Originally Posted by Brother None
Repetitive level design might be badly phrased; it's referring to the grind of Save Little Sister-Protect Little Sisterx2-grind x3-fight Big Sister repetitive nature of each level. The variation in aesthetics and layout is there; the variation in how the levels actually play is not.

Yes, I agree. I found the level design to be quite variated, but collecting Adam felt like grinding.

Originally Posted by Brother None
And yes, BioShock 2 has a terrible story. Stopping for one moment to look at it carefully is all it takes to reveal that, and the fact that it's wrapped in the same bombastic language as its predecessor may be enough to fool my colleagues, but not for me. It's not just that it is derivative in almost everything being a lazy mirror image of BioShock 1, it is - as explained in the review - the inconsistent writing that did it for me. It's as bad as Fallout 3, it just hides it better.
What does satisfy me story-wise? BioShock 1 did. It wasn't great, and setting and backstory were both stronger than the main plot, but it was certainly good enough. BioShock 2 isn't.

I enjoyed the overarching story in B2, thanks to being interested in the philosophy it's based on.