent city of Rapture, evil reverberates through the halls and a wickedness once thought gone forever returns along the Atlantic seaboard. An unspeakable series of kidnappings from local seaside communities by an unseen monster leads to the repopulation of Little Sisters in Rapture’s failed utopia under the ocean. Players must step into the boots of one of gaming’s most iconic characters, the Big Daddy, as they traverse through the fallen city, fending off attacks from an army of genetically modified Splicers, while searching for escape and the key to their survival.

Multiplayer in BioShock 2 provides fans with a rich and engrossing prequel experience that expands upon the fiction of Rapture’s origins. Set during the year before Rapture’s descent into chaos, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a key provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city that was first explored in BioShock. Players will enter into areas from the original title as they struggle to gain superiority in frantically paced battles.

Following in the critically acclaimed footsteps of its predecessor, BioShock 2 has already received high scores from the UK’s top gaming and consumer press:

• 9/10, IGN UK
• 9/10, Videogamer.com
• 93%, PSM3 Magazine
• 90%, GamesMaster
• 90%, Xbox World 360
• 90%, PC Gamer UK
• 5/5, 360 Magazine
• 5/5, Nuts
• 5/5, Zoo
• 5/5, The Guardian Online
• 5/5, The Sunday Times
• 5/5, The Mirror
• 5/5, Loaded

BioShock 2 was developed by 2K Marin in collaboration with 2K Australia, Digital Extremes and 2K China for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Games for Windows–LIVE, and is rated M for Mature by the ESRB. Source: www.bioshock2game.com