Bioshock: The Collection Playstation 4

I was pretty stoked when I found out that Bio Shock was getting the remaster treatment with all three games in one tidy package. At a $60 price point (less if you're a prime member) that amounts to $20 a game which is excellent for a trio of fantastic games. (Much like the recent Resident Evil remasters and Uncharted collection)At the time of this review I have completed Bioshock 1 and 2 and have just begun to play Infinite. (I have played all three previously last gen). All I can say so far is...wow. These games are just superb. The first Bioshock is perhaps one of the most iconic video games of all time and let me tell you-there is nothing quite as satisfying in all of video game history as taking out a Big Daddy. Seriously. Nothing else like it.For me personally-Bioshock 1 is still the most memorable of the trio. Its larger than life characters like Andrew Ryan, Atlas, Dr. Suchong, Sander Cohen, Frank Fontaine, etc.-really immersed you into a fully fleshed out under the sea utopian world gone wrong complete with its own pseudo civil war. Plasmids, Gene Tonics and a wide variety of weapons to experiment with just put the icing on the cake. Plus the Art Deco style, political underpinnings and voice recorded messages spirited you away to a place you had never seen before. Rapture was a place filled in equal measure with wonder and danger at every turn.As for Bioshock 2, many consider it to be almost a carbon copy of the original. There are indeed a lot of similarities, but it's still an outstanding game. The creators must've really gotten a lot of good feedback from the kill Big Daddy/save or harvest Little Sister dynamic because they seemed to hedge all their bets on this dynamic for Bioshock 2. Sure, once again it's fun to end a Big Daddy, but this time there are more "steps" involved with the Little Sisters if you want to max the amount of Adam you receive. While this is fun at first, after the eleventh time of A) killing Big Daddy, B) tracking down and draining Adam from a dead body while twenty splicers attack you, C) tracking down and draining Adam from a second dead body while another twenty splicers attack you then D) finally escorting little Sister to her hide out then E) Finding another Big Daddy/Little Sister and repeating the whole process over again usually twice more each level-it does get sort of repetitive and tiresome. And yes, Killing Big Sisters is very satisfying too, but near the end of the game the whole things gets to be a sort of grind. And quite frankly-if you take all of this away, the game itself doesn't hold up as well story-wise or objective-wise as Bioshock 1. All of the Big Daddy/Little Sister/Big Sister stuff is really what the game is all about in the end. Everything else is pretty forgettable. Still a great game though.As for Infinite, it's a little less action oriented than the other two though even more story driven. All I can say so far with this remaster since I just started Infinite, is that the moment Booker Dewitt ascends to the sky and Columbia comes into view is nothing short of breath taking. Infinite is so gorgeous that I found myself just stopping by certain areas, leaning up against a railing and watching air ships go by or listening to the barbershop quartet sing. When is the last time in a video game you can say that you stopped to smell the roses? It's that beautiful.All in all-despite a few minor glitches (voice recorders getting hung up for a few seconds on certain syllables in Bioshock 1, slow down in Bioshock Infinite) this is a fantastic collection of three outstanding video games at a really great price. If you're sitting the fence-you really can't pass this up. Rapture and Columbia are two places well worth a revisit. These games still impress me more than most of the current gen stuff. For me, my PS4 for the most part has become a remaster machine. I have not been terribly impressed by any of the brand new game on the system outside of Uncharted 4. (Killzone, Infamous Second Son and several others were all duds in my book) My favorite games on the system are all remasters including DMC, The Uncharted Collection, Tomb Raider, The Last of Us and Resident Evil 1, 4 & 5 and now the Bioshock collection. Not sure what that says about Sony's original games, but I am sure having fun with all the remasters. Dead Space next please.

This is the definitive console version of Bioshock 1, Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite along with all the dlc (minus mulitplayer for Bioshock 2).PSA: if you own the PC version of any of the games on Steam there's a free upgrade so you can get the same experience there. Except for the "imagining bioshock behind the pitch" feature with seems to be an exclusive for this collectionThe "Imagining Bioshock Behind the Pitch" featurette is basically an interview documentary/ director's commentary on how Bioshock came to be. You do not get the entire feature from the get-go rather you have to collect golden reels hidden in Bioshock 1's campaign. There are 10 golden reels to collect, each containing a ~10min video.Graphical Changes. Every game in this collection has a graphical (1080p) and frame rate (60fps) upgrade. Some more than others, as Bioshock 1 seem to have the star treatment. Bioshock 1 they polish it up really nicely, but still within the confines of the old engine as Rapture doesn't look as good as it does in the Bioshock Infinite DLC: Burial at Sea; making it more of a re-master instead of a re-imagining. Bioshock 2 seems to have a spit shine instead of the star treatment Bioshock 1 has, but still looks good. Bioshock Infinite looks like the PC version at max settings.Story. Bioshock 1 has a really good story of a failed utopia filled with a lot of twist and turns in terms of plot. Bioshock 2 although a good story is not as captivating as the first. Bioshock Infinite is the best out of the 3 with themes of trans-dimensional travel and it's DLC linking all 3 main games together. Some may say Bioshock 1 has the best story, but I say that's mostly nostalgiaGameplay. Gameplay is drastically different in all 3 core games as the jump and/or heal button is re-mapped in all 3 games, which may screw with our muscle memory if you play all 3 games in succession like I did. Bioshock 1 gameplay/controls are very dated and I recommend playing the games in order because of it or you may get frustrated having familiarize yourself with controls of the other two games. Bioshock 2 (after playing 1) is a breath of fresh air as the gameplay is a bit more modernized being more fast, having the ability to use both plasmids and your guns at the same time. Bioshock Infinite gameplay is more refined and fluid as you are now able to ride on rails like you're on a roller coaster during battles.Trophy Hunters. If you're looking for more PSN trophies then this game has it, 201 total to be exact. It does stack even if you played the original PS3 version as PSN sees it as it's own separate gameIf you're a hardcore fan, never played any of the games/skip the dlc then it may be worth it for you. If you're a casual fan and have own all the games and dlc then there's nothing really new except the documentary, unless you want the definitive edition of all games on a 2 disc set, a trophy hunter, or want to re-visit Rapture and Columbia

My son loves that this set came in one case. He has played these three games through multiple times and once to play them again with his father. The games came quickly and were as described in the description. I would recommend this to someone else who is interested in the genre.