Bioshock Remastered

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Bioshock: The Collection, along with Bioshock 2 Remastered and Bioshock Infinite: The Complete Edition.)

Bioshock is a First-Person Shooter originally released on PC and Xbox 360 in 2007 and subsequently ported to multiple other platforms, finally making its way to a Nintendo console in 2020 when it was released on the Nintendo Switch. For those who somehow missed out on the game when it first released, Bioshock has the player surviving a plane crash in 1960 only to discover a structure in the middle of the ocean leading to the underwater city of Rapture. This city, the creation of a wealthy industrialist, was intended to be an objectivist utopia, but clearly things have gone very wrong, and players soon find themselves fighting off the city’s mutated denizens, as well as automated defenses and hulking monstrosities named “big daddies”, while various factions fighting for control of the city make you the fixation of their power struggle.

With this being the “remastered” version of the game, Bioshock 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 more than sufficient, 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, as for how this game actually looks, 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.

However, having said that, what this game may lack in technical prowess, it absolutely makes up for in style and artistic vision. While Rapture may not be as technically impressive as it once was, it is still a stunning work of artistic design, with its art deco architecture, the oppressive presence of the ocean threatening to break through the glass and swallow everyone whole at any minute, and the crazed citizenry still decked out in creepy New Years costumes now soaked in blood from their drug-fueled killing spree. More than just about any game ever made, Bioshock is a game that tells a rather spectacular story without even needing to say a word, with the look and feel of the place itself saying far more than words ever could.

And of course, I can’t mention Bioshock without at least making a nod to its story, though beyond the synopsis I detailed in the first paragraph, I feel I should probably keep quiet, as one of this game’s joys is the twists and turns it takes as you find the full extent of just how far Rapture has fallen into a hellish nightmare, as well as what’s really going on at the center of the power struggle unfolding as you fight your way through the city. Suffice it to say, there’s a reason that many cite this game as having one of the best stories, and in particular one of the most memorable and iconic scenes, in all of videogames.

While the game’s striking visuals still impress with their style, and the story is every bit as legendary as it was when it first came out, the gameplay hasn’t aged quite as well. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all still quite good, and the mix of old-timey gunplay and magic powers (in the form of “plasmids”, gene-altering chemicals you buy in vending machines), as well as various upgradeable abilities, all make this an entertaining game that’s far better than average for the genre, even today.

However, having said that, there’s not too much variety in enemies, and the gunplay can get repetitive before long. The plasmids are nice and the elemental attacks they deliver even affect the environment, but before long this too becomes a bit repetitive. Beyond this, in all but the game’s hardest difficulty, the existence of “Vita-Chambers” removes all semblance of challenge, as any death simply has you jumping back to the last one of these checkpoints you crossed with all of your inventory intact, and all enemies you killed still dead, meaning that success is all but assured as long as you keep persisting. Even the last boss can be defeated this way – fight, die, continue fighting, die, continue fighting some more until they’ve soaked up enough bullets to be downed. And while the game attempts an interesting “morality” system, it’s not very well thought-out, as it’s a simple binary choice and none of the options feels especially functionally different than the others.

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 nice extras beyond the original release of the game – there’s a director’s commentary you can run while playing the game, as well as video interviews you can collect throughout it. There’s also a cool museum mode that has character models and artwork lined up in an actual museum you can walk through. Finally, this game includes “Challenge Rooms” and New Game+ features added to later releases of the game.

In the end, while Bioshock’s gameplay may be lacking and the graphics have aged a bit, there’s no arguing that this is still a classic, iconic First-Person shooter with a stellar story, fun gameplay, and some of the best world-building ever to be seen in a videogame. If you’ve somehow never played this game, you need to remedy that right now. And if you loved the game when it was first released and are considering a return to Rapture, know that while the city is a little worse for the wear with the years that have passed, this is still a trip well worth taking.

tl;dr – Bioshock has aged somewhat since its original release in 2007, but it’s still fun to play, and while Rapture may not be as graphically impressive as it once was, it’s still extremely visually-striking, with some of the best world-building ever to be found in a videogame. In the end, this is still an excellent port of a legendary First-Person Shooter, and an absolute must-play for anyone who hasn’t experienced it before, and worth returning to for those looking to revisit that nostalgia.

Grade: B+

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