Kind of late to the party, but I beat it! And I really, really liked it! I have to agree the combat was bland in comparison to the last two Bioshocks, and even compared to System Shock 2 perhaps. I really missed the Big Daddy fights, those were one of my favorite aspects of the first two games. This one felt very lacking in the big battle department, there were only, what, two boss fights? This game relied more on throwing hoards at you. Instead of the combat being the main reason for playing the game, I felt like it was more of an obstacle I had to work through to continue exploring and learning more of the story.
Vigors seemed much less potent and fun than plasmids, I used to have a ton of fun killing splicers with plasmids, in this one it seemed you could only do very little damage with the vigors, even when they were fully upgraded. While this game gave us more guns, it only let us carry two at once, and the guns were bland enough that there was very little incentive to bother even messing with most of them.
There was also a lot less extra stuff to do in this one. No hunting down every last Little Sister in an area before leaving, or taking pictures to do research, or hacking mini games. I'm not sure that is so bad though, it makes this one more of its own game, but those things weren't really replaced with anything else. Made the experience feel like a stripped down and simplified version of what I am used to getting from Bioshock.
As for the story line, I have zero complaints. I think I had low expectations for this game, the departure from Rapture and the silliness of a floating city just didn't have me enthused. I was really looking forward to playing it, but I was kind of imagining a fun game that would ultimately be a cheap attempt at rehashing the first game in a different way. And it kind of was, but by the end, I found myself very invested in the mysteries of this new city and where the story would go. I am really pleased with the end result. I almost peed myself with elation when I suddenly and unexpectedly found myself standing in Rapture again. I liked how they tied the games together, I had no clue that was going to happen. I liked the Elizabeth/Anna reveal, but I am still not sure how I feel about the Booker/Comstock thing. I think I kind of like it, but I am not sure if I like how it ended. I really wanted to see Elizabeth make it to Paris, though perhaps that would have been sappy.