Bulletstorm: Full Cip Edition
Do you remember side-scrolling beat em up games? This game is more or less an FPS version of them. It's strictly linear and feels like a corridor from start to finish. It's almost a on rails shooter due to its extremely linear level design. In comparison to Painkiller I think that this game can be more fun. It's because Painkiller is all about waves upon waves of enemies, while Bulletstorm tries something more than just killing 1000 monsters. The studio clearly evolved from Painkiller because now we have cutscenes, dialogues, NPCs and so on.
The environment art is very good, above average. It's sci-fic, but unlike Gears of War or Halo they leaned towards a more colorful and cartoonish presentation. Think about Bioshock Infinite, Bulletstorm doesn't try to be a realistic shooter because this wasn't their goal. Both games are fantasy shooters. The colorful and bright sky is a good match for the game's tone. It's not gritty, somber or super serious. Also, not full of jokes and comedy. You traverse environments that are filled with debris and destruction, much like Gears of War for example. Except that Gears had a desaturated, blue-greenish color grading. Bulletstorm's color grading is warmer, with more yellow and red.
The gameplay is the main goal of this game. Kick enemies, combos, ludicrous ways to score points and then buy upgrades. If you don't want a deep plot to uncover, go for it. I could even imagine that maybe Doom took inspiration from this game for its gory kill system. The positive reviews of this game praise the fun provided by the action and finding numerous ways to score points.
If you want freedom to explore and a deep plot. Don't go for this game. I didn't like this game because it's a linear experience from start to finish. I felt the gameplay lacking in depth. I wished to see traps, such as fire pits, spike pits, crushing debris, etc to go beyond simply grabbing enemies and tossing them against fixed spiked traps or kicking explosive barrels. Over time I became bored pretty quickly over scoring points doing the same tricks, combos, again and again. I don't know if the target audience of this type of game is wide, probably it isn't. Despite my personal preference I can imagine thigs that could expand upon this game's concept: interactive traps such as electricity and water pools, demolition of structures in real time, combos with cooperation between NPCs or friends, addition of vehicles with devices for scoring gory kills, addition of jumping and double jumps, non linear level design, choose between two paths as in Gears of Wars, melee weapons and combat anyone?, etc.
There is a Duke Nukem DLC that lets you play as Duke Nukem. The game plays exactly the same with the same story. The only difference is Duke's voice acting. I don't know why add it to this game, it certainly was forced by some executive from Bethesda. I can safely state that this DLC is better than Duke's own Duke Nukem Forever game.
