I was absolutely obsessed with this game in 2007. God, what a year that was for gaming in general.

The answer is always "yes". Despite the rough edges, these games are timeless.

I always cry when I get to the ending when you save all the little sisters and there's shots of them getting a degree, getting married, then finally holding your hand on your death bed. Then Tenenbaum says "What was your reward? A family". It just tugs at my heartstrings. It makes me think about when I meet little ones in real life and how they make me feel.

I‘m really suprised that Minervas Den isn‘t even mentioned in this video. Probably my favourite Dlc of all time.

The water tech in this game still impresses. Fantastic.

2007 was one of the best years for video games. Bioshock, Mass Effect, Orange Box and Halo 3 to mention a few. Bioshock looked and felt amazing even with the limited power of the Xbox 360. I played it on a projector screen back in the day with surround and it was so immersive.

I played through Bioshock 1 & 2 on my steam deck recently and even thought I've played them loads of times. It still to this day captivates me like no other game has. From the sound track to world design and story (even if BS2 isn't considered as good) I still loves these games.

Something else they improved on in 2 was the endings. Not only are there more than just “good” and “bad”, but some of them aren’t that hugely divisive. They sit and that morally grey area. Also Eleanor is soo good narrating those endings. Creepy or wholesome depending on which ending you get.

I think that in System Shock 2 you started on Von Braun, Rickenbacker was attached to Von Braun to provide security :)

bioshock 1 and 2 are timeless. The art style and direction is so good it will always hold up.

The fully upgraded bees in bioshock 2 are nuts, because you can combine them with fire and they spread around. Put that together with any other damage source, and you can chew through mobs like nobody's business

I think it’s worth mentioning the “Would You Kindly” plot twist. I’ve unfortunately been spoiled prior to playing it myself, but I can’t imagine how mindblowing it would’ve been when playing it in 2007.

BioShock still remains my favorite FPS of all time. The deep and awesome combat coupled with the artstyle that still holds up today, all topped off with some of the best writing and storytelling in any game I’ve ever played makes it a masterpiece that I love going back to.

Played Bioshock a year or so ago, maybe 2021, and if it had been new and released that year, it still would have gotten my vote for game of the year. It always feels like a breath of fresh air when I jump back into this game.

Very close to my fave game of all time. This blew my mind when I first played it, I was about 15, and I played through this 10 times, it's the first game I ever got all the achievements on my x360 - then bought it again on PC later and played it multiple more times. There's something about this art design/level design that has never been bested IMO. Just exploring, finding everything and seeing every perfectly crafted nook and cranny of the city. I also find the gameplay extremely fun and dynamic

My FPS was so low playing that game that I had no option other than to use the wrench the entire game, and it was brilliant!

Amazing how a game from 2008 still looks better than some current AAA titles thanks to the amazing lighting and art direction. Give me this over the soulless overly clean world of titles like Back 4 blood or Gotham Knights.

Bioshock 2’s DLC Minerva’s den is excellent! One of the many times I have cried to that story.

Truly, Bioshock is one of the most unique and interesting game worlds I've ever seen. The Art Deco design plus the water outside is as iconic as the atomic 1950s style for Fallout. I can't say the "twist" is that complex but at the time I had no idea about it. Both Bioshock and The Line are some of my favourite gaming twists of all time. I think 2007-2010 was an amazing time for gaming even though I probably have rose tinted glasses as I was a teen back then). Lots of games had extremely unique mechanics or looks to them. I've always said I'd adore a Bioshock movie IF DONE WELL.

I’ve been on a 2007 binge and you got me wanting to actually go through the first game, don’t know why I’ve only completed 2

My favorite fps game series up there with Stalker, Metro 2033, Half-life & Fear. Utilizing the dummy & having the splicers walk into your proxy mines willingly is pretty good use of those combined when low on ammo for your regular guns or adam.

The Big Daddies in the thumbnail don't have their faces shown and yet I can still tell that they're smiling.

Insect Swarm is best plasmid ever. They seek out enemies that might be hiding, it stuns enemies so that during situations where multiple enemies are around you can use the bees to keep some of them busy while you focus on killing the ones who are bee free, and if you upgrade it all the way the bees will linger in corpses meaning enemies that try to run up on you from behind will be stunned in place either giving you time to move on or turn around and counter their attempted ambush. I will turn the entirety of rapture into Nick Cage in the Wicker man!

11:28 The good ending of the first game actually moved me and made my wife tear up. Great game.

I was literally telling one of my coworkers how great this series was last week. He put it on his wishlist and is awaiting a sale so he can buy all three. I waited a long time to play Bioshock, and it's now one of my favorite game franchises around! I was even looking into hypnosis to see if someone could help me forget that I played it so I could "play it again, for the first time" ( I did find a guy online but have yet to try it). A fun and beautiful series of games, I always recommend them.

I haven’t even watched the video yet, but the combat in bio shock 2 still stands the test of time. I miss that era of just 6 hour linear shooters, but their well crafted and have great attention to detail.

Great video as always, GMan! But I have to say that Target Bullseye is extremely useful when you want to kill a Big Daddy. If the Big Daddy is going to walk near a security camera, then shoot the Target Bullseye at him, and when the camera sees him, then it sends out the flying turrets to attack the Big Daddy. That way, you don't have to fight him yourself, meaning that you don't put yourself at risk, you don't waste ammunition (not that ammo is ever in short supply in Rapture), and you can keep on photographing the fight, getting points from the Big Daddy and the flying turrets. If the Big Daddy is not near a camera, then you just need to do something to trigger the bots attacking you, such as breaking a shop window in the shopping mall in Fort Frolic, or hacking something and then deliberately failing it by hitting an alarm tile. When the flying turrets come for you, run to the Big Daddy and shoot the target bullseye at him, and the turrets will ignore you and attack him instead. Target Bullseye allows you to kill most Big Daddies without ever needed to fire even one shot at them. Bioshock is still a great game, though with some real flaws, such as the way the enjoyment level of the game drops massively after the mid-game revelation, the endless, tedious hacking mini-game (which is made worse by the way that the game never checks if a newly generated hacking board is actually completable - sometimes it can be literally impossible to complete one, though thankfully you just lose a little heath then restart with a hopefully completable new board, the sometimes bad bot-pathing of the flying turrets, and the terrible boss fight that ends the game. BTW, after playing Bioshock, anyone who is interested should then read the following article, which details how it's author would have ended the game, had he worked on it. It's an amazing idea, monumentally better than the very generic, very unsatisfying end that the game shipped with: www.pentadact.com/2009-04-15-ending-bioshock/ If only the game had been moddable. Still, the utterly fantastic Bioshock 2 fixed most of the problems that it's predecessor had, and to me is by far the best of the three Bioshocks (it's the only one of the three that I regularly replay), plus it has the brilliant DLC 'Minerva's Den'.

God 2007 was such an amazing year for games. Replaying the dead space remake really shows me how much staying power those IPs all had

Some of the best Narritive driven games ever made, The world and art design were next to none. Phenomenal story.

38:43 oh, that was sweet! Such a nice detail. I'm currently playing all the Bioshock games one more time. Last month I finished Bioshock 2 and have now moved to Infinite. I have to agree, playing them back to back like this shows the HUGE difference between the first two games in Rapture and the third in Columbia. I think my favorite is 2 for the exact reasons mentioned in this video: they took the "bad" things about the first game and tried to improve them. Oh, and Minerva's Den DLC has a nice story (even though the gameplay is very linear and even a little bit uninspired)

I love how the story is told, I know a lot of people don’t like audio logs but with the very few really good cutscenes and the ability to actually play the game the entire time without being forced into cutscene after cutscene makes it one of my most favourite games. Everyone remembers “Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow.” and “A man chooses, a slave obeys.”

I got the collection for cheap this weekend, haven't played it since literally 2007.... Oh my god i just wanted to play for like an hour or so but ended up playing through the entire game in one setting, it's just SO damn good.

To this day Yahtzee criticizing BiosHock 2 but then going on to praise Infinite will never not be baffling to me

Bioshock 2 is an underrated gem desu !

This was the very first game I played after I moved out of my parents and finally built my own computer. I have never been more blown away by a graphical jump. Everything out today just feels like a slight improvement of what came before it. This truly felt like next gen.

I played bioshock for the first time back in 2017 and I never had the twist spoiled for me so, needless to say, I was absolutely blown away.

These were my favorite games these and the first 2 deadspaces were my semi-childhood (teenager) I'd play them constantly and just be in awe at all the detail for the time. Even looking at how 3d the bullet holes were for me was just crazy (I know it's just bump maps) but still the world was so interesting I wish it could have gone on forever. In my opinion (I haven't watched the video yet) yes you should play these games they are still extremely fun. Tho janky at times still a blast.

Was the only game to truly feel like a new leap in gaming at the time. When they plane came through as you were walking Rapture.. my jaw dropped.I waited for like 3 minutes because I thought the first scene when you land in the water surround by fire was a cut scene.😂🤣

I didn't enjoy Bioshock as much as other people. I liked it but wasn't blown away, maybe it's because all the people who played it blind didn't know what to expect whereas I heard people talk about the game for years until I finally played it myself. Will say, though, the game has the best plot twist in any game ever. Totally throws you for a loop and changes how you see everything afterward. Great art style, too. Might not have been for me but undeniably a classic.

This has always been one of the few channels where cheap meme edits thrown in from time to time genuinely make me laugh. Gman's always got a good sense for it.

While I find System Shock 2 superior, Bioshock still has a special place in my heart, if nothing more for the shocking revelation at the end. which caught me completely off guard way back in 2010 despite me being very attentive to the narrative.

Still one of my favourites to this day, thank you for covering it so well and noting all the lovable bits 💕

Great review, Gman. You nailed it. I remember when I first got to play this game. I think it was around early to mid 2008 when I accidentally stumbled upon and then short after got this game (never heard of it before) on my then quite old rig that barely were able to launch it, let alone play it. But nontheless my initial experience of the game fits your description perfectly. Good on ya, mate.

A friend I had for over 30 years was obsessed with this game. He passed from brain cancer 2 years ago and I always think of him when I see this game. I feel like I want to play it through. Cheers gman.

I always saved the Little Sisters. Never once did a genocide run.

The wasp one is my favorite I use that one to distract and do heavy damage or they use other plasmids and I sometimes just use it to like I'll just spam it especially when it's fully upgraded and it just mows the enemies down for me so I can concentrate another stuff like hacking although I think it's somewhat better in the second game

No Gods or Kings, only man. That line has stuck with me for so many years, and i will never forget it,and will live by it as best i can

I can remember getting the first game on sale, from a gamestop that is now closed in a mall that is now gone, just before going to see an action movie with my Pap. Getting into the car after forgetting only to realize I had Lost Planet, The Darkness, and Bioshock, (3 games I had never heard of and purchased just because of the art and details on the front and back) to play after the hour ride home. What a set of wild rides we were in for. Bioshock eased me into the survival horror genre. What a Gem.

Bioshock is one of my favourite FPS games ever made by 2K. Can’t wait for your take on Atomic Heart,and the upcoming System Shock Remake that are coming out this year.

Splicer by far are the highlight of the series, never seen a game before or since that put that much character into an enemy type which is key considering how often you encounter their presence

I would also love to see a modern Infinite review from you. That games was praised to high heavens back in the day for it's gameplay and narrative. As the years went by, people started to see the game in a way more negative light.

Great review - my favorite game ever and I’ve gotten all of the achievements probably 10 different times. That said, I noticed you made a throwaway comment on the Insect Swarm plasmid being kinda useless - it’s actually amazing for killing Big Daddies. There’s some bonus room challenges where it’s almost essential!

Funny timing. Replayed both of these very recently for their first time since their release.

I remember the demo dropping on the 360 and my mind being blown. Such a great game. So intriguing.

You can actually combine cyclone trap with incinerate, electro bolt, or the freeze by placing the trap down and using any said plasmid on it for an elemental trap. Helps a lot with parts of the game when you’ve got to hold out against waves.

Stop making me want to give this game another go god damn it

Man I love the Bioshock series and I would love to wipe my memory to experience them for the first time again. Great review (like always) but I have to ask if you missed minervas den or just don't care for it enough. It's an overlooked dlc and deserves more attention.

For some reason, I didn’t like Bioshock 2 much back when it came out. However, when I played through it again a couple years ago, I realized that I actually love it. I’m still unsure about why I didn’t enjoy it as much the first time I played it. It’s brilliant. The research camera is great in that game because it encourages you to use all your weapons and plasmids against every enemy in order to get a higher research score.

I always say: If you've never played a Bioshock, play the first. If you know them all and just want to replay some Bioshock, play the second one.

If ONLY I could play the fr#cking second game without crashes on PC...

I remember first discovering this game in I think November of 2009. Not sure of the exact year but I know it was November because my family was getting angry with me for barely participating in Thanksgiving dinner. Mainly because I was too busy being thankful for Bioshock instead of my family haha.

I just finished Bioshock 1 yesterday, and to everyone who hasnt played it, play it. Its amazing. I heard a lot of good things about it and after finishing some of the games i had installed i bought the complete edition and boy is it good. Bioshock 2 is being installed rn, cant wait.

Hands down one of the most compelling and aesthetically pleasing and cinematic games of its time. Both Rapture and Columbia were some of the most detailed and well designed fictional cities in gaming, the characters all had a purpose in the story and the sidequests, the gameplay was solid and had depth and variety and lastly the plot twist in all the game along with the multiple endings were extremely well done. Still have very fond memories playing those games

As much as I love Bioshock 1 I always thought that as a game as a whole Bioshock 2 is the better one. The story is really good(Especially the audios and the enviromental storytelling) and I think that's overlooked compared to 1, The gameplay is ten times better and the DLC is 11/10. The multiplayer was also fun couldn't play that much but the little I played I enjoyed it and the videos were fun. If you never played 2 give it a chance it improves everything from the Original and YES it is better than infinite which imo is the worst of the three.

Pedant's corner - you don't wake up on the Rickenbacker, you wake up on the UNN Van Braun. The Rickenbacker is the military vessel piggybacking on the hyperspace jump with the Van Braun and you only get onto it sometime after Deck 5.

Did the whole review without actually talking about the plot twist, respect

Totally yes Haven't play the sequel but I played the first game and it was fun, hopefully I get into the sequel

Timeless art style. Initially at release I was bummed it didn't go for the most modern photo realism of the time, didn't take long for me to see my error.

Played through Bioshock 1 (remastered) again couple of months back, didnt regret that a single bit. So absolutly.

you know your old when you know where the juggernaut sample is in.

Love both of these. The first is one of my all time favorites, I was obsessed with it when I first played it. My appreciation for 2 grows as the years pass, even though I was a defender of it from the start. Love it almost as much as the first. Infinite tho….

"A man has a choice. I chose the impossible. I built a city where the artist would not fear censor, where the great would not be constrained by the small, where a scientist would not be bound by petty gravity, I chose to build RAPTURE" -Andrew Ryan Bioshock is a certified classic, spawning surprisingly good sequels and even an entertaining prequel book.

I finished my routine Bioshock playthrough just the other day and have been making my way through the sequel. Great timing on the review m8

Bioshock and Metro were the two FPS series I used to play the most in middle and high school. No matter how many times I played them, I would always play through both series over and over and over.

I feel that the DLC's for Bioshock Infinite tied the game together well with Bioshock 1 and 2. Playing Bioshock infinite the first time I really thought the writers had painted themselves into a corner with doing a logical tie-in to the first two games, but as the credits rolled on Burial at Sea part 2, I found it very satisfying.

Gman: "We've had a resurgence in Immersive Sims lately." DownwardThrust and other pretentious analytical KZfaqrs: "those aren't Immersive Sims, he can't keep getting away with this. 😭😭😭"

I really loved the environmental fact that you find a telekinesis plasmid near the dentist office. In case someone couldn't catch the example ball, they could always fix their teeth next door.

A Very Addictive gameplay Loop and rewarding exploration experience In Bio 2 I just used the Rivet Gun throughout 80% of my play through since it was that versatility

Sadly, I never finished Bioshock. I just got extremely fed up with the hacking mini games. They are so repetitive and there are so many of them, that it became a game breaking feature for me.

These games are amazing. With the Dead Space remake being so good, I don't think I'd be opposed to Bioshock 1 getting a remake that fixes some of the clunkiness of the original, while also bringing Rapture to next gen. It's totally not necessary, but it'd be interesting.

Fun fact: I had no idea you could aim down sights because it's only an option if you play with a controller (press the thumbstick).

First game is such a masterpiece I remember reading Xbox magazine about it in 2007 and being so intrigued only to not play it until 2016 but needless to say its been an all time favorite ever since

Thank you! I've maintained that BioShock 2 has better gameplay for a while so it's annoying that people just write it off. Obviously a sequel wasn't going to compare to the uniqueness and originality of the first game but at least they improved on one of the most important aspects of the game

I think bioshock 2 as time progress has been more appreciated and people realizing that this game is really good while bioshock infinte is the complete opposite especially blurial at sea 1&2. Also how dare you that you didnt talk about minerva's den that dlc imo rivals the first game imo.

DAMNIT MAN! You pointed out a bunch of stuff I haven't done in my several playthrough already! I need to play it again now! ...oh well... Hey, BTW, I have great success with Insect Swarm. You should try using it more in your next playthrough after fully upgrading it. Fun to use.

Legit possibly my favorite mechanic for these games may have been taking pictures and videos of your enemies to get to know them better. What a great idea and some of those perks were just so fucking satisfying to unlock

Please for the love of god, DO NOT SKIP ON MINERVAS DEN. Story is one of the best i have ever played....dlc for Bioshock 2

The editing in your videos is always impeccable and at times just hysterical, I love it!

On my third playthrough I discovered the insanely OP combo of Wrench Jockey, Sportboost and Natural Camouflage. What this does is makes the wrench the most powerful weapon in the game, and enables you to grab the attention of nearby splicers, then stand still and go invisible. They'll lurch over to investigate and when they get into range, WHAM, one shotted by a pipe wrench. Combine that with the wonky ragdoll physics and it never gets old.

Infinite is the one I go back to, I love the setting, the metaphysical theory behind the world and the story... It would be better if it didn't have bioshock in the name to not draw comparisons but it's a great game.

Do you guys agree if immersive sim games didn’t die out during the early 2010s, a lot of games would have been more successful and beloved?

I highly recommend the book by John Shirley - Bioshock: Rapture, not only does it fill the blanks but it enables you to enjoy the great story and follow some of the main characters story even before Rapture was build. Highly recommended.

I got Bioshock 1 as a gift for the magazine subscription. The gifts were given by the editor, who rummaged across the resently reviewed games.

I used to play the multiplayer in Bioshock 2, and what I remember from it were good things. like being able to find a big daddy suit on the map to turn you into a underwater version of a CoD juggernaut, with the Rosie version having the iconic rivet gun from the first game, not the one you use in the Bioshock 2 campaign. it was really amazing and using the plasmids against other players really set a new challenge. if anything, the multiplayer took far far more concentration and understanding of the games mechanics that some of the story did, pretty much demanding you know how to use each plasmid in conjunction to others unless you want to respawn over and over.

Easily my favorite game of all time. I have fond memories of getting this the day it came out after school, having my game freeze after an hour of gameplay, exchanging the disk thinking it was the cause, and then finding out that it was the first signs of the RROD. I did the towel trick dozens of times before my 360 bricked permanently just so I could keep exploring Rapture.

I love the games, but playing them over and over does help me see the general problems, both with the story and the gameplay. Still a great experience through and through though.

You should give the same treatment to BioShock 2 considering you are a father now. I lost my dad in 2020 (not the beer bug but wouldn't be surprised if they counted him) and the ending hit me hard when I saw it recently. Really made me understand a lot of the shit he went through for me, the grueling job, the headaches caused by me and my sister screaming at each other, the genuine pain I may have caused him by the things I said that he brushed off. BioShock 2 kinda changed my way of thinking with a truly timeless message 14 years after its release. A true work of art that outshines the game that preceeded and proceeded it. Hope you see this and consider re-reviewing BioShock 2 ❤ much love

As someone who cut their teeth on the best of of the immersive sims (system shock 2, deus ex) you - absolutely - need an inventory. It's part of what makes the world feel so rich; you have dozens of items and you don't know yet what is important and what isn't. You also need the character xp system so you can make mistake and learn how to be more refined in later playthroughs; the rush of getting Cybernetic Modules was never the same as getting a flask of Adam. Oh and while I agree the splicers are more interesting than the hybrids, there is nothing more terrifying than the metal footsteps of the Mother cyborg from System Shock 2. Fight me.

Glad he called out Spoiler Culture.

"Adam and the Plasmids" ... sounds like a Band i would like to hear