Bulletstorm Review
So last night I went down to Gamestation to pick up Bulletstorm: Epic Edition for my Xbox 360. I was quite tired when I got back because it was a midnight release and I thought, “I’ll just play it for a few minutes,” three hours later I finally turned it off.
The start to the game was the best I’ve played as far as I can remember. In most first-person-shooters you have to do a ridiculous training scenario that takes away from the game. Sometimes even with the voice actors going as far to say, “So wait…all I’ve got to do is press ‘X’?”
This throws you in at the deep end so to speak, all the way through the game when you are able to interact with something it just shows the button you need to press and the action name next to the object. The only time on screen hints really get in your face is when you buy the charge upgrade for a weapon or get a new weapon, so in that regards there isn’t really a “tutorial level.”
Also with the introduction, it’s very cinematic, you get a feel for the main character straight away and it keeps you guessing what’s about to happen as the level, or ‘act’, plays out.
I have been playing now for around five hours, and I haven’t unlocked all the weapons yet and I am still discovering more and more “Skill Shots”.
The Skill Shot system is very well done, and definitely adds the spice to the FPS genre that developer, People Can Fly, wanted to add. I’ve found myself hooked on trying to get all the skill shots possible, constantly pressing BACK to access the database. My only annoyance with the Skill Shot system is sometimes you can be sure you’ve met the criteria but you just aren’t rewarded. For example there is a Skill Shot for using the RC bullets for the sniper rifle to hit an enemy in the nuts. I’m positive I’ve drove them bad boys home numerous times but I still haven’t unlocked it.
There are other Gameplay elements to Bulletstorm with the classic, “here’s a minigun, shoot the followers while I drive this thing”, as well as the very entertaining scene where you control a giant robot dinosaur and fire lasers at the enemies. The remote control for this is very reminiscent of how you control the Hammer of Dawn in co-developers, Epic Games’ Gears of War.
The soundtrack to Bulletstorm is also fantastic, the main theme is excellently composed and I really hope they release a soundtrack for the game.
The voice acting of the main character, Grayson, is really well done although unfortunately the voice acting for your partner in crime Ishi isn’t done very well. During an incident at the start of the game Ishi gets enhanced with cybernetic parts. He battles these parts to keep control as the AI tries to override his thoughts to help cope with the pain he is in. The acting seems flat a lot of the time due to this dull cyborg voice, and is not as expressive as an AI would be.
There are certain scenes where the ‘borg takes over for a few seconds and the battle is far from dramatic between Ishi and the AI which is disappointing.
I know the game is meant to be over the top action, and is meant to be funny and crude, but sometimes this is taken to far. The action bits are amazing and pretty much non-stop but during the downtime in between, and even during, it seems ever line of speech has a swear word in it. I don’t mind swearing, I do it all the fucking time, but there should be a limit otherwise it just loses its humour and becomes the norm.
In addition to the main campaign there are two extra modes. Echoes and Anarchy mode.
Echoes - Echoes offers the chance to go back through key moments of action from the campaign but with the story elements taken out. This mode is a “get the most points is the shortest time” sort of mode. You can take as long as you want to complete the map but the level has par times, so the quicker you get through it the bigger time bonus you get. You have to then balance this with Skill Shots to rack up as many points as possible. If you spend too much time trying to get the points from the Skill Shots you are won’t get the nice time bonus, and vice versa. The addition of Leaderboards with both Friends and Global filters adds a competitive element that is much appreciated.
Anarchy - This is the only multi-player mode on the game unfortunately but there is room for more through DLC. This is like Epic’s Horde mode, or Halo’s Firefight mode. You fight waves of enemies trying to get the best score possible. Experience gained from this mode is spent on upgrading what your character looks like but as far as I can tell does nothing to actually help gameplay.
In a nutshell, Bulletstorm, is very well presented and delivered. It’s fun and exciting and will keep you playing for a while, especially with the multi-player mode and Echoes. But like everything it has its flaws but these are overshadowed by everything the game does right. I highly recommend buying this game.
(Boxart Source: http://bit.ly/i1QnIJ)
(Grinder Scene: http://bit.ly/epp2Af)
