2010-07-28
Did you really, really like the parts of BioShock 2 where you had to protect Little Sisters as they gathered ADAM? If you answered yes, then you'll probably love the upcoming single player DLC, Protector Trials.
The Protector Trials has a story, but it's not tied together in any typical narrative structure. Rapture's Dr. Tenenbaum has brought you -- an Alpha series Big Daddy, but not the one from BioShock 2's campaign -- into service in order to collect a bunch of the city's genetic currency called ADAM. But that seems to be about all the story you're given, as the game isn't played in any sort of directed story, but is instead presented as a series of six levels (which have three parts, for a total of 18 stages to play) you can choose between.
Each stage has only a single body for the Little Sister to harvest, but what makes it challenging is that the player isn't given any choice in what plasmids or weapons they have. One stage might give you just a machine gun and a fire plasmid, while another might give you nothing but weapons and plasmids that are good for setting traps. The point of each mission is to make players adapt to a variety of play styles, forcing them out of their comfort zone. In practice this translates into situations where you'll find yourself using plasmids that you actively avoided during the campaign, either because you disliked it or because you simply never chose to purchase it.
Another difficult aspect that the Protector Trials introduces is money management. While you start each stage off with no cash whatsoever, you can build up your bankroll by killing enemies. You then have to carefully use this money with the various vending machines in the stage in order to make sure you have just enough health, EVE (mana) and ammo to scrape by to the finish. Supplies are also sometimes finite as well, forcing you to yet again adapt your strategies as certain ammo types run dry through the course of your epic defense.
