Bioshock didn't excel as a shooter. It excelled as a narrative, Rapture acting as a living, breathing story. So it's a little strange seeing part of the game reduced to a standard multiplayer shooter.
2K showed us a few rounds of Bioshock 2's multiplayer component yesterday, and in doing so, have revealed an aspect of the game that's as removed from the creepy, oppressive atmosphere of the first game as you can possibly imagine.
While the final game will feature three multiplayer modes, we were only shown one, which centred around a single Big Daddy. At the start of the level, there's a Big Daddy suit dropped randomly into the level. First person to find it becomes said Big Daddy, and inherits all the advantages you'd expect. When/if that Big Daddy is finally killed (though this isn't the objective, it's just a plus in an otherwise standard deathmatch), the suit is dropped randomly somewhere else in the level, and free to be picked up again by any of the players.
All three modes will support a maximum of only ten players total, with a range of weapons and plasmids available. These weapons can be improved, and your arsenal increased, by levelling up, much like Call of Duty's rank system.
Which all sounds nice enough, but at the same time, looks a little "tits on a bull", if you'll pardon the expression.
Bioshock was a game renowned for its singleplayer experience, and it's hard seeing how tacking three multiplayer game modes with a limited number of players onto the sequel will count for much of anything. I mean, it seemed to work fine and all, but just did not once ever make me think fickle multiplayer devotees would stop playing Call of Duty or Team Fortress 2 for this.
On the bright side, this has no bearing whatsoever on the game's singleplayer component...