Bulletstorm Review (PC)

Game: Bulletstorm
Release Date: February 22, 2011 in North America, February 25, 2011 in Europe
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developers: People Can Fly and Epic Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts

At first Bulletstorm looks like just another first person shooter that we are used to see these days but that is only on the surface. Bulletstorm is full of humour, stylistic kills and an achievement system that rewards the players for every stylistic kill they do in the game. Then there is also the leash that the main character is carrying on his left arm. He can pull some objects and enemies towards himself and shoot them in slow-motion. Besides that this game is definitely original, fun to play, full of humour and a fresh new way to look at -already got boring- fps genre... A promising game which could have been improved in a sequel.

Setting

A futuristic cityscape.

The world is beautifully created.

The game takes place in 26th century in a planet called Stygia. It is full of convicts and the mutants who were mutated by the radiation that convicts caused after they revolted. 
Unlike other futuristic worlds this world is quiet vibrant and colourful. It is almost like the game reminds me of Borderlands and Prince of Persia (2008) in terms of colours and visuals. They both used cel-shading technology [It is "cel" not "cell"] and now Bulletstorm uses the same  technology.

Characters  7/10

*You can click on the names of the characters for more information, which will take you to the game's wiki page. But beware of spoilers as they tell everything about the characters on the pages.*

Grayson Hunt is the protagonist of the game. He is the leader of a group of mercenaries called Dead Echo working for General Sarrano. Grayson is arrogant, careless and likes to think he can solve every problem with brute force instead of thinking on it for a few seconds. He is able to use every available weapon in game.

Ishi Sato is one of the soldiers in Grayson's team. He is loyal to the orders and usually handles the technological problems like hacking doors or using the computers.

General Victor Sarrano is a Star General and the leader of Confederate Army, antagonist of the game and he is the one who gives orders to Grayson and his team. He is even more arrogant than Grayson and doesn't care anyone or anything other than himself.

Trishka is a Final Echo soldier and [Spoiler: daughter of Bryce Novak :Spoiler] She is portrayed as a strong woman. She is capable of handling herself and she is also after Sarrano.

Bryce Novak is a reporter killed by Grayson and his team three years ago.

Plot&Storytelling  7/10 & 7/10

Let's start with the story. The game starts with Grayson shooting a bottle on the head of a bounty hunter who came to kill Grayson and his team. After that Grayson attacks the Ulysses, the ship of Sarrano, and Graysons ship crashes.

Right after that we see a flashback showing us how Grayson and his team assasinated Bryce Novak. It was when they have learned the truth, that Sarrano was using Grayson and his whole team for assasinating innocent people. Grayson decides to kill General Sarrano and take his revenge at all costs.

This is basically the whole story. It is how Grayson tries kill Sarrano, but there is more to it than just a revenge story. I will try not to spoil it for you. That's why I won't tell you everything but I should mention a couple of things. The story is overall good but I must say that it could be better. It would be nice to have some more flashbacks to learn more about the past, the characters and their relationships and maybe how Grayson met  Sarrano or how Grayson met Ishi considering both characters have very important roles in the game but we know almost nothing about them.

There are a few good twists in the plot, which surprised me. Action is always there and it is always fun to play the game. Whether it is the joy it gives to kill enemies in different ways or the rush to upgrade your skills a step further.

Gameplay  9/10

As in every first person shooter in this game there are guns, but this time they are a lot different. More fun to play, original and brutal.

Source: link

It all starts as a normal fps until you get your energy leash. It is just like a cutting-edge-technology whip. It was designed for soldiers to improve their performance in fighting. Grayson can perform two main moves with the energy leash: pulling enemies and objects towards himself and -upgraded version- throwing all enemies in the air and leaving them floating in the air for a few seconds before they fall down.The energy leash is definitely an original idea for first person shooter genre and it is extremely fun to use it. Reminds me of  Mickey Rourke as Whiplash in Iron Man 2. Here is how it looks like in action:

Drop-pods. You can use them by leashing them.

Leashing objects to open your way.

In the last two screenshots you can also see another use of Energy Leash, which is pulling enemies when there are spikes between you and them. This makes them stick to the spikes and die easily and painfully leaving a blood bath behind them. It also gives you Voodoo Doll achievement and skillshot.

What are skillshots? Skillshots are how stylistic you kill your enemies. If you kill them just by firing with your weapon, you will get only 10 points whereas if you stick them to spikes you get 100 points. There are lots of different ways to get more points. After you have enough points, you can always spend them in dropshop menu, which you access through the drop-pods scattered around the world. There you can upgrade your available weapons as well as buy ammo.

Menu accessed through drop-pods.

Drop-shop menu.

Skillshot database, you can always access it by pressing "N" as default.

Statistics menu.

Instead of leashing your enemies, you can also kick them to trigger slow-motion effect  by pressing "E" as default. This way when they come close to you -flying in the air- they slow down and let you to kill them easier.

Weapons   9/10

There are 8 different weapons in the game. They are not too many, but they are cool and fun to play with.
Peacemaker Carbine
Energy Leash
Screamer
Flailgun
Boneduster
Boneduster
Bouncer
Penetrator

*Your very first weapon is Peacemaker Carbine. This is probably the weapon you will use mostly in the game.

Peacemaker Carbine.

Peacemaker Carbine sigthing down.

*The second weapon is the Energy Leash, which I already told you about.

It is fun to pull them towards yourself.

Coming closer in slow motion.

Brutally killed.

*The third weapon is a revolver called Screamer. It is very effective for medium to long range targets as it is a one shot kill if you get a headshot. I really liked this one.

Headshots with revolver are one shot kills.

Screamer sighting down.

*Next weapon is Flailgun. It throws a chain with explosives strung on both sides. The chain makes the enemy paralyzed for e few seconds and explosive explode. It is very useful against bosses. You can also detonate explosive wthiout waiting for them to explode. My second favourite weapon.

Use Flailgun for bosses or groups of enemies.

They will die in a few seconds.

*The fifth weapon is a shotgun called Boneduster. Unlike usual trend this shotgun has four barrels, which makes it extremely deadly at close range.The story of it is that one of the employees in the development team always wished that he had a four barreled shotgun, that's why they created this one. It is a one shot kill in close range for normal enemies, but not very useful in medium range.

Yeah that's right, it has four barrels.

It is usually not really effective against bosses as they have armors.

*The next weapon is a sniper called Head Hunter and probably my favourite gun in this game. Snipers are usually my favourite weapons in games but this one is much better than them. After you fire your shot, it allows you to control the bullet with your mouse and when it comes closer to the target it slows down allowing you to steer the bullet even easier. I just loved it, it is definitely something new for the first person shooter genre.

You cannot fire without locking in a target while sighting down.

 

Reminds me of  the film "Wanted".

I liked that film, so it is O.K.

 

No, no, no, wrong direction my friend.

Headshots are also Hotshot skillshots.

*The seventh weapon is called Bouncer. It throws exploding balls. It is not really useful, actually it is pretty much useless. But maybe it is just me who cannot use the weapon.

*The last weapon is called Penetrator. It is basically a drill, but it is not only spinning, it throws spinning drills and pins your targets to walls. Not really useful but fun to use.

Reminds me of Bioshock.

You cannot pin bosses though, but you can stun them.

In addition to these weapons, every weapon has a special mode, by which you can charge the weapon to use. You need to upgrade your weapon to use these charge abilities and you also need to buy new charges for them in drop-pods.
Weapons are overall quite nice, original and fun to use. Chargers are also a good idea to have more variety and to expand to weapons usability. The only minor problem I could say is the stopping power on enemies. You cannot really feel like you are shooting them. It might also be the sound effect though.


Graphics  8/10

There is not much to say about graphics. They are beautiful. They are colorful. The cel-shading technology makes them look even more beautiful. The landscapes are created well; they do not look like just low quality textures but they blend well with the other interior and exterior designs. Characters could use a bit more detail but that is not such a big problem as eveything happens so fast in the game. Some textures look pretty bad with low quality but they are not too eye catching.

Sound  7/10
Composers: Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz, Michał Cielecki
The main theme on the menu is just beautiful. It is a good way to put players in the mood. But that's pretty much all I can say about music in the game. Because you do not really have time to stop and listen to the music playin on the background while trying to kill enemies with style.

Here is the beautiful soundtrack.

Weapon sounds were good, but not very good. Especially you cannot really feel your hits on enemies. You see them being affected by you shots but you just do not feel it. Besides that everything was pretty nice.

Notable Mentions 

-When I first saw this game and Grayson Hunt I thought about two things: Borderlands and Wolverine. I haven't played Borderlands yet, so I cannot say something about it, but about Wolverine I can say that he is my best favourite character in the whole comics world.

- You can easily see the similarities between Grayson and Wolverine: They look similar, they behave similar and they sound similar. That's right Grayson Hunt is voiced by Steven Blum, who has voiced Wolverine numerious times. He was also the voice actor of Gorim, Oghren, and First Enchanter Irving in Dragon Age:Origins.
-Trishka is voiced by Jennifer Hale, who has also voiced the female Comander Shepard in the best game series of all times Mass Effect.

+ What I liked  :-)

+press Space to continue: It was a neat feature in loading screens to allow players to be able to trigger the next chapter whenever we want. This way I could grab something from the kitchen to drink without worrying or rushing to kitchen.

+sniping: Sniping in this game is definitely amazing. It is very original and works great.

+energy leash: Leash is just another amazing parts of this game. It again very original and fun to play with.

+kicking enemies: Kick is also a nice feature and a nice melee alternative to the boring gun butt which we see almost in every first person shooter these days.

+[Spoiler: Godzilla :Spoiler]: I know its name is Hekaton but I call it Godzilla. :)

+controlling toy Godzilla: It was just so much fun to kill enemies by controlling a giant dinosaur.

+twists in the story

+enviromental kills: They were definitely creative and enjoyable.

+skillsystem: It was encouraging players to be more creative with kills.

+charges: It was a cever way to extend the life of weapons.

+revolver: It is just so much fun to get headshots with the revolver.

+graphics

+Grayson Hunt

+Trishka

-What I did not like :-(
- artificial intelligence: I really do not understand why all the enemies are attacking directly to me instead of my two friends who stay right in front of the enemies. The AI of enemies are really terrible. They did not try to flank me or do anything sophisticated instead of straight shooting.

-my companions are unable to kill one single enemy whereas I kill dozens of them in few shots.

-lack of depth in story: I mean it is not that bad but there are some parts that feels so rushed, like some parts need more details in terms of relationships between characters.

-General looking like Nazi: I mean come on, you say it is 26th century and the General is still looking like he is from WWII.

-LMB RMB climbing: It was nice when we first saw it in a videogame but it started to become boring. I trust you, you can do more than that.


 Characters 7/10
 Plot&Storytelling 7/10 & 7/10
 Gameplay 9/10
 Graphics 8/10
 Sound 7/10                +
 --------------------------------------------
 Overall        =   8/10

That's it. I hope you enjoyed my review of Bulletstorm on PC platform. Feel free to share your ideas while you are gaming.