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 Post subject: Bulletstorm - Review
PostPosted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:46 pm 
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Good evening.

My reader review of Bulletstorm.
Details - purchased and played on Xbox 360, standard edition purchased. Played for 4 days.

There's a point in Bulletstorm where the inane chatter between the main character and his side kicks and enemies will stop just being chatter and actually make you burst out laughing. Its at this point you'll wonder why more games don't make you do this before you tell yourself that other games don't do this because they don't need to.

So Bulletstorm then, a game of two halves. Some of its plus points stick it alongside the best FPS's of this current generation. Unfortunately some of its bad points rank it amoung some of the very worst.

You may have heard a bit about Bulletstorm already, you've probably seen some of the peeps on here talking about it. Personally I wasn't drawn into purchasing it until this week. I have mixed feelings on whether the purchase has been worth it.

Bulletstorm for all intents and purposes initially appears to be another bog standard FPS, you have all the normal checklist for a FPS:-
A somewhat damaged main hero
A flashback to the reasons our hero is in the predictermint he is in now
A loud mouthed, double crossing antagonist for our hero to face up against
A bit of eye candy to help the plot along

For the first 15-20 minutes of Bulletstorm you'll be wondering what all the fuss is about. The plot ambles along well enough but you'll be asking yourself whether there is something you've missed, such is the banality of what you are doing. Go here, fetch this, kill everything in your way sought of missions are the tried and tested method of introducing you to the game mechanics of the majority of FPS. Personally I was left wanting more from People Can Fly. Considering its been supported by EPIC it should have had more.

Things start to get interesting with the attainment of the 'Leash'. Which is exactly how it sounds, an electrical rope that can grab enemies and pieces of mission critical scenary and pull them towards you. When an enemy is grabbed, time slows for the affected enemy, allowing you to line up Bulletstorms key selling point 'Skillshots'. These 'kills with skill' allow you to earn skillpoints, which can be used at suitably placed uplinks in order to upgrade your weapons, your leash and check what other skillshots you have yet to complete.

The system works well for the most part, for the first few hours you will enjoy the variety of kills on offer, the sheer gore of some, the silliness of others. Eventually though this system becomes nothing more then a chore, you'll unlock the majority of skillshots quickly, some you may even complete before they officially become unlocked. Some you will fluke and wonder just how you pulled it off. I was hoping that the variety of ways of killing with skill would keep me interested, unfortunately in the end these kills are more trouble to pull off then they are worth, you'll probably revert back to just plugging away with the leash, shoot in mid air/kick into piece of scenary combo for the most part after a few hours.

Where the game does excel is in its crass, funny, inmature story and in particular, the conversations had between your character (Grayson Hunt) and his sidekick (Ishi - a half human, half pissed of cyborg). There were at least 3 occasions where I genuinly laughed out loud in the room by myself because of the quality of the conversation between them both, something that hasn't happened for me in a game since ThrillKill.

Some people may listen to the story and conversations and not find the humour, others will probably question whether queer jokes and liberal use of swearing really constitutes a mature game now. Ignore these people and enjoy the sheer absurdidty of the conversation. In other games it would seem out of place being called a dicklick. In Bulletstorm its perfectly matched. In other games a reviewer would be well within their rights to question the quality of the story but again in Bulletstorm it seems perfectly pitched. People Can Fly appear to have known they were unlikely to have won a gaming BAFTA for story, so the fact they felt comfortable having a bloody good laugh instead is appreciated.

Graphics wise the game runs on the unreal 3 engine. Many people have said how nice they think the game looks, whiist I played this on the Xbox and undoubtedly it does look pretty for the machines hardware capabilities, I can't help feeling that actually the engine is starting to show its age. Its been around for a good few years now and from the looks of the new trailer EPIC have just released displaying their new Unreal engine, its unlikely its going to be used for many new titles in this generation of consoles. What was also disappointing was the lack of any real physics engine. The unreal 3 engine seems to suffer from this more then other engines, its not the first U3 game I have seen that lacks HAVOC physics and it does take something from a game that supposedly encourages you to 'kill with skill' when all you can really interact with are the enemies. Your trusty boot will be used plenty during the game, its just a shame the only real benefit of it is kicking people in the nuts or head.

Lengthwise Bulletstorm comes in at a healthy 9-10 hours of gametime, the game is pretty linear and there is little option to tread off the beaten path. The real replay value is in the Echos game mode. This is where the idea of skillshots really does come into full affect.

Echos is cut down version of the main story. Levels have particular segments selected with high enemy concentration and its then you against the clock and your buddies for bragging rights. the aim of this mode is to clock up the most points through skillshots that you can in the shortest time in a runthrough of the level. Its here that the real competitiom between mates will be fought, with buddies trying to shave off precious seconds and pull off increasing obscene kills in order to beat the scoreboards that display other friends scores for each level. Although the actual mode is single player only it does compare your scores to any friends on your friend list. So in reality you are playing against them as well as the worldwide leaderboards. Apart from MP this is the area I have spent the most time.

So MP then, slightly different for Bulletstorm in that its a co-op MP. actually looking at the game though its probably the only game type they could have offered as it would have been difficult implementing the leash into anything other then co-op and without it, Bulletstorm is a pretty generic experience.

MP mode is called anarchy and its a horde type gamemode where the team is given a target score in each round and a set amount of enemies in order to reach or beat that score. The small maps are littered with environmental kill options, some of which can only be discovered through detailed investigation of the map. In addition to the environmental kills you will have challenge kills appear on reach round, its here that having a good team of people who are commnunicating with one another becomes so important. These challenges can only be completed by really working together as a team, one challenge may ask you to kill the enemy by flicking them up in the air and then shooting them. The difficulty appears because whoever flicks the enemy into the air, cannot then shoot them, it has to be a team effort you see. Which means there will be some extreme swearing involved if you managed to screw one of these up.

MP mode then is a good laugh with mates, it becomes less appealing if you are joining a room of idiots, in this case its best to abandon any hope of getting any further then wave 10 as by this point nearly every kill you pull off has to have an element of skill in it. Its in this area that the MP again falls short of what could have been a truly excellent game. Unless you are with mates then MP can be hit and miss, so what you may say, many games are like this? True, but other games alow you to play another mode, or try another tactic. In Bulletstorm however the only MP game mode is Anarchy, nothing else is on offer for the time being. allegedly other modes are being developed but this will involve paid DLC (Not good for something that should have been in the actual game). The other drawback is that the maps are few and the same issue that appears in SP mode rears its head in MP. For the first few hours the skillshots in MP will be just as funny as SP, but after a while throwing someone into a fan just isn't funny anymore, it becomes a chore, a necessary evil, something that needs to be done to get to the next wave.

Overall then Bulletstorm really is a game of two halves. The quality of the story is excellent (If inmature, but screw it, inmature is good sometimes, just ask Michael Jackson). The problem is that there just isn't enough here to keep you wanting to play beyond the rather excellent Echos mode. The story progresses to its natural conclusion and you feel there is nothing to make you want to play again. Echos will keep people entertained for a while, especially if new maps are released. MP will be a passing fad for a few weeks until the novelty of it wears off.

Graphics are acceptable but as mentioned previously the engine is showing its age now, the lack of HAVOC physics is disappointing when its the accepted norm for the majority of FPS's now.

Score then...
Bulletstorm will never be a class A title, whilst its selling point is a good laugh for a few hours, it lacks lasting appeal to keep you experimenting. Echos mode is the saving grace and battles will be raged on that mode for a while, MP less so.
6 - Good in parts, story is funny as hell but the game feels lacking and you'll be left expecting more by the end credits.

_________________
I was owning the game, bam, 20 people dead, bam, bam, a few headshots, was up to 23 kills, two more to go, bam, another headshot, one more to Nuke. Then, the motherfucker slotted me hiding in the reed bed. Bye Bye Nuke
Guy Price - MW2
The man had never had a nuke on the game, I joined his game at the point described above, the guy who stopped he's streak at 24 and not 25? Moir
5 seconds after the game I receive a message, its one word, begins with C ends in T
EPIC WIN


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 Post subject: Re: Bulletstorm - Review
PostPosted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:55 pm 
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Oh you shit.

I'm halfway through my own review...

Sod it, I'll change it to a "second opinion". :D

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 Post subject: Re: Bulletstorm - Review
PostPosted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:59 pm 
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Level: 7 Squire
HP: 0 / 130
0 / 130
MP: 62 / 62
62 / 62
EXP: 69 / 81
69 / 81

Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:20 pm
Posts: 69
XBL Gamertag: DBFmancini
PSN ID: DBFmancini
Steam ID: DBFmancini
Sorry mate, thought i'd give it a few days before writing one but didn't see one on here.

So what did you think to it?

I like it, but for £40 I was expecting more.

_________________
I was owning the game, bam, 20 people dead, bam, bam, a few headshots, was up to 23 kills, two more to go, bam, another headshot, one more to Nuke. Then, the motherfucker slotted me hiding in the reed bed. Bye Bye Nuke
Guy Price - MW2
The man had never had a nuke on the game, I joined his game at the point described above, the guy who stopped he's streak at 24 and not 25? Moir
5 seconds after the game I receive a message, its one word, begins with C ends in T
EPIC WIN


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 Post subject: Re: Bulletstorm - Review
PostPosted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:23 pm 
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Level: 78 Chump
HP: 12910 / 40346
12910 / 40346
MP: 19263 / 19263
19263 / 19263
EXP: 18622 / 18735
18622 / 18735
User avatar

Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 11:51 pm
Posts: 18622
Location: Bradford, UK
XBL Gamertag: Blokeh
PSN ID: Blokeh
Steam ID: Blokeh
Wii system code: 2445-8086-3386-0718
Liked it. Agreed with pretty much all of it. Would have gone with 8 rather than 6, but otherwise the same.

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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Repost this if ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ you are a beautiful strong black woman ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ who don’t need no man ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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