Bulletstorm - Xbox 360 Review

BULLETSTORM
Formats: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Epic / People Can Fly
Release Date: 25th February 2011
Score: 92%



The first screen I saw of Bulletstorm was of a dude’s head exploding in a spray of blood with the words +10 HEADSHOT floating next to it. If I'm completely honest, I was pretty much sold there and then. The more screens and trailers that filtered through showing various levels of almost cartoonish violence, pimped out with loud, heavy metal soundtracks and the kind of gratuitous profanity usually only heard around 50 Cent’s dinner table, the more excited I got – and when I saw the name Epic Games attached, well, I almost started actually foaming at my actual mouth.

But a game is not comprised of still screenshots, trailer hyperbole and semi-coherent music, and as much as I wanted to resign myself to giving Bulletstorm a straight 100% weeks ago, I had to wait until I finally got a chance to play it before making such judgements.

Anyone who downloaded the demo will attest that what People Can Fly and Epic have developed is, in every sense of the word, a Game. Make no mistake, this is as far from Call of Duty’s censor-baiting airport-massacre and Halo’s soul-stirring “Believe” marketing campaign as it’s possible to be. Hell, it even makes Gears of War look like highbrow human drama. The pre-release taster was one of the most played demos ever seen on XBL, with some gamers playing it more than they would a full game in an attempt to rack up the highest score possible and reap all the bragging rights that go with it. It was a clever move to release such a demo, as it’s a very pure example of Bulletstorm’s core mechanic.

The single-player campaign (which has already been criticised for its relatively short play-time, unlikely to top seven or eight hours for an experienced player) follows the exploits of Grayson Hunt and his long-suffering best friend, Ishi Sato. Former members of elite military unit Dead Echo, Hunt, Ishi and their squad mates, Rell and Doc, turned against their commanding officer – the sadistic, foul-mouthed General Sarrano – when they discovered that they were being used to assassinate not military targets but innocent civilians who had uncovered dirt on the General. Turning to booze, broads and banditry for the next few years, Hunt led the ragtag group into piracy – ultimately leading to Bulletstorm’s opening mission.

Having encountered the General’s flagship, an inebriated Hunt decides it’s a good idea to take it on face-to-face, a course of action which leaves him stranded on the paradise world of Stygia with only Ishi for company. And since Ishi’s recent horrific injuries and subsequent cybernetic augmentation have left with him a split personality, Hunt’s day keeps going from bad to worse and back again. Problems are compounded further when he discovers that the Vegas-like city of Elysium has been overrun by savage mutants intent on ripping our two manly heroes brand new bungholes.

In all honesty, the storyline is what it is – an always-functional, never-spectacular narrative designed to hold a string of huge, highly-entertaining set-pieces together for 8 acts. The characters are pretty much Markus and Dom with the wisecracking on full and the psychotic violence dialled up to (a hundred and) eleven. Even when saucepot Trishka is introduced, she brings little to the overall story but another hyperactive trigger finger and a hot ass – both of which are, admittedly, welcome. The “feel” of the gameplay is very Gears of War-esque. Hunt genuinely feels like he’s two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of muscle, armour and attitude, the guns pack a meaty kick (even the simple revolver is a one-shot kill-factory) and the world seems somehow dirty despite the bright colour schemes in most of the locales.

That aside, the real meat-and-potatoes of Bulletstorm are the much-publicised Skillshots. In Grayson Hunt’s world simply drilling a third eye into a mutant’s forehead isn’t nearly murder enough. The game awards “skillpoints” for every kill, but in order to maximise your scoring potential you really have to think outside the box. Why just plug a guy when you can kick him into a slow-motion swan dive before shooting him in the butt for a 250 point “Rear Entry”, or blow a hole in his crotch before putting him out of his misery for a “Mercy” Skillshot? Pressing LB triggers the Energy Leash, allowing you to drag enemies towards you or activate a powerful Thumper move, launching enemies into the air to form your very own shooting gallery – complete with a whole new bunch of Skillshots to play with. Every weapon comes with its own set of Skillshots, often activated by utilising the secondary fire option. It isn’t the biggest selection of weapons ever seen in a game, but the dual nature of each gun genuinely alters the way you play.

Pressing RB with the Screamer revolver equipped, for example, will turn the next bullet into an incendiary flare that sets fire to any enemy in its blast radius – allowing you to blast a burning goon to death for the “Afterburner” Skillshot. But pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles aside, my favourite weapon by far is the Flailgun. This baby launches two grenades attached to a length of chain that wrap around an enemy and can then be detonated at your leisure – alternatively, the secondary fire superheats the chain and gives it the ability to slice an enemy clean in two.

To experience the game Bulletstorm was really intended to be, you have to go beyond the campaign and play the Echoes. Like the demo, each Echo is a small segment of a campaign mission designed to be rinsed for points. Chaining bigger and bolder kills together and charging through as quickly and as brutally as possible will increase your score, and thanks to the leaderboard system you’ll go back over and over again to beat yourself and your friends. The Echoes are hugely addictive and endlessly entertaining, playing like a streamlined version of the campaign missions with all the boring fat blown off.

But if cooperative play is your thing, you’ll need to jump into the multiplayer lobby and try the Anarchy mode. Similar to the popular Horde mode in Gears 2, Anarchy pits between 1 and 4 players against wave after wave of enemies, with the objective each time to score enough skillpoints to advance. Team Skillshots are the order of the day, encouraging teamwork to get the job done. For all its appeal though, essentially it’s a very limited experience. With no other modes to indulge in, it does run the risk of becoming stale to any but the hardcore fans within the first few months. People Can Fly would have done well to add in at least a handful of different objectives, but as a pure example of team-based arcade fun it excels. The omission of a competitive multiplayer at first seems as incongruous as the lack of a coop mode in the campaign, but the truth is that neither would have worked well. The set-pieces aren’t built for two (hence the last minute decision to pull campaign co-op), and the multiplayer is far too open for griefers and exploiters for it work in a competitive setting. As it stands, People Can Fly have gotten it right – there’s just not quite enough variety in it.

Graphically, Bulletstorm is one of the best uses of the Unreal Engine I’ve seen. Absolutely beautiful to look at in places, the colour scheme on display is cast somewhere between Gears of War and Enslaved. Deep, dark, claustrophobic subterranean tunnels give way to views of tropical beaches, rainbow-hued flora and bright blue skies. Birds wheel and dive above you, the wind rustles the palm trees like it's Florida in the summer and sunlight glitters on sparkling lakes. The juxtaposition of such glorious scenery with the manic, gleeful cartoon violence is a stroke of genius that sets Bulletstorm apart from pretty much every other shooter out there in terms of atmosphere. The voicework and soundtrack add contrasting elements of Ooh-rah gung-hoism and rousing heroics that shouldn’t gel but somehow do, and the vengeance-fuelled story is (only just) on the right side of compelling to ensure that all the wild-eyed slaughter is leading somewhere.

Bulletstorm is an incredibly well-crafted game, and arguably the purest example of a first person shooter seen on this generation of consoles. It never once tries to trick you into forgetting that you’re playing a game and having fun, because it never forgets you are. Completely unpretentious and absurdly addictive, Bulletstorm stands apart from Call of Duty and Halo: Reach by dint of its simple structure and uncomplicated premise. It might not be finely-tuned or perfectly-rendered enough to go up against the likes of Crysis 2 when its released, but judged solely on its own merits (of which there are many) Bulletstorm is quite simply awesome, squared – and as much as it’s going to upset some people, mass murder has never been so fun and inventive.

But that’s the whole point, really. Saying that Bulletstorm is overly violent is like saying Tom & Jerry is. This is not real life. It’s not a simulation of real life. It’s not even a parody of a simulation of real life. It is what is: a game – and as such there’s very little out there to compare it to. Fast, ballsy and offensive, endearing, beautiful and horrific, puerile, exhilarating, dumb as wood and ingenious as Hell, Bulletstorm invites you to unleash the ass-kicking and kill with skill – and let’s be honest: when its put like that, it’d be un-gentlemanly not to.

Words by Mick Fraser