Download this mind-bending dystopian trilogy on PS4 for free right now before it's gone

Every month, gamers who subscribe to PS Plus on PlayStation 4 can score two games for free. But rarely is the freebie as good as it is in February 2020 with the entire BioShock trilogy available at the click of a button. Until the end of the month, gamers can claim this legendary, groundbreaking, and totally mind-bending piece of dystopian sci-fi with the mere push of a button.

Even if you don't want to visit Rapture and Columbia before February 29, you'll still want to claim the free collection for your PS4 library ASAP, especially considering the fact that developer 2K Games is already working on a fourth installment.

Here's how to claim BioShock: The Collection and exactly what you'll be getting.

What is the BioShock trilogy?

Video game developer 2K Games is known for franchises like Borderlands, Mafia, and Sid Meier's Civilization, but even more notably for Ken Levine's BioShock trilogy which is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. Described as a spiritual successor to the cyberpunk System Shock games, the world of BioShock is a retrofuturistic alternate reality where idealistic businessman Andrew Ryan built a secret underwater city called Rapture. Imagined as a laissez-faire utopia, Rapture exploded into civil war after scientists discovered ADAM, a substance extracted from a certain kind of sea slug capable of rewriting genetic material.

In the first game, you play as the lone survivor of a plane crash who accidentally finds a secret entrance to Rapture only to find that the city has become a nightmarish dystopia of ADAM-addicted gangs and other violent eccentrics. Young girls genetically altered and mentally conditioned to reclaim ADAM from corpses (referred to as Little Sisters) are protected by the monstrous and zombie-like Big Daddies (enhanced humans who had their bodies grafted to massive diving suits and much of their free will erased).

And so, a once gleaming city of technological marvels has been transformed into a gruesome hellscape, and your character struggles to survive while solving the mystery of how the city destroyed itself.

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These dynamic first-person shooters enhance traditional gunplay with injectable Plasmids or consumable Vigors that grant different psychokinetic superpowers through the use of ADAM. Each game also presents interesting role-playing elements, mainly via a series of compelling moral choices that influence the general direction and ending to each story.

The series receives a great deal of praise for its immersive worldbuilding and the way it grapples with interesting philosophical concepts, especially as the third game, BioShock Infinite, introduces the concept of alternate realities in an endless multiverse.

What's included in BioShock: The Collection?

Originally released in 2016, BioShock: The Collection includes the original BioShock, BioShock 2, BioShock: Infinite, and all of the downloadable content that accompanies each title. So for anyone who may have only played the main games for the story and skipped out on the DLC, this is the perfect opportunity to revisit the classic titles and/or finally experience the excellent Burial at Sea DLC for Infinite.

BioShock takes place in 1960 and follows the adventures of Jack, the survivor of a plane crash who winds up in Rapture and gets swept up into the city's mysteries. BioShock 2 takes place eight years later, and the player assumes the role of a Big Daddy on a quest to reunite with the Little Sister he was bonded to prior to his death. BioShock Infinite mixes things up by taking place in 1912 in the fascist floating city of Columbia that resembles Rapture in a myriad of uncanny ways. You play as investigator Booker DeWitt, who's tasked with rescuing a young woman named Elizabeth from the city.

BioShock: The Collection includes remastered editions of all three base games, along with BioShock 2's Minerva's Den DLC and BioShock Infinite's Burial at Sea. In the former, the player controls an alternate Big Daddy during the events of the second game.

Burial at Sea is both a follow-up to the mind-bending finale to BioShock Infinite and an immediate prequel to the original game, tying the trilogy together in complex ways.

In addition to the core gaming experiences, the Collection also includes challenge game modes for each title, director's commentary called "Imagining BioShock," and the in-game feature called Museum of Orphaned Concepts through which players can view unused concept art.

When is Bioshock: The Collection available in the PS Store?

BioShock: The Collection will be available to claim and download from February 4 to March 2 on PlayStation 4.

How do you claim Bioshock: The Collection in the PS Store?

To claim the free game, PS4 users will have to visit the PS Store, which can be accessed from the top-left-most selection in the console's main menu. From there, select the PlayStation Plus Members Area from the dropdown menu on the left side, and you should be able to view a selection of the active titles available. Select Bioshock: The Collection and then "Add to Library" to claim it, and you can select "Download" to begin downloading the game to your PS4.