**Note: This review is ONLY for Bioshock Remastered.
To see a full review of the Bioshock game, please click here.October 6, 2016 Update: It's nice that they added some more graphic options and a FOV slider. However, the game still has all of its crashing problems, and literally none of the performance issues outlined here have been corrected.
When news first hit that Bioshock 1 and 2 were being given Remastered editions, it surprised a lot of people; myself included. However, it's hard to believe that it has already been nearly a decade since the first game released. Given the monumental success of the titles, it's easy to see why 2K would want to capitalize on reissuing and bettering them, as game technology has come a long way in the last ten years. With that being said... 2K, would you kindly fix all of the issues?
It's true, Bioshock Remastered is plagued by awful performance problems; most notably horrible and constant crashing, followed up by all of the problems of the original title. Problems like poor mouse acceleration, Little Sisters that infinitely harvest ADAM in the Proving Grounds, and Little Sisters that cannot be summoned by Big Daddies. Newer issues include graphical glitches, and invincible Splicers.
I'm not going to play up or brush off the issues that I had while playing Bioshock Remastered. I finally beat the game in about 17 hours, and a lot of those hours were redoing things that I'd already done due to performance problems. For me, the worst thing was the constant crashing. The crashes mostly occurred when opening the map screen, but they also happened while quick saving, initially booting up the game, and even just trying to play the game in general. I also saw the red and blue box in the water glitch that a lot of people talk about. I also encountered the Proving Grounds glitch. As well, getting stuck on Lot 192 and not being able to consume a second dose is still a thing.
The only good thing about Bioshock Remastered is that the visuals are nice. The textures are nicely detailed and smoothed out, the character models have been reworked, and the dynamic lighting has been upgraded. It makes Rapture even more beautiful than it was to begin with, and even when the game was originally released it was already a good looking title; one of the best for 2007, in fact. Still, with that being said, there is a huge lack of graphic options to choose from, you have a Field of View slider, Antialiasing up to 16x, and that's about it.
Basically, what 2K have done with Bioshock Remastered is that they took the original game, painted over all of its dust and grime, and are now showing it off to new people. While yes, technically the term "remaster" means to enhance the quality of audio and visual, most remasters at least see their original problems ironed out. To be quite honest, Bioshock Remastered is the worst remaster I've ever had the displeasure of playing, and it nearly tarnished my love of the game.
If Bioshock Remastered wasn't free since I already owned the original game, I would be demanding a refund immediately. I encourage you to do the same if you're some poor sap who has paid $21.99 CAD for this garbage heap. 2K have released a news article in the discussion forum about upcoming fixes, but I'll change this review when if and when they happen. Until then, whether you're a veteran of Rapture like myself or a newcomer, just play the original until these problems get fixed.
Rating: 1.0/5.0 - It's Bad.The Horror Network
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