Game profile
BioShock
After a plane crash, players end up in the decaying underwater city of Rapture, a failed utopia full of mutated inhabitants and moral questions. The remastered version from the BioShock Collection brings this genre classic to current systems with improved visuals.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is Shooter / Horror, set in a science fiction world. Visually it is deliberately stylised rather than photorealistic, and the overall tone stays dark throughout. The structure is guided rather than open, so you are moved along instead of dropped into a map. Sessions of an hour or two sit at the sweet spot here.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available broadly, on 4 platforms. It sits in the budget bracket.
What stands out
- iconic Rapture setting
- moral choices
- dense atmosphere
This fits you if
- you want to live through a story, not just play a system
- you actually want to be scared
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you are watching your budget
- you prefer a darker, heavier tone
Look elsewhere if
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- you want something light and easy going
- you want to play it side by side with someone
- you want either a pure challenge or pure relaxation, not the middle
How long is BioShock?
About 13 hours in total. At three evenings a week and two hours each, you will be busy for roughly 2 weeks, or 7 sessions.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 88 out of 100, which puts it above 78 percent of the 1276 games here and at rank 230 overall. That is a strong score, comfortably above what most releases manage.
For comparison, Shooter averages 81 points across the database, so this one sits 7 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 270 collected ratings.
Released in 2016, so it has 10 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2016
- Genres
- Shooter, Horror
- Playtime
- approx. 13 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Sci-fi, Post-apocalyptic
- Visual style
- Stylised
- Price bracket
- Budget
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
- Critic rating
- 88 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BioShock | 2016 | approx. 13 hrs. | 88 | Budget |
| Gears of War: E-Day | 2026 | approx. 15 hrs. | 80 | Full price |
| End of Abyss | 2026 | approx. 15 hrs. | n/a | Mid price |
| System Shock 2 | 1999 | approx. 17 hrs. | 92 | Budget |
If you liked this, try these
- 80/100 Gears of War: E-Day Shared: Shooter, Horror, Sci-fi
- n/a End of Abyss Shared: Horror, Sci-fi
- 92/100 System Shock 2 Shared: Shooter, Horror, Sci-fi, rated higher
- 81/100 Cronos: The New Dawn Shared: Horror, Sci-fi
- 85/100 Signalis Shared: Horror, Sci-fi
- 82/100 Alan Wake Remastered Shared: Shooter, Horror