BioShock Remastered Review
Introduction
I would like to preface this review by saying that since I've never played the OG BioShock, I will not be reviewing this as a remaster, but just as a standalone product.
I gotta admit, I was a bit hesitant to play this game. One because I don't like horror media and I heard the first BioShock is quite creepy, and two because I actually did play an hour of this a long time ago and found it extremely difficult, promptly making me give up. In hindsight, I have no idea how that happened, but I guess it shows I've gotten better at games (yay!).
Overall, BioShock is a fantastic game with a terrific atmosphere and a genuinely interesting plot that was not what I expected. It feels polished and tight, living up to its legendary status.
Narrative
You are on a flight which suddenly loses control and plunges into the ocean. As you resurface, you see nothing but flaming debris and one single structure, a sort-of lighthouse, in the middle of the literally nowhere. As you enter the building, you board a Bathysphere and are treated to one of the greatest video game introductions of all time.
Seriously, the moment when the dialogue ends and you get treated to a sight of the underwater city of Rapture gave me chills. As you arrive in this beautiful art-deco city, things are immediately off. - you find yourself getting attacked right off the bat by a splicer.
BioShock is your journey through the various parts of Rapture. To tell you any more about the plot would be spoiling you on some details, which I don't want to do, because the story is genuinely good and filled with unexpected turns. If this sounds at all interesting, please play and find out for yourself!
Graphics
As always I play on an iGPU so graphics aren't my main priority. That being said, since this is an older game, the default graphics options ran very smoothly on my device with very few moments of lag, which I greatly appreciated.
The atmosphere of BioShock is simply incredible. The environments has been designed so well to match the unsettling, soul-crushing vibe of an industrial, underwater city. The beautiful art-deco style of the 50s and 60s (when the city was built) is implemented amazingly as well. I have absolutely zero complaints. This game is very high up in my list when it comes to design.
Gameplay
Gameplay as a whole was good, though at a few points I did have some issues with it. Allow me to explain.
BioShock's key mechanic is the plasmid - genetic modifications that grant the user (i.e. you) superpowers. These range from being able to shoot out electricity, fire & ice, hypnotise enemies and much, much more. BioShock also has traditional FPS mechanics, giving you an arsenal of 6 ranged weapons that you gradually unlock over the course of the game.
The weaving of plasmids and gunplay is done well in Bioshock. Most of the time, you can use your Electro Bolt to stun an enemy before unleashing a storm of bullets on them. It feels pretty seamless thanks to a good control scheme, with RMB instantly switching between your gun/wrench and your plasmid.
In addition, each weapon has multiple ammo types, such as regular, armor-piercing or anti-personnel. This adds a little bit extra to gameplay and encourages the player to be more strategic - equipping the right gear before rushing into a firefight.
As much variety as there is, one gripe I had was that I never really felt the need or want to use many different plasmids. The one you start with - Electro Bolt - is so good that you never need anything else. On the other end, the weapons you unlock later on are much more powerful than the early game ones, even if you upgrade them. As a result, guns like the revolver and machine gun felt useless by the end, which is a shame.
To upgrade your plasmids and gain extra buffs called tonics, you'll need ADAM, the resource used for genetic modification. The only way to gain it is through Little Sisters, little girls who collect the scarce resource with the protection of tough Big Daddies. Of course, you need to take out these protectors, which act as mini-bossfights, before you can get the sweet ADAM.
Even then, the game asks you to choose - will you harvest the Little Sisters to gain all their ADAM, hence destroying them in the process, or save them to gain a bit of the ADAM, but exorcising and curing them. This is an interesting moral choice, though one that is quite surface-level. Fortunately, on default difficulty, there is way more than enough ADAM for you to be adequately powered, so feel free to save them.
BioShock is split into several individual levels. Each typically has their own goal, and the game is pretty much linear, so you'll complete the levels in a set order. The levels are reasonably enjoyable and show the diverse environments found in Rapture. The only minor gripe I had was nearer to the end. One segment has you battling randomly given plasmids, which while interesting, gets old and annoying real fast, and the mechanic definitely overstayed its welcome. The final fight was also, in my opinion, far too easy and short. I wish it had more interesting mechanics.
BioShock's gameplay was at its best early on when you are resource-starved. Being extremely low on resources and health while trying to understand the unknown place you're in is a fantastic atmosphere, and got me hooked.
One last point I think deserves getting mentioned is the hacking minigame. Hacking is an integral part of BioShock. Everything from cameras, turrets, drones and even vending machines can be hacked to give you beneficial effects. Nothing wrong with this, but weirdly they decided to make each hack a pipe puzzle minigame, which while fun at first, gets stale given just how often you have to do it.
Overall, BioShock took me just under 13 hours on my first playthrough on Normal difficulty. I thought the difficulty was good early on and felt balanced, but towards the end it got too easy - I was almost always maxed on first aid kits, ammo and money on the last few levels. If you're good at games I would probably recommend playing on Hard. The length felt just right, and in a world of increasingly long games, it's refreshing to see a shorter game still be able to deliver a satisfying and great experience.
Conclusion
BioShock, while not spared from some minor flaws, is overall a terrific package that marries satisfying and fun gunplay with some of the best storytelling and visual style the medium has to offer. It definitely deserves its spot on the hall of fame, and is a must-play. Seeing how old this game is and how well it still plays, I'm willing to call it a timeless classic.
4.5/5
Introduction
I would like to preface this review by saying that since I've never played the OG BioShock, I will not be reviewing this as a remaster, but just as a standalone product.
I gotta admit, I was a bit hesitant to play this game. One because I don't like horror media and I heard the first BioShock is quite creepy, and two because I actually did play an hour of this a long time ago and found it extremely difficult, promptly making me give up. In hindsight, I have no idea how that happened, but I guess it shows I've gotten better at games (yay!).
Overall, BioShock is a fantastic game with a terrific atmosphere and a genuinely interesting plot that was not what I expected. It feels polished and tight, living up to its legendary status.
Narrative
You are on a flight which suddenly loses control and plunges into the ocean. As you resurface, you see nothing but flaming debris and one single structure, a sort-of lighthouse, in the middle of the literally nowhere. As you enter the building, you board a Bathysphere and are treated to one of the greatest video game introductions of all time.
Seriously, the moment when the dialogue ends and you get treated to a sight of the underwater city of Rapture gave me chills. As you arrive in this beautiful art-deco city, things are immediately off. - you find yourself getting attacked right off the bat by a splicer.
BioShock is your journey through the various parts of Rapture. To tell you any more about the plot would be spoiling you on some details, which I don't want to do, because the story is genuinely good and filled with unexpected turns. If this sounds at all interesting, please play and find out for yourself!
Graphics
As always I play on an iGPU so graphics aren't my main priority. That being said, since this is an older game, the default graphics options ran very smoothly on my device with very few moments of lag, which I greatly appreciated.
The atmosphere of BioShock is simply incredible. The environments has been designed so well to match the unsettling, soul-crushing vibe of an industrial, underwater city. The beautiful art-deco style of the 50s and 60s (when the city was built) is implemented amazingly as well. I have absolutely zero complaints. This game is very high up in my list when it comes to design.
Gameplay
Gameplay as a whole was good, though at a few points I did have some issues with it. Allow me to explain.
BioShock's key mechanic is the plasmid - genetic modifications that grant the user (i.e. you) superpowers. These range from being able to shoot out electricity, fire & ice, hypnotise enemies and much, much more. BioShock also has traditional FPS mechanics, giving you an arsenal of 6 ranged weapons that you gradually unlock over the course of the game.
The weaving of plasmids and gunplay is done well in Bioshock. Most of the time, you can use your Electro Bolt to stun an enemy before unleashing a storm of bullets on them. It feels pretty seamless thanks to a good control scheme, with RMB instantly switching between your gun/wrench and your plasmid.
In addition, each weapon has multiple ammo types, such as regular, armor-piercing or anti-personnel. This adds a little bit extra to gameplay and encourages the player to be more strategic - equipping the right gear before rushing into a firefight.
As much variety as there is, one gripe I had was that I never really felt the need or want to use many different plasmids. The one you start with - Electro Bolt - is so good that you never need anything else. On the other end, the weapons you unlock later on are much more powerful than the early game ones, even if you upgrade them. As a result, guns like the revolver and machine gun felt useless by the end, which is a shame.
To upgrade your plasmids and gain extra buffs called tonics, you'll need ADAM, the resource used for genetic modification. The only way to gain it is through Little Sisters, little girls who collect the scarce resource with the protection of tough Big Daddies. Of course, you need to take out these protectors, which act as mini-bossfights, before you can get the sweet ADAM.
Even then, the game asks you to choose - will you harvest the Little Sisters to gain all their ADAM, hence destroying them in the process, or save them to gain a bit of the ADAM, but exorcising and curing them. This is an interesting moral choice, though one that is quite surface-level. Fortunately, on default difficulty, there is way more than enough ADAM for you to be adequately powered, so feel free to save them.
BioShock is split into several individual levels. Each typically has their own goal, and the game is pretty much linear, so you'll complete the levels in a set order. The levels are reasonably enjoyable and show the diverse environments found in Rapture. The only minor gripe I had was nearer to the end. One segment has you battling randomly given plasmids, which while interesting, gets old and annoying real fast, and the mechanic definitely overstayed its welcome. The final fight was also, in my opinion, far too easy and short. I wish it had more interesting mechanics.
BioShock's gameplay was at its best early on when you are resource-starved. Being extremely low on resources and health while trying to understand the unknown place you're in is a fantastic atmosphere, and got me hooked.
One last point I think deserves getting mentioned is the hacking minigame. Hacking is an integral part of BioShock. Everything from cameras, turrets, drones and even vending machines can be hacked to give you beneficial effects. Nothing wrong with this, but weirdly they decided to make each hack a pipe puzzle minigame, which while fun at first, gets stale given just how often you have to do it.
Overall, BioShock took me just under 13 hours on my first playthrough on Normal difficulty. I thought the difficulty was good early on and felt balanced, but towards the end it got too easy - I was almost always maxed on first aid kits, ammo and money on the last few levels. If you're good at games I would probably recommend playing on Hard. The length felt just right, and in a world of increasingly long games, it's refreshing to see a shorter game still be able to deliver a satisfying and great experience.
Conclusion
BioShock, while not spared from some minor flaws, is overall a terrific package that marries satisfying and fun gunplay with some of the best storytelling and visual style the medium has to offer. It definitely deserves its spot on the hall of fame, and is a must-play. Seeing how old this game is and how well it still plays, I'm willing to call it a timeless classic.
4.5/5