I took a few screenshots of the first areas in Bioshock 2 and Bioshock 2 Remastered. I tried to line the shots up the same, so hopefully you can get a good idea of the differences. I didn't check the 'save an uncompressed copy' box in Steam, though, so they're not
quite as sharp as they could be. Should be fine for the next round, though. The 16:10 shots (everything past the aspect ratio comparison) are
not representative of the game's built-in anti-aliasing method. Instead, they simulate what it looks like on my screen, which uses Nvidia's super-sample anti-aliasing method. A raw 3840x2400 image is at the bottom of the post, if you're interested.
This post is spoiler free for those of you who haven't played Bioshock 2.
First off, Bioshock 2 improved on Bioshock 1 by switching to a set vertical FOV. This means that your viewing area widens as your aspect ratio does. This is the current standard (also called H+) and Bioshock 1 was probably one of the last shooters to use the old standard (also called V-).
For the remainder of this post, shots from classic Bioshock 2 will be on the left and shots from Remastered will be on the right.
For the first scene, I thought I'd go with the player's first impression: the initial spawn.
The most striking difference is the drill. It has clearly had a major texture overhaul and a revised material shader. The model seems to have been tweeked a smidge, too. You can also see the effects of the new lighting model on the sign for the resort in the center of the screen, again on the right, by the glowing coral, and lastly on the pillar along the left edge of the screen. Some other textures have been changed, such as the floor tiles at the bottom of the screen. The water shader is also more detailed and seems to be a slightly less green shade. Lastly, the HUD has been moved inward and the health and eve meters properly reach the end caps.
Next up, we have the Adonis Baths.
You can see the new lighting model has made the tiles in the pool a bit more reflective. There's more of a shine on the light fixtures(?) on the left, too. Also on the left, you can see where a low-res texture on the base of the statue has been replaced with a much more higher definition one.
Here's our first glimpse of Doctor Sophia Lamb.
This time we can see a major change to the wall. Specifically, the water damage seems to stop after about six feet on the remaster and the tiles on the bottom half are much more vibrant. The lighting model has also made the candles look significantly different. There's some purple light playing on the drill in the remastered shot, but I'm not sure if that's from the new lighting model or just because I'm standing in a different spot. Other than that, the only major difference is that the poster of Lamb is significantly less fuzzy.
The first Gatherers Garden.
We can see the same change to the walls as in the previous comparison. If you look closely at the pillar on the right, you can see how the new lighting has made shadows a touch darker. You can also see a slight texture resolution bump with the pillar on the left. The Gatherer's Garden itself is a bit less beat up than in the original and the writing near the bottom is a little sharper, though with significantly less drop shadow. The biggest change is probably the floor tiles. While the originals were rather flat, the new ones have much more wear, cracks, additional color, and have greatly benefited from the new lighting. Also, the bear looks a bit happier.
The menus have also been modified. The mouse sensitivity setting now carries over into the menus so high-DPI mice no longer result in a super fast cursor. Most of the original menus also had Xbox controller prompts on the buttons, even when controller input was disabled in the game options. This is thankfully no longer the case.
Overall, the remaster seems improved, but the changes are often very subtle. Replacing the occasional super low resolution texture with something that fits with the surroundings more has improved my immersion, however; I haven't seen any jarring texture size differences in the remaster like I sometimes did in the original. I am particularly pleased with how the new drill model looks; there are some more polygons, particularly near the handle, and the new texture and material shader are a massive improvement over what was used before. Unfortunately, this one does not seem to include developer commentary or a concept art museum like B1R.
I would recommend playing the remaster over the original if it runs fine for you. I only lost a couple frames per second at a resolution slightly higher than 4K and my CPU is just a hair over the original recommended 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo so I don't imagine that there's going to be much of a performance difference for most players.
Edit: Almost forgot, if you want to see what the game looks like in preposterous definition,
here you go.
I'll have to fix that, I suppose.
