I would not call Bioshock 2 devoid of creativity. Plenty of the ideas, such as Dr. Alexander and the Little Sister pov sequence, are memorable and new.
I would say that it didn't bring enough new to the table, but it's clear that the developers cared about their product and put their best effort into it.
Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.
The developers want our money?
Perish the thought!
I agree in general, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it's entirely un-creative. I felt wrong playing this game from the very first minute. Bio Shock WAS self-contained, and the ending was enough for me to forget about Rapture and leave it to rot forever. The notion of returning there was repulsive to me, because the traumatic experience (in-game, that is) of the first game left a mark.
I just couldn't muster up the desire to play past the first level or two of this game. It didn't feel like Rapture, and I didn't feel the need to revisit it. The plot and setting were so intricately tied in the first game that there was no possible way for Bio Shock 2 to work properly.
So no, not a bad game, but basically by design it was doomed to live in the shadow of its titan of a predecessor. I do look forward to Bio Shock Infinite because of the fresh setting and story.
I really enjoyed Bioshock 2, and I totally disagree that it was an unimaginative cash grab. Bioshock was about exploring a specific ideology coming apart in an unusual setting, and whilst Bioshock 2 returns to that same premise and setting, it is completely distinct. It made sense for a post Ryan Rapture to adopt the polar opposite of Objectivism, and I liked the cross-examination of the more nuanced (yet equally flawed) collectivism. Meanwhile, I loved how this older Rapture is bulging at the seams, showing far more disrepair and decomposition than the previous title.
As for a protagonist, a big daddy is much more compelling character than a faceless super soldier, especially as you've had an entire previous game to establish a whole understanding of their horrible life. People just kind of took you for granted in Bioshock, but in the sequel they back away in horror, or treat you like an abomination. You're their boogey man, and that's an interesting perspective. Also, the final ending cinematics suited your actions far better. Instead of going on to be a saint or super villain, your story simply serves as a lesson to your "daughter". That feels far more personal, and less OTT.
That said, I dislike some things - like the horrible voice acting, and the way in which the game doesn't properly finish. The final fight feels less like a final fight and more like what you've already been doing again and again. I didn't need a final battle with Sofia Lamb, but I needed a proper lead up towards some kind of climax.
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The worst kind of sequel.
Let me preface what I'm about to say with a very important opening statement—Bioshock 2 is a good game. If you take away all outside elements, and it's just you and this game in a vacuum, you're going to have a blast. The combat is intense and creative, the weapons are satisfying to use without feeling too powerful for the setting, the plasmids pair well with the weapon upgrades, and barring a few terrible mistakes (everything to do with the little sisters) the design could be considered stellar.
With all that in mind, you are properly prepared for the news that Bioshock 2 is a crime against humanity.
The problem is that, for all of its good design and gamefeel, the game has no reason to exist other than profit. The story of the first Bioshock was entirely self-contained—there was little to no room for a sequel. If you've played the first, many things from the second won't make sense. As the story wears on, you'll start to get a sense that your actions in the first weren't as destructive to Rapture as a whole as you were led to believe. Ultimately, any person who's played the first will realize at some point in the second that they are being exploited, served a sub-par story because they've demonstrated that the original concept was marketable. The developers do not respect you, they see you as a sort of walking wallet that likes to buy games. Thus, instead of focusing on building a new world and a new story, they took the existing one, skipped ahead a few years, and spent all of their effort on escalating the scale of the combat and visuals of the first in an effort to suck in more people to get more money. It is devoid of creativity, and has no reason to exist other than to give the gaming community a stellar example of how an abomination can hide in the skin of a work of art.