Bulletstorm
Platform: PC, Xbox 360
Publisher: EA, Epic Games
FingerSports Rating: 3/5
‘kill with skill’
Oh come on. This looked great from the trailers. Of course I had to give it a go!
Story
Bulletstorm is a manic first person shooter with comic overtones that features our drunken hero hunting for revenge blah blah blah. Basically the story is pants: you crash on a planet and have to kill your way off said planet. The main character is a mountain of muscle with a drinking problem and a guilty conscience; the baddies are an odd combination of mutants and psychopaths. Really, don’t think about it too much… please.
Graphics
Graphically, it looks great. Sparks fly, things shine, what can you say really. There is quite an impressive attention to detail, and the textures are gorgeous. The game runs you through a linear series of spectacular set pieces, with some nice memorable moments. In particular, the first area ends with a rail-shooter escape from a giant rolling mining crushy thing – and it is spectacular! I haven’t experienced such a well executed sense of scale, the thing really seems huge!
Sound
The sound is somewhat un-memorable, with notable exception to the dialogue. The voice acting isn’t badly done, but the script is. The game seems to swing from serious moments to hammed up macho BS. Although I did laugh at some of the more retarded insults “I’ll kill your dicks” there was only one character I really liked, and that was the baddie! His character was so over the top and ridiculous that he easily wins the best of show award.
Gameplay
So how does this rather pretty but silly game actually play? Well, rather depressingly, quite well. It’s almost a shame to admit that it was really quite good fun, and that the controls and weapons are easy to use. It’s short though, like too many games these days; I played it through in around the 6 hour mark.
Bulletstorm’s ‘trick’ is it’s kill with skill idea. There are a huge number of ways of splattering your enemies across the landscape, and different points are awarded for these ‘skillshots’. Points mean gun upgrades, ammo, etc. This whole system is quite straightforward, and you can browse the database for new interesting things to try if you get bored. My personal favourite was kicking/throwing enemies onto giant cactuses, rows for flora covered with ragdolls… job well done.
There is also a multiplayer (WHAT, REALLY?) and it’s not even really worth talking about. A group of you co-operatively try and get a massive skillshot score. W00t.
They missed a trick. Quite a big one: No co-op mode? The whole point of the single player is that our pissed up hero and his robotic shipmate are trying to get off the planet. That’s right, two of them. Two people. Single player. See my point?
Conclusion
Bulletstorm is essentially not a bad game. I think that if you like a smooth shooter with some great set pieces then you’ll enjoy this. It has some bugs, it has some funny moments, it has some brilliant visuals. But it’s not the game I want to keep playing, it’s not worth rushing out and buying. However, if you find yourself with a rainy weekend and nothing better to do, you could do a lot worse than play Bulletstorm.
Dukes
