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Bulletstorm Preview
The FPS will never be the same again
Written by Jon Denton, 09 July 2010
It's hard not to feel fatigued by the First Person Shooter, even though some of the finest games of the past few years have featured large weapons hovering at the bottom of the screen. Thankfully, the fine chaps at Poland's People Can Fly feel the same way, and they want to inject a bit of fun and frivolity back into forward facing gunplay. And they want to do it as violently as possible.
First things first, let's clear something up. You may have seen epic's Cliff Bleszinski talking up Bulletstorm at EA's E3 conference. Epic owns People Can Fly, and EA is publishing it. Easy. Cliffy B is helping out with ideas and input, and the game is making serious use of the latest Unreal 3 tech to create something quite spectacular.
So, while Bulletstorm is most definitely a shooter, it's one that places far more emphasis on outrageous action and ludicrous violence than pixel-perfect accuracy or photorealism. It's been called a 'blood symphony' by Adrian Chmielarz, the project's creative director, and he's not far wrong. You're given free reign to dispatch your colourful foes in all manner of gruesome ways; the more stylish the better. Every kill gives you a score and racks up a combo meter, with high scores coming from carefully orchestrated assaults through your opposition.
In order to hit the big numbers, though, you're going to have to do a bit more than pointing and shooting. Bulletstorm includes three key moves that help sprinkle a bit of sass into its gunplay; the kick, the slide and the leash. The first one is fairly self explanatory - kick a guy. If you do kick them, though, they'll move backwards in slow motion, giving you ample time to fill their prone torso with buckshot. Slide is exactly that - a cover-finding baseball slide that can also be used a Roy Keane-style horror tackle. The leash, though, is probably the most interesting thing of all. Imagine Indiana Jones' whip being used by a character from Tron, and you're half way there. This electric-blue death tether can grab enemies, trash cans and other assorted crap and hurl it into the air, prime and ready for... well, a bulletstorm.
Combining all three in one flowing movement leads to the highest scores, and creates a type of balletic violence rarely seen in a First Person Shooter. Suddenly that 'blood symphony' tag doesn't sound so stupid after all.
360Zine Issue 52
For our latest bulletstorm coverage, click here to download 360Zine Issue 52 for free.In keeping with the less-than-serious vibe, People Can Fly and Epic have brought in comic book supremo Rick Remender to pen the story, and his influence can be heard straight away in the foul-mouthed banter between protagonists Grayson and Ishi. It's not going to win any awards, but it's funny enough to make it actually worth listening to. Pretty rare in this genre.
There's a definite comic-book vibe to the whole thing, a pastiche of both action heroes and action gaming. It's a game brave enough to stand on its own and fly in the face of the current trend of grey, apocalyptic wasteland blasting.
It helps, of course, that the game looks absolutely stunning. Unreal 3 has often been criticised for its lack of colour, but that's clearly down to the designers, not the engine. Even so, Bulletstorm really is a cut above, everything looks like it's been carved out of plasticine and lit by Helios himself, and maintains the sort of solidity and Triple-A bravado that wouldn't (unfairly perhaps) usually be associated with an Easter European game.
In truth, there's not much of Bulletstorm that you could describe as Eastern European at all, but there are nods back to People Can Fly's previous work, the mighty Painkiller. Bulletstorm is littered with enormous boss enemies that more than fill the screen, be it the Triffid-like plant beast from the EA showcase demo or the giant wheel from E3. This is a team that loves a good set piece, and no mistake.
So, all's well in the world of Bulletstorm, then? It's looking that way. In order to truly contend with the frag pack, People Can Fly need to ensure that the fundamentals - the 30 seconds of fun - are so well honed that they are joyous enough on their own, then every ten-storey boss and guttermouthed expletive is just an unpleasant bonus. From what the gaming press-at-large has seen so far, those boys from Warsaw might just have done it.
With a still-undiscussed multiplayer mode to come, and nearly a full year left in development, Bulletstorm has everything going for it. Seems like it's time to get excited about the First Person Shooter again. Are you ready?
bulletstorm coverage available in 360Zine Issue 52 - click here to download it for free!
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