BioShock 2 has a lot to live up to, and understandably so. BioShock, originally released in 2007, was widely hailed as the best game of the year, if not the decade. So crafting any kind of follow-up was probably doomed to feel like diminishing returns. Nevertheless, BioShock 2 has a lot to offer, even if a lot of it feels like familiar territory.

Taking place 10 years after the events of the first game, BioShock 2 dumps you into the very heavy boots of the first ever “Big Daddy,” a lumbering behemoth in a diving suit, armed with a gas-powered drill and rivet gun. Every Big Daddy is paired with a Little Sister, and yours happens to be missing. Reclaiming your Little Sister is the MacGuffin that drives most of the story, and all the while, you’ll uncover more behind the events that led to her disappearance.

Although you control a Big Daddy in BioShock 2, gameplay feels remarkably similar to the first game, where you control a normal guy who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The Big Daddy can run, jump, hold an entire arsenal of guns and make use of several “Plasmid” powers. Plasmids are special genetic enhancements that let you do anything from shooting a bolt of lightning from your hands to hypnotizing enemies into fighting each other.

The undersea dystopia of Rapture is as hauntingly beautiful and threatening as it was in the first game, and the intricate detail in which every room, every piece of furniture and every artifact within the game has been carefully rendered is truly a marvel. The city is still infested with “splicers,” city residents who have been driven mad in the quest for genetic currency known as ADAM, and it’s mainly these baddies that you’ll be taking down. Though if you think the first BioShock thoroughly prepared you to handle splicers, BioShock 2 has a few surprises. I fancy myself a pretty good BioShock player, and even I had to run and duck for cover more than once.

The most threatening new enemy, however, is the Big Sister. The game doesn’t reveal much about the nature or origin of the Big Sisters, but they’re quick, powerful and definitely deadly. They’re avoidable some of the time, but there are a few occasions in which the game forces you into direct confrontation with them, and these are some of the hardest parts of BioShock 2.

Assisting you in your quest is the ability to upgrade yourself with new plasmids that you purchase with ADAM. The way to get ADAM is to kill other Big Daddies throughout Rapture and use their Little Sisters to gather ADAM for you. Like in the previous game, you can choose to harvest Little Sisters to get the most ADAM possible, or you can free them of their hypnotic attachment to Big Daddies. But BioShock 2 adds the option of temporarily “adopting” Little Sisters, where you can have them gather ADAM for you from around Rapture before being forced to make the “harvest or save” choice.

This is the game’s idea of a nuanced moral choice, and unfortunately, it isn’t really as deep as it could be. The temptation to be “evil” by harvesting the Sister is big, but if you’re like me and you instinctually want your main character to make the “right” choice, then there’s really nothing to think about. Ultimately, the most “moral” choice in the game comes down to either getting lots of ADAM now and being a child murderer or getting a decent amount of ADAM later and being a savior. As far as morality in videogames go, there’s still progress to be made.

Perhaps the biggest addition to BioShock 2 is the new online multiplayer mode, something entirely absent in the first game. Instead of playing a Big Daddy 10 years after the first game, you are now put in the role of a splicer just before the events of the first game, giving a new perspective to how Rapture went from an undersea Xanadu to the chaotic dystopia of the main game.

Aside from the unique BioShock look and feel, however, the multiplayer mode doesn’t tread much new ground. There’s a free-for-all mode, team deathmatch, a “capture the flag” mode with a Little Sister instead of a flag, and other game types that will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s ever played an online shooter. There’s nothing too unique about it, but it’s still fun, especially if you’re already a BioShock fan.

BioShock 2 isn’t quite the classic that its predecessor was, but this ultimately feels like an unfair standard to compare it to. Taken on its own merits, BioShock 2 is a well-written, thrilling adventure with lots of cool powers to unlock and briny depths to explore. Rapture remains one of the most enigmatic and scenic worlds in modern videogames.