So Bulletstorm was released around a year ago in February 2011 and was widely praised by the press and web at the time. The game, from figures released, has failed to break a million copies sold and apparently didn't make a profit for the developers. Sombre affair indeed but seeing as the game was pretty 'original' gameplay wise maybe it didn't appeal to the majority of gamers enough? Well did it fail to sell for a reason or was it unfairly ignored? Let's find out shall we.
What's interesting about Bulletstorm is that the game was sold as some sort of 'nostalgia' trip for FPS fans who harken back to the days of games like Goldeneye or Doom, with their fast flowing combat, colourful locations and ridiculous weaponry. That is what People Can Fly (the developers) set out to do and what they advertised their product as. Sadly plans can always go wrong and it seems that for every nostalgia filled gameplay mechanic they put in the game People Can Fly added something very modern and so the final product ends up looking and playing like some sort of Frankenstein of past and present FPS's and I can't say it works all too well.
Let's start with the story as always. Bulletstorm is set in the future and follows a small group of space pirates who have dark secrets but are trying to move on in life, or aren't, or are, its not very clear. Needless to say that their past catches up with them and they end up crash landing on a planet with their mortal enemy. You play as Grayson Hunt the leader of the merry men - but not really - since only two of you survive the initial stranding on the planet. The story is to kill your arch enemy General Sarrano who is also stranded on the planet (the mortal enemy mentioned earlier). Cue beautiful vistas, thrilling shoot-outs and ridiculous amounts of swearing. As interesting as the previous sentences may have sounded this is not a game for those who enjoy their story. The game is obviously trying to come across as some epic Shakespearean drama but at the same time it tries to win the frat boy demographic with crude jokes and as mentioned, ridiculous amounts of swearing. All this comes together as a bit schizo.
See during the cutscenes the cast play it all straight while discussing the mission, fallen comrades, impending doom etc but in gameplay all of that is forgotten and the inner frat boy emerges. Grayson Hunt could be getting emotional about his dark past and contemplating all the bad deeds he's committed but then he cracks one liners while slaughtering the local population of mutants and bandits. A little consistency would be nice.
The combat is also a bit inconsistent. Bulletstorm obviously wants to be like the FPS's of old but then manages to mess everything up by deploying you in a modern day shooter. See the big selling point of Bulletstorm was the 'skillshot' system where you were awarded points depending on how you kill your enemies. Headshot? Meh. Impaling an enemy in the butt with a drill and then vaporising them? Now we're talking. However as with modern day shooters the enemies make use of cover and tactics which is fine just not in this kind of game. In Bulletstorm you need the enemies out in the open so you can set up the skillshots but as I mentioned the enemies spread out and flee at the sight of you so say goodbye to a huge chunk of skillshots. The game also only let's you have two weapons. This also limits the range of skillshots you're allowed to achieve at any one moment. The weapons also have a secondary fire mode which can also be used to unlock a whole new selection of skillshots. However to use the secondary fire you have to switch firing modes (about 2-3 vital seconds) by pressing a button and then fire as normal. This is awful! It adds vital seconds to the clock and in a game where timing is vital it has no place! (Why you couldn't just press a button and fire the secondary fire is beyond me since you use a button simply to switch!). The game also gives you two extra 'weapons' to help in the fight and they take the form of a leash that can throw enemies around and a boot to kick them away. These work well and flow nicely into combat along with your guns and are used in combos where you may leash, kick, and fire away at your helpless enemies. Great fun all round.
The developers seemed to have missed the point with the skillshots. The game should be testing us to try and amass a high score by throwing us loads of little goodies (weapons and alike) and making us work on managing all the little bastards well. Instead the developers have just made it harder to achieve your goals by putting stupid little obstacles in your way at any opportunity. This leads to another problem with the skillshots which is that the system lacks a sense of progression. You never get better at doing skillshots and they never get easier. Instead luck plays a huge role in gameplay and leaning on luck is just silly because it'll always leave you disappointed.
Onto an aspect of the game which isn't as inconsistent, the graphics. Now this game runs on the Unreal Engine 3 (see Gears of War 3 for recent impression of the engine at work) and it looks really good. The best bit are the views the game shows off. Thankfully Bulletstorm does one thing right in the graphics department which is to not copy the colour palette of modern day shooters. In Bulletstorm every colour is represented and the locations vary from inside caves to abandoned cities to deserts to tropical jungles to beaches and more. The game is amazing visually and a treat for your eyes.
One thing that has to be said before finishing the review is that the game is an 18 for a reason. Seriously if swearing and gore are a problem for you then walk away now cos it ain't going nowhere. The game is about as rude as they get but isn't necessarily the best written. So you find yourself listening in on excessive amounts of dialogue which attempts to be funny by just swearing constantly and using the word 'dick' a lot. This is not comedy People Can Fly just people with filthy mouths. Gore is also aplenty with bits flying all over the place and an emphasis on impaling enemies on multiple sharp objects for skillshots, which is great fun.
Overall it seems that the developers People Can Fly had all the ingredients to make a truly kick ass game but decided that it obviously was too different from the norm and therefore wouldn't sell. With this in mind People Can Fly set about altering their creation in order to appeal to the masses and ends up delivering an experience that never manages to excel or truly deliver to its intended audience. In one corner you had the nostalgia blinded golden oldies who wanted a fast, action packed, multiple weapon wielding, colourful and totally non serious adventure. In the other corner you had the modern day gamers with their two weapon system, regenerating health, cover systems, lust for multiplayer, dull space marine protagonists and 'realism'. Standing in the middle of both groups is Bulletstorm which manages to just about reach each group but with the stench of compromise hanging around it and therefore disappointing both groups overall.
But at the end of the day, about a year later and with no 'complete' or 'game of the year' edition announced does Bulletstorm still deserve your time and money? I would say yes but with a big 'but'. The 'but' in question is that you should not take this game seriously in anyway. If you just go along with the game you'll be fine and you'll enjoy yourself. For all the hate I've written about the game in the previous paragraphs the game is actually quite good. The game is at the end of the day a silly little adventure with good set pieces, occasionally funny dialogue, enjoyable combat and very replayable. Think of it as an enjoyable little side dish that you can experience between the big games of 2012 and at an average of £10 (damn cheap) it'll be worth it.
Thanks for reading and remember that comments and suggestions are of course welcome.
See you next time!
Back in 2011, Epic Games and People Can Fly launched a Call of Duty parody - Duty Calls - that has been lost to the annals of history.
"Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm" sounds more like a massive case of the sh**s. 😂
I saw the parody mention, and half expected the ability to drop a deuce on your opponent... I left disappointed.
Never too much Taco Tuesday!! Now if only we could just achieve eternal Taco Tuesdays without the inevitable Wipe-It Wednesdays!!! 😂😂
Replies(3)
Hahaha i actually just dropped a review of this game on my channel! I hit all the story beats for anybody too lazy to install it and play through it
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Bulletstorm will soon receive a VR remake, but is it worth revisiting? Take a look back at the original 2011 release.
Absolutely. I remember when the game came out on ps360, I thought: "wow, another shooter" and in the 7th gen that wasn't an unfair reaction.
But when the game was re-release on ps4 I took my time an played it (it was on playstation plus at the time) because, ironically, I missed a shooter in that console. And boy, what a fun game! They made a game to be played and not to be watched. It was a fresh air in the genre that deserved better.
So yes. Maybe it find its audience this time.
It's an awesome game. The only exception (for my taste) is the script writing, which is OTT, but I guess that's what they were going for. It does at least match the OTT action and gore. I thought it was great overall and actually being in this game is going to be bonkers!
Yeah, I agree that storywise it's not an Oscar nominee, but it's like a porn movie in game format.
Agree with the over the top script, and felt at the time that was the only thing that people were hyped about, the language and not game play.
But in vr this game is going to be great. It has everything that would make a great vr game. Lots of bombastic action, gunplay, blood, and that leash.
Looking at the gameplay now it seems that the game was ahead of it’s time and was perfect for vr before vr wasn’t even off the ground.
I got it on PS3 at launch and am still waiting for the long rumored sequel to finally be announced. Currently have it on Switch and wish a physical version of that would be released. Absolutely love it.
I actually feel like this game gets revived all the time, not that I hate the game, I actually quite like it, it's just constantly available, unfortunately I'm not a fan of VR so I'll be skipping this version.
GF365: "Here are eight games that need sequels. These games are ones that players would love to experience another time, bigger and better."
Bloodborne is a game I still restart and play every few months. I would welcome just a re release in 60fps with a visual upgrade. It's a perfect game. If I was king for a day I would include the randomizer mods because then it would be a kind of rogue like and I could play it forever.
Poor dialogue, bipolar (basically, playing it straight, but with dick jokes and points for shooting people in the dick), pseudo-"old school-ness", iffy level design....
It got a lot of points from reviewers for being "original", though. Which is a real goof up. Poorly designed but original doesn't leave you with an exceptional game.
BS is a very skippable game.
And its marketing campaign still makes me cringe at the irony. Limited ammo, two gun limit, slowmo, unexceptional AI.....all stuff they mocked COD for, despite half of those sorts of things being on BulletStorm, having loads of the pitfalls of 99% of today's FPS games.
This was the first game I bought when I built my first pc in August. I thought it was a fun game with really nice graphics, well worth the 30 bucks I payed for it on steam.