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Bulletstorm Review: Killin' with Skillin?

Game Review | March 4, 2011 4:42 pm

"Kill with skill." You've probably heard the catchphrase by now, and if you haven't get out from under your rock. Bulletstorm is Epic Games' anticipated first person shooter that promised exciting, over the top ways to finish off your opponents. The real question is did it deliver on its promise? Read on to find out!

You play as Grayson Hunt, an assassin in the employ of General Sarrano who finds out (in the prologue) that he and his team have been killing innocent people, including the latest victim a reporter. Grayson makes a decision for his whole team and decided to go rogue and exact his revenge on the lying general.

The story flashes back and forth between this scene and Grayson's pirate ship trying to take out the general's giant cruiser. Somehow Grayson succeeds but ends up causing his ship to crash down to the planet below as well. These serve essentially as the tutorial section for basic controls and introduce you to several of the characters.

Much like Odysseus, Grayson seems to have a knack for causing and being the recipient of lots of troubles. His good friend Ishi is crushed nearly to death during this time and the doctor of the crew could fix him up with some cybernetics, but of course there is no power cell. The trek to find a new power cell leads you to find the planet is infested with psychopathic killers and then you find the real fun of the game, a leash. This leash attaches to Grayson's left hand and gives him the ability to pull objects, including enemies towards him for all kinds of fun. It also has a strange feature of awarding him points depending on the way he kills enemies. I thought it was nice the score feature was actually explained in the game (admittedly not until late in Act 4) but it still was a fairly weak explanation.

Ahem. Regardless, more bad things happen and Grayson finds out General Sarrano somehow survived the crash and now sets off with the semi-reconstructed Ishi to somehow find a way off the planet.

To be honest the overall story is a bit weak and cliche, and I found there really was minimal character development. The background of the planet wasn't even brought up until Act 6 and felt more like it was just a few tidbits to try to tie the story together. However the good news is that the story is not really what makes this a fun game, its the over-the-top action and dialogue.

If you are not a fan of a lot of violence or a ton of fowl language, the game probably isn't for you, but they did have a nice feature to turn off the gore and some of the language. The game's catchphrase is "kill with skill," and in this game you are rewarded for doing so. From simple things like headshots to more fun ones like "Mercy" where you shoot someone in the nuts and then while they are down kick them to finish them off, to very complex ones like "Airstrike" for directing a thumped enemy into a ground enemy with the penetrator (a weapon that shoots drill like projectiles).

Suffice it to say all the skills make the game so much more fun than a regular first person shooter. Who cares if you killed the guy with a shot to the leg while he was peeking out of cover, you get +10 points. Kill the same guy peeking out of cover with a flail gun by wrapping the flail around the cover and cutting off his head or body in half (two different skillshots) you get +250 points! I found most of my time playing the single player trying to find fun ways to kill the enemies with either my weapons or the environment around you. The game is generous enough to tell you how to get about 90% of the skillshots as well, so you don't have to really wonder how to do many of them.

So what is with the points you may ask? Well there are plenty of droppods floating around the area which use the points to allow you to restock and upgrade your weapons. Upgrading each weapon to have a charged shot unlocks all sorts of new skillshots and your leash can be upgraded to have a "thumper" charge which allows you to basically throw everything high up into the air by aiming your leash and charging it for a couple seconds. Again many more fun skillshots are added when this is unlocked and gives you so many more ways to kill your foes.

This is the real fun of the game: progress further find newer and more sadistic ways to kill your foes. Although the story is weak, if you can accept the tongue in cheek humor, the dialogue is really funny. Again its over the top so I can see how someone might just think its silly or pointless, but even for me who doesn't appreciate all the fowl language, I found myself laughing.......a lot.

One of my biggest disappointments with the campaign really didn't have a lot to do with the lack of story, but the fact there was no co-op play. I realize that only one character has a leash, but really, couldn't they just add a second leash for co-op play and allow you to go through the story with a friend?

Instead of campaign co-op, the game has a Hoard-like mode called Anarchy, where you can play with up to 4 people (who all have leashes) to fight 20 waves of enemies. Unlike other co-op modes that are similar, not only do you have to survive the wave, you have to accumulate a certain number of points while doing so. Points are awarded for skillshots, but working with a teammate frequently more than doubles the points. For example, you pull a guy through the car crusher in the junkyard map: 150 points. Have your buddy kick them into the air and then you pull them through it? You both get 200 points (400 total) plus more than likely a Yoink or a Gotcha skillshot as well! It truly encourages teamwork to get enough points in some of the rounds. You can play this mode solo and the points required per round goes down, but its not nearly as fun by yourself.

The last mode in the game is called Echoes. It is simply a time/point trial of different sections in the game. Its fun to replay some of the areas and see how many points you can score in comparison with your friends and on the leaderboards, but has limited replay value otherwise. I really felt they could have added new scenarios instead of using them straight from campaign mode.

Overall the game is flawed but fun. I can't tell you how much fun it is to try to pull off all the different skillshots, you have to try it yourself. Realize the game doesn't seem to take its story too seriously and you will enjoy the dialogue and cutscenes much more so. Co-op is fun, but also has limited replay value, and Echo mode is really just a way to replay small sections of the campaign and compete for leaderboard positions.

Bottom Line: 8.5/10. Definitely a game that is worth bare minimum a rental. You should give this game a chance, it won't be for everyone, but is definitely an enjoyable game.

Achievement Hunters/Completionists:

The game isn't too bad for points, but isn't overly generous either. Several achievements are for collections, which aren't too bad since the game does keep track of how many you have in each level, and the "collectables" reappear giving you a chance to destroy them again, so no need for worrying about which ones you got and searching for them.

There are a few more difficult achievements, one will require you to score 50000 points as a team in one wave of Anarchy, a feat that isn't too hard with a good team but is impossible by yourself and very difficult with 2 people. There is also one for reaching level 65 in Anarchy, which I have been told is 1.9 million points. Another time consuming achievement is to get all the skillshots in the game. The good thing is you also know which ones are completed, and should you get a new skillshot and then die, the game still counts it towards the achievement. The little green checkmark will not be there, but if the name of the skillshot is there, you have credit for it. Echo mode just requires you to 3 star the first 14 echoes and get 150000 total points, feats I found to be really easy, only a couple echoes were hard to get the 3 star rating.

All in all, 400-600 can be obtained in one playthrough depending on collectables and difficulty. The remaining can be mopped up with relative ease and if you decide to skip anarchy mode you still can get 900+ points in the game. Definitely not bad for a game that is also fun to play.

Writers note: I will add more images when I can figure why they won't work properly...

Rating: 8.5 of 10

Reviewed: Bulletstorm