Single Player Gamer: Bulletstorming

Single Player Gamer is my Opinion/Review blog about the single player campaigns of games for people who prefer games to play on their own rather than with others and my thoughts and reactions to upcoming games. Please Note this post may include spoilers and should not be read if you don't want a game potentially ruined.

Initially when I first saw Bulletstorm I wasn't too impressed. To me it just looked like a first person Gears of War or a more single player focused Unreal Tournament, with a big bulking heroes, grunting, gore and weapons that seemed yanked and blended from those two games, it wasn't till I actually sat down and started paying attention to the actual trailers that got me thinking maybe, just maybe this game might be have its own style. The leash, the kill with skill, the over the top swearing and the promise of a less serious shooter got me interested. So I downloaded the demo played it and had doubts again, kill with skill, whilst entertaining made me think I'm not that creative, I'm not too good at shooters and it seems that this is the way the game is meant to be played and if I don't enroll onto this style I'm going to end up having a dull time just shooting enemies the old fashioned way or I'm just going to be slapped vigorously and repeatedly until I submit to the game's will.

I'm glad to say I was wrong and that someone should really kill my dick for ever having doubts. Booting up the game and diving into the single player Bulletstorm eases you into its style, it may take a while before they actually let you kill with some skill and they probably could of sped it up the opening a bit but it is effective at giving you the confidence to experiment. It also helps that all these skill points you gain are the games currency in which you can buy your ammunition and weapon upgrades, playing it like a normal first person shooter will have a negative effect on your experience of the game as you will be quickly running out of ammo with hardly any skill points to purchase more ammunition and weapon upgrades. Not that you always need to fire your gun in this at many points I found it more fun and easier to just leash someone towards me and kick them into some electrical wiring or off a building to a grizzly death.

Speaking of death that is what this game really excels at, creating some of the best ways to kill an enemy, there's 130 ways to end your foes nice day, the game has skill shots for everything from the environment to your weapons and you just getting darn sadistic and yes there's a skill shot that will call you a sadist, the game will give you a description for most of the skill shots whilst some remain secret and even after you unlock them you still will not get a description of what you did. Personally I preferred it that way I rarely went into the database to see what I needed to do and always found it more rewarding when I came up with the idea myself. After being familiar with the way the game operated in the first few hours I began to think I'm enjoying myself but I might get stuck in a rut constantly performing the same skill shots over and over losing any fun I had with the game, thankfully the game is great and pacing it's self by constantly introducing something new in each level and gradually unlocking each weapon so that you have a good chance of mixing it up and then allowing you to revisit weapons so that you can see their charge shot equivalent. The game also mixes it up the enemy types as progress forcing the issue of getting creative which really helps keep things fresh and fun. So in summary the game play is awesome constantly challenging you to get creative and to get sadistic on this rabble of crazies.

Now I'm going to turn my attention to the story and the swearing(or cursing if you're that way inclined). Bulletstorm follows Grayson Hunt on a quest of revenge, it's not a original plot the majority of characters are dicks which the game doesn't try to hide at all, but there are some great moments if you can get invested in these people. I don't want to spoil the story for those that haven't played it but the biggest thing that annoyed me about this game was the(STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS)

cliff-hanger ending, it seemed like it was a kick in the teeth after what had been promised in developer diaries about this not being like all the other shooters on the market but making the same old mistake of saying here's the game but we want to make sequels in this franchise so this should get you screaming loud enough so that one can be commissioned. I mean what happened to the days where you could make a game give it a resolution and let the game stand on it's own two legs so that it was actually worth a sequel. Aside from that I did enjoy the story but wish I could of landed on something concrete.

The biggest surprise for me was the swearing(cursing) I'd seen all the developer diaries, read previews and reviews about the strong language but for me it wasn't too bad, it didn't detract from my experience and was more funny than stupid, but Bulletstorm does ask you what kind of person you are. Can you switch off and enjoy this colourful language filled shooter or does reckless use of the English language turn you right off, if you're one of the former you will love this game and how it will remind you of the first time you started swearing or if you're part of the latter you may think no thanks I can get this kind of thing by playing Call of Duty on Xbox live why should I pay for this!?

Overall I enjoyed my time with the Single player campaign of Bulletstorm I probably will plug away at the game a few more times to try and unlock more skill shots and move up the difficulty scale, while it starts slow it soon picks up and is constantly asking you how much of an inner sadist you really are.