Bioshock Remastered PC Performance Review

Conclusion

When looking at Bioshock’s Remastered versions it is evident that these are only visual overhauls. These games are still plagued by a lot of the issues that were present in the original PC releases, that being said these newer versions do breathe a lot of new life into Rapture and make the prospect of experiencing these games again very exciting. 

On modern GPU hardware, these games are almost criminally easy to run, with even our R9 380 managing to achieve 100+ FPS at max settings at a resolution of 1440p. It is pretty safe to say that if you can run Bioshock Infinite, these new Remasters of Bioshock 1 and two shouldn’t present you PC with any major issues. 

With these new PC version coming free of charge to existing Bioshock owners we can forgive the game for its few misgivings, like the lack of ultra-wide 21:9 monitor support and the lack of an FOV slider, though these are certainly things that 2K should work on implementing with a future patch. 

These new remasters, for the most part, bring the visuals in Bioshock 1 and 2 to the graphical level achieved by Bioshock Infinite, giving the city of Rapture HD textures, enhanced models and a lot more small details in certain sections of the game. These additional details make this the perfect opportunity for existing fans to replay the Bioshock series, and for newcomers to the series to experience and explore this unique world for the first time. 

While these rereleases of Bioshock 1 and 2 are far from perfect on PC, they are nonetheless welcome improvements, especially given the generosity of 2K who have released this DLC for free for existing Bioshock owners on PC. 

If you consider these rereleases as free content patched you cannot be anything but pleased with what 2K has done here, especially given the fact that Bioshock is over nine years old. On the other hand, if you look at these as a new version for the modern PC audience then the lack of 21:9 monitor support and the lack of full FOV options are some major oversights that will turn off potential newcomers to the series. 

All-in-all these new releases of Bioshock and Bioshock 2 are fully functional, perform well on modern hardware and are certainly worth looking at if you missed Bioshock when it was originally released. If you already owned Bioshock then 2K has presented you with the opportunity to replay this classic with modern visuals and the ability to truly play the game with unlocked physics and framerate. 

 

You can join the discussion on Bioshock’s PC Remasters on the OC3D Forums.