Crashing in Siren's Alley

I've just got round to playing Bioshock 2 and I've been getting through it fairly well, despite the fact that the graphics strain my system.
I've just got through the Pink Pearl in Siren's Alley, and put the code into the door to get to the pumping station. They cut the power and all hell broke loose.
However, before I get the chance to defend myself, the game crashes. It's replicable and I can't seem to get the game to get past that point. It has a brief freeze and then crashes to desktop with no specific error.
I use Windows 8.1, 8GB RAM, i7 3630QM, GeForce 740m.
All my drivers are up to date, the game is up to date, I have tried verifying the integrity of the Steam cache.
What can I do to progress past the point of this crash?
Pictures about "Crashing in Siren's Alley"



Siren | Fastest Crash in 1:41:71
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Anna Tarazevich, Alari Tammsalu, Ray Bilcliff, Ray Bilcliff