BioShock Remastered Review (Nightserg)
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The gist of it:
Replaying Bioshock reminded me of better times, and it's a shame that besides very few exceptions such as Prey, we never really received similar games, immersive sims more specifically. It's a dying breed, gamers these days prefer battle passes and garbage loot-focused online games. Gaming is no longer a passion for developers, it's just a way to make money off of dumb kids and adults by shoving gambling in them. But enough about that, Bioshock, is now considered a classic for many, a fantastic first-person shooter, with one of the best atmospheres ever made.
π The good parts:
+One of the best atmospheres ever made
+Great combat and its mechanics
+Well crafted story
πThe bad parts:
-Hacking mini-games are boring and repetitive
-Lots of minor bugs and crashes.
Story
Would you kindly play Bioshock? You start on a plane that crashes in the ocean near a dubious lighthouse. Upon entering you are transported to one of the best locations in gaming, Rapture, a city under the sea. As you bask in its beauty, you are immediately plunged into its chaos and horror with genetically modified humans, creepy girls, and so on and so forth. Everything feels overwhelming but exciting and beaming with mystery. A voice guides you through Rapture in hopes of helping him but the man behind the city, Andrew Ryan, won't allow it.
The story is linear, you have almost no control over it, except for your choices in dealing with the little sisters. I won't spoil what's what, but it will impact the ending so think very carefully about your choices. There is no turning back. Andrew Ryan and Atlas are the meat of the story, they are constantly at war with one another and you are in the middle of it. Most of the story is told through radio interactions which was a good choice for the genre.
Talking more would be spoiling but suffice it to say, there are a lot of interesting characters you'll meet as well as voice recordings that will enrich the story of Rapture. You do not need a million walls of text or nonstop dialogues or tons of cutscenes to tell a fantastic story. This is what modern developers have forgotten. Seems like these days, a protagonist that talks to himself/herself constantly is considered "amazing narration". What a load of crap.
Story rating: 8.5/10
Gameplay
As I reinstalled the game and started replaying it after so many years, I thought to myself, no way the combat will still feel good compared to Today's standards. I was wrong. It's better. It is insane that Bioshock does things I haven't seen done in modern games yet. It seems developers have stopped innovating and are just focused on money.
Bioshock's shooting mechanics are just like any other shooter. All guns feel very impact'ish, especially the shotgun, they can be upgraded, and they also come with ammo variations such as ammo suited for armored targets. The other huge mechanics are the plasmids. You basically have these powers that can burn, shock, confuse enemies, and much more. The enemies react quite impressively, if you burn them, they will run for water and extinguish themselves. If you shock the water, everyone including yourself will get shocked. When was the last time we saw in a modern game an AI that would react accordingly? No one bothers with such small details anymore because the new generation of kid gamers are f'ing idiots.
There's also a hacking mechanic which is pretty much the same puzzle for everything you hack. It's a mini-game where you have to control the flow of a liquid to its destination by placing the right tubes and avoiding alarms. If you fail, an alarm is sounded or you take damage. It gets pretty repetitive and boring really fast but luckily you can craft or find auto-hacking tools, as well as other things like ammo and whatnot.
Gameplay rating: 8.5/10
Audio
A story told mostly through voice recordings and radio has to obviously have at the very least good voice acting. Bioshock has fantastic voice acting, especially Andrew Ryan and Atlas, the main roles of the game. But that does not stop there, as all of the side characters also do a good job such as Cohen.
The sound effects are pretty good, they sound a bit muffled, and lower quality but not that big of a deal. As for the soundtrack, it plays very rarely and only in key moments, but when it does, it fits perfectly well with the tone of the game.
Audio rating: 8.5/10
Graphics, performance and tech analysis
Bioshock is an immersive sim at heart. While its level design is not super complicated, it is still something I would prefer over open-world stuff. There are a lot of off-main paths to find, and lots of secrets to discover, and every corner of the game is beaming with incredible atmosphere and detail. The game still holds up well after so many years.
Tech-wise, it blew everyone's minds when it was released, the water looked incredible, and still does, the colors, the textures, the AI, everything was top-notch. It had some issues, that are still found Today, such as crashes and lots of bugs but they are never really that annoying.
Graphics, performance and tech analysis score: 9/10
Conclusion
Would you kindly play Bioshock if you haven't? Would you kindly replay it again to see how much gaming has gone downhill? A phenomenal game, a classic that I will never forget.
Final score: 8.6/10