I'd just finished playing several hours of Bulletstorm and, really, that's no sort of mood to be in when you're off to see your girlfriend, is it? But golly, Bulletstorm had wound me up. In the best possible way.
If you play shooters (or racers or beat-'em-ups, or any other genre that consistently requires quick reaction) you know the sort of tension I'm on about. The kind that frays your nerves and leaves you feeling like you've just eaten an entire jar of instant coffee. If it doesn't have you throwing the controller at the telly, it's often the sign of a game well made. Bulletstorm handles it very, very well.
So, it's a first-person shooter of the sci-fi variety from People Can Fly, a studio owned by Epic. You play as Grayson Hunt. He's a pirate from space. You might describe him as plucky. He's got a big old beef the military he used to work for in general and for one General Sarrano in particular. When Hunt's and Sarrano's ships both crash land on the planet Stygia, Hunt gets to choose between helping his cyborg partner Ishi survive - and earning some redemption – and revenge. Either way, there's a lot of killing to be done.
In terms of gameplay mechanics, there are two things that set Bulletstorm aside from its peers. The first is the ability to use either the leash, which is an energy whip that yanks distant objects closer to you, or a good hard kick or slide to stick someone in the air, where they'll float for a moment, moving in slow motion. Yeah, slow motion. We've seen it. Yes, I know. That feature, however, feeds nicely into feature Number 2.
Once you've earned points for your kills you can spend them on upgrades for your weapons or ammo at the various dropboxes scattered around the levels. It's not really about that, though. It's about pride. That, and the online leaderboards, although for gamers like me with fingers like elephant trunks the leaderboards might not be so much of a lure as the pride that comes with a kill well made.
