Review #76: Bulletstorm

 More like Glitchstorm.

 The Playstation 2/Xbox/Gamecube generation began to change what FPSes where all about, and then by the PS3/X360/WiiU generation the change was permanent. In these new FPSes you are confined to two weapons and regenerating health, no longer is strafing around an enemy viable, no, now you must take cover as your heatlh regenerates and you pop out and shoot your enemies. Bulletstorm, made by the incredible retro-styled FPS Painkiller teamed up with Epic Games to try to marry both modern and past shooters, and they succeeded, mostly.
 Bulletstorm has you playing as Grayson Hunt, a generic space marine with jock-mentality, who very early in the game makes a bad call and gets most of his team killed, and he himself stranded on a foreign planet. The story is as predictable as it gets, but you are not playing this game for the story, which is a  good thing as the characters are really lame. Most of your teammates are the very definition of jocks and are as unlikable as they get. Bizarrely enough, the main antagonist is actually quite likable, as soon as you meet him, he spends a great deal of time questioning Grayson's motives, "You killed thousands who had families, but since it was to kill me, it was alright" and the such. Oh, and the dialogue is really bad, characters just can't help but to say "dick" every chance they get, they try to be edgy but it ends up being really dumb. Oh, and the ending is totally unsatisfying, in order to place a sequel hook at the end, for a sequel that never came.

 When it comes down to the gameplay, it's actually pretty fun. The first thing you'll notice, is that movement has a very heavy feel to it, which feels really nice. Despite it, movement is actually really fast, you even get a dash button that makes you move even faster, and if you need more speed, double tapping the dash button makes you slide. The slide is one of the best features ever included in an FPS, running into an enemy while sliding acts as if you had kicked them, popping them up in the air for free shots. It's also really useful when you need to back down in to cover, or just to get away from enemies. Ah, yes, cover, this game has regenerating health, like every other modern shooter, but Grayson can actually take a load of punishment before dying, heck, sometimes you are even encouraged to move up close to the enemies and only retreat when taking heavy damage. Another feature is the leash, by tapping the left trigger you can use an energy beam that will drag enemies towards you, you can use it in front of deathstraps to throw them into them. Still, leashing, slinding into or kicking enemies places enemies in a floaty state where they become harmless.
 Theres a very arcadey feel to it, and it actually encourages you to have fun. Enemies are silly, Grayson has enough resistance to run around for a while without having to retreat, enemies are silly and you are rewarded for scoring skillshots. "Skillshots" are fancy names for kills. For example, shotgunning an enemy up close and ripping their torsos off their legs is called "Topless". There are also plenty of enviroment-related skillshots, like throwing enemies into spikes. These skillshots grant you point bonuses, which are then used to enhance your weapons. Y'see, most of the time you'll be using your standard machine gun, as it is the most common weapons enemies carry, but every time you come across a "Dockpit" you can use your skillshot points to buy new weapons and ammo, although you can only carry three weapons at a time, the ammo you have for each weapons is "stored". There's about 8 weapons, each one with an alternate fire mode, and they are very over the top and fun to use. For example, the Shotgun has 4 barrels, and it's alternate shot fires a wave of fire that carbonizes every enemy in it's way. There's a weapon that shoots a pair of bolas that tie themselves around an enemy or an object, and you can detonate them at will. There's also a weapon that shoots drills!

 There's three different modes: Story Mode, which is a single player affair and plays just as described above. Additionally, you are always accompanied by one or two CPU allies, and they are really stupid most of the time, plenty of time I caught them shooting at the air. There are also plenty of QTEs that you can't fail, but the faster you do them, the more Skillshot points you get. Disappointingly, the last boss is nothing more than a QTE, which is really lame as there are a couple of bosses throughout the game and they are not half bad. Then there's Echoes, an online-leader board enabled mode that has you play through certains shootouts of the Story Mode. The last Mode is "Multiplayer Mode", but for some reason when you select it, it turns into "Anarchy mode", probably they planned to add more modes via DLC? Still, this is a Co-op-only affair in which you must survive waves of enemies and reach certain score thresholds. While it sounds good on paper, you will have to repeat and repeat the same enemy wave until you achieve the needed score, it becomes quite boring eventually if you can't manage it. As a whole, the only mode that's any good is the Story Mode, and it's your average 6-8 hour romp.
 This game is a bit on the ugly side. The planet is very pretty, and there are plenty of different zones, with lots of colors and visual treats, like the the water looks pretty good. Character models on the other hand... while they look good from afar, get close to them and the textures turn into a pixelated mess. The game is also pretty visceral, there is a lot of blood and limb maiming around, it's actually quite satisfying. Music is nothing special, but the sound effects deserve a special mention, the pops when producing headshots and the rest of the audio is just really good. Voice acting is alright, Grayson's voice actor is really good though(He voices Jack from Madworld/Anarchy Reigns!).

 As much fun as I had, the game is a glitchfest. There was a time where I restarted the checkpoint multiple times but the next scene wouldn't trigger and I had to restart the whole chapter, searching about it I learned that many other people came across the same glitch, but on different chapters. Ammo is very scarce in the game, so most of it will be from the store, bought with your hard earned skillshot points, well, there's a glitch that clones one of your weapons on one of your three slots, this weapons had 0 Ammo and the only way to fix it is to reach a Dockpit... and then the game will just default that gun's ammo to 0. Very annoying and very frequent. There was also a time when the game made me buy an Upgrade I had already bought. And there was also a time when I died just as a cut-scene triggered, which made me replay the whole scene twice with no sound. Oh! and once, I had a floating clone of the weapon I was carrying over me. This game needed more quality testing.
 I actually liked the game, it's a pretty functional fusion of both old and new. Thing is, there's not a whole lot to the game, there's no offline multiplayer of any kind, online is as good as dead and not much fun, and the story mode is on the short side. And on the off-chance that you were following it's simple story, like me, you won't get any pay off, heck, you'll feel as if you had accomplished nothing. And the amount of glitches I experienced on a 6-8 hour long game is nothing short of embarrassing. Still, as long as you are into older shooters, this game is worth a look.
 6.5 out of 10.