First thing's first: resolve the crashing issue by forcing the game to render using DX9
With that out of the way, Bioshock 2 is a game that really won me over. For the longest time I regarded it as inferior to the original. On replaying it, I now understand that it's barely even the same game.
"But MD, it still takes place in Rapture and features almost all the same mechanics!"
True, but it both expands on those mechanics and uses them in a completely different way. The big new thing with Bioshock 2 is that you're a Big Daddy from the get go, and thus you spend the game doing Big Daddy things, namely defending Little Sisters. But this isn't some glorified rail shooter crap like the end of the first game. You're expected to stand against massive onslaughts in fixed locations that you can engage with at will. Thus, you actually have time to set up all kinds of traps and various area defense tools such as mini-turrets and summoned security bots. Traps were present but virtually unused in the first game. The only purpose of this, however, is gaining more Adam. If the player doesn't care, he's free to ignore it at the risk of being underprepared for later fights.
There are a number of other really nice QoL changes in the game too. Dual wielding, gene tonics no longer having arbitrary limited slots per category (all are combined into a single ~25 slot board), the hacking minigame being changed to one that goes by so, so much faster (with the tradeoff of occurring in realtime). Even little things like the drill being more balanced and more satisfying than the wrench contribute to the gameplay being incredible
While the story is an obvious attempt to rectify the fact that they didn't make an analogue to The Many from SS2 in the first game, it's compelling in its own right and expands on the lore well. The game does all a sequel should, with the only big disappointment being reduced level count. Little Sister defense can feel like padding in light of that.
