Let me be honest, the game might have a very unappealing cast of characters, following a generic plot, filled with jokes which did not land at the time, let alone now. But at least the gameplay is fun

It puts a somewhat unique twist on a very stale genre with the skillshot system rewarding the player to experiment with how to kill enemies using fun and quirky weaponry. It might not be redesigning the wheel, but at least they put some bells and whistle on them to make the journey a little more interesting.

Bulletstorm is definitely a video game.

I had absolutely no clue what was going on at any point. It was all blood, swears, explosions, and unfunny jokes thrown everywhere. It’s so excessive, it’s not even ‘so bad it’s good’.

If you want to play a stupid crazy fun shooter, just play Borderlands.

God, this era of first-person shooters sucked so much... And this is one of the "best" ones of that era.

Clunky movement, quick time events every 2 seconds, corridor-like progression with barely any exploration, boring enemies and even more boring bosses, laughably bad characters and storyline. It's not even challenging on the hard difficulty setting, partly because of the health regen. I can't give it a pass just because of the unique skillshot gimmick or the weapons.

Funnily enough, this remastered version becomes better AFTER you finish it because then you can play through it again with the ability to equip every weapon at once.

Scoring system would've felt much cooler if it accounted for weapon combos while also letting you carry all of your weapons at once (which you do unlock after beating the game, but... why not just have that available from the start). Gunplay just started feeling stale and lost all tension after a point since the enemy types aren't all that engaging, and there are only so many ways you can shoot an enemy into an environmental hazard.

Someone wrote a Steam review that said, "It pisses me off so bad how funny these writers think they are." That's incredibly spot on with the game's dialogue.

What happens when you try to make an FPS Gears Of War copy, but without ANY of the charm and quality? Well, the result was probably the worst game I've played in 2020, so far.

I'll say this, though, the shooting mechanics are FUN! They were the only thing that kept me going through this 7/8 hour campaign. Controls are tight, pacing's frenetic, weapon variety is good, the HUD is kinda nice, the sniper feels WONDERFUL to use and that, honestly, is enough to earn a replay, if you're aiming for a game that you COMPLETELY do not need to do any type of thinking. One other thing, I know there's a cool multiplayer mode, but Bulletstorm would be MUCH better with a co-op/splitscreen for the story mode.

Aside from the shooting, everything else sucks, in my opinion. I could list everything that destroyed Bulletstorm for me, but it would tire me AND you. Here are a few stinky things in it: Shirtless bullet sponge enemies, while your health is made of paper. The writing and voice acting are ATROCIOUS. Level design is dull and the environments are generic as hell. The leash is cool and all, but it gets old REALLY fast. This game would benefit a lot from a jump button, but I would suffice for an action command that ACTUALLY works properly. No grenades. Hideous AI. Taking cover is pointless. Some enemies are very poorly designed, like the Burnouts, for example. Occasional stiff movement moments. Cringe-worthy jokes. Also, there is a very bland story going on, but... Wait... Was there a story at all?

Bulletstorm is like... Being forced to watch a kid play with his toys and actually try to pay attention in what he's doing. The kid makes the story and dialogue as he goes and things sort of just happen. Will it put a smile in your face? Sure! Once or twice... For a tiny while, I guess. Is it any good? Hell no! You'd definitely rather do ANYTHING else.

I want a sequel to Bulletstorm so fucking bad.

I loved this game as a kid back on 360 and played the shit out of it there, playing it again almost 10 years later and I love it even more than I did back then.

Skillshots are genuinely one of the coolest mechanics I've ever seen in a game, finding creative ways to take down enemies and getting rewarded for it is so fun and all the weapons in the game are all so unique and a joy to use.

The game art style wise still holds up very well and all the areas look great, especially on an OLED screen from my Steam Deck

The writing is ridiculous and over the top, usually I'd find it pretty cringe but I think it matches the tone of this game well enough to where I didn't really mind it much, it is also genuinely funny at points too.

This game was just so fucking fun. It is Insanely underrated.

So I'm reviewing this game in two aspects. The first is as it's own thing, completely detached from anything else in this release, and second as a Duke Nukem game, with the addition of Duke's Bulletstorm Tour.

Bulletstorm is pretty fun and holds up well for the most part. It's not perfect, but I feel many of these issues could easily be addressed in a sequel; it really deserves another shot.

The core gameplay loop is pretty good. The weapons are fun to use and using them in conjunction with the leash and kick to create intricate skillshots that give currency to use in the store is pretty fun. I even like how it's integrated into the story, as the Confederacy has an "only the strongest survive" mentality and goes out of its way to reward those who kill their enemies in the most brutal way possible. I just have a few issues that kinda bring it down for me.

For one I don't really think this game benefits from a weapon limit. I don't have an inherent issue with FPSes using weapon limits so long as they're integrated in the design right, but in this game it just feels limiting, not helped all the more with the machinegun not being unequippable. Sure, it's still a good workhorse weapon, and has its' uses even towards the final areas of the game, but why can't we make our own loadout? Why even have a weapon limit in general for a game that's about tying together weapon combos and throwing enemies around to create the most brutal skillshots? Even considering how the post-game "overkill" mode completely removes the weapon limit entirely, I don't understand why they didn't try balancing the game around this in the first place, aside from the fact that weapon limits were the big thing for console shooters around this time.

Alongside this, I feel the upgrades at a certain point balance the game way too much in the player's favor, regardless of difficulty. By the halfway point, you'll be able to buy 10+ one use mod shots (Thumper for leash, overcharge shots for machinegun, etc.) and can easily spam them for bosses or just to purely wipe out singular areas. Again, it really kills the idea of wanting to experiment with skillshots when you can just use the same overpowered secondary over and over again, not helped that they're pretty cheap as well and by this point of the game you'll be drowning in skill points.

These don't completely kill enjoyment for me, but it's something that now with other "throwback" styled games and other over-the-top shooters, I wish was addressed. Another reason why this game needs a sequel.

Now, Duke's Bulletstorm Tour. Gearbox's effort to tell the public "Hey, We own Duke still!" to the audience and justify this new release. I've heard from many that Duke's placement in this game isn't bad and carries some basis as to what a new Duke game could be, so I was interested in looking at this game from that perspective. Does it succeed?

Ehhh, not really.

There's some good stuff, but Duke in this game feels really shoehorned in. Duke kinda sticks to the script for the most part, and aside from one or two unfunny jokes he barely gets a reaction out of me. Instead of frustration or annoyance, I just feel nothing. There's a few good moments, like him saying "that's fucked up, why would you force me to kill civilians in a flashback!" but even then it's kinda... no shit to me, yknow? Doesn't help either that Jon St. John suffers from the same issue he has with the re-recorded 20th anniversary Duke 3D lines, where he just doesn't have that aggression and punch Duke SHOULD have. I understand why, the original Duke voice was quite literally just him gritting his teeth and doing a deeper Dirty Harry impression and that shit hurts after a while, but again it unfortunately means he just sounds bored for most of it and not really Duke-like. Even from a gameplay stance I don't feel it entirely fits Duke either. I can see it in the idea of the kick (It could be an interesting natural evolution of Duke's Mighty Boot), but the lack of mobility/jumping and secrets doesn't make this game feel like a successor to Duke 3D at all. I know this game wasn't intended to be that, by all means, but with how many people do see this game as that I can't help but analyse it like that for myself.

Overall, I like Bulletstorm as a fun, over-the-top shooter. Worth the play if you like games like this, and really deserving of a second chance. As a Duke Nukem game? Nah. There's much better content, either in Alien World Order or even mods in the fan community will satisfy you more.

This game is just crunchy, bloody, over the top FPS fun. It may have gotten me on a list due to how much fun it was to just kill the fuck out of mutant grunts, and the game's points system encourages creative ways to obliterate enemies. The story and characters are kinda over the top stupid in what I think is a great way. It's got some uh, unique, ways to curse, but I think that adds to the charm. Honestly the background worldbuilding and ideas here could really be expanded much more in a great sequel, but this game is still the full Bulletstorm package. Tons of fun here.

I've heard of Bulletstorm long time ago but thanks to PSN, I decided to play it just couple of days ago.

Bulletstorm is nothing but a dumb fun action shooter with good mechanics. I love it.

The primary mechanic in this game is to make your enemies in float in the air slow motion. You can do it in multiple ways: by kicking them, sliding through them or pulling them with your leash.

That's what makes the combat great. You can mix in your slides, kicks and leash and destroy your enemies either with your weapons or the enviroment. My favorite combo was pulling an enemy, sticking a bomb to him, kicking him back to his group and detonating the bomb for the big group kill.

The game also incentivizes you to go for these big comboes and enviromental kills by giving you extra credits when you pull them off. You use these credits to upgrade your weapons and buy extra ammo. If you play the game like COD, you're not gonna earn shit. That's how you make a compelling system. I wish there were more variety in upgrades.

What about the story, dialogue, characters, atmosphere and all that jazz? You'll forget everything about them right after you finish the game. There is really nothing to it. I'm personally not a story guy in action games but I think if Bulletstorm had quality characters and dialogues like Uncharted, it could have been a classic hit. The foundation is superb but they didn't polish the rest of it.

Anyway, it's a badass game with fun mechanics. Action fans should check it out.

Un sucesor espiritual de Duke Nukem que resulta atractivo en la primera hora, y luego va en caída libre.

Todo alrededor del argumento es bastante ridículo, predeciblemente anticuado y francamente insoportable.

A nivel mecánico, las intenciones son evidentes y, en cierto punto, interesantes; sin embargo, pierde el encanto rápidamente, y los QTE no ayudan para nada.

Unexpected gem. At first though, I was really not into it. I knew the marketing around this game being retro was misleading, but I still didn't expect that to imply I'd have to go through a dragged out tutorialized chapter full of QTEs and story beats that I doubt anyone cares for, with some of that carrying over to the rest. But due to my bestie's recommendation and assurance that it gets better, I kept going.

Once that's over you'll find the game still isn't very retro, it doesn't play like any older FPS I can think of, you sprint, reload and aim down sights. Only thing connecting this to the old times is an arcade like scoring system.

This however turns out to be a fairly unique game on its own, the scoring system is called skillshots and rewards you with points for meeting different criteria while killing enemies, doing a new skillshot granting you bonus points. This ends up encouraging you to vary up your playstyle a bit, and combined with the quick kicks and leashing, essentially a grappling hook for reeling enemies in, and the different guns all having different skillshots, combat encounters pick up the pace really quickly.

Another aspect of this game's balancing is the dropkits, you won't get too much ammo from dead enemies or pickups so you will need to rack up points both to upgrade your guns and to keep your ammo up when running low unless you're super efficient. Near the end of the game you'll probably be able to afford whatever you need, but it kept me on my toes a fair bit while building up to it as I was playing on hard difficulty.

Presentationwise, this game is surprisingly good looking. You mostly fight nasty enemies that are either mutated freaks or humans gone insane, but you also get to see really nice views of cool looking deserts, caves, ran down cities, etc. And what you see up in your face is often pretty detailed. The guns are well designed, and the music while nothing especial fits the game.

Storywise, this is just dumb. Typical revenge story with some basic character dynamics, with characters overtly swearing like this was written by an edgy teenager, making serious moments kinda hard to take seriously as overall the game isn't really going there. However this is where I should mention that I played this with the Duke Nukem Tour DLC on, and let me tell you, it makes up for any shortcoming in the story. Yes, he replaces the main character in an awkward way and nobody else re-recorded their lines to call him Duke instead of Gray, but even so this feels like such an appropiate environment to throw Duke in and being able to listen to a surprisingly good rendition of him (So, not DNF) made up for the parts of the game that annoyed me, especially the slow start.

This is overall a game that isn't quite like anything else I know of and I'm surprised that the same studio that made Painkiller, a game with some of the most average FPS gameplay I've touched, managed to create this. It is very enjoyable once you get past the first hurdle and somehow a forced inclusion of Duke Nukem just elevates it more. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys a fast action shooter. Really wish a sequel or spiritual successor happens, I want more like this, but seeing the studio's output I'm not getting my hopes up from their part.

Took about 8 hours on normal. I bounced on and off at the beginning of this game but came back nearly a year later in Act 3 and the game clicked.

There is something within the dialogue, the bombastic characters, and the over-the-top manner in which weapons and kills occur that strongly clicked with me and I just played the game straight and beat it in a day after that point. It's in the same vein as Borderlands, broforce, gears of war, and a few other macho shooters except it isn't as silly as the former in terms of trying to be a comedy and it doesn't take itself as seriously as the latter.

It's called Bulletstorm because most of the fun in this game is based on all the "creative" ways you can kill enemies with your weapon + environment + leash combos. Its entire combat is predicated on this which is why it's a bit weak in the beginning when you only have the pistol + assault rifle which are the most boring weapons in the game. By Act 3 when you've unlocked most of the other weapons in the game you generally have many fun weapons that have different alternative firing modes that allow you to constantly pick off, crush, explode, and impale enemies with their type of ammo, or into the various environmental hazards. The names of the 130+ executions popping on the screen, the sound + visual effects, and the goofy & aggressiveness of the enemies lend themselves to me laughing through a lot of this game from that point on. The game has a cool sliding mechanic that allows you to slide at any point, it's a bit faster than sprinting and it kicks enemies into the air. The leash is the other central mechanic that allows you to pull enemies and certain objects toward the player and suspend them midair in slow motion.

However, there are a few things that nagged me. This is a linear FPS which was common in the 7th gen of gaming. That means you can't jump at all, and your protagonist has slower movement that ends up with him getting stuck into environments at times. You have permanent companions throughout the entire game, but they don't do as much damage as I expected. I hate this sort of thing in games where you have companions but they are less than useful.
The other thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the fact that you have all these cool weapons yet you can only equip three at once, and when you go to the store and buy ammo for an unequipped weapon, it will unequip one of your current weapons and equips that weapon. It was odd, but this seemed to be a no-brainer for the devs because upon beating the game, you unlock overkill mode which allows you to equip all weapons at once and further allows you to have unlimited ammo for each weapon as long as you've completed all their skill shots. This is the preferred way to play the game for me, it's not a difficult game and it's not the type of game where I would enjoy losing a lot of health and constantly hiding to regenerate.

There's a cutscene bug at the beginning of Act 7 involving a story revelation that still isn't fixed.

Finally, the game ends on a surprise sequel bait cliffhanger, but the game never got a sequel and will likely never get one. Overall, it was a fun time. It is good shooting fun.

Игра норм, бегаешь, рашишь всех подряд, делаешь спарту - Тупо Рэмбо! Но если проходить игру в один заход, то бесконечный экшен начнёт немного наскучивать, хоть стрелять и весело, да и игра не душная особо. Прошёл на предпоследней сложности без особого напряга, разве что только в первом эпизоде последнего акта, и то прошёл с первого трая. В игре существует всего ОДИН босс, на которого я потратил 4 трая. (ну это уже проблема скилла) А в финале кстати босса вообще нет... обидка. По итогу игра удовлетворила главную потребность, ради которой я в неё играл, это тупой брут-шутер в котором просто весело стрелять, также есть нецензурная брань, и неплохой юмор. (тут уже вкусовщина) В остальном - проходняк. (А ну и конкретно в издании Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition можно играть за Дюка Нюкема, пол балла накину *_*)

Not Bulletstorm, Bulletsponge....

The story of Bulletstorm is set in the 26th century. One of the biggest superpowers in the galaxy is the Planetary Confederation, led by the charismatic general Sarrano. His orders are carried out by an elite unit called Dead Echo. We take on the role of Grayson Hunt, a former agent of this group, now a pirate and public enemy number one. We spend most of our time on the planet Stygia, formerly a luxury entertainment center. Its rulers abandoned the planet years ago, leaving it to mutated plants. Its surviving inhabitants are divided into many savage tribes.

In Bulletstorm, Grayson can kick enemies with his military boot and perform long glides across surfaces. Another important addition is the energetic leash that allows us to grab and pull the opponent. In addition, we have a rich arsenal of rifles. The action is complemented by standard weapons and more sophisticated gadgets like kickable explosive spheres and cannon launchers.

In the game, we get points for killing enemies. These kills are called "skill shots". For example, a normal one gives us a +10 bonus, while a headshot gives +25. If we add creative use of the collar and other abilities of our hero, the final score will be even better. The points we earn can be spent on modernizing weapons.

So, our rifle can fire a hundred bullets at once, ripping all the flesh from the bones of most enemies, leaving only a smoking skeleton. An upgraded whip can strike the ground with such force that it can send enemies flying through the air, taking them down one by one as they float helplessly. In addition to the single-player campaign levels, there's also an additional Echo mode where you race against the clock and try to score as many points as possible. Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition offers an average of 9 hours of gameplay.

The main reason I didn't like the game is that the gameplay is too long. It seems interesting for the first few hours, but then it gets too repetitive. Killing the same enemies in the same way gets very boring. All the enemies in the game are like bullet sponges that can't die without taking 100 bullets.

Towards the end of the game, I lost all interest and quit when the enemies that were sent to me as a boss in the first chapter threw five or ten of them at me. I don't understand why the developers put so much effort into prolonging the game. If you don't have an interesting story to tell, making the gameplay a tedious loop makes you hate the game.

I played the original version of Bulletstorm back when it originally came out, and as an edgy, violence obsessed, teenage boy, I loved the hell out of it! Now, playing the remaster I found that I still enjoyed it a lot! But I also found more to appreciate, and criticize, with my more mature lens.

So to start off, the clear highlight of this game, the thing that sets it apart from so many other shooters, is the skillshot system. And it is honestly great! Killing enemies in different ways and getting rewarded for it never stops getting old; I loved trying to mix up my kills throughout both my playthroughs. They're all so brutal and incredibly satisfying to pull off, even the annoying frustrating ones.

However, despite my love for the system, I don't think it's the best it can be. In fact, I think it's far from it. While I still enjoy blasting everyone and getting rewarded for it, there isn't really much incentive to mix up the ways you kill people, other than intrinsic desire. The points are mainly used to buy upgrades and ammo, so logically, the best course of action is to just use whatever gets you the most points all the time, which is usually some kind of environmental kills or multi-kills. I think the game would benefit a lot from having something like a DMC or Ultrakill reward system, where using the same attack repeatedly will result in less points, or at least something to help incentivize more variation and creativity.

The system is also heavily held back by the strange weapon limitation. While playing the main campaign, you can only use, very bizarrely, three weapons at a time. And, even more bizarrely, one of those weapons can't be changed. So of your (honestly pretty impressive) arsenal, you can only ever use roughly one third of it at a time, which severely limits what you can actually do at any given moment. Having played through the bonus mode that lets you have access to all the weapons throughout the entire game, I can definitively say that having such a varied arsenal is fantastic, and makes the game way more entertaining. I just wish this was how the game was normally, because the three weapon system is such an odd and frustrating restriction that limits and otherwise phenomenal experience.

Aside from the skillshot system, the other two things Bulletstorm has become widely known for is its attempts at criticizing shooters at the time and its strange, curse heavy narrative. Both of which, end up falling short of their goals.

As a criticism of the game industry, Bulletstorm is just ironic, and even hypocritical. It acts as though its different from the many Call of Duty clones that were littering the market back then, but ultimately, still gives in to the conventions and general designs at that time. I could see someone who bought this game just to be free from CoD fatigue getting really upset with it.

But what I find really strange about Bulletstorm is how hard it seems to be trying to be Gears of War, not Call of Duty. Just thinking about the general design and the way the character interacts with the world, everything just made me think of the fantastic Xbox series. The waist high walls everywhere, the way you have the vault over walls to get to the next section, the fact that you can't jump, cutting the game up into acts and chapters, and even making the player press a button to look at an important thing all the time. It just hits so many of the familiar design choices of Gears, but just in first person, which mostly works out. But its still really odd. Though when you consider that playing this game got you into the Gears of War 3 beta back in the day, and the developers would go on to make Gears of War Judgement (the worst Gears game) it does end up making sense. Its just funny seeing a game try to criticize first person shooters and then replicate Gears of War of all things. Its like making fun of people for watching Family Guy and then basing your sitcom on American Dad. Just really strange.

And then there's the story, which is mostly serviceable, but doesn't really do much to stand out. Gray can be a fun protagonist, and I really enjoy his plight for revenge against Sarrano, but it doesn't really develop enough to ever get that interesting. Plus the overt cursing can get pretty boring after a while.

What I do find really interesting about Bulletstorm's narrative, however, is how you can look at it through a Marxist lens and actually pull out a lot of interesting pieces. The game seems to take a pretty strong anti-corporation and anti-imperialism stance. As some examples: we learn that the city that was built in a big thunderstorm went under because the workers formed a union and the bosses refused to meet their demands, the whole skillshot system was built to reward those who worked better and destroy those who didn't meet the quota (basically turning war into a way for employers to exploit their workers), and finally, the corporation who hired Sarrano wanted to nuke the entire planet with a bomb that only killed living things, leaving only property in tact, to make a profit with later; showing how villainously corporations value property and money over all forms of life.

I find all of this extraordinarily interesting, and it made playing the game as an adult incredibly worth it. But sadly, it just doesn't really do much with it beyond surface level stuff. The game doesn't really incorporate this into the narrative beyond just telling us about it, it just feels like there could have been so much more to it but the game just suddenly stops talking about it. My guess, is that they didn't want to risk going too hard with the Marxist messaging here, that would probably hurt their sales if it was too explicit. Oh well.

Overall, I like Bulletstorm. I loved it as a kid, and I still enjoy it a lot now. But, unfortunately, it just isn't living up to its potential. There's so many great ideas, both gameplay and narrative wise, that just don't get to be as great as they could be. In terms of gameplay, I don't think there's anything like Bulletstorm, and I really wish someone would give the skillshot system another go, it deserves a better chance to shine. At the moment, there are plenty of other FPSs you can play, plenty of better ones too, but this one is still special in its own way. If you're interested in it, you'll most likely enjoy it, but you'll probably wish it was at least a little bit better.

(Also side note: this version of the game has the Duke Nukem DLC. It's fine. I loved whenever Duke said something funny, like complaining about people calling him the wrong name or mentioning "The Flashback", but most of the time, it's just the same dialogue as the regular game, which is disappointing. And what's more disappointing, is that this is easily the best Duke Nukem game we'd had in over a decade.)