Bulletstorm

Usually the finest things in life get the most attention. Think of cars for instance. Ferrari and Porsche are two of the makes that are seen as the pinnacle of automotive engineering. On the other side of the spectrum we have the raw automotive beasts that emerged from the glory days of Detroit’s motor industry that traded looks for power and it’s in this camp that Bulletstorm finds itself. It’s not a game of beauty or poise, but rather of crass in your face power.

Right from the get go when you’re introduced to the main character, Gray, and his squadmates you’re shown a band of gruff, no nonsense renegade soldiers who find themselves on the wrong side of their former commander and all round bad guy, General Sarrano. In an attempt to seek revenge, Gray decides to take on General Sarrano and his flagship spaceship, resulting in both ships crash landing on the resort planet of Stygia, which just happens to be overrun by hordes of mutants, mercenaries and mutated plants. In all honesty, the story soon fades into the background and serves as the flimsiest covering for a series of crazy and over the top set pieces in the best mould of 80s action movies. The game actually gets off to a rather slow start, with the pacing being somewhat off as you are constantly bombarded with cut-scenes that break up the flow of the game. You’re also restricted to the basic assault rifle which is by far the most uninteresting weapon in the game. Stick through the game’s slow opening though and you’ll be rewarded with some fantastic set pieces.

The game’s levels boil down to you fighting your way from one end of the level to the other with several hundred enemies between you and survival. It never gets any more complicated than that, with enemies only providing the briefest of obstacles even on the hardest difficulty levels. Now before you toss this game aside you have to realise that Bulletstorm’s appeal doesn’t lie in providing you with a stiff challenge in terms of enemy AI but rather in letting you experiment with how you kill enemies. Early on in the game you gain possession of an Energy Leash that enables you to grab enemies and pull them towards you, suspending them in mid-air for a second or two, which in turn sets up an array of final kill options, such as kicking enemies into spikes, cacti or off the side of precipitous drops. You also have the ability to slide along the ground with a swift double tap of the run button which allows you to slide into enemies and kick them away from you, again, suspending the victim in the air for a second or two allowing you to setup your final kill move. All the weapons come with charged shot abilities that enable you to unleash a devastating blast that will use more ammo but will usually result in a one shot kill. Some of the later weapons in particular are wonderfully inventive such as the sniper rifle that allows you to actually control the bullet in order to kill evading enemies or the Boneduster which is a four barrelled shotgun which sounds just as fantastic as you’d imagine.

Using all these weapons and abilities in conjunction with each other is precisely where Bulletstorm’s most innovative feature lies - Skillshots. Skillshots - which is basically killing with style - rewards you with points that you then use at Dropshops to purchase new weapon abilities or to replenish your ammo. The Skillshots will range from easy kills such as killing two enemies without letting go of the trigger button all the way through to more complicated deaths such as launching an enemy up in the air using your Leash's Thumper ability, killing another enemy and then killing the original enemy that’s still floating in the air. In fact there’s an entire in-game database of Skillshots that breaks down all the Skillshots you can perform by weapon and ability. If you’re an OCD gamer you can find yourself losing hours at a time as you try to get every single Skillshot in the game.

Although you’ll mostly be facing off against similar waves of basic grunts in every level, ever so often you’ll come across a huge set piece or enemy that simply blows you away at its sheer scale. Some examples that spring to mind are an early encounter with a giant creature that bursts out of the side of a mountain which you have to escape from while flying away in a gyrocopter. Or a giant mechanical wheel that spews enemies and bullets at you as you ride a transport train desperately fighting off hordes of enemies. Or the time you get to control a giant Godzilla type robotic creature that kills everything in its path. You’ll hardly find time to breathe between all the giant set pieces that Bulletstorm throws your way on every level.

Once you’re done and dusted with the somewhat short single-player campaign (around 6-7hrs), it’s time to hop online and take on wave upon wave of enemies with a few friends in the Anarchy mode, which is basically the Gears of War’s Horde mode seasoned with Skillshots, Team Challenges and Blood Symphonies. In order to successfully complete a wave you’ll need to surpass a certain number of points by killing enemies and taking down mini-bosses. Skillshots are mostly the same as in the single-player game but Team Challenges sees you and your friends having to take down specific enemies in a certain way in order to successfully complete the challenge and earn extra points. Usually it will involve something such as performing a Bulletkick with one player kicking the enemy while the other one shoots him. It’s usually nothing too complicated and all it requires is a bit of coordination and planning to successfully complete it. While you play Anarchy you’ll slowly be building up your Blood Symphony meter which, once unleashed, will allow you to kill enemies simply by leashing them or kicking them and devolving them into bits of flesh and blood immediately upon contact. It nets you huge points and when used at the right time can see you turn the tide of battle almost immediately. The only downside of Bulletstorm’s online experience is that Anarchy mode is the only online option with no competitive multiplayer on offer.

Bulletstorm really does put the Unreal engine to good use with some fantastic environments as well as large scale enemy encounters. Everything flows smoothly and there’s not a single bit of lag to dampen your fun, even with the insane amount of action happening on-screen at any one point in time. Still, as with most Unreal Engine powered games the detail of characters leaves something to be desired with flat textures and mannequin features but luckily you’ll hardly ever find yourself standing still, so it’s an easy enough flaw to overlook.

The voice and audio work is also fantastic with Steve Blum’s Gray being a particular standout performance with an almost Wolverine quality to him as he makes quips that even Duke himself would be proud of. The dialogue is surprisingly well written in terms of humour, with some real laugh out loud moments. Sure, most of the game is filled with below the belt innuendo and swearing, but at the same time, it always fits the character and the moment, and never feels forced or excessive.

Bulletstorm is a game that revels in its crassness and holds no allusions of grandeur. It’s liberally peppered with swear words and lewd humour at every turn, but hidden beneath all that is some truly fun and entertaining gameplay. People Can Fly and Epic deserve a hand for making a game that is so far removed from the norm that it manages to reinvigorate the stale and jaded first person shooter genre.

Pros: