Bioshock 2 Remastered

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Bioshock: The Collection, along with Bioshock Remastered and Bioshock Infinite: The Complete Edition.)

Bioshock 2 is a First-Person Shooter originally released on multiple platforms in 2010, finally making its way to a Nintendo console in 2020 when it was released on the Nintendo Switch. After the first game introduced the underwater city of Rapture and had players exploring its fall into a horrifying dystopia, Bioshock 2 had players stomping through the city from a different perspective – that of one of the monstrous “Big Daddy” characters from the first game. With the city’s leader Andrew Ryan no longer in charge of Rapture, a new figurehead has emerged in the form of Sofia Lamb, a villainous woman with a different vision for the city, one that has her stealing away your surrogate daughter Elanor (who Lamb claims is her daughter), thus setting in motion your quest to save her, one that sets you on a crash course with various characters still struggling for power in Rapture.

With this being the “remastered” version of the game, Bioshock 2 on the Nintendo Switch benefits from having improved textures and more detailed environments over its original release, though instead of the targeted 60FPS framerates of the other consoles, this version settles for a rock-solid 30FPS, which I found to be sufficient most of the time, as Bioshock is not a super fast-paced FPS. In docked mode, the game runs at a dynamic 1080p resolution, dropping to 720p in handheld mode, and again, both are very stable (thanks to Digital Foundry for all the numbers).

However, I will note that unlike the first Bioshock, there are caveats to this solid performance here. Firstly, the opening sequence is oddly done using pre-recorded video, which would be fine if it weren’t for the particularly low quality of that video. In addition, this game did a bit more with bigger, more open areas, as being a Big Daddy means you can now travel on the open ocean seabed at certain points. However, in these open areas I noticed a significant drop in the resolution, enough to make the entire screen blur (in a way that had nothing to do with moving through water instead of air). Thankfully these moments are few and brief, but I’d be remiss not to mention them.

As for how this game actually looks beyond just the technical specifications, I’d say this still looks in many ways like an Xbox 360 game. The character models aren’t especially detailed, and even with the added detail the environments can also look a bit chunky in places. On a technical level, the game’s water effects are still extremely nice, even by today’s standards, but everything else does look a tad dated.

And while the first Bioshock game was a stunning realization of a frightening and imaginative world, returning to that world in the game’s sequel has somewhat diminishing returns. This game’s story and scenery are nowhere near as iconic, and even some of the assets appear to have been reused this time around. I know that when this game came out, many reviewers criticized it for being too similar to its predecessor, but I don’t think the lack of gameplay innovation is the real problem here, it’s that this game’s setting just doesn’t have the same impact the second time around, and its story is nowhere near as compelling – learning about a utopia’s fall into a nightmare is wayyyy more interesting than learning about the subsequent squabbling over the remaining scraps after it has already become a hellhole, and the first game’s twists are far more ambitious than what’s been done here.

Without the stunning setting and compelling story of the original game to fuel it, Bioshock 2 falls back more on its gameplay, and in that area it’s… fine. There’s nothing here that’s truly inspired, but that’s not to say that it lacks significant changes from the first game either. Simply by having the player play as a Big Daddy makes you feel somewhat like a force to be reckoned with, touting your big, burly drill arm right from the start, and with the aforementioned ability to go through underwater areas. Plus, the addition of the nimble “Big Sister” enemies makes for a different dynamic than the first game’s fights with Big Daddies.

However, even with these changes, it does little to hide that the Bioshock style of game design has always been pretty linear and fairly limited, slower-paced, and repetitive. Again, don’t take this the wrong way, it’s still fun, but it’s nothing that truly pushes the genre forward, especially with nothing here being quite as inventive as the first game’s plasmids (which are also here, with additional abilities to expand your arsenal).

A few more notes about this version of the game before I wrap things up. Firstly, there’s no support for gyroscopic motion controls or touchscreen. However, there are a few extras beyond the original release of the game, in the form of the Protector’s Trials and Minerva’s Den DLC included in the package. A nice inclusion, to be sure, though not nearly as generous as the added content in the first game.

In the end, Bioshock 2 takes the basic structure of the first game and certainly tries its best to expand on it, but without the epic story and stunning novelty of the locale that the first game had, this was always going to be a sequel that stood in the shadow of its predecessor. That’s not to say that this game isn’t worth playing though – it’s still a solid First-Person Shooter and this is a good port, just don’t expect anything as fun and memorable as the original game.

tl;dr – Bioshock 2 has aged somewhat since its original release in 2010, and it’s still fun to play, but as with this game’s original release, the return trip through Rapture isn’t quite as impressive as it was the first time around, and the story isn’t nearly as compelling. This is still a fun First-Person Shooter, but don’t expect anything quite as memorable as the original Bioshock.

Grade: B

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