Bulletstorm- A Total Blast

It’s not very often that a game comes along which packages itself as big, dumb fun, but deep inside when you start dissecting it, its cleverness surprises you. There are very few games which have a method to their madness, and having played Bulletstorm over and over again, I can say that it belongs to that list. To be honest, I did not even know this game existed till I was on some Steam page finding a good shooter, and well, there it was. I played its trailer and it immediately caught my eye. Without wasting any more time, I straightaway got into the game. To be honest, I knew the game would be good, coming from the folks at Epic Games and People Can Fly, the Polish developers behind Painkiller, which was another great shooter. And thus my journey started.

The game has a very basic story about two men on a mission to avenge the death of innocent people, whose blood is on their hands, on the orders of their boss. The story takes place in a futuristic setting on a faraway planet, and is very by-the-books. Along with this, the game is high on profanity and low-brow humour, so don’t expect any kind of deep meaning or philosophical relevance in the story. However, the story is just a backdrop for the gameplay, which is one of the most unique and rewarding system out there. The first stage, which is the Prologue, is standard gun-stuff, focussed on getting you acclimatized with the movements and the kicking mechanism, which you will rarely tire of, besides also being strategically useful. However, things get interesting once this level gets out of the way (thankfully, not very long), and you acquire an ‘energy leash’, that immediately bonds with your hand and, well, now you can truly act like a boss. This mechanism is tied to the ‘Skillshot’ system, which is the game’s way of awarding points based on the uniqueness of your kills. For this, there is a lot of fodder in the form of enemies available to you. Killed an enemy with your rifle? That’s so passé, and you would not be awarded much by way of points. How about launching the enemy towards you, kicking him straight in the chest, and maybe then firing at him? That’s good, but still basic. You see, the game’s environments are designed to be used for the ‘Skillshot’ system, and you would be foolish to go the old-fashioned way of running and gunning. These ‘Skillshots’ are used for upgrading weapons, attaching enhancements, or buying new ones.

A single playthrough of this game does not do it justice, because you would have missed out on a lot of unique Skillshots. And also, whenever you pull an enemy towards you, or yank him away, the game slows down, so that you can unleash your anger in the most creative ways possible. To top it, the environments are all beautifully done, and the enemies are well designed too. The downsides include too few enemies in terms of variety, and a rushed ending. This game, at the time of release, did not do well, putting paid to any hopes of generating a sequel. What it has become now is a cult hit. Forgot to mention, there’s a dinosaur to be used as a weapon in-game. How cool is that!