Developed by Epic Games, in conjunction with People Can Fly, Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter title revolving around a group of ex-special forces space pirates who mutiny against their murderous and corrupt former general and, through a sequence of events, find themselves marooned on a hostile planet, where the only thing that wants to kill them more than the general trapped there with them are the psychotic flora and fauna that call the planet Stygia their home.
As I did not play the multiplayer component to this game extensively (after beating the game, I did not have much interest in coming back to play the multiplayer), I won't be talking about it in this review.
The Good:
Skillshots: Bulletstorm's claim to fame can be found in its skillshot system, an inventive way of killing your opponents that nets you varying amounts of points based on the creativity and difficulty of said kill (and arguably the spiritual successor to Bizarre Creations' game The Club. These skillshot points function as a currency system, allowing the player to buy ammunition and upgrades for their weapons based on their performance. These skillshots, at least for me, encouraged me to play the game in ways I normally wouldn't, such as using the environment to kill enemies, and extended my interest in the game past the simple "point and shoot" aspect of its first-person roots.
Main character: You play as Grayson Hunt, a space pirate/ex special-forces type who maroons his crew on Stygia. Generally a drunken, idiotic chauvanist idiot, his character would normally be one to immediate write off and forget about. Not so in this game. What separates this character from the countless other "space marines" in similar games is how Grayson, and his guilt-tripping squadmate Ishi, bring morality into the shooter genre. Several times over the course of the game, you are told by Ishi to question why it is that your character thinks it's okay to make the general's ship crash into the planet, killing hundreds of people on bored, why your character's revenge against the general for his betrayal is worth all of their lives. As a result, your character does express remorse for his actions and their results, both for his squad and for those he fights against. While the story was not ground-breaking, it takes guts to bring an emotional aspect to a potentially brainless character (although the best example of morality in a first-person shooter belongs to the Bioshock series).
Graphics: This is a very pretty game. Colors are stunning and really "pop", as well as being extremely diverse (no brown, grey and red Gears of War color scheme here). In addition, the dynamic lighting featured in the game, with the way shadows react to each light source, is definitely the cream of the current crop
The Bad:
Story: While the morality is definitely a high point in current shooters, the rest of the story is (mostly) forgettable. There were the typically predictable ups and downs of every shooter, with squadmates being killed and your character finding exits and routes through dumb luck. The ending especially was... well, for lack of a better word, terrible. It ended with the fate(s) of one (or more, I won't spoil) characters up in the air, and ends without closure. The ending suffers from what I call "Sequel Syndrome", where a fresh IP (intellectual property) is set up to have an unfulfilling ending specifically so that a sequel can be made for the title, which is done often with movies as well.
Weapons: Outside of the explosive-chain gun, most of the weapons in this game are ultimately forgettable, and not much fun to use once you've completed the lists of skillshots associated with them. The guns, while fairly common in most shooters (shotgun, sniper rifle, assault rifle, etc, all modified for this game), just felt tacked-on when I played the game, and I did not spend much time using them once I did not have to anymore.
The "Why?":
The Ending: I know I already addressed the ending, but the sequel-set-up of an ending in this game just seems like such a boneheaded move, given the developer. Epic Games, the same studio that made Gears of War, has enough experience making shooters that this could have been easily avoided, and I am disappointed that it wasn't.
My Score: 8/10
While a fun game with some interesting and unique facets, Bulletstorm is ultimately forgettable, failing to truly distinguish itself from all the other shooters on the market. While potentially great, I feel that this is a game destined for the used-game section of your local video game store.
Recommendation: Rent it.
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