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.)
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.)