Coming to PSN: BioShock 2 Rapture Metro DLC

Hello there! I’m Jordan Thomas, creative director of BioShock 2, returning with another PlayStation.Blog post to offer a few thoughts about the Rapture Metro downloadable content pack and the free Kill ‘em Kindly downloadable mode that we’re releasing simultaneously tomorrow, May 11th, 2010.

So, both of these DLC offerings are multiplayer-focused. The Rapture Metro Pack contains a rank increase to 50 and, when you reach it, you’ll win the opportunity to begin anew with Rebirth mode. This resets you to Rank 1 with a Golden Bunny Mask, and a prestigious indicator next to your name to taunt lesser organisms. But wait — there’s more!

If you make it all the way to 50 again, you secure the coveted Golden Bucket, which basically tells the world that you’re so damn good you don’t have to care.

More meatily, the Rapture Metro Pack contains six new playable locations from Rapture’s history, many of them offering a distinctly different tactical focus than the original set we shipped with in BioShock 2. Design lessons from the live release of the shipping maps have been taken heavily into account with these babies.

Let me give you the nickel tour:

Pauper’s Drop: The Hooverville-like shanty which sprang up during the construction of the Atlantic Express. With long sightlines and open courtyards at the center, the Drop opens up opportunities for honest-to-gosh sniping in a way that our release maps weren’t as focused around.

Dionysus Park: The single best example of the gleaming, Utopia-in-peril setting of the BioShock Multiplayer experience, Dionysus Park is an art gallery owned by Sofia Lamb. It appeared in the BioShock 2 single player component as a filth-encrusted, recently flooded garden of goop. But here in 1959, all that pain and decay have been peeled away, and it can be enjoyed in its original, golden splendor. Territory and security control feature prominently in the park’s tactical terrain.

Fontaine Fisheries: A key location from the original BioShock, the Fisheries were home to Fontaine and his gangland allies. It’s symmetrical in nature, with the icy freezers as the center of conflict. You’ll battle through dock areas, salt ponds, and more as you make shady new friends and then gut them like fish.

Fighting McDonagh’s: This is a zoomed-in, intimate look at one of the Fisheries’ most famous locations. The Fighting McDonagh’s tavern was the favored watering hole of the city’s underclass, who took the frustration of their broken utopian dreams out on each other in sponsored boxing matches. It’s dense and highly interconnected, serving up plenty of chances for a close-range ambush.

Smuggler’s Hideout: This cavernous, once-secret location was where Fontaine’s smuggling operation docked a private submarine and moved contraband into Rapture, daring Andrew Ryan to stop the people getting what they wanted. The bulk of it favors long range skirmishing, but it has a number of back routes and semi-secret tunnels to help you sneak up on snipers and ventilate ‘em.

Siren Alley: Shaped like a big, sexy donut, Siren Alley was the red-light district in Rapture. The looping path means it’s easy to find the action, and the footbridges and overlooks allow you to snipe from higher ground. Shortcuts through the interior flophouses give you a chance to bushwhack someone whether they take the high road or the low.

The Rapture Metro Pack also challenges you to earn three new Trophies, because hey — you’re going to want something to show Rapture who’s top dog.

Finally, let’s talk about the free Kill ‘em Kindly mode. This melee-only game is all about stalking the dripping halls with a golf club and looking for prey — and then bludgeoning all & sundry to death. You might also offer a pithy quip of some kind, espousing your personal philosophy to the sub-human lump of gristle who had the temerity to face you on the field of battle. It’s entirely up to you.

It’s kind of a playable in-joke for BioShock fans. I probably don’t need to explain why.

Did I mention that it’s free? Have fun!