Bulletstorm is a rare game for me, in that not only does it earn five stars from me, but it's a first person shooter at that. In the same way that a movie like Shoot 'Em Up is nowhere near the same level as say, Citizen Kane, they are both near flawless movies, but for entirely different reasons. The same is true of Bulletstorm. It is nearly flawless, but a unique type of game, one that you really won't play for the story, because you really won't get a whole lot out of it. But that's okay, because the developers knew this and didn't try to awkwardly insert any kind of real seriousness into the game. Bulletstorm is over the top in pretty much every single way. It's extremely vulgar, violent and bloody, and it's fantastic.
The game takes place on a resort planet, overrun by mutated humans as well as the locals (and even the fauna) after your ship crash lands there post space battle with a warship commanded by the antagonist of the story and the man who betrayed you and your squad and has a bounty on all of your heads. That's all I will say as far as the story is concerned, I will not spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played the game. I will say, however, that the writer(s) of the game did a great job in that even at the end of the game, many issues are left unresolved. There is no Hollywood ending where everything is tied in a neat bow. Your character does have an arc emotionally, but it's much more reserved than most other games (or movies, for that matter) and adds additional layers of depth.
When I say resort world, I mean it. Most of the visuals in this game are extraordinary. Colors are vivid, the clouds, sun and sky are breathtaking to look at, and a lot of the game takes place in various tall buildings. The scope of some of the falls are really something to behold. I tell you this only because the care with which each section of the game was detailed is very apparent, and it also really pays off, lending itself greatly to the atmosphere of the game. Immersion can be a beautiful and violent thing.
The voice acting is...okay. I'm wasn't really ever playing this game for the story, which is a fairly typical and straightforward revenge deal, so the voice work was pretty much all it needed to be. And besides that, more than half the dialog is sexual innuendo with much swearing thrown in for good measure, so does it really matter how the lines are delivered? Not that much. I think the only complaint I can really make here is that in this game, as in almost all others where the situation arises, the actors use normal speaking volume in a situation that the in-game characters would realistically want to be much quieter in. But hey, nothing's perfect, and the game is so much fun that this complaint is pretty much a non-issue.
After crash landing you and one of your squad members have to leave to find some power cells, and in this quest the game really takes a hold of you. You see an elite soldier of the Confederation (the government and former military which you once served), called a Final Echo, battling a group of mutated humans. He is ultimately crushed by a car though, and from his body you take the Leash which will serve you for the remainder of the game. The Leash is made from some sort of matter that can both interact with the environment and pass through parts of it. For instance sometimes to get across a broken bridge you will have to drop something down that you can use to cross over it, so you'll have to wrap it around say, a bus. But you can also throw your Leash through objects to grapple enemies and pull them towards you (the Leash is used by pressing the Left Bumper, and more advanced uses require you to hold the button down). Soon after gaining the Leash, its nano-processors flood your body and you receive your HUD, which fades (another way in which the game is immersive), leaving only your first-person view and no ugly ammo counters or health displays to impede the beauty of the scenery.
The Leash serves two functions: Firstly, it is your connection to Confederate DropKits scattered plentifully throughout the game. DropKits allow you to upgrade your weapons and purchase more ammo for them using the points you gain with Skillshots, or, killing enemies in unique and skillful ways. The Leash's second function is that, as previously stated, you can grapple enemies and pull them towards you. Combined with the seven (I think? Maybe eight) weapons and their charged abilities, plus your kick and slide ability (B and double-tapping A, respectively), plus the environment, you must defeat your enemies in new and interesting ways. Some of them are entirely clever, and some will only seem obvious after you accidentally do them the first time. More difficult Skillshots are rewarded with more points you can put towards upgrades and ammo.
As far as the weapons in the game go, they are pretty neat and easy to understand. I do think though, that the developers felt like they had to add more weapons than they really needed to. I stuck with four throughout the entire game. Some of them I just found impractical to carry with me, as they only really had very situational uses, and since ammunition in the game isn't plentiful (which I liked), I stuck with weapons that were most effective most of the time). All weapons have a secondary ability, and you can carry three weapons total, or, your default assault rifle plus two others. And here is where my greatest annoyance with the game lies. And once I tell you what it is, you can relax, because it's really not a big deal. There are two different ways to change your weapons. First, quick change, which is whatever secondary weapon you're using plus your assault rifle. So if you have the shotgun equipped and you tap Y, you go right back to the assault rifle. Tap Y again and it will go back to the shotgun. The second way to change your weapon is to hold Y, which brings up a weapon interface on-screen. However, when you're out of ammo, or you have emptied a magazine and want to just switch to a different weapon instead of reloading, holding Y (which does NOT pause gameplay) really leaves you wide open for attack. Since you are only able to carry three weapons at a time anyways, I don't know why the developers don't allow you to simply cycle through all three weapons. Then there'd be no need for a weapon interface at all. Just my opinion though.
Wracking my brain, the only other possible complaint I have is about this game's self-awareness. And by that I mean that there are a few instances in the first half of the game where you might come across a horribly dismembered and bloody corpse, or someone impaled on a spike, and your character makes some sort of comment about how awful it all is. But you know, this is right after I just achieved the "Pricked" Skillshot for kicking an enemy into a cactus. What I'm doing is really no less violent and deranged than what the murderous locals are doing. Just one more thing that took me out of the moment.
However, on to more good. I didn't time it exactly, but the game seemed to be about 8-10 hours, and my first playthrough (which I just finished) was on the Hard difficulty. Difficulties range from Very Easy to Easy, then Normal, then Hard, then Very Hard. I am no hardcore FPS player, and I didn't have but maybe one part give me difficulty. For the most part even playing on Hard wasn't that difficult. 8-10 hours isn't that long, especially when you compare it to something like Fallout: New Vegas, where hundreds of hours can be put into a single playthrough, however, this also means that you aren't required to do pointless filler missions that don't really make sense to the ultimate conclusion of the story. In every objective you know exactly why you're doing what you're doing, and that is needed if you want me to care at all about what's going on in the game. To add to that, even though the story is fairly short, because of the Skillshots it also has a very high replayability factor, which not a lot of games have anymore.
Overall, Bulletstorm accomplished a lot, even if it isn't exactly anything mind-blowing. It achieved exactly what it intended to, the game did not crash or lag at all (at ALL), there are some truly epic boss battles, some really hilarious banter between characters, and in the end, there's even a point to the excessive violence in the game. This is one of those few games that I will not say "Wait until the price drops if you buy it." You could, of course, but the game is just such a fun experience that I want everyone to be able to...well, experience it.
***Update 2/23/2011*** It was brought to my attention that it is possible to hotkey the weapons you are carrying so as to avoid what I described as my biggest complaint about the game. Therefore that complaint is void. Thanks to Nick C. for bringing it to my attention.
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Bulletstorm - Game Play Trailer
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Bulletstorm - TV Spot
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Bulletstorm - Playstation 3
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Bulletstorm - Bulletpoints with CliffyB
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Bulletstorm - Bulletpoints 3
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Bulletstorm - Skillisode 1
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I was sent a UK PAL COPY of BULLETSTORM! Quest what can't play on my system!DBAG!
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 24, 2011
Platform For Display: Xbox 360Verified Purchase
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Chris Troisieme
Hält, was es verspricht
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I see why this is considered underrated...
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Buen Juego
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as stated
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