Bioshock 2 opinions (Spoilers beware)

Just beat the game this morning on Easy difficulty just to play through and enjoy the story at my own pace without fear of getting slaughtered by Big Daddies, Big Sisters and Brute Splicers =P and have already begun again on Hard (this time making all evil choices, as opposed to being all good) and I would like to say that I am sufficiently impressed with the new Bioshock title and have very few annoyances.Pros:- Play as a Big Daddy, we got a brief yet not complete feel of what it might be like to be a Big Daddy at the end of the first game but now we experience it in full, I particularly enjoyed the gather segments with little sisters imagining what it would be like to be one of these powerful brutes defending the sisters from a horde of splicers.- Brand new weapons, i love the drill, on easy when fully upgraded the drill makes the game ridiculously unfair (for the splicers =P) the hacking tool to distance hack machines is definitely a great addition as well as modified versions of the machine gun, shotgun and crossbow / spear gun- New plasmids, some of the same old plasmids we had from the first game but upgraded, stronger and better. Upgrading your plasmids has a much more noticeable effect like upgrading a target decoy to be able to reflect damage back to the splicers and absorb the damage as health for you, etc. and plus, dual wielding plasmids and guns at the same time- New enemies, Brute Splicers, Rumblers and Big Sisters make the combat even tougher, but it was expected. We needed to see something that could go head to head with a Big Daddy, while other enemies were modified, most particularly Nitro Splicers are no longer featured and Leadhead Splicers now have the Nitro's grenades- Awesome new story, the story has its own twists, turns, new antagonists, new protagonists and moral choices that go further than just harvesting or rescuing the little sisters, but choosing whether or not to kill or spare the life of an un-spliced character along the way can drastically affect the game which lead to a total possibility of 4 endings (Rescue sisters, spare characters - Rescue sisters, kill characters - Harvest sisters, spare characters - harvest sisters, kill characters).- New locations, being able to see a whole new side of Rapture builds on the idea that this city is immense and there is a lot of history than what you learn in the first game with some locations showing evidence of Jack's effect on the city (a mural in Siren's Alley depicting the plane crash)- Audio diaries, further develop the history of Rapture and the events leading to its decline as well as gaining a better understanding into the creation of the little sisters and big daddies as well as events during the 8 year gap between the two games, and one series of diaries in particular that tell the story of Mark Meltzer who comes to Rapture in search of his kidnapped daughter is absolutely amazing once you have the full set. Deep and haunting what happens in Rapture even when you're not around- Multiplayer, ridiculously fun at times taking the fun of plasmids and weapons from the Bioshock series, bringing a nice polish to locations from the first game with a small diversity of characters each with their own stories that develop as you progress through the multiplayer ranks while bringing us multiplayer matches that suit the bioshock world such as capturing a little sister instead of a flagCons:- I only really had one or two cons for this game and that was the lack of free exploration. By that I mean, in the first game, even right at the end before taking the elevator to deal with Fontaine in the first game, you could use the bathyspheres to backtrack all the way back to Medical Pavilion in order to collect weapon upgrades, complete research and find the audio diaries. This is not the same for Bioshock 2. Once you leave an area, it is impossible to go back. Where in Survivor mode in Bioshock 1, you could avoid a Big Daddy and tackle him later with better weapons, you can't do the same in Bioshock 2. You must find every weapon station, find every audio diary, tackle every big daddy and do as much research as possible (particularly thuggish splicers, they disappear partway through the game to make it tougher for you and you only deal with brutes, houdinis and leadheads). On my next playthrough I will be sure to do all these things in order to obtain a platinum trophy, but I miss the freedom of being able to explore rapture at my free will without being forced to follow a linear playthrough that only allows forward progression without being able to go back.- My only other con was that the developers promised for a more dynamic first person experience where you would be able to look down and see your feet or look in a mirror or window and see your reflection, none of this however made it into the final product with exception to the opening intro. The best we get is being able to see our own shadow in brightly lit rooms. I have yet to find a game that equals Mirror's Edge brilliant first person dynamic. I mean honestly, you'd have to be bending at an impossible angle to look down and not see your feet.- Not really a con, but I wish there had been a secret ending that promoted the 3rd Bioshock game like the Sea Of Dreams trailer at the end of the first game. I'd like at least one little hint towards the story but SPOILERS BEWARE I can only guess that it would evolve the outside world getting closer to discovering Rapture and as a suggestion held commonly between a friend and I, a military take over in search of the plasmids with Rapture being turned into a military controlled city, with even more new little sisters being created for the continued purpose of producing ADAM to super power the military with plasmids, but naturally plasmid overdoses will lead to military splicers and you as a soldier sent to Rapture discover the horrid transformation of the rest of the military forces in rapture and must find a way to escape while being relentlessly pursued by the evil army general stereotype thats spliced out of his mind =P i like the idea =PIn the end, its a hard choice. Both Bioshock and Bioshock 2 have their advantages and the choice between which is better is difficult, and despite how much I love this new installation in the series and eagerly await the third installment and movie (both due to release around the same time in 2012) my vote would have to rest with the original Bioshock because I enjoy the feel of a complete free roam game and linear styled games seem to lose my interest quickly, but regardless I'll be playing Bioshock 2 over and over for a long time and the multiplayer will definitely keep me going.Holler out with your opinions and don't be afraid to scream out spoilers.

ill have to agree with the free roam.. i missed that aspect but i also have to say in bioshock 2 i dont like leaving the areas because splicers spawn faster wheras in #1 u had to leav and come back to see most of the splicers come back.so yes it is very linear but with the whole adopt system u still find alot of stuff even if ur trying to stricly beat the game and not search for every little thing.so my finale vote was for bioshock 2 cuz of the MP and story but i can still put in bioshock one just to mess around alot and kill ppl, i have no comment for the whole bioshock 3 thing yet but woot is all i can say lol =D

ill have to agree with the free roam.. i missed that aspect but i also have to say in bioshock 2 i dont like leaving the areas because splicers spawn faster wheras in #1 u had to leav and come back to see most of the splicers come back.so yes it is very linear but with the whole adopt system u still find alot of stuff even if ur trying to stricly beat the game and not search for every little thing.so my finale vote was for bioshock 2 cuz of the MP and story but i can still put in bioshock one just to mess around alot and kill ppl, i have no comment for the whole bioshock 3 thing yet but woot is all i can say lol =D

i actually liked that the splicers spawned faster. shows just how big the population of rapture is because in the first you kill everyone in an area and then an entire area of the city is empty? i would figure that such a large city would have a huge population. It also made it easier for research. Like I said, gotta research the thuggish splicers as early as you can cause they disappear which i found annoying.Now that I'm playing it again of Hard to get the last few trophies for the platinum (research, weapon upgrades, audio diaries and completing on hard), i wanna be sure to explore everything.And for those of you who don't know, when you first go to Ryans Amusements and after the door opens to Journey To The Surface after the first gather, you'll see an Andrew Ryan display. Grab the golf club out of the corner of the room with telekenesis and throw it at Ryan's head to get the "9-Irony" trophy =PAnd yes I must admit I loved the multiplayer. I reached Rank 40 the other day and thought the ending cinematic was awesomely clever. And even though I no longer have anything to achieve in multiplayer, unless I get anal about completing all the trials, I still love playing it because its absolutely addictive.