BioShock: The Collection Review

Multiplayer:

Disappointingly, Bioshock 2, the only one of the games to feature multiplayer, has had it stripped out from this collection. Somewhat derided before release as being ‘tacked on’ (coming in the middle of publisher’s ‘season pass’/ ‘online code’ madness), the reality was actually rather different, with a surprisingly different take on competitive play that was actually quite enjoyable. It’s not the end of the world it’s not included, but it is a shame.

Presentation:

The main selling points to me about this collection were the promised graphical updates, but in reality they are incredibly disappointing. Unsurprisingly, with my rose-tinted spectacles on, the original game looks just like it did 9 years ago. Going back and watching video walkthroughs, you can see that textures have been improved, lighting and particle effects enhanced, whilst the resolution and frame-rate boost make it a much crisper and more responsive game.

There’s certainly parts of the game where the art-deco style shines through, like the grand entrance to Rapture, where the game remains seriously impressive looking. It would have also been nice to have a Halo-style option to swap between the old and remastered options.

Bioshock 2 merely gets some new lighting passes, and Bioshock Infinite hasn’t been touched at all. Worse still, the former game suffers from texture pop-in (as a result of still being Unreal 3 powered), whilst the latter has some nasty hitching issues far too frequently for a now 3 year old game that’s just been given a resolution bump.

The games now have lossless soundtracks, and remain brilliantly haunting, with superb voice acting throughout the trilogy.

Conclusion:

I was surprised at just how well all three Bioshock games hold up, even 9 years after the first game. It also surprised me just how much I was happy to play these games again, especially the DLC I missed out on first time round. But I can’t help but be disappointed with the overall lack of care that the package has received. A modest texture and detail boost for the first game and some new lighting for the second doesn’t really justify a full price release when they can be had in Steam sales for about a fiver each. If you don’t have a PC then sure, this is the best way to experience (or re-experience) these bone-fide classics, but if you’re coming back for a graphical update alone, then don’t bother.