When my boss handed me my copy of BioShock 2 for review, he had a word of advice: "review the game for what it is, and don't let your love for the first game cloud your judgement of the sequel." Considering that the original game is one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time and remains the highest review score I've ever given in three years of writing for GamingExcellence, it was good (yet unnecessary) advice. While BioShock 2 keeps up the high standard of presentation and fun factor of the seminal original, it's lacking a certain spark, a raison d'etre beyond lining publisher Take-Two's fiscal statements.

Living in the shadow of a beloved gaming experience like the original is certainly daunting and it becomes impossible to ignore the original game's contributions to gaming and simply take BioShock 2 on solely its own merits, which are actually plenty. As a standalone experience, BioShock 2 is actually a great game, filled with thrilling action, a cool storyline, wonderful atmosphere, and tons of weapons and plasmids to take on your enemies with. BioShock 2 is certainly worth your time and money. Perhaps expecting a game as revolutionary and stunning as the original was simply placing my expectations too high, but it's still hard not to feel slightly let down by the experience anyway.

BioShock 2 takes place ten years after the events of the original. The underwater utopia of Rapture is continuing its 90 degree nosedive into madness. This insanity is a result of the populace getting horribly addicted to ADAM, a substance allows the user to rewrite their DNA. ADAM is harvested from corpses by creepy children called "little sisters" who are protected by hulking beasts in diving suits called Big Daddies. Rapture was designed to be a city that was a safe haven for the best and brightest in society to operate without the watchful eye of government and religion, where the genius could be truly free to exploit their gifts. Without spoiling the first game too much, the proprietor of the city, Andrew Ryan, is now dead. Rapture has been taken over by a woman named Sophia Lamb, who is more communist-lite as opposed to Ryan's anarchist point of view.

Unlike Mass Effect 2, which spoiled us by taking into account actions and decisions made in the first game, BioShock 2 for the most part ignores the events of the original, and plops you in a new pair of shoes for the sequel. This time, you play as Delta, the original Big Daddy. You have all of their strengths, but also the gift of free will. Without going too deep into the story lest I spoil anything, you've spent the last ten years in a coma. You awaken to a Rapture in ruins, with spliced out psychotics roaming the halls and the structures rapidly deteriorating after ten years of neglect at the bottom of the sea. You're tasked with rescuing your Little Sister while taking out Sophia Lamb, but who's really the bad guy here? The game shares philosophical themes and tones with the first game, hitting notes such as free will, religion, sense of duty, and what really represents a true utopia. It's too bad that the story simply isn't told as well as the original title, and the main plot line becomes a chore to follow at times amidst Sophia Lamb's constant preaching over Rapture's PA system.

Also, for a game that so questions free will and the choices we make, BioShock 2 is unnervingly linear. The first game was linear too, but you were always given the option to explore previous areas and go back for things you missed. BioShock 2 uses a straight level system that allows for no more exploration than your average Halo title. If you finish a level without finding everything, the game will even warn you that you won't be able to return to find what you missed. The levels are large and have some room for exploration, but a good 80 per cent of your time will devoted to following an arrow to the macguffin flavour of the level. Pull this switch, find this person, destroy this item, flood this chamber. It gets repetitive and you never truly feel like you have any control over your own destiny.

The other 20 per cent of your time is devoted to protecting little sisters and playing zone defence. The first time around, whenever you came across a little sister after killing her Big Daddy, you had the option of saving her life and taking only 80 points of ADAM, or pulling the entire ADAM slug out of her body for 160 points, killing her in the process. In retrospect, the decision to be evil or good in this regard had little impact on how the game played out, only resulting in a different ending. This tradition continues with the sequel, and it's much easier to see through the façade after playing so many games with an "are-you-good-or-evil" mechanic in play. If you decide to be righteous, you'll be rewarded with extra ADAM from time to time anyway. However, your interplay with the Little Sisters is far more pronounced in the sequel, as you can adopt the girls and take them with you as your explore the level. Each sister you adopt can lead you to two corpses that are filled with juicy ADAM. The catch is that it takes her a while to do it, and you have to protect her and yourself from all the enemies that come out of the woodwork when you order her to extract it. From here you can set all sorts of traps while playing zone defence. The uniqueness of each area forces you to carefully consider your strategies before you start the sequence. Unfortunately, by the 20th time you've done this, it has mostly worn out its welcome.