Bulletstorm

When news of Bulletstorm was first released, I was VERY excited. A humorous FPS that pokes fun at its own genre while also putting a large and very imaginative spin on earning experience for killing with skill? Count me in. Then the demo came out, showcasing the "Echo" mode, in which you play through a small part of the game, racking up as many points as possible to compete against friends doing the same. I was...unimpressed The skillshot system didn't seem to promote the endless possibilities for kills that had been promised, the enemy AI only seemed to have the directive to run and chop, and the level design seemed less than spectacular. Still, the shooting mechanics were very solid, and once I started getting a better sense of how to use the skillshot system in combination between guns, I was suddenly having a lot more fun. And now, I've played through the entire game and can say that the experience I had with the demo is fairly representative of how I enjoyed the game.

Not that the story matters in the slightest, but you play the part of Grayson Hunt, a former black ops soldier that was part of a secret government cell called Dead Echo. Believing those they killed deserved it, they slaughtered hundreds, until one mission where they discover that these supposed bad guys are actually civilians and political rivals to the mad General Sarrano. Fast forward several years, and now Grayson has stumbled onto Sarrano's massive battleship and decides to take revenge once and for all and try to take it down with his comparatively meager ship. Needless to say, they don't succeed, and end up crash landing on the planet below, a tropical paradise now populated by legions of mutated madmen, carnivorous plant life, and Godzilla. Yet all hope is not lost, Sarrano's cruiser took enough damage that it has crashed as well, and now it's up to Grayson and his sidekick Ishi (who is wrestling with a computer construct trying to control his mind after he was nearly killed and had to be rebuilt with robot parts) to traverse the planet and try to find Sarrano. From there, the story just kind of dissolves into one reason or another to keep moving through hordes of enemies that get increasingly tougher as you go. But does that matter? Nope.

The true heart of Bulletstorm is in its playfulness. There are some wonderful set pieces scattered throughout that vary up the gameplay and just have to make you laugh (including a laser shooting dinosaur section that was possibly the best part of the game). The dialogue is unfortunately, to me at least, unimaginatively crass, though they still get some zingers in there. For example, at one point where all hope seems lost, you get rescued and Grayson shouts "Deus Ex Machina!" However, most of it is just swearing up the wazoo, as if they were trying really hard to be funny, which unfortunately just makes it stupid. Add to that that often the story oddly enough tries to take itself seriously, when really the best parts come when they just let go of that and have fun. But of course, the real source of playfulness comes from the "kill with skill" gameplay.

Basically you are given a variety of guns throughout the game, and can hold three at a time. Each gun comes with several different types of skillshots, both for its normal fire and for a limited "charged" fire that adds a special effect. On top of that are general and story-related skillshots. And then of course there are shots related to kicking, sliding, and your penultimate leash which you can use to lasso enemies or objects to you. Add them all together and you get 135 different ways to dispatch your enemies. And several of those can be used in combination to rack up even more points. They range from shots like Fireworks, where you charge up your flare gun and shoot an enemy into the sky with it, making them explode up above, to the more tyrannical Mercy where you shoot an enemy in the balls, causing him to clutch them and fall to his knees, whereupon you kick in his head and end his pain. Thankfully you can always pause the game to look at all the different shots available to you and how to achieve them, as well as which you have accomplished and which you have yet to do, fostering this sense of playfulness in constantly wanting to try out new shots in different situations and watch the results.

Unfortunately I feel the way the points you gain are used is kind of wasted. Basically the points act as your currency, and allow you to buy ammo/charged shots or upgrade your weapons' ammo/charge capacity. That's it. No other bells or whistles. These points you keep trying so hard to accrue only serve to allow you to make sure you can keep shooting. It was a bit of a letdown given how much creativity went into the rest of the weapons. It's also surprising given...

The multiplayer. I haven't spent much time with the Anarchy mode, which is your traditional face wave after wave of enemies, but in-between each wave you can spend your points not only on the weapons but also on upgrading your own Power, Speed, or Defenses. Maybe it's just the RPGer in me that wants more things to upgrade, but would it really have taken that much more to add those to the single player? It just seems odd. Anyways, from what I've seen of this mode it can be a lot of fun, though during the first match I played it was almost impossible to find where the enemies were. By the time I got there my teammates had already killed them, and it's a very small map. However, as the waves progressed we started working together more and getting some really fun kills. Point is, while it's not bringing anything particularly new, what it does it does well. And I'm sure the future will bring even more modes lest the game go stale very quickly.

Overall, I feel my impression of Bulletstorm is much how it wanted to be taken. It's fun, explosion filled, and is good for several laughs, but in the end it's lacking that indescribable oomph that would turn it from a play-when-bored game to a play-constantly-and-repeatedly game. I think they're counting on the thousands of variations of skillshots to make the game replayable, but it just isn't quite enough. Still, it's a promising start for what is most likely another trilogy in the works.

Bulletstorm gets an 8/10.