oh, you can haz spoilers here. Now that i've finished I have had some time to think about things.
Looking back, the early videos did seem more 'rapture-esque' which is probably why things were re-tooled - but they also seemed more ambitious. Elizabeth seemed much more powerful and useful in battle - attacking enemies with 'vigor-like' abilities..
The Lutece [plural or singular? ;)] - intriguing. I always took notice when they were around.
I loved the opening atmosphere with random people milling about. Once the bullets began to fly the environments kinda felt lifeless, there were the odd civilians here and there but it wasn't really the same.
That made me crave encounters with the 'twins'.
The difficulty - I'd say it was more tedious than challenging. A lot of firefights just felt bland, I was just focused on clearing an area to advance the story rather than enjoying what was going on.
Columbia vs Rapture? - I gotta go with rapture. In the early games it was like you were in a completely different place - the sane man in an insane world. In Columbia, you are just stuck in a city with a handful of assholes, yourself being one of them.
Comstock felt like too much of a re-hash of Ryan to me, perhaps with a more original storyline i'd have enjoyed the 'world' more.
It did seem early on like issues like racism would play a large role but once the shit hit the fan it was basically you vs everyone in the city and little else.
The weapons is where the game really disapointed me.
Two gun limit - I just don't understand this. Why now? It was kinda frustrating, in the end i just upgraded a few weapons and stuck with those.
no visual aspect to upgrades - This was something I really enjoyed back in rapture.
different guns that look identical - There's really no excuse for this. It was distracting to pick something up thinking it was something else [in the heat of battle]. This was something that also had me sticking with a few weapons. I played almost the whole campaign with a sniper rifle and a machine gun.
Lack of Inventory - Having Liz around to toss me more Salt of Ammo was handy but i would much prefer an inventory where i can stock up and manage that stuff on my own.
No alternate ammo types - Could have made things a lot more interesting. It could even allow for having less 'samey' guns..
No real standout weapons - In the end they were all pretty bland and basic.
Oculus Rift + Skyhook? - I wonder if that'd cause motion sickness?