By now, you’ve certainly seen the debut gameplay trailer for BioShock 2. At a recent 2K media event in New York City, we were shown a play-through of that demo level in all it’s high definition and surround sound glory. Will the sequel have the same ground-breaking effects as its predecessor? While I believe it will be a solid game, I don’t think it will have the same impact as the original BioShock.

Ten years ago in video game years (or two and half in real life), you kicked the shit out of Rapture. Andrew Ryan’s anti-utopian undersea world proved to be a hell hole of mutated Splicers fed by the Plasmids of Frank Fontaine. <SPOILER ALERT> After taking down Ryan, you faced off with your leader throughout the game, Atlus (who turned out to be Fontaine) and escaped back to the real world. </SPOILER> This time around, Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum reawakens you as the first ever Big Daddy to hunt down the Big Sister, an escaped Little Sister who returned to Rapture to wreak havoc.

Since you’re the original Big Daddy, you have some abilities that others don’t, mainly the use of Plasmids. This time around, you can mix and match Plasmids to create devastating effects. In the demo shown, the player used a tornado-effect Plasmid and then threw a fireball Plasmid into the cyclone to suck in any incoming Splicers. This was done to set up a perimeter defense for your Little Sister, who was busy harvesting Adam from a nearby corpse. Throughout the game, you’ll have plenty of these opportunities which you can choose to take advantage of or just pass them by (if protecting your Little Sister isn’t your type of thing).

Your main weapon is your drill, which is amazingly cool. When I first saw the original BioShock trailer, I always wanted to take control of the Big Daddy and drill into someone. That’s now possible and putting your drill arm through a Splicer is awesome. You can also throw a shoulder charge at enemies and use your rivet gun, with more weapons becoming available throughout the game. You’ll also be able to dual wield your weapon and Plasmids as you can fire both off simultaneously.

New and old environments will be available in Rapture, such as the Fontaine Futuristics Plasmid factory as well as open sea areas. You are in the Big Daddy diving suit, so going outside won’t kill you. It’s mostly an exploratory part of the game as you can’t be attacked while outside.

While there are some nice changes with being a Big Daddy, I’m afraid that BioShock 2 won’t have the same impact as the first game of the series. Seeing Rapture for the first time and using your first Plasmid was an eye-opening experience that I don’t think will be replicated by stepping into the shoes of the Big Daddy. Don’t get me wrong, I think it will be a very good game, just not at the level of the original. We’ll have more time with BioShock 2 at E3, so check back for more coverage.