From Rapture with Love. Revisiting the Bioshock series
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| Players will explore the dilapidated streets of Rapture. |
Having picked up the Bioshock collection on the Xbox live store for £8.00 I was excited to get started. Revisiting this series after ten years has been fantastic as having now done a degree a few years back I can truly appreciate the amount of detail that has been put in from the sound design right down to the UI.
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| Having entered the lighthouse at the start of the game, the player is greeted by this statue of Raptures founder Andrew Ryan. |
Bioshock art deco inspired Rapture and Infinite's Americana utopia Columbia are characters in themself and draw the player in immediately to their setting. BioShock 2 benefits more from the visual upgrade than its predecessor, largely due to the increased detail and more vibrant art design. The brightly coloured fauna that covers Rapture's halls really pops in the new transfer and the sound design exemplary in all of the games shines through here. Unsurprisingly, though, it's BioShock Infinite that is the most technically accomplished of the trilogy, and the cream and gold sprawl of Columbia looks as incredible now as it did in 2013. It's a testament to the efforts of Irrational Games' designers.
Given that the visual tweaks are the only thing that sets these versions apart from their PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 predecessors, how do the games themselves stack up to 10 years removed from their initial release? BioShock has lost none of its power to captivate and is still a joy to play despite clunky shooting and rote puzzle mechanics. The opening reveal of Andrew Ryan's underwater utopia is a classic moment that never fails to astound, and the possibility that new players will be experiencing it along with all the other seminal moments in this game makes this package worthwhile.
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| Bioshock Infinite Flying city of Columbia |
Given that the visual tweaks are the only thing that sets these versions apart from their PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 predecessors, how do the games themselves stack up to 10 years removed from their initial release? BioShock has lost none of its power to captivate and is still a joy to play despite clunky shooting and rote puzzle mechanics. The opening reveal of Andrew Ryan's underwater utopia is a classic moment that never fails to astound, and the possibility that new players will be experiencing it along with all the other seminal moments in this game makes this package worthwhile.
BioShock 2 is probably a lot better than I remember and more than deserves its place in this trilogy. It tightens the combat and adds an element of strategy by increasing difficulty and reducing resources. Levels are opened up and feel more freeform and less linear than in your first Rapture misadventure, with the Little Sister gathering mechanic offering the player a chance to use all the tools at their disposal in a way the first game never did. It also builds on the story concepts of the first in interesting ways, putting the player in a Big Daddy suit from the outset and introducing a sympathetic and terrifying persistent antagonist in the Big Sister. It does feel like a re-tread in places, but as a thematic companion to the first game and an object lesson in how to revisit and improve upon a familiar experience, it does an excellent job.
Then there's Infinite, the black sheep of the Bioshock family – a textbook example of a game that couldn't possibly live up to its own hype. Critically acclaimed on release, only to receive a hefty backlash from those that felt cheated by the promises made by pre-release footage, the linear nature of the journey through Columbia, and a story twist that many found cheap.
In retrospect, Infinite is not the pretentious artifice that some have labelled it as: it's an intelligent and ambitious blockbuster of a game that seems more concerned with taking the player on a journey than giving them anything worthwhile to do. It's a theme park ride as fake as the metal presidents that attack the main characters and as fun as zipping around on a skyline. Even Elizabeth, with her ability to create tears in the fabric of the universe, equates to little more than novel way to get items and health drinks, but she also manages to be an escort mission that isn't annoying and a decent plot cypher to boot. the game is a hugely enjoyable ride, massive in scope, playing around with philosophical concepts and socio-political arguments in a way that may never be seen in a game with such production values again.
The extra content is the real treat of this collection. The first game gets all the Protector Trial challenge rooms, as well as a directors commentary and a museum of abandoned concepts to wander around. BioShock 2 gets yet more challenge rooms and the fantastic Minerva's Den, which contains some of the best writing and characterisation in the series. The third game bundles in fun but disposable arena battle mode Clash in the Clouds and Burial At Sea, a two part story based add-on that takes place in an alternate vision of Rapture which allowed players to see what Rapture and its society was like before its inevitable fall.
In Conclusion BioShock: The Collection is the best way to experience the world of Rapture and Columbia. All three games and their DLC look great and, despite a slightly creaky port of the first game, perform well. Unfortunately, series veterans such as myself won't find anything new, meaning that the visual upgrade and the convenience of having everything pulled into one package are the only reasons to return to games that you may have already experienced multiple times.
Great 8/10
Then there's Infinite, the black sheep of the Bioshock family – a textbook example of a game that couldn't possibly live up to its own hype. Critically acclaimed on release, only to receive a hefty backlash from those that felt cheated by the promises made by pre-release footage, the linear nature of the journey through Columbia, and a story twist that many found cheap.
In retrospect, Infinite is not the pretentious artifice that some have labelled it as: it's an intelligent and ambitious blockbuster of a game that seems more concerned with taking the player on a journey than giving them anything worthwhile to do. It's a theme park ride as fake as the metal presidents that attack the main characters and as fun as zipping around on a skyline. Even Elizabeth, with her ability to create tears in the fabric of the universe, equates to little more than novel way to get items and health drinks, but she also manages to be an escort mission that isn't annoying and a decent plot cypher to boot. the game is a hugely enjoyable ride, massive in scope, playing around with philosophical concepts and socio-political arguments in a way that may never be seen in a game with such production values again.
The extra content is the real treat of this collection. The first game gets all the Protector Trial challenge rooms, as well as a directors commentary and a museum of abandoned concepts to wander around. BioShock 2 gets yet more challenge rooms and the fantastic Minerva's Den, which contains some of the best writing and characterisation in the series. The third game bundles in fun but disposable arena battle mode Clash in the Clouds and Burial At Sea, a two part story based add-on that takes place in an alternate vision of Rapture which allowed players to see what Rapture and its society was like before its inevitable fall.
In Conclusion BioShock: The Collection is the best way to experience the world of Rapture and Columbia. All three games and their DLC look great and, despite a slightly creaky port of the first game, perform well. Unfortunately, series veterans such as myself won't find anything new, meaning that the visual upgrade and the convenience of having everything pulled into one package are the only reasons to return to games that you may have already experienced multiple times.
Great 8/10
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