Just keep in mind that Infinite is much more like all the other 'Current FPS series'. It is worth playing for the story tho. And thanks for the DLC recommendation.

Bioshock 2 ruined the series for me and I can't for the life of me recall why. Infinite, while a big improvement in terms of gameplay, bores me to tears. I have no idea why though.

Try it again then. If you have enjoyed the original, chances are you just were in a bad mood. There's no way you'd enjoy original Bioshock and not the second game, as they're essentially the same.

I'll tell you why: It's not a big improvement in terms of gameplay. Not at all. The gameplay is just flatout boring. I'm going to give you a little scenario here:

Bioshock - you see a room. You sneak your way to a camera, you hack it, turning it friendly, and then you lure splicers in its general direction, letting bots do the work for you.
You see a camera, you use the security plasmid on splicers to turn it against them without hacking.
You bypass the camera altogether and use enrage to make the splicers fight amongst each other.

Add to that that all levels are fairly open, you can freely combine weapons and plasmids, and you get a game with tons of options for any given situation.

Bioshock 2 is the same thing, except it gives you even more options - you can summon a security drone, you can send an invisible scout to hack equipment behind your enemy's back, you can heal using upgraded decoy plasmid. Or you can use the drill's dash to obliterate everything in your path if you have grabbed your upgrades properly :-P

Now, Bioshock Infinite stripped most of that out. There's no hacking, just a variation of the enrage plasmid, it only limits you to two weapons and one ammo type, combat zones are extremely linear and the only bits which are genuinely interesting are the ones with those rail ... Things which give a combat great dynamics, but those are at about 1/5th of combat zones. To the lack of options add the fact that the weapons feel terrible, there are no actually interesting weapons at all (you can mostly choose between slow firing rate + high damage, fast firing rate + low damage, shotgun and grenade launcher. That's all there is.) And the game treats enemies as zerg rush, throwing loads and loads of them at you - feels more like Modern Warfare than anything else, thank god for the more open non-combat areas.

I think I was disappointed by Bioshock 2's story, but again, it's been some time. I'm still going to slug my way through Infinite as the overall setting is pretty cool (despite the large amounts of racism) and the boring gunplay.

You do realize the racism is an actual portrayal of 1918 America, right? It's by far the best portrayal of racism I have ever seen in a videogame.

I know, believe me. I just get tired of seeing it (Being from the South and all).

A lot of people wrote the game off as a simple cash-in on a game that didn't really need a sequel. Maybe it started out that way, but it did grow into something else.Then again, Bioshock 2 doesn't really follow up on the events of the first game anyway, so....

Nah, I like the first Bioshock despite its weaknesses, but Bioshock 2 had more of an impact on me, since the game does not rely on a single OMGWTFBBQ twist but instead runs with its theme and brings it to a satisfying conclusion.

I wouldn't say the game surpassed the original, but it was as good and it did make some improvements. What I can say for it is that it ironically accomplished something Levine has tried and failed to. He wants you to use as many combinations of weapons and powers as possible, but with Bioshock & Infinite I never needed to. I found my comfort combo, & sailed through the game with that. With Infinite the only time you really have to change is when the game forces you to, whenever an enemy who resists your prefered power shows up. Bioshock 2 however had me using everything all the time, B2's devs didn't have to twist my arm into switching it up because it just came naturally.
It was also pretty awesome that it got some single player dlc, allot of people rip on it for having Multiplayer and most times I'd criticize a game for that too but along with that added mp there was also more story brought to the game. That DLC was one of my favorites, so I'd argue that having mp didn't degrade the games quality as some suggest.

While I preferred the combat of Bioshock 2, I didn't think the story and originality was anywhere in Bioshock 1's level.
Bioshock 2 felt more like an expansion, instead of a brand new game/sequel.

Regardless, Bioshock takes a lot of flack b/c it came out after a masterpiece like Bioshock 1.
It's pretty much the same thing that I think happened w/ following-up a masterpiece like Dragon Age: Origin w/ something like say Dragon Age 2.
I think Bioshock 2 and DA2 are good games, but they both are NOWHERE even closely to the masterpieces that are the originals.

It has better combat, but I thought the level design, story and atmosphere MUCH better in the original.

Agreed 100%.

I loved Bioshock 2. Didn't care for the underwater parts - I'm phobic to jellyfish, so I had to rush through them with my eyes screwed up - but otherwise I really liked the game. It certainly didn't have that incredibly cheesy third act the first game had, and the ending was fantastic.

Also, this game has what is probably my favourite Collector's Edition, ever. The box is nice enough that I keep it displayed on a table that is not indicative of being nerdy otherwise, but what takes the price is the content. A friggin' working LP, people! The only thing that might match this is the Fallout 3 actual lunch box.

I thought that, on balance, it was on par with the original. There are pros and cons to both games and Bioshock 2 always seemed wrongfully derided to me.

Oh, I got a brand new one out of a pawn shop for £20 a while ago. I wanted it just for the LP. It's a fantastic Collector's Edition, I love looking through the art book.

I wouldn't say the twist is what made the first game but more of how they portrayed Atlas and Ryan as characters and how they were involved in the plot. Then again I can only really say that I remember Bioshock felt like a better game because I can't really recall anything from the sequel other than that I didn't like the new villain and I'm sure I would find something about it that I didn't the first time (with less expectations). I also remember what I liked about the first game is that you immediately had the feeling that the creators of Rapture tried to create something extraordinary and had the potential for a hegemonic society and if it wasn't for ADAM they could have succeeded.