With the explosive and bloodthirsty release of EA and Epic’s anti-social FPS Bulletstorm, we take a seat at the judge’s panel and comment on the stuff that will stay in your mind hours after you’ve put the game down. We’ve made a list of the five most striking things in the whole package. If you haven’t had a chance, check out our review first, for an overall verdict.
1) The Drill Gun/The Penetrator. The crude nature of its deadly usefulness is borderline insane when all things are considered. Comparing Bulletstorm’s crazy weapon to the regular array of assault rifles and machine guns that the CoD audience are at home with makes them look tame. Blasting a 7 inch drill head into a mutant butcher so that he is pinned against a wall and spinning messy patterns everywhere is a shot of pure gaming adrenaline you’ll struggle to dislike. A round of applause for People Can Fly’s creative madmen.
2) The in game banter is blunt and care free, with Hunt constantly cracking cheesey one liners to express his appreciation for your murder skills. The character dialogue is deliberately exaggerated and slapstick, making it entirely appropriate for the situation. Some may be offended by the Duke Nukem flavoured humour but then those people probably won’t like the game at all, thinking about some of the names the skillshots have like “rear entry” “gag reflex” and “boned “only adds to the rebellious inappropriateness.
3) One of the most notable things that will strike you when you jump into Bulletstorm are the sounds; it’s a very noisy game dominated mostly by yelling enemies. The gun sounds are obviously contributing to the ever present wall of sound, but the shrieks and yells of your foes are occasionally a bit too much. Once or twice you might find yourself turning the volume down when you shouldn’t have to.
4) Unlike most multiplayer experiences these days, Bulletstorm offers a co-operative online mode where you are part of a team of four, fighting back endless waves of screaming green dudes while attempting to meet the skillshot target score. Consequently the whole thing gets wonderfully chaotic very quickly, the screen will be full of explosive rainbows, blood, empty shells, dust, and fire for the majority of each round. If your eyes can hack it, there’s monstrous fun to be had.
5) The Head Hunter Sniper Rifle is so aggressively different from your traditional sniper that it seems to dismiss an entire culture of gameplay in favour of this whacky bullet bending mini game. Undoubtedly this weapon is huge fun to use, but the way you do that is startlingly unique. We know that Bulletstorm is trying to shake FPS up a little bit, and the Head Hunter is on the front line leading this colourful revolution.
What are the core ingredients you feel that make Bulletstorm breathe? And give the game its own space? Type up your thoughts below.
Published: Mar 4, 2011 11:43 am