Check out our video review:
I’ve been interested in BioShock for a while. I actually played and beat BioShock Infinite some time after it came out and remember enjoying it but never played the first two games so I figured it was time I start the series from the beginning. BioShock interests me for two reasons. The first is I like first-person shooters and the second reason is I find the underwater city setting to be a neat concept. I feel I should also mention that according to the internet, BioShock is considered one of the best games ever made. Developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia and published by 2K, BioShock was released for PC and Xbox 360 in August, 2007, and PlayStation 3 in October, 2008. An upgraded version of the game called BioShock Remastered was released as part of BioShock: The Collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in September 2016 and Switch in May, 2020. BioShock Remastered not only features the enhancements that typically come with remasters but also a New Game Plus mode and the Challenge Rooms which were only available for the console versions of the original game.
For this review, I played the PC version of the original game. I played a bit of the remaster a while ago and the game kept deleting my saves. Yes, more than once. As you can imagine, it was very annoying so I stopped playing. I then discovered it’s a known issue and as far as I know, as of this review, it has yet to be fixed and I find that completely unacceptable. I never go into a game expecting it to be flawless but I do expect it not to delete my fucking saves. I did consult BioShock’s PCGamingWiki page before playing to see what I may need to do to get it running optimally on a modern system and I applied the BioShock Physics Unlocker which removes the physics and animation frame rate cap.
Set in 1960, the story follows Jack. After the plane he’s on crashes in the ocean, he makes his way to a lighthouse which takes him to the underwater city of Rapture where he’s contacted by a man who goes by the name Atlas. Atlas guides Jack through the ruined city and requests that he help him stop Andrew Ryan, the man who ordered the construction of Rapture dreaming it would be a utopia of freedom and prosperity. As Jack makes his way through the city, he learns of Rapture’s decline resulting from the discovery of ADAM, a substance that rewrites genetic material, essentially granting people superhuman abilities. Ultimately, I enjoyed the story. I found it to be compelling and I was always eager to learn more about what happened. BioShock aims to immerse the player into the world and the world building is phenomenal, accompanied by great visual storytelling as well. Right from the get-go, you can see shit is fucked up and the game features a nice blend of sci-fi, horror, and mystery. This combined with the underwater city setting makes for a very unique atmosphere and tone. There’s not many cut scenes and the story is primarily conveyed through dialogue and diary entries found in the environments.
BioShock is a first-person shooter with customization and some stealth elements. You can play it like a typical run and gun shooter but you can also approach situations in different ways. Jack can use firearms as well as plasmids which are basically powers and plasmids consume EVE when used. BioShock contains a pretty cool arsenal of weapons that can fire multiple ammo types and even be upgraded. I think the gunplay is pretty good overall. Weapons have good audiovisual feedback, blood squirts when enemies are shot, some shots can send enemies flying, the different ammo types can result in some pretty cool death animations, and you can electrify water and set pools of fuel on fire to damage or kill multiple enemies at once. Much of the fun comes from experimenting with the different weapons and plasmids. Plasmids offer fun and interesting ways to dispatch enemies. You can electrocute, incinerate, freeze, and even unleash swarms of insects on your foes among other things. Not only that, some Plasmids will help you reach new areas.
One of my favorite things about BioShock is its emphasis on exploration. The game plays out in levels which are separated by load points. You enter a level, complete a series of objectives, and then progress to the next level. Rinse and repeat. And you can freely navigate around them and explore. You can loot bodies, search containers, and find all kinds of goodies including money, ammo, tonics, health, EVE, and items for inventing or crafting. Tonics allow you to alter Jack’s genes or in other words, improve his abilities in different categories. There’s physical tonics, engineering tonics, and combat tonics. You can unlock a set amount of slots for each and swap out tonics along with plasmids at Gene Banks.
As indicated earlier, you don’t have to approach every situation all-guns-blazing. You can hack things like security cameras, bots, and turrets to work for you, and even hack Vending Machines, health stations, and U-Invent stations to reduce the resources needed to buy and craft things. There are tonics that will make it easier to be stealthy, your weapons more efficient, and hacking easier. Needless to say, the game allows for a good amount of character customization and you can swap out tonics and try different combinations at any time.
In each level are Little Sisters accompanied by Big Daddies roaming around and you have to kill the Big Daddies to get to the Little Sisters. If you do, you can harvest or rescue them to retrieve ADAM which can be spent at Gatherer’s Gardens on upgrades and new plasmids and tonics. One small issue I have is that there’s too many stations. By that I mean, there’s all these different stations or machines you have to visit to do different things. Vending Machines are where you buy things, U-Invent Stations let you invent or craft things, Health Stations will replenish health, Weapon Upgrade Stations is self-explanatory, Gene Banks are where you can swap Plasmids and Tonics, and Gatherer’s Gardens are where you can acquire upgrades and new plasmids and tonics as mentioned earlier. It’s a bit much in my opinion and I feel this could have been streamlined somehow.
As fun as BioShock is overall, I do have some gripes. For one thing, you can’t have a weapon and plasmid equipped simultaneously. You have to switch between them and it can feel clunky, especially during a battle. Some of the visual affects that accompany the action can make it hard to see which can be annoying when you’re outnumbered and being attacked from every direction. And friendly bots would often get in my way. Also, there’s way, way, way too much hacking in this game. You don’t need to hack things. You can always destroy cameras and bots and simply pay whatever the prices are at stations. But hacking is an efficient way to defend yourself and save resources and if you decide to go that route, even with the tonics that make hacking easier, it becomes tiresome. The hacking process is a minigame requiring you to connect pipes and I admit that after doing it twenty or so times, it started to feel tedious. And it just never ends. Every level feels like it has a ton of shit to hack. You can buy, find, and craft automatic hack tools which, needless to say, are quite convenient.
I do want to mention that I feel the beginning of the game can be challenging, especially if you try to rush through levels. Not paying attention can result in setting off alarms triggering security bots to come after you and that’s in addition to the standard enemies roaming around. Plus, you don’t have much health and EVE at the start and some foes like Big Daddies can be a bitch in the beginning. Once you start upgrading your shit and researching enemies, things do get easier. At a certain point in the story, you acquire a camera and this is where the aforementioned “researching” comes in. By taking pictures of enemies, you obtain research rewards like what ammo type they’re weak to, increased damage, tonics, and even some character upgrades. It’s wise to take as many pictures of foes as you can, explore every nook and cranny for resources, and acquire the ADAM from every Little Sister in a level before progressing.
Splicers are the most common enemies you’ll face. They are found almost everywhere and come in different types. Many wield weapons and others utilize powers or plasmids. Certain weapons, ammo types, and plasmids are better against certain threats and I never found any weapon to be useless. Even the wrench, which is a melee weapon you acquire in the beginning of the game, remains useful. In fact, with the right tonics, the wrench can be quite powerful. Most levels have security set up in the form of cameras and turrets and they seem to be everywhere. If cameras spot you, an alarm is triggered and security bots are sent after you. You do have the option to hack, destroy, or evade all of these machines and I found hacking to be my favorite method. When they work for you, enemies will trigger alarms, and turrets and bots will distract, wound, and kill foes and help you save ammo.
You will be tasked with objectives to complete in each level and many are accompanied by an arrow on the HUD pointing you where you need to go. Unless you disabled it that is. You’ll often have to retrieve items and interact with things to progress. I feel the levels are well designed, encourage exploration, and many offer multiple ways to reach certain destinations. This is a game that contains backtracking whether it be the result of an objective or general exploration but the levels aren’t super massive or designed in a way that it becomes annoying or tedious to navigate. You can also reference a map of the level at any time. I found some of the fetch objectives – like scour the level for specific items – to be a little annoying at times but for the most part, I had no major issues with the level design or pacing. I’m one that enjoys exploring in games and every level in BioShock has plenty of goodies to find so I was having a pretty good time.
I love BioShock’s visual presentation. The art style is fantastic in my opinion. The setting, the lighting, the colors – it all comes together wonderfully making for an immersive and visually pleasing experience. The environments are well detailed and, in my opinion, do a great job at conveying the concept of an underwater city. I also like how the city is portrayed as in ruins. Many areas appear partially destroyed, debris and dead bodies are littered about, water is leaking in, and even the way the enemies, the Splicers look – it all adds to the sense that shit went wrong and got out of control at some point. The action is accompanied by a soundtrack consisting of a mix of original and licensed tunes from the fifties and earlier which helps adds to the immersion of the setting and time period. A lot of the original tunes range from sounding dramatic to ominous helping elevate tension. Ultimately, BioShock’s audiovisual presentation is phenomenal in my opinion. On the technical side, the game ran smooth and I did not encounter any major issues.
I had a great time with BioShock. I love the setting, atmosphere, and general design of the game. It’s quite immersive and I do enjoy the action but I found the fun mostly comes from the different ways you can customize your character, experimenting with weapons, plasmids, tonics, and exploration. Exploration actually feels rewarding. When you make your way to a new area and find a bunch of resources you need or cameras and turrets to hack to essentially turn the area into a trap for foes – I find it all rewarding. And I find there is an addictive quality to unlocking new stuff and experimenting with different tonic combinations. That’s not to say the game is perfect. Switching between weapons and plasmids can feel clunky at times. If you prefer to hack things, there’s a lot of it so it can become tiring and the minigame tedious. And, personally, I think there’s way too many stations. Running back and forth to all the different stations to acquire the things you need in every level becomes tiring and I can’t help but feel it could have been streamlined. Like one station or machine that lets you do everything for example, and multiple can be placed throughout the levels. Having to run to specific stations to do specific things just seems unnecessary in my opinion. Nevertheless, I can ignore most of my issues with the game because none of them ruin the experience for me. I still had a lot of fun.
I would recommend BioShock. It’s a fun game with a good story, excellent world building and atmosphere, and a good amount of replay value. The game gives you plenty of ways to customize your character and toys to experiment with. Just based on my own experience, I would not recommend the PC or Steam version of BioShock Remastered. Not until the deleting saves issue is fixed. A game should not be deleting saves. That’s completely unacceptable. Thankfully, the original still holds up, it doesn’t delete your saves (at least in my experience), and it’s a lot of fun. Definitely check it out.