BioShock: The Collection (Switch) Review

In 2007, if you told me BioShock would eventually come to a Nintendo console, I probably would have looked over at you, down at my Wiimote, then back to you, and laugh. But now, in 2020, I can easily switch from treasure tracking with Captain Toad, to sky-hooking fascists in the eye in BioShock Infinite like it ain’t no thang. What a world.

BioShock: The Collection comes with all three mainline installments–BioShock, BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite–as well as their respective expansions. The original BioShock’s DLC includes a set of challenge rooms and The Museum of Orphaned Concepts, which features a walk-through showroom of character models; BioShock 2 has the Protector Trials and Minerva’s Den; and finally BioShock Infinite with Clash in the Clouds, Burial at Sea parts 1 & 2, and Columbia’s Finest Pack. Minerva’s Den and the Burial at Sea episodes are the only DLC really worth digging into as they are all excellent vignettes that help flesh out the BioShock universe.

On Switch, the Collection runs surprisingly well, maintaining a crisp 1080p resolution while docked and 720p in handheld mode, with some absent anti-aliasing. In either mode the Collection runs at a smooth 30 FPS (though there were some very rare moments where the frame rate dipped ever so slightly in crazy firefights), and retrospectively benefit from their art direction. Indeed, in 2020 it’s expected that a decade-old series would run well on contemporary hardware, but I can’t overstate how great these games feel on the Switch. Okay, perhaps less so in handheld mode – but that’s somewhat a-given with first-person shooters due to the smaller Joy-Con.

BioShock on the Switch felt familiar to my last experience playing the game back in the early 2010s on an Xbox 360. In case you missed it in 2007, the game is set in 1960 in an underwater dystopia called Rapture, built with the intention of being free from government and religious oppression, aiming to be a beacon for art and science. The development of plasmids–an injected serum that alters the genetic code of an individual and imbues powerful abilities–tips the balance of power and causes the deterioration of its society and citizens. The player finds themselves stranded in Rapture and has to navigate its horrific splicers, Little Sisters and Big Daddies, all while being caught up in the power struggle of the city’s founder, Andrew Ryan, and those seeking to claim the city for themselves. 

BioShock 2 sets itself just prior to the events of the original, during Rapture’s civil unrest. Here, we’re introduced to Big Sisters; more terrifying and magnitudes more agile than their Big Daddy protectors. BioShock 2 pits the player in the boots of a Big Daddy looking for his Little Sister who was torn from him years ago, punctuating the game’s beats with frequent ambushes by Big Sisters. Its DLC, Minerva’s Den, takes familiar aspects of the main game but attributes it to a smaller side-story about a scientist inventing Rapture’s first personality-driven computer.

BioShock Infinite refines everything about its first two entries, and takes players skyward to a floating metropolis called Columbia in 1912, populated by religious radicals led by a self-declared prophet. While many parallels are drawn between this game and its predecessors, instead of collecting plasmids players drink tonics that deliver new sets of powers called vigors. Infinite also pits players against a new iconic foe, Songbird, all the while telling a new story about revolution, prophecy, and some interdimensional brain melting. Its two-part story DLCs, Burial at Sea, tie the series together into an even more complicated pasta-bowl of a narrative. It’s great.

For the purposes of this review, I won’t be going much further into the stories, as BioShock is the kind of series that’s best experienced when you know little about it up front. But if you’re lucky enough to have made it this far without having anything spoiled, or you’re on the fence looking for affirmation on whether to re-buy the series, there’s a major point to consider.

On the Australian eShop, the Collection is $89.95, or $34.95 for each game bundled with their respective DLC. While that might not seem too bad for a set of newly bundled remasters, BioShock: The Collection originally came out in 2016 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One and is frequently on sale for under $20. Paying full price on Switch only delivers the prestige of playing it portably, outside of buying the less-than-stellar phone versions.

Price aside, these ports work very well. And with a lack of first-person shooters on the Switch that don’t make a noticeable compromise in graphics or performance, the BioShocks are a great set to reach for when in the mood for some violence.

Progressing through the series also made me appreciate how the series’ art direction progressed over the PS3/360 era. The original BioShock always looked a little visually undercooked to me (take a good look at the character models – especially those Little Sisters). However, BioShock Infinite still looks absolutely wonderful, with vibrant colours and bright lighting; a complete contrast compared to its previous two entries, set in the dark depths of the ocean floor.

Looking past the facade, the BioShock series is some of the best writing in the shooter genre. Ken Levine’s efforts as auteur of the first and third games shines, ambitiously delving into issues of classism, marxism, and religion–all while setting fire to crazed junkies and blasting them away. Some iconography can be a little heavy-handed, particularly in Infinite’s prologue, but it makes for a truly memorable and unique experience regardless. And as an added extra, collectable director’s commentaries can be discovered throughout each game, featuring interviews with developers (such as Levine), conducted by The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley.

The series also hits home runs in their genuine sense of place: whether crawling through an underwater, mid-20th century metropolis or barrelling around a floating, pre-war era city in the sky. Both Rapture’s Art Deco and Columbia’s Edwardian aesthetic provide an authenticity to not only the look of their environments, but also its sounds: audio plays a key role at tricking your mind into believing these could be real places, particularly in dialogue and music. Truly, the BioShock series is a masterclass in painstaking world-building in the shooter genre.

The only real complaints I can make for this Collection is that they still feel like last-gen BioShock games. What I mean is unlike its other contemporaries that feel much tighter–like such shooters as the Call of Duty, Halo, and Resistance series–the BioShock games have a certain clunkiness to them that can feel a little awkward. Also, I came across an aggravating bug in the first BioShock during Fort Frolic where the player’s required to fight multiple waves of splicers. In my playthrough the game failed to activate the next trigger when I killed everyone, and with its autosaves being few and far between, I had to revert to my most recent manual save which set me back 1.5 hours. It’s a well-reported bug that seems to have existed since 2007 and is still yet to be fixed.

If price is no issue to you, and you’re looking for one of the best narrative-based shooters in modern gaming, BioShock: The Collection is an absolute banger of a bundle. In total, you’re looking at at least 40 hours of game time, with each entry building upon what came before. And if you’ve never played the series, with Switch being your main gaming device, you’re sure to have an experience unlike anything else that’s come before or after.

If price is no issue to you, and you’re looking for one of the best narrative-based shooters in modern gaming, BioShock: The Collection is an absolute banger of a bundle. In total, you’re looking at at least 40 hours of game time, with each entry building upon what came before. And if you’ve never played the series, with Switch being your main gaming device, you’re sure to have an experience unlike anything else that’s come before or after.

Rating: 4.5/5