Same Thing Just Better Graphics!!!!!!!!!!!

it's a really good game, but it crashes a lot, even after the patch

Edit: i'm on a point where i can't advance because the game always crashes

WOULD YOU KINDLY PRESS SPACE TO CRASH

So let's get this out the way and say that both Bioshock 1 as well as it's sequel are incredible games, in my opinion they are maybe a few of the best games ever made, this review it's now about the games as much as it is about the "remastered status" of this games.

For starters both of this remasters have very few options, even less options than the original pc releases, there isn't a way to configure the fov of Bioshock 2 remastered, as of now, i've tried using the console (which you can open with tab) i've tried using "Flawless Widescreen" and i've tried to search for an option in pretty much every menu that the game offers, including the "gameplay options".

That being said the menu was locked to only using my gamepad when i started it, i had to navigate the menu using the arrows on my keyboard in order to disable the gamepad on the controller options and then configure a couple of the key bindings in order to actually get to play the game, after that i also had to recheck to have mouse acceleration disabled on the controller options given the fact that there's apparently a bug, or something strange happening with the mouse when it comes to the menus of the game, it feels as if my "dpi" or the sensitivity is separate from the in-game sensitivity, i've tried changing the sensitivity without luck.

The graphics while being good, are also not insanely improved, i'd expected to see more enhancements when it came to the textures and the lighting, but so far it's clear that they are pretty much just games with minor graphical enhancements.

This remastered, it's sadly the best option that you have to revisit this games, it's frankly a shame that they release this in this state, the whole point of remastering a game it's to make it better, the graphics, the menus, the bugs, fix things that affected the game in a negative way, this sadly doesn't do any of this, instead it just gives the game functionallity without going to hoops in getting the original ones started, something that should've been fixed since a very long time, something that's been bad enough that you have the first stickied post on the forums of Bioshock being how to get that game to run on windows 7/8.

This is simply a review to inform people as to what they're getting for Bioshock 2 Remastered, it's frankly a very good game, but not that much of a re-release, i wish steam had a "mixed" option so i could give the game the score or the recommendation that i think it deserves, it's not bad, it's not terrible, it just could have/should have, been better.

There are literally no settings for graphics besides resolution, vsync, and anti-aliasing. I see why this is free for people already owning the games on steam since this essentially indistinguishable from the orignial version with the biggest difference being the removal of configurable settings. Not even close to being worth $20. The pc version was clearly an after thought.

Lazy console port.

While it does work (so far) for me on 1080p on max.

It lacks any real level of graphics options.
For me the main issue is i cannot furn DOF and Motion blur off, DOF imo looks like crap
and Motion blur gives me motion sickness.

That aside the main reason i am not reccomending this is purely because its a lazy port.
I am sick of AAA studios doing this to PC gamers and i want them to suffer for it.
Its a bad business practice.

Dear 2K! Would you kindly release a patch, please?

High resolution textures aside... the shadows have been almost completely removed from static objects or has a lower resolution shadow map attached to the object. On top of that shadows are pointing in completely incorrect directions based on the light direction which causes the world to look overly weird. Not only that but is it just me or does the world look brighter in this remaster?

If 2K actually bothered to recreate or generate a proper remaster of a "horror themed" IP they own... one would think the developer wouldn't ruin the original games aesthetic by making the environment brighter to better fit with Bioshock Infinite's bright art direction, the art direction for both were completely different why does it look brighter?

Honestly all I ask is for the developer to allow the user to update the shadows on objects or up the shadow resolution to have a stronger/darker shadow and mipbias so the world actually looks believable and not some brighter version of what used to be a great game.

Oh I also forgot to mention both Bioshock 1 and 2 Remastered have less graphical options than the original games and in some respect the environments look better in the original over the Remaster... so please do yourself a favor and just upgrade from the original versions.

Do not support this method of "Downgrading"... btw this also occurred with Dead Island Remastered... are your eyes open yet?

Garbage Port
- game runs in dx9 so their are no water effects
- shadows gone
- no graphical options or fov
- audio is a nightmare
Post Patch
- Crash
- Crash
- Crash
- Crash
- Still no water effects while walking through water
- audio still not in sync with weapons, explosions, npc's
- shadows still stripped from half of the game
- minimul graphical options added


LAZY INTENTIONAL CONSOLE PORT, SHAME ON 2K

As someone who adores this game, I do not recommend this remaster over the original.


The graphics are a very marginal improvment and there are only 2 graphical options: Anisotropic Filtering up to 16x, and Anti Aliasing, which is either on or off and I assume is just FXAA. There are more audio options than graphical options.

This version is missing basic features, like an FOV slider. which was also missing in the original, however it was, and still is avaliable through flawless widescreen.

All of the bugs from the original still remain, and to quote someone from Reddit: "The only reason to remaster this game on PC was to fix technical issues and improve graphics, but they didn't even ♥♥♥♥ing bother."