Polycrates
Emperor
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2006
- Messages
- 1,288
Now that Duke Nukem is out and massively underwhelming-looking, I've been replaying Bulletstorm, which to my mind is a more rightful contender for the throne of current-gen Big Dumb Fun Shooter.
Bulletstorm has a number of flaws, some reasonably major, but I don't even care because the game is just so capital-F Fun. It has a pretty serious case of Console-itis; it's on rails, there's regenerating health, there's a weapon limit, it's riddled with quick-time events, it's short, the UI is rubbish for PC, etc - but the game, to its credit, does a good job of minimising many of these weaknesses. And it's really fun.
The combat is of course the core of the game, and it is fantastic. There are four main things that elevate it above other FPSs - skillshots, the leash, the kick, and the weapons.
The leash, kick and slide are the core of it, to my mind, far more than the skillshots. The leash pulls an enemy or environmental object towards you (in slo-mo), while the kick sends them flying a considerable distance (and into any environmental hazards that might be around). The slide lets you cover distance towards enemies quickly with minimal damage and knocking them off their feet when you get there. As the environment is littered with hazards, this sets up a situation where you win by analysing the battlefield and making the best use of the terrain. You could shoot a guy, or you could leash him towards you then kick him onto a giant cactus. Or onto exposed wires, or off a cliff or whatever. Or leash an explosive barrel then kick it at him. Or fire a flail explosive at him, kick him at a couple of his friends then blow them all up at once.
There's still plenty of just shooting guys, but just firing off huge amounts of ordnance willy-nilly is generally not as effective as smart use of weapons and locations.
This is where the skillshots come in, also awarding you bonus points for performing cool kills. There's a huge list of them, giving various levels of bonuses based on the level of efficiency and panache of your kills. It works well in that it really does reward using effective and efficient combat manoeuvres as well as just show-off ones. And you get heaps of bonus points every time you unlock a new skillshot, which really encourages experimenting with the many many different ways of making dudes die. So you also have to weigh up whether you can afford to go for the really cool kills for some extra points or stick with your tried-and-true killing methods. You get to kill guys in heaps of awesome ways and you get an extra reward for it - it makes it all very cool, and it keeps the fighting fresh. All that said, I STRONGLY recommend playing on hard mode - not only is normal very easy but the skillpoint balance is much better on hard.
Finally, the weapons are all really nicely-designed, and all have a satisfying feeling of power. They're also rewarding to use, especially things like the aforementioned flailgun and the sniper rifle that lets you remote control bullets to your target in slo-mo (it makes no sense whatsoever, but it's cool as hell) or the bouncing cannonball gun. They all have a charged up secondary fire as well, which all really reward clever usage rather than just weight of ordnance.
The upshot of all this is that while it does have regenerating health, crouching behind cover like a sissy and taking potshots like you do in so many of those other shooters is a mug's game that will see you waste heaps of ammo and not give you enough points to regenerate it. There's far more reward for wading in to the thick of it, charging down your enemies and pulling off awesome heroics. It perhaps would have benefited from non-regenerating health, but you have enough health that it works well enough despite this.
There's a limit of two weapons (in addition to your basic assault rifle), presumably as a console thing. This weapon limit is also not nearly as crippling as it could have been, since you have all these other ways of killing dudes, plus your assault rifle, plus your leash and its thumper, plus kicking and sliding, plus all the secondary fire methods.
However, the limitation leaves some clunky UI problems, and the worst part is that it discourages experimentation with the wild and wacky weapons and all their cool skillshots. There's no reason the limitation needs to be there except as a console control thing. It's a bit of a shame really. And the bits where you need the really cool sniper rifle are kind of disconnected from the flow of the action so they can make sure that you pick up the sniper rifle for just that bit.
Fights aside, the gameplay itself is entirely linear. It could not be more linear, it's essentially just one long path from one fight room to another.
This is both bad and good. The bad is that this game is set in an amazing gameworld. It's a horrible post-apocalyptic mess, but it's an incredibly beautiful one - it's all bright colours and vegetation and scenic vistas punctuated by tastefully ruined buildings. Even the world's backstory is surprisingly interesting. It's the sort of place I want to explore, and a big part of me is constantly thinking that I would LOVE a Fallout-type game set here. And the rails you're on can be painfully visible at times. It also means they feel the need to throw in a bunch of quick-time events, which range from occasionally okay to really obnoxious, though they're fairly minor in the scheme of things.
On the other hand, it does mean that they've been able to give the areas they do show a lot of attention to detail. The locations are really really nice, and you can often see how well-thought-out they are in terms of combat flow as well. There are even amazing places where any other game would have a climactic battle setpiece, but here you just run through it because the actual battle is somewhere even cooler.
But the main reason the linearity works is that it lets them pull off some truly ludicrous action setpieces. They're massively over-the-top, clearly massively expensive, and it's hard not to be awed by them. Really cool.
The story is actually pretty decent, considering it's an excuse to string together ludicrous action sequences and tonnes of dick jokes. It won't win awards, but it's better than you'd expect. And I came to quite like the characters (and love the world). However, it occasionally has these very strange shifts in tone, like the writer wanted to prove that they're about more than just dick jokes, and it doesn't quite work when it's taking itself seriously. Fortunately these points are rare, although it does mean that the start of the game is PAINFULLY slow. I just want to get in there and kick some guys into some rebar, is that too much to ask?
Other than this, the tone is appropriately light and juvenile, in a pretty inoffensive sort of way. And it's actually really quite funny; it's self-aware about its macho nonsense but not self-conscious about it like Duke seems to be. There's also some part of my reptilian hindbrain that can't help but burst out laughing at dudes yelling out "what the dick!". Even just the Butthead-like sniggers when he does something particularly stupid or wantonly destructive are great.
It's pretty short, but it does pack quite a lot of punch into its time, and it races through as a near-constant adrenaline high. The short time also stops the combat from ever getting really stale. It's a fun, action-packed ride - but if you're looking for something to last you for ages then you're probably better off looking elsewhere.
So yeah, as long as you know what you're getting yourself in for, and you can deal with some console-related quirks, it's a bloody great time. It's not the new Serious Sam, like people were claiming; it's an entirely different and more modern beast, but no less fun for it. Despite all its flaws, it's the most fun I've had in a shooter in ages. 8/10.
Bulletstorm has a number of flaws, some reasonably major, but I don't even care because the game is just so capital-F Fun. It has a pretty serious case of Console-itis; it's on rails, there's regenerating health, there's a weapon limit, it's riddled with quick-time events, it's short, the UI is rubbish for PC, etc - but the game, to its credit, does a good job of minimising many of these weaknesses. And it's really fun.
The combat is of course the core of the game, and it is fantastic. There are four main things that elevate it above other FPSs - skillshots, the leash, the kick, and the weapons.
The leash, kick and slide are the core of it, to my mind, far more than the skillshots. The leash pulls an enemy or environmental object towards you (in slo-mo), while the kick sends them flying a considerable distance (and into any environmental hazards that might be around). The slide lets you cover distance towards enemies quickly with minimal damage and knocking them off their feet when you get there. As the environment is littered with hazards, this sets up a situation where you win by analysing the battlefield and making the best use of the terrain. You could shoot a guy, or you could leash him towards you then kick him onto a giant cactus. Or onto exposed wires, or off a cliff or whatever. Or leash an explosive barrel then kick it at him. Or fire a flail explosive at him, kick him at a couple of his friends then blow them all up at once.
There's still plenty of just shooting guys, but just firing off huge amounts of ordnance willy-nilly is generally not as effective as smart use of weapons and locations.
This is where the skillshots come in, also awarding you bonus points for performing cool kills. There's a huge list of them, giving various levels of bonuses based on the level of efficiency and panache of your kills. It works well in that it really does reward using effective and efficient combat manoeuvres as well as just show-off ones. And you get heaps of bonus points every time you unlock a new skillshot, which really encourages experimenting with the many many different ways of making dudes die. So you also have to weigh up whether you can afford to go for the really cool kills for some extra points or stick with your tried-and-true killing methods. You get to kill guys in heaps of awesome ways and you get an extra reward for it - it makes it all very cool, and it keeps the fighting fresh. All that said, I STRONGLY recommend playing on hard mode - not only is normal very easy but the skillpoint balance is much better on hard.
Finally, the weapons are all really nicely-designed, and all have a satisfying feeling of power. They're also rewarding to use, especially things like the aforementioned flailgun and the sniper rifle that lets you remote control bullets to your target in slo-mo (it makes no sense whatsoever, but it's cool as hell) or the bouncing cannonball gun. They all have a charged up secondary fire as well, which all really reward clever usage rather than just weight of ordnance.
The upshot of all this is that while it does have regenerating health, crouching behind cover like a sissy and taking potshots like you do in so many of those other shooters is a mug's game that will see you waste heaps of ammo and not give you enough points to regenerate it. There's far more reward for wading in to the thick of it, charging down your enemies and pulling off awesome heroics. It perhaps would have benefited from non-regenerating health, but you have enough health that it works well enough despite this.
There's a limit of two weapons (in addition to your basic assault rifle), presumably as a console thing. This weapon limit is also not nearly as crippling as it could have been, since you have all these other ways of killing dudes, plus your assault rifle, plus your leash and its thumper, plus kicking and sliding, plus all the secondary fire methods.
However, the limitation leaves some clunky UI problems, and the worst part is that it discourages experimentation with the wild and wacky weapons and all their cool skillshots. There's no reason the limitation needs to be there except as a console control thing. It's a bit of a shame really. And the bits where you need the really cool sniper rifle are kind of disconnected from the flow of the action so they can make sure that you pick up the sniper rifle for just that bit.
Fights aside, the gameplay itself is entirely linear. It could not be more linear, it's essentially just one long path from one fight room to another.
This is both bad and good. The bad is that this game is set in an amazing gameworld. It's a horrible post-apocalyptic mess, but it's an incredibly beautiful one - it's all bright colours and vegetation and scenic vistas punctuated by tastefully ruined buildings. Even the world's backstory is surprisingly interesting. It's the sort of place I want to explore, and a big part of me is constantly thinking that I would LOVE a Fallout-type game set here. And the rails you're on can be painfully visible at times. It also means they feel the need to throw in a bunch of quick-time events, which range from occasionally okay to really obnoxious, though they're fairly minor in the scheme of things.
On the other hand, it does mean that they've been able to give the areas they do show a lot of attention to detail. The locations are really really nice, and you can often see how well-thought-out they are in terms of combat flow as well. There are even amazing places where any other game would have a climactic battle setpiece, but here you just run through it because the actual battle is somewhere even cooler.
But the main reason the linearity works is that it lets them pull off some truly ludicrous action setpieces. They're massively over-the-top, clearly massively expensive, and it's hard not to be awed by them. Really cool.
The story is actually pretty decent, considering it's an excuse to string together ludicrous action sequences and tonnes of dick jokes. It won't win awards, but it's better than you'd expect. And I came to quite like the characters (and love the world). However, it occasionally has these very strange shifts in tone, like the writer wanted to prove that they're about more than just dick jokes, and it doesn't quite work when it's taking itself seriously. Fortunately these points are rare, although it does mean that the start of the game is PAINFULLY slow. I just want to get in there and kick some guys into some rebar, is that too much to ask?
Other than this, the tone is appropriately light and juvenile, in a pretty inoffensive sort of way. And it's actually really quite funny; it's self-aware about its macho nonsense but not self-conscious about it like Duke seems to be. There's also some part of my reptilian hindbrain that can't help but burst out laughing at dudes yelling out "what the dick!". Even just the Butthead-like sniggers when he does something particularly stupid or wantonly destructive are great.
It's pretty short, but it does pack quite a lot of punch into its time, and it races through as a near-constant adrenaline high. The short time also stops the combat from ever getting really stale. It's a fun, action-packed ride - but if you're looking for something to last you for ages then you're probably better off looking elsewhere.
So yeah, as long as you know what you're getting yourself in for, and you can deal with some console-related quirks, it's a bloody great time. It's not the new Serious Sam, like people were claiming; it's an entirely different and more modern beast, but no less fun for it. Despite all its flaws, it's the most fun I've had in a shooter in ages. 8/10.
It's not a realistic simulation game, it's a cheeky, irreverent "what if" scenario with a deliberate sense of humor. And the time period does make for some hilarious moments where you're, you know, using your huge battle-mech to defend an airfield where the hangars are filled with bi-planes. 
