Bully is one of the most entertaining games ever made. Why this is is
fairly apparent. It's a Rockstar game that plays like GTA and who
better than to rip off GTA than Rockstar themselves? But that's not
what Bully is all about. Sure, it's another open world game and that's
been done a million times before but that's beside the point. Bully
offers an experiance that many other games strive for but fail to
accomplish. It offers an engaging story that will keep you playing just
to see what will happen next and who in the wonderful cast of
characters you'll be able to trade punches with. It also offers up the
tried and true gameplay that has made Rockstar one of the most beloved
and recognizable game developers out there.
You play as a 15 year old boy named Jimmy Hopkins. He's been expelled
from multiple schools and his mother has been remarried more than five
times. It's apparent Jimmy has had a rough life and he copes with it by
beating people up and acting like a real delinquent. His mother has
gotten married yet again and she and her new husband dump Jimmy off at
a boarding school know has Bullworth Academy forgetting he even exists
in the process.
Bully is a misleading name. You don't play as a bully (although you can
if you so choose) but rather you go out of your way to stop all the
bullying at Bullworth. Within the first few minutes of the game you see
what kind of a school Bullworth really is and Jimmy wants to clean it
up. Along the way you'll meet an amazing cast of characters that feel
real and alive within the game. You'll meet Algernon, the nerd who
frequently wets himself; Gary, the boy you come to trust but soon
realize is a maniac only out for himself; and many others who all of
which are perfectly voiced by a talented cast of actors.
Your in an open world were you can do pretty much anything you feel
like doing. Want to beat up a teacher? Well go right ahead. How about
skipping class? You have the choice to do so. But keep in mind that
doing such things does come at a price. School prefects will chase you
down and if you don't get away or find a place to hide then there will
be trouble. The first couple of times your caught you'll just get a
slap on the hand, but if you continue to misbehave then it's off to
detention with you.
During your term at Bullworth you can attend classes. Scholarship
Edition adds new classes that were not found in the original game.
Those are Math, Geography, Biology, and Music class. All of the
original classes from the initial release also make a return in the
form of Art, Gym, Shop, English, Chemistry, and Photography. Classes
play out like minigames and are generally fun. In Chemistry you'll be
doing button presses as they scroll across the screen to mix chemicals
akin to San Andreas's dancing minigames, English class will have you
making word out of jumbled letters, and so on. You'll want to attend
classes not only because they are fun, but because they reward you with
new moves, and skills that are essential to game progression.
There are also eight new missions added to Scholarship Edition. None of
them are terribly exciting but if you've played the game on the PS2
then they'll stick out as something new. Most of them take place during
Christmas time and as such have a Christmas theme to them. You'll help
a bum who thinks honest to God thinks he Santa teach some punk kids a
lesson and you'll also help him take out the rival Santa so kids will
come to him for their Christmas photos.
Bully takes place over 5 distinct chapters. Each has it's own feel and
theme. In chapter one you'll work your way up to the leader of the
bullies and take him out making all of the bullies respect you. The
same happens in chapter two through four with you taking out the
leaders of each clique. The story in the game is a bit predictable but
not in a particularly bad way. It's all satisfying and extremely
exciting.
Bully has gotten a bit of an upgrade graphically since it's outing on
the PS2. The lighting has been improved and doesn't make the game look
so dark. Character models have also been somewhat improved. But even
with the improvements Bully still looks like a last gen game. It also
suffers from frequent crashes and a lot of framerate issues. So take
this into consideration if you plan on buying the 360 version. A patch
has been released and with it installed I only encountered a game crash
once and it was halfway through the game.
All in all Bully is an amazing experience that you shouldn't miss. It was a classic in 2006 and it's still a classic now.
