Testosterone. And lots of it. That is the main ingredient in Bulletstorm - the first-person shooter extravaganza collaboration from publishers Electronic Arts and Epic Games. Developed in Poland by People Can Fly, Bulletstorm is quite possibly the most manly video game I've ever played. It's over-the-top, full of dirty jokes, never takes itself too seriously and packs a seriously bloody punch.
Taking place in the futuristic 26th century, the game's storyline revolves around the idea that the Confederation of Planets are protected by a secret militant force known as Dead Echo. These soldiers are tasked with doing the dirty work, such as assassinating enemy leaders, infiltrating locations and taking out the garbage for their leader General Sarrano. It is in the beginning of the game that Dead Echo discover that they've been led astray the whole time - duped into killing innocent civilians.
Fast-forward ten years into the future and we revisit Dead Echo's members, who are in the process of leading a drunken attempt at taking out General Sarrano's space vessel. When the attempted attack yields failed results, the team decide to ram through Sarrano's ship, which results in many casualties on both sides, as well as a crash landing on a close resort planet known as Stygia. It just so happens that Stygia is in ruins after underground workers walked off the job and sabotaged its shields, allowing all sorts of mutants, gangs and monsters to invade the once peaceful planet that was developed in the image of Earth's most beautiful locations. It is on this planet where the majority of the game's chaotic, frenetic and insane campaign takes place.
As the leader of Dead Echo, Grayson Hunt, players must scour Stygia for General Sarrano, while fending off attacks from thousands of its less hospitable new inhabitants. Hunt is joined by his ally and fellow squad member, Ishi, who is a mix between a human being and a cyborg. During the attack on Sarrano, Ishi was the only other Dead Echo member to survive, but his CPU was damaged and had to be replaced with that of an enemy soldier. As a result, Ishi occasionally flashes between being his regular, friendly self, and an enraged soldier who will stop at nothing to protect Sarrano, adding a lot of depth to his character through these struggles. The two work together to try to survive the deadly planet in the hope that they will eventually escape after finding General Sarrano, despite having different motives at times. Hunt takes his friend's plight seriously and hopes to make good on a previous promise to protect him from danger and help lead him to safety away from Stygia. Along the way, the two soldiers run into a female member of Saranno's army named Trishka, who reluctantly joins their quest.
Bulletstorm differs from the other shooters on the market by being a much more arcade experience and by adding in its unique skillshot scoring system. At the beginning of the game, Hunt finds a soldier's leash, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - a leash that you can use to pull enemies, items or barrels towards you. Additionally, the leash features a wrist-based control system that lets Hunt listen in on enemy communications. The idea behind the leash is that it was given to the enemy soldiers by Sarrano to track their progress and creativity. It was used to entice creativity within their kills by making weapon upgrade/ammo lockers available only to those who had earned enough points by completing skillshots. As you play through the game, your goal is to try to complete as many different skillshot kills as possible. There is a great variety of these moves available and they range from basic ones such as kicking an enemy into a prickly bush to more advanced skillshots where you can decapitate more than one enemy at once or kick enemies into environmental hazards. It's a fun scoring system that adds a lot of fun to the experience.
Throughout the duration of the game's eight chapter campaign, you will visit various different locations, each adding new elements to the equation - via new weaponry and new forms of skillshots. Each location is unique in many ways including its visual style, which I appreciated, as it was always interesting to see where you'd end up causing carnage next. Some of the different locations I liked the most included a park with piranha plants that engulf enemies, a model city in a science exhibit where you control a gigantic remote-controlled dinosaur, and a marina/wharf. There are also a lot of indoor environments, such as an office building that crumbles around you as you fight your way through it. Timed sections where you must rush to an escape pod or flee an area add a lot of excitement to some of the levels, as you try to take out as many enemies as you can before you leave, in order to try to earn more skillshot points (and achievements.)
During my playthrough, I noticed several small glitches as well as one major glitch. The smaller glitches took place when I was able to see through a cover object or came across enemies stuck into walls. Nothing major there. However, I ran into a very frustrating issue during the first chapter of act 3. After taking out a group of snipers and clearing the wharf I came across afterwards, I was unable to progress. I looked everywhere, but could not find an open doorway, environmental obstacle to kick or leash, or anything. I also couldn't find my partner, Ishi. Restarting the checkpoint a few times didn't yield any new results and changes (even though I backtracked a bit to check things out,) so I had to restart that chapter. It turned out that Ishi had completely disappeared, and he was required to open the next door for me to progress. It seems that you can lose your artificial intelligence teammates if you rush too far ahead of them at certain points of the game. Hopefully this will be patched in the near future.
As I mentioned earlier in this review, Bulletstorm is a fast-paced game. Moreso than most shooters I've played. Luckily, the gameplay works well and the game runs really well, with only the odd hiccup. It also controls quite well, incorporating a control scheme that is similar to most other shooters on the market, while adding the leash to the left shoulder button (which admittedly takes a bit to get used to,) a melee kick to the button and the ability to either roadie run or slide by pressing A. Its controls are quite fluid and easy to use, without much of a learning curve. They're also quite responsive.
In addition to its campaign, Bulletstorm also includes two additional modes, known as Echo and Anarchy. In the Echo mode, the campaign is chopped into its fourteen most action-heavy sections. Players are tasked with re-playing these sections to try to earn the highest score possible, with full leaderboard support. It is one hundred percent solo gameplay, whereas Anarchy mode is a four player co-operative mode that pits a team of four against waves of enemies with the goal being to reach certain scores to progress. Mini-bosses appear just like they do throughout the campaign and so do unique enemies who will give you bonuses if they are taken out in a certain way, usually requiring co-operative moves. Anarchy also introduces its own unique environmental and co-operative skillshots.
I liked Echo mode a lot and found it to possibly be the best part of the game, as it really showcased the fun elements of the experience. The campaign was good, but it felt somewhat pedestrian and uninspired at times. Echo mode has the advantage because it has you playing through the best parts of the game in succession, without any lulls or issues. It was much more fun than Anarchy mode, in my opinion, which was pretty good, but just felt like another Horde mode. Of course, Epic created Horde mode with Gears of War 2.
New copies of the game include an online pass code, which is a misleading title for the content that the code actually unlocks. Instead of being necessary to play online, Bulletstorm's online pass unlocks exclusive content, including six extra Echo mode maps, 25000 experience points to help you outfit your character in Anarchy mode, as well as a gold leash. It is not necessary to have in order to play any mode in the game. However, the extra 6 Echo mode maps are essentially required to get to the 150,000 overall point plateau (for an achievement) in that mode. You'd have to perfect each of the other fourteen maps in order to come anywhere close to that number without the extra maps that are unlocked with the included code. This code is also what gives players early access to the upcoming Gears of War 3 beta - but the Bulletstorm disc will be required.
The game's presentation is impressive. It looks really nice, apart from the odd texture issues at close range and some character model animations that aren't very fluid at times. Allies and enemies all look pretty good, as does Grayson Hunt. I was impressed with the visual fidelity within the environments - especially with how good the distant backgrounds looked. The art style of the game is unique and campy, and the art design is impressive overall. However, though its cutscenes were impressive in scale, I found that they looked pixelated.
Attitude is one thing that that is very prevalent throughout Bulletstorm. It exudes a ton of attitude. This is more evident than anywhere within its writing and voice acting. The writers did a pretty good job of creating over-the-top characters and a pulp science fiction world. A lot of the jokes boil down to potty humour. Some are funny, but some are taken too far and weren't that amusing. However, I applaud them for trying something different. The voice acting also follows suit, filling the characters with a lot of campy wit, which works quite well. However, I couldn't stand the character of General Sarrano, who was incredibly annoying not only with his lines, but also through his voice. Generally, the game's audio fidelity was impressive, but I noticed that the sound's quality and levels lowered during cutscenes, which was quite odd.
I played the game on very hard difficulty, after hearing that it wasn't overly difficult. It was an okay challenge at some points, but was too easy for being the hardest difficulty in the game. It makes sense in some ways that they wouldn't want to make it too difficult because of the type of score based shooter it is, but I wish it would have been a bit more challenging at least. Playing on that difficulty, it took me about 8-10 hours to complete the campaign, but I also took my time looking for hidden objects such as the hidden flies (which reward you with credits when you shoot them,) newsbots and bottles of alcohol, which you can either drink or destroy. Each decision will lead to an achievement after the twentieth bottle, but you can get a killshot bonus for being intoxicated while causing carnage.
Overall, Bulletstorm was a fun experience that I enjoyed playing. Despite some issues and a frustrating glitch, it was enjoyable, entertaining and over the top, just like promised. However, the game didn't live up to the high expectations I had going in, after originally seeing gameplay videos. It was also overhyped and failed to deliver on that plateau as well. Still, with all that being said, it's a good game. It's above-average and is definitely worth playing if you're a fan of this type of game. Just don't expect it to be the best shooter you've ever played. The campaign features some great, explosive set pieces, with a good variety of different enemies. Its new scoring mechanics make the game feel different from other shooters and it's fun to try to pull off tough killshot multipliers. Still, the game doesn't propel itself above any of the other shooters in the pack that its pre-release advertising campaigns made fun of. When I think of it, I refer to it as a good game that had the potential to be great, but didn't achieve that. I think that it will end up being well-received though, because it's something that is somewhat different and unique.
Rating: 7.5/10
Bulletstorm was released for the XBOX 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, on February 22nd, 2011.
