Looking trailers and hearing its reviews, I had little to no expectations for this game. But then I liked Gears of War and Shadow Complex games and since this was also being released by Epic, I thought why not give it a shot. After finishing the campaign mode and trying Ecos and Anarchy modes, I have to say I am quite surprised.
***********PROS.***************
-AWESOME COMBAT SYSTEM: This is the best aspect of this game. You can slide, leash to pull enemies, kick them and use variety of weapons with primary and second fire and pull a huge variety of combination off of them. At first you may feel like it may get redundant, but thanks to variety in levels, there are a huge variety of things you can do. Thanks to that you won’t get bored till the end of the campaign.
-VARIETY IN LEVELS: Other than awesome combat, there is plenty of variety in levels. Throughout the campaign you experience a variety of environments including the space, woody greenery filled areas, abandoned factories, building high in the sky that is about to fall apart and list goes on.
-SURPRISES: There parts during the campaign where you will be surprised by certain events and the gameplay that will follow it. I really don’t want to spoil it for you, but trust me you will like it.
-GREAT GRAPHICS AND DECENT ART WORK: The first time I saw the trailer for this game, it really looked unpolished to me. But now that I have finished the campaign, I can say that since then they seem to have refined it quite a bit. Certain levels just look gorgeous. I guess never doubt the power of unreal engine.
-VARIETY IN WEAPONS: There are 8 different types of weapons and that is not including the leash. Each weapons (including leash) has devastating alternate fire mode. There is just plethora of combos you can do if you mix and match these weapons. I personally enjoyed each and every one of them. Also, while some weapons may look and sound familiar from other games, they will play very differently in this game. For example with sniper rifle in this game you can change the direction of bullet after you fire it. I personally have enjoyed the variety very much.
-UPGRADABLES: To top of each weapon is upgradeable with the skill point you earn by killing enemies in creative ways. This rpg element will truly encourage you to creatively kill enemies and get as many skill points as possible. While this rpg element is not as well thought of as other games, it still adds incentive to do your best.
-ONLINE PLAY AND ECOS MODE: While not my favorites (see cons.), after you finish the game, you can stay busy by playing online multiplayer (anarchy mode) or Ecos mode which has the same levels as campaign but gives you stars on your performance.
************CONS************
-RELATIVELY SHORT CAMPAIGN: Hate how games these days have such short single player campaigns. Unfortunately bulletstorm is one of them. While I enjoyed each and every moment of the campaign I found it to be very short (~7-8 h max and that is because I explore a lot).
-MINOR GLITCHES: I had my character stuck while jumping over objects at least 3-4 times. Unacceptable. All the games have glitches, but under no circumstances your character should be stuck like this. I mean you can’t even kill yourself. Restarting the level is the only option.
-MEH MULTIPLAYER AND ECOS MODE: Compare to some other games these days, I didn’t enjoy the multiplayer so much. I got tired of it rather quickly. Also the Ecos mode felt the exact same as the campaign. I wish they had added more varieties.
-LACK OF NEW GAME+ MODE: This is a game that can really use a new game+ mode (i.e. start with all the weapons you collected etc.). Unfortunately, it doesn’t have it. So there are some really cool weapons and upgrades you get towards the end of the game. Unfortunately, if you want to use them again, you will have to play the game again and you will only get to use them for last few levels. Just very unfortunate.
**********CONCLUSION****************
Simply speaking I am looking forward to Bulletstorm 2. Partly because I enjoyed this game and partly I have faith in the developers that they will improve the weak aspects of this game. All and all I enjoyed pulling off crazy combos in beautiful, but destructible environments, but I wish they had longer campaign and had fixed some of the things described in the con section. I give this game 8.5/10.
