holoz0r's A-Z of Steam: "BioShock Remastered"

BioShock was one of the first games I played where I deliberately waited until night time, just so I could play with the lights out. The Remastered version is a very faithful recreation of the original title, and I had no troubles running it on a modern operating system. Having said that, the original game has been replaced in most people's Steam Libraries by the Remastered edition, which came along at around the same time as the excellent BioShock: Infinite.

The first thing I'm going to say about this remaster is that owing to the modern engine, optimised assets, and a powerful machine is... unless you have a freesync or gsync monitor, for the love of all that is good and glorious, turn V-SYNC on.

Without V-SYNC on, I was averaging anywhere between 200-400FPS at 4K on my 1080ti powered system, which means a few things: one, the engine it's running on can seriously push frames and two - this is a well optimised "remaster" of a memorable game.

The one thing it is, however; is so much easier than the original title - whether it's experience, whether its knowing what to do and how to kill things efficiently (ie freeze and shock every big daddy with the shotgun special ammo) - this title has lost none of its magic.

None of it.

If you haven't played BioShock, it's a story about a city in the sea, called Rapture. There, in 1960s art-deco stylings, you meander your way through Ryan Industries, and a swathe of insane, husk-like humans who need the genetic material ADAM to continue functioning with their enhanced genetics that allows them to do things like spew forth lightning from their hands, or hurl fireballs.

There's telekinesis, too. You also have a whole bunch of "hacking" to do, which involves plumbing. You can hack turrets, security bots, and cameras to use them to your advantage in battle.

BioShock is Deus Ex in a water wonderland, with atmosphere aplenty, but slightly less choice and flexibility in what you can do to approach a scenario. It's somewhat linear compared to modern titles of this fashion, but that is fine, because it is telling you a story, and its a story full of atmosphere, horror, and how ideal visions just don't work out as you imagine them in the real world.

A fantastic game, and the remaster is faithful to the original, including new, additional director's commentary.