Setting
In Bulletstorm, you play as Grayson Hunt. After learning
that the mercenary group you work for is not what they preached to be, he and
his friend were exiled into a faraway planet. The lost paradise is filled with
many hazards, mutants and weapons, which will lead to many unique gameplay
situations.
Weapons
Coming from the developers of Painkiller (People Can Fly)
and Gears of War (Epic Games), Bulletstorm is expected to feature large and
creative weaponry. The game did not disappoint. For example, the Screamer is a
revolver that can send a flare towards an enemy, making him a part of the
firework explosion. Another unique weapon is the Flailgun, which either cuts
through or lassos enemies with chain-linked explosive grenades.
Melee and Leash
The enemies are tougher in this game than the ones you face
in other first-person shooters. Not only do they have plenty of health, they
will also charge at you. Playing Bulletstorm like any other games in the genre
will get you killed most of the time. Instead, you have to constantly use the
game’s melee and leash system.
Using melee attacks from up close or the Energy Leash from
far away, you will slow down time and suspend the enemy up the air. Doing so
will give you a better aim and provide you a temporary haven from the constant
bullets flying towards you. Not to mention that you can also kill enemies with
the numerous environmental hazards using these methods.
Skillshot System
With the leash and melee attacks, you can get some creative
kills in Bulletstorm. In fact, the game’s tagline is “Kill with Skill.” Based
on how clever you are at disposing your enemies, you will rack up points. You
can then convert these points into new creative weaponry.
The Skillshot System ensures that you won’t be standing around
picking off targets one-by-one in Bulletstorm like you would in many other
games in the same genre.
Anarchy and Echo
Unlike most first-person shooters, Bulletstorm does not have
a traditional competitive multiplayer. In its place are two modes: Anarchy and
Echo.
Anarchy Mode is similar to the Horde Mode in Gears of War 2.
You can up to three other friends play cooperatively to take on wave after wave
of enemies. Once the team accumulated enough points, they will move onto the
next increasingly difficult round.
The single-player Echo Mode is a score attack where you play
certain parts from the single-player campaign to try to get as high as a score
as possible and compare them to the other players.
Bulletstorm breaks many of the traditional modern-day
first-person shooting conventions. The setting, weaponry, melee-focused
attacks, points system and multiplayer modes will have you thinking about
creative ways of disposing an enemy. If you are looking for an atypical
first-person shooter, than you should definitely give Bulletstorm a hard look.
