Bulletstorm - Archived Review
Originally published March, 2012.Bulletstorm, the game developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly and produced by EA. Wow guys, just wow. What the hell is the intention of this game? Why does it exist other than a little extra revenue for Epic between their new game engine or another Gears of War? When Bulletstormfirst came out, it was relatively well received as one of the few true arcade shooters to come out since the last Duke Nukem game of the 90s. Certain comparisons can be made between Bulletstorm and Duke Nukem (old and new) from the weapon variety to the humor in the writing. Granted, the writing in Bulletstorm is a few steps above the sophomoric, immature script of Duke Nukem: Forever—mainly due to the fact that the most misogynistic character is the villain instead of the hero—but it's still only better by a little bit. And it's not just the writing that suffers in this game; there are a plethora of complaints to be made regarding the gameplay and glitchy presentation of this mediocre shooter.
Story
It really doesn't take long before the game lets you in on who the main characters are and what their background is. Within the first hour players are introduced the drunken meathead of a protagonist, whose name isn't really all that important. The only important thing about his name is that it has a hefty bounty attached to it. He's captain of a small group of former space soldiers gone rogue in the distant future and, after a brief tutorial, players get to see how they ended up on the run.
The background for the group and why they're on the run is so cliché it's painful to reiterate. They were going around killing anarchists for their military superior, only to discover that the anarchists were actually decent honest people trying to expose the general as a corrupt bloodthirsty official. Say it ain't so. In a moment of pure epiphany, Captain Clueless realizes the errors of his ways and tells the general directly—via holographic image—of his decision to go AWOL. Naturally, the general isn't happy and now the team is on the run for their lives.
Before long, another round of predictably disastrous events follow and the group ends up crashing on an unknown planet along with the general's private cruiser. Upon crashing your ship it doesn't take long before you are left alone with probably the least likable side-kick character in recent games since Zeke of Infamous. The plot behind Ishi is that he is half cyborg dealing with an overpowering AI hell bent on getting off the planet and possibly killing you in the process. Yet, he is your companion for the entirety of the game. It's already rough to have a main character that is not very likeable, but to have a sarcastic robot making patronizing remarks about him doesn't make either of them any more likeable. If anything, it prevents players from being able to relate to either character when there is so much friction between the two to begin with.
Beyond that there isn't much of a story. They introduce the hardcore tough girl midway through and her background is predictable as ever. All these archetypes or clichés would be more acceptable if the writing were better and the journey more rewarding. The style and intended humor was meant to be along the same lines as Shadows of the Damned. However, that game had much sharper writing to help the humor come across as clever in its childish nature, while Bulletstorm's writing just appears immature and primitive. The dialogue that doesn't involve Ishi barking insults consists mostly of really flat one-liners from the protagonist, or superficial characterization in the form of really boring exposition sprinkled with a fair amount of curse words to spice it up. The most interesting story elements have to do with the planet itself and how it came to be such a hostile environment, ripe with enemies to slaughter, but that's saved till the latter half of the game, so no need to spoil it here.
Gameplay
The main mechanics of Bulletstorm are straight forward in terms of first person shooters except for a few exceptions; it feels similar to something like Unreal Tournament, though not quite as fast. That said, the whole point of Bulletstorm, at least according to their marketing, is the gameplay. More specifically, the phrase that keeps popping up all over is "kill with skill." The main premise of the gameplay is that not only are you ripping guys apart with your futuristic science-fiction guns, but you are doing so with stylish "skillshots."
With the help of your gravity boots and energy whip, enemies can be kicked and yanked all over the place. Upon contact with either your boot or whip, the enemies enter a state of freefalling stasis, where they continue to float in the direction they were either yanked or kicked, but very slowly. This is a mechanic to allow players more time to come up with unique and interesting ways of eliminating their threats. Kicking a guy into the air, then shooting his ragdoll body in the head is considered a skillshot, which awards the player points and thus earns Bulletstorm the title of an Arcade Shooter. These points are more than a simple tally, however. They are used to purchase upgrades for weapons and more ammo for said guns.
On occasion there are various parts to the levels that have hazards like giant cacti, man-eating plants out of Little Shop of Horrors, electric fences, etc., that allow for more interesting and lucrative skillshots. However, the desire to explore all of these options and see the different ways to kill the various enemies merely feels superficial. Perhaps there are those out there who are the dedicated completionists who want to get every skillshot possible in the game (conveniently listed in-game along with their requirements). Or maybe there are those who find this more entertaining than a basic gimmick to propel the gameplay out of mediocrity. But in all honesty, it's still just a gimmick and little else.
The shooting itself isn't all that satisfying. Most of the guns lack the proper punch to really make those hits feel solid. The guns themselves didn't have much variety (especially for a sci-fi setting) and, eventually, the sniper rifle became the primary weapon simply because it was almost always a guaranteed kill with the ability to steer the bullet into the enemy. This eliminated the opportunity for most unique skillshots, but it made getting through the game a lot easier.
The other modes include a score attack mode to really eccentuate the Arcade aspect of Bulletstorm and a multiplayer mode. The score attack mode is simply chapters from the story sectioned off for players to get creative and rack up their points. However, the guns are restricted to that part of the storyline so the breath of your creativity will likely be limited as well.
Multiplayer is also somewhat limited in what it offers. It's similar to something of a horde mode with points being the main requirement to move on to the next level. Perhaps it had the right idea with sticking with its points progression, however it was also far too likely to end up with a group of people who were just point hogs and weren't really interested in progressing further. If you can get a group of friends to try it out, it might be worth your time. Otherwise, skip it.
Presentation
The visuals in Bulletstorm are typical of any game that uses Epic's Unreal Engine. The game has some dense textures and details, so long as the game remembers to load them before you see the blurriness in its rendering. For a first person shooter, it has a breath of fresh air when it comes to the look and style of the game. While the guns lack much distinct flair or variety, they still show some small innovation with the very primitive portrayal of futuristic weaponry. The character design leaves something to be desired, with the enemies showing perhaps the most character of anything that talks. But really, the best looking aspect of Bulletstorm is the setting.
For a first-person shooter, in an age where almost every game undertakes grey and brown filters to show gritty realism in its presentation, Bulletstorm is a surprising exception to the rule. It embraces color in a very vibrant environment that is rather refreshing for the genre. There is a wide spectrum of color used in the rendering of the world with a great deal of pinks, oranges, and blues. The style does not go unappreciated.
Unfortunately, the presentation remains far from stellar due to the sound department. The music isn't anything special with its generic orchestral swells and rock background. It's not really offensive or anything, just not really memorable. But the real failings of the sound department come from what is uttered by the characters in-game.
Perhaps when they were writing the script, the writers of Bulletstorm thought that their swear-heavy dialogue with its frequent references and metaphors using phallic symbols were clever and hilarious. While Shadows of the Damned managed to pull those references and metaphors off in a way that felt clever more times than not, Bulletstorm's delivery of similar jokes and dialogue is tasteless and dull. It feels forced, if anything; it's as though they realized that skillshots weren't enough to keep people talking about this game, so they had to add some other shock value to its presentation. However, instead of shocking, it was merely irritating listening to lame jokes and childish banter screamed from one character to another.
Speaking of screaming. Perhaps that is one thing that Bulletstorm and Shadows of the Damned share that they both failed with. See how long it takes before the screaming from the enemies begins to wear on your nerves. There are a lot of guys to kill and they will make you want to kill them quickly if only to shut them up. The noise was the primary reason skillshots became irrelevant to the experience by the end of the game.
Conclusion
Bulletstorm had a good idea and perhaps good intentions in trying to bring some old ideas to the genre in a new way. There isn't anything wrong with trying to incentivize players to try new ways to play a game. It's just too bad that the gameplay and practically everything else behind it, wasn't very interesting. The story was generic, the writing was only inches above Duke Nukem: Forever, and the gameplay wasn't all that fun. The gimmick of killing with skill could only take it so far.