Disclaimer: These are my spoiler-free thoughts after spending 3-4 hours with the game.
For me, initially the idea of heading back to Rapture 10 years after the events that took place in the original Bioshock were facsinating, though I have to admit that I was also leary of the experience. And not because of the sometimes talked of "quick corporate cash-grab" from 2KGames that gamers talk of--I try to not concern myself with that stuff--but because Bioshock seems to be a complete story unto itself. Afterall, wouldnt making a sequel to Bioshock be similar to making a sequel to Pulp Fiction--not necessary?
It turns out my suspicions were probably illconceived.
By now everyone knows you take control of the very first prototyped Big Daddy in Bioshock 2, and from the initial moment that happens the game makes it incredibily apparent how massive and powerful you are. With the heavy pounding of your feet as you lumber through about, the loud "Swoop" of your massive melee attack thudding someone across the head, or even the chest-deep grunts you let loose when you're attacked--it sinks in that you're truely massive. But that doesnt mean you're not susceptible to damage or that you perform things and slower than any other protagonist in a game.
Actually, to me it just highlights the greatness of his design. The collosal heaviness is translated to you completely by sound and not the controls. Infact there is almost a certain melancholy to the implication of how cumbersome your life is in Rapture now.
I have to admit, for me, the very first hour of the game was slightly awkward. Walking around was a confusing expereince as I tried to take in everything Rapture was designed to show me. The environments, though the same in essence, had changed a bit due to the lapse of 10 years, the writting scrawled across the walls didnt make much sense to me and the suit I was wearing felt cumbersome making me feel claustrophobic--I just totally felt out of place! But after putting some thought into it after playing last night I realize that perhaps what I was experiencing was a natural. Perhaps these elicited feelings were intentionally by design? I doubt it, but it did manage to augment my experience by connecting me to the protagonist, as I imagine he was most likely experiencing the same emotions.
By the time I hit the second area in the game Andrew Ryan's Amusment Park I was full on, 100% drawn into the game. I knew what plasmids I wanted to use in certain situations and what weapons were most effective against certain foes. But what was really interesting was playing through this particular area because the day before I was listening to the lastest Game Informer Podcast where they visited Irrational Games and talking to Ken Levine. Most of the conversation centered around inspirations for video game ideas and one of the things he brought up after movies was Walt Disney and it's theme park rides. He stated that theme part rides like Pirates of the Caribean is an experience where you never know where the audience is going to look and video games sometimes face the same dilema when trying to tell a story in the game. The issue is resolved, in both places, by the use of strong lighting and in dark rooms. While playing through this particular level you can see these techniques used--it was fascinating!
But there are some other minor annoyances in the game. One of them includes the odd default placement of the quick save and quick load keys--F12 and F11 respectively. Why on Earth would you flip the--mostly industry standard-locations around? They put the quick save on the right and the quick load immediately to its left. Often in PC games you will find the quick save key to be either F5 or F6, and the quick load key will usually reside on F9 or F10. Keeping the all important and sometimes frantically hit keys seperated by a few other keys adds a bit of insurance from gamers fumbling a wrong key press. I learned the hard way, in game, that they traditional setup was now configured by default. In one particular area in the game I died and was immediately resurrected in a Vita Chamber. I wanted to restart the game where I had saved it--which was right before I died so I wouldnt have to run back--but unfortunately my instinct forced me to hit the right-most key to laod it, but all it did was save my game where I was standing--in the Vita Chamber. It took me a few seconds to realize what had just happened--I overwrote my quicksave slot! It was frustrating losing the 15 minutes of game time, and I still dont understand the logic behind this design. Also, shouldnt a quick save be done...quickly? If you are taken out of the game for the process to happen (dialog:"Quicksaving, please do not turn your computer off!") then it kind of defeats the process doesnt it?
Also, having seperate keys to hack AND open things seems a bit cheap and a blatant offer at "choice". I can't see into everyones Bioshock game but I would be willing to guess that 99% of the people playing Bioshock 2 are hacking just about everything that can be hacked since it offers benefits (free items, lower prices on items, by pass alarms)--so why do we need seperate keys to hack and open things? Does anyone not want to hack something and bypass cheaper prices on items?
After the quicksave debacle I modified the default keyboard configuration to my liking only to find out a little later in the game that the text in the game didnt reflect my changes. For instance, I changed the binding of the F key and the Spacebar and in one particular instance, where you get to make a moral decision, the options were essentially "Press F to be a good guy and Press B to be a monster!" Well, I knew that I changed my F key bindings so I hit the Spacebar instead to be a goody-two-shoes and nothing happened. Y'okay, so it just didnt register my change, I thought. I then hit the F key and--not only did it not work--it choose the morally evil decision--what?! Fortunatley I had saved the game 5 mintues before this event took place so it wasnt a problem, but it does make me wonder how something like that slipped through testing.
Graphically speaking the game is very very much like the first one, but with slightly more detailed textures. I'm playing on the PC with all settings maxed out (DirectX 10) and it's never even hickuped. It's a really goregous game that's very aesthetically pleasing. I will say that I think, so far, that the level design is a step up from the already well done's first game.
Now back to Rapture...I've got some little sisters that need me!
I still haven't played ME2 either. Too busy these days. 
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