BioShock™ 2 Remastered

Played all the way through with zero crashes and it ran at a pretty much locked 144 fps at 1440p. Using a GTX1080 and i7 6700k (not overclocked). The game itself was awesome. Great variety of weapons, powerups, abilities, enemies. the levels could've maybe used a little more variety, though. there was one level with a city block, including a diner, and that was awesome. theater was cool too. story is good. sound was the weakest part; i downloaded a mod to give the guns more impact but they still felt weak, and so did all other sound effects. overall a definite recommend that ran flawlessly

My review is the nearly the same as my BioShock 1 Remastered review. -Audio issues -Crashes (save often) +New weapons (Big Daddy) +New and old powers +Big Daddy ambience as you walk, shoot, and get attacked is convincing and amazing at first +/- You are kind of tanky (Kind of negates the 'scary' moments in the levels. BS1 did it better imo) - Villain is a throwback to Andrew Ryan (Why BS1 was received better) +/- More of the same level design from BS1 Different endings again. I'm giving the game 4 stars and not 3 because the game is still a fun experience. It's more like 3.5 stars because being a slow and sturdy Big Daddy made things feel easy. If I was low on health, I felt bad at the game, if I was at full health I was bored. In BS1, at low health, I was scared. At high health I was exploring carelessly as one should be when playing a new game. Its a psychological thing that being a Big Daddy convinced me I needed a different experience than BioShock 1 as I played it... EVEN THOUGH they both played very similarly. It's made on an updated engine but its still basically BioShock 1 in a Big suit of Big Daddy armor. BioShock, to me, is an experience where you're at odds with this sadistic underworld, constantly looking behind and forced to use the underworld's own powers against it, and not being a guntoting metal monster fighting against hordes and hordes of oncoming maniacs where you don't care about watching your back. In this regard, Bioshock 1's slightly better.

I ran this game on my Windows 10 PC. There were regular crashes when the screen got too full of enemies and mines, causing the game to shut down. Environment & Setting: The world of Rapture feels just like that from the original, albeit with a graphical update. The atmosphere is again spot on, but doesn't feel as shocking or new as it did in the first game, rather familiar instead. The tape recorders dotted around the underwater rooms provide a lot of the back story and are fun to listen to, especially since the voice acting is so good and you don't have to pause the game to hear them. Gameplay: The guns all handle differently and have various ammo types. This game comes with the addition of a Big Daddy drill, which is fun to use. The plasmids (super powers) are quite varied, allowing the player to find their own style of play for tackling enemies. Most can be upgraded, causing meaningful changes. Due to the large quantity of them, I didn't get around to trying every single one out, but rather used the ingame currency (Adam) to buy supporting buffs. Story: You are an early version of the Big Daddies, a brainwashed man inside a hulking weaponised diving suit reminiscent of those used by deep sea explorers of the early 20th century. You are searching for your daughter, a little sister (genetically altered child who bonds with the Big Daddies, withdrawing Adam from the drug addled psychopaths wandering raptures halls). With your ever expanding arsenel of weapons and guidance from a cast of NPCs, you set off to save her from the clutches of her mother, Doctor Lamb, the fanatical religious ruler of the Splicers running amok in Rapture. All in all I found this single player to be a fun romp, which I looked forward to playing in my free time.

Bioshock 2 might be my personal favourite of the franchise; the narrative themes, the characters and how they were written, the dynamics between the characters, how topics like "love" are approached; all of this spoke a lot to me. In terms of gameplay it's also solid fun :)

I had fond memories of this game and its predecessor, Bioshock. approximately 2 years ago the remasters were released, and people complained loudly about instability and crashes. I stayed away. Now on GOG, I still see the same comments. I bought the games anyway, happy to not have to play on Steam or use a disc based version on W8.1. Terrific! The remastering brought the game a little more modernity while maintaining the atmosphere of the original! Very well done. Not only did I not have a single crash in this game, it looked great while satisfying my nostalgia itch well enough that I count it as a current type game. Loved this release! Best part is the originals for both are about to drop into my library.