Boy howdy! 2011 was one heck of a year for high-caliber gaming, at least as far as this friendly neighborhood game reviewer is concerned.
With long-awaited releases such as “Duke Nukem Forever” and “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” finally seeing the light of day, and with both the Gears of War and Killzone trilogies coming to their respective (and awesome!) conclusions, good ol’ 2K11 will go down in gaming history as a particularly rich year for we, the players.
Oh, and did I forget to mention the release of a fun little shooter named “BULLETSTORM!?”
Developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games, and published by that billion-dollar juggernaut of video game business, Electronic Arts, Bulletstorm was released on February 22 amidst a hail of promotion, much of which came courtesy of Spike TV and Cartoon Network’s powerhouse of late-night programming, Adult Swim.
You take the role of Grayson Hunt, the renegade captain of a band of assassins-turned-space-pirates, as you thunder through an immensely over-the-top storyline, which centers on your quest to wreak vengeance upon your former commanding officer, General Sarrano. You have help from a Japanese cyborg named Ishi, and the lone surviving soldier from a Confederate Final Echo squad, a very angry woman named Trishka.
All in all, the story is pretty top-notch, full of huge cut-scenes and phenomenally hilarious dialogue that will very likely have you, quite literally, rolling on the floor while laughing.
I will be getting straight to the nitty-gritty on this one, folks.
Bulletstorm has some of the most spectacularly entertaining game-play that I, being the incurable shooting-game addict that I am, could ever hope to enjoy.
Right from the get-go, game mechanics are faster, and more furious, than anything this side of an energy-drink-fueled motocross party at Vin Diesel’s private underground fortress (featuring live music by Slayer), with the “skill-shot” system taking Bulletstorm’s gun-blazing experience to a new level of shooting glory entirely.
One of the best aspects of combat in Bulletstorm, comes in the form of environmental interactivity, allowing for a seemingly-endless number of ways to obliterate your enemy from the world of the living, using the levels themselves as your weapons.
You can kick enemies into the spines of giant Cacti, set off explosive barrels which immolate anything within range, or even send them flying into the gears of nearby machines for maximum splatter.
Then, of course, there is the Leash.
Early on in the game, you acquire the ability to utilize this wondrous future-weapon, referred to as an “energy-leash”, which can then be used to decimate your foes in some of the most creative ways yet seen in any shooter. Once you “leash” your foe, you have the ability to toss them through the air like the meat puppets they are, either towards you, to set up a “Bullet-Kick”, or away from you and straight off a cliff for an aptly-named “Vertigo” kill.
Side note: I also really enjoy names of the many skill-kills, with radical monikers like “Kill-o-Watt”, “Man-Toast”, and “Mass Extinction” (all names befitting the requirements to achieve each said skill-shot).
As you have probably guessed, Bulletstorm is extremely violent, occasionally almost insanely so. This is something that could bother unsuspecting newcomers to the genre, but long-time first Person Shooter (FPS) players should be more than prepared for the Ultra-Violence contained within the game.
There was even a bit of news-media controversy regarding some of the more violent skill-shots (but what else is new, amirite?), featuring video footage, bulleted lists of factoids that seem to prove that games are bad for us, and quotes from surly college professor’s who were just glad to finally have some camera-time.
Then we had Carole Lieberman PsyD, who went so far as to say that video games are a direct contributor to the increase in violent sex crimes in the United States. As per usual, her “study” was based on a whole heap of fail, with only 2-out-of-10 of her sources having anything to do with the topic at hand, and even then proving no such link between video games and violent crime.
Afterward the media-frenzy cleared, the whole world shrugged, and went back to playing Bulletstorm.
My ultimate conclusion:
Bulletstorm flipping rocks!
It is one of those games that, for me, represent the very core ideals of FPS’ing
(Ideals given unto us by the Duke himself);
1. Larger-than-life characters with even bigger mouths.
2. Massive guns that do a ton of damage and make a whole lot of noise.
3. Adrenaline-pumping game-play that REALLY makes you feel like a real bad-ass, not just another faceless dude in a power suit.
And these are ideals that every game studio could do to get behind, wouldn’t you agree?
Stay tuned for more “Rapid-Fire” reviews of the best darn shooting games in existence!