T-Smith on 25/2/2011 at 23:36
After a fairly boring first act, I've found myself really enjoying the game. The gameplay is frantic yet surprisingly strategic; simply blasting away won't work. You need skillpoints to purchase ammo and equipment, and you only get 10 points for a standard kill. The combination system works out pretty well and the levels provide lots of environmental dangers to mix things up. Strange as it may sound, I end up using my brain more often in this then in a standard FPS.
The story is obviously throwaway, and the voice acting is passable. The characters exist in a universe where "dick" is the word for everything (be it to express disappointment, anger, sadness, surprise, or happiness). Honestly it doesn't bother me at all, and every once in a while I find myself chuckling at the pure absurdity of it. There's no wit or cleverness about anything - it's as vulgar and in-your-face as possible.
Then again, I think everyone who picks up this game already knows that, and really shouldn't be surprised.
Briareos H on 27/2/2011 at 23:33
I'd have to disagree with the absence of wit and cleverness in the vulgarity. It looks too perfectly absurd and over the top for me to be coincidental. I'm thinking that a whole lot of thought went into dicks for this to be made.
Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, Bulletstorm is Call of Duty with insanely beautiful levels, some humour and a game added on top. Can't go wrong with that.
Still too cinematic to keep some SP replay appeal, but I must say I'm pretty satisfied at the moment. I'm in love with the mappers and designers' vision: this game was made with truly excellent taste, which is one of the only things I thought I'd never have to say about Bulletstorm.
Current verdict: 16.5/20
CCCToad on 1/3/2011 at 05:12
Quote:
Still too cinematic to keep some SP replay appeal, but I must say I'm pretty satisfied at the moment. I'm in love with the mappers and designers' vision: this game was made with truly excellent taste, which is one of the only things I thought I'd never have to say about Bulletstorm.
So this game would make a great rental?
Briareos H on 1/3/2011 at 08:36
Definitely.
The shooting feels solid, when you master the skillshot mechanism it's a continuous flow of violence and a very gratifying deluge of points in a similar vein to old beat'em and shoot'em ups. You really need to be creative even if the game doesn't really force you however, I hope you like having to think fast. And don't try to get every skillshot right away or it will get old pretty quickly.
I also can't emphasize enough how beautiful and dynamic the level setpieces are, but that's where the weakness of Bulletstorm is as a game. Everything is moving, every little hot-dog cart, dam turbine or 200-metre collapsed building is exploding by the time you reach it, usually in a deliciously unlikely and awesome way but oh so scripted... I'm almost sure a second playthrough won't see my jaw dropping or have me giggling just as much.
Aaand you've got to enjoy humour based on gratuitous violence and dick jokes but if you do it's pretty well written.
EDIT: Looking at comments all over the net ("giving this one a miss..."), I'm afraid Bulletstorm will go the Crysis way and fresh ideas will once again be shooed away. I hope that's not the case, because Bulletstorm is in every single way equal or superior to any Call of Duty game. People buy those don't they.
Yes, the game is full of QTEs, has some rail shooting and is extremely linear. Double Dragon was also extremely linear.
Xenith on 1/3/2011 at 10:13
I wish I could get my money back. I don't know how I managed to take the stupid idiocy that spews out in every line of conversation or in every action that is a cutscene.
If it was made to be that way and they wanted nothing but completely silly crap, then they failed, because for some reason they included shitty drama in all of it... from the beginning of the game.
The problem? It feels like playing through a serious story, albeit with retarded characters.
A: "Attack the huge ship of doom with our tiny cruiser!"
B: "But we'll obviously die, we don't have a chance of winning and attacking isn't going to do anything."
A: "Attaaack!"
*Several explosions later*
A: "Ishi... no!! Why are you dying!! Whyyy!!!!"
Player: "What the fuck did you expect would happen you dumb fuck?"
And throughout all the other scenes that play like this (which are pretty much all of them) all I could do was roll my eyes in disgust at the very sheer idiocy of it all. This is not a "bad that it's funny", it's a game that throws in dick and tits jokes so the 12 year olds think they're playing a "mature" game.
As for the gameplay, it got boring after the 500 time I kicked a guy and shot him ( and I'm not counting QT as gameplay).
Briareos H on 1/3/2011 at 10:25
Quote Posted by Xenith
It feels like playing through a serious story, albeit with retarded characters.
Exactly! It's like the Doom Comic or those old videogames where ludicrous things happened in front of a pseudo serious background. It's lovely!
Xenith on 1/3/2011 at 10:27
Except it has the complete opposite effect of the Doom Comic.
Briareos H on 1/3/2011 at 10:38
Obviously. I'm sorry for you.
As for me, I'd take this any day over seriously serious SP FPSs with shitty story like Halo 2+, CoD, FEAR 2+, Far Cry 2, Operation Flashpoint 2+ etc. This is no "immersive sim" and while it's prettier than Painkiller one would argue it has less replay value but since I've enjoyed it a lot I'm sure it will appeal to other people here too.
It's a pity that the writing prevented you from being immersed in an absurd story full of stupid contradictions. It is because of these that I do think the game is well written.
Xenith on 1/3/2011 at 10:45
I really wanted to like it, really. But I can't help wanting to slit my wrists after 15 minutes of playing because of how ferociously idiotic it all is. I think that if it didn't try being cinematic and EXTREME MATURE SHIT (yeah yeah, it's "only" a gimmick of the game they "intended") I would have probably enjoyed it.
Judith on 1/3/2011 at 11:26
I guess it depends on your level of tolerance. I didn't like the demo for this amount of cocky attitude was unbearable for me in such short presentation. But in the full version, throughout the game somehow it felt less annoying. Really awful writing and voiceover is for the general Sorano, who's annoying as hell, especially in later parts. If you think that Grayson's lines are overdone, then general is completely off the scale.
