Bulletstorm - Review

When Bulletstorm was first announced, I mostly ignored it.  Another first person shooter, bur this time they kept score and expected you to come up with creative ways to kill your opponents.  When the demo came out, I decided to give it a shot and see what it was all about, and I liked what I saw.  But I didn't $60 like it. So I waited for a bit for a sale and some free time to play through, and have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit.

You play as Hunt, an ex-soldier who found out that his assassination jobs targeting "important targets" are actually hitting innocent people.  He takes his team on a revenge fueled mission to bring down their old boss, General Sarrano, a foul mouthed old military type that reminds one of the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket.  He uses his small ship to punch a hole through the General's warship, bringing both of them down to the surface of a dilapidated resort planet, now teaming with gangs and mutants.

Or mutant gangs, you know, whatever works

The gameplay is linear, moving from one area to the next, shooting at whatever happens to cross your path.  The fun in the game comes from trying to find new ways to kill them via the 135 different Skillshots you can pull off.  From the simple: getting a headshot, to the complex: Halloween, which consists of placing a nom parasite onto their head, and then sending them into an electrical object, there's no lack of creative ways to earn points in this game.

What use are the points?  Well, they're how you're going to keep armed to the teeth.  Your points allow you to purchase new weapons, upgrades, and most importantly, ammo.  If you're just running and gunning the whole game, you're going to run into some problems keeping up with what they're throwing at you.  You'll spend these points at strategically placed checkpoints that will also tell you what kind of Skillshots you can earn.

You're going to need as much ammo as you can muster

 The dialog in the game is what really puts it over the top.   You can't help but smile as Hunt cheers on Waggleton P. Tallylicker, a giant robotic dinosaur that you get to take over for a few areas, or Hunt's efforts to keep Ishi, his recently cyborganized friend, from giving in to his robotic half with crude jokes and humor.  It all adds up to be some magnificent writing, and I want to see more of it.

I don't really have a whole lot in the way of complaints for Bulletstorm, but if I had to be nitty gritty, I would say that the pony that Epic and People Can Fly parades in front of us is very limited in its tricks.  The entire package comes together really nicely, but I wonder if I would want to do the same thing again in a sequel.  I think they're really going to have to put some effort into it to make it stand out from the rest of the games out there, and packaging the next one with a Gears of War 4 beta code may not cut it.

Or a whole lot of nothing for PS3 owners, you know, whatever works

All in all, Bulletstorm is great for what it is:  a fun shoot em up that doesn't take itself too seriously.  If you're looking for something to spend a weekend with before Duke Nukem Forever hits the shelves, Bulletstorm is probably right up your alley.  I do suggest, however, waiting to find it on sale.