BioShock Infinite was definitely the most disappointing sequel I've ever played. It completely removed the rich ecology found in the first BioShock with the Big Daddy/Splicer/Security system. There were no truly large areas and basically no room for exploration. Holding only two weapons was literally a downgrade in every way without any sort of upside or advantage to it, mainly because it's faux strategy as opposed to being able to have multiple weapons, but more limited ammo.
All emergent gameplay was gone. The only Vigor that caused any sort of unusual scenario was the Possession Vigor, and even that was completely scripted and made obvious to the player. All Vigors were straightforward and served a single purpose, and there was basically no point in being creative with any of them.
Removed are the physics and ragdolls from the previous games, as well as the intense atmosphere. There was almost no character progression to be had, with Vigor and weapon upgrades being made through the use of money, which can be found everywhere and is literally tossed to you without any effort. Not once did I ever feel like I had to overcome a challenge as great as beating a Big Daddy, or make wise decisions as to how I progressed. There was no strategy or thought required to progress through Columbia, unlike in Rapture, where clever thinking and planning ahead were the best courses of action.
Now, instead of hacking, all you need to do is simply press square and have all of the work done for you. Want a turret? There. Security drone? Done. Health packs? Just ask. Not once did it ever feel like I had to be dependent on my environment to succeed, Elizabeth just gave me everything.
Because hacking and all of this emergent gameplay was removed, the special upgrades you can receive are now completely restricted to the jaunty, obnoxious, over-the-top combat. Only a small handful of them are even useful, the rest of them coming into play when on the extremely rare and boring Skylines, or when performing some ridiculously uncommon action.
Not once was there ever a level as massive, unscripted, creative, and exciting as the fifteen-minute demo featuring the horse tranquilization and the blimp battle. It feels as if Ken Levine looked at that gameplay and said, "Wow, okay, yeah, that was hands down the most freaking awesome gameplay I have ever seen in my life. Alright people, it is our foremost duty to make sure nothing like that ever happens in BioShock Infinite."
Instead of soaring through the air and feeling like I was truly exploring a sky city, I was mostly stuck to corridors and outdoor areas that surrounded me with big, ugly buildings. Why on Earth, Irrational? You excite me with this idea, and then only feature it a handful of times.
Admittedly, I thought Infinite's story and voice acting were completely serviceable. Booker and Elizabeth's growing friendship was a huge highlight of the game for me, even though the ending could have been completely different if Booker had simply stopped to think for a moment. Here's a clue so as to avoid spoilers: Lutece as an infant.
However, another huge disappointment was the fact that the Voxophones were recorded by all of five or six people, sticking almost exclusively to Lutece and Comstock for the entirety of the game. How could this game that's got a huge budget and is supposed to be all about this incredible city only hire a few voice actors to work on these audio recordings? I really wanted to dive into Infinite's citizens and see what their experiences were like throughout the game. Rapture was so incredibly rich and detailed because it went into such depth accounting the tales of dozens of different citizens' experiences in the days and months before the city's fall. Instead, I'm pretty much told what the city is like, and then just expected to run around and shoot my way through it.
This will probably be the most unpopular opinion on the thread, but being a huge fan of the first two BioShock games and having played each of them at least ten times (the first game more around 20), and having waited eagerly for this game since its announcement, I realized right from the start that it was a terribly designed game. Its popularity most likely stems from the fact that it's a standard shooter game that manages to have a good story, colours, and a setting other than the Middle East or Russia.
