E3 2010: Bulletstorm Hands On

I like shooting things in videogames, always have and most probably always will. I pretty much love all shooters but generally the less realistic the better, I don’t care that I can’t really survive 20 bullets to the leg and continue going or that it’s not realistic to believe that hiding around the corner will allow me to recover from a shotgun to the chest in 5 seconds flat.

So when Epic / EA / People Can Fly announced they had a title that was all about the fun of shooting I began to get excited.

Once behind the scenes we were given a brief explanation about the title, in essence this game isn’t about hiding behind cover or slowly picking people off as you go through the stage. This game is about destroying people, you are the baddest ass on the planet and you know it.

Nothing scares you and the entire idea is to kill people in the most extravagant way possible (Skillshots). You get 10 points for a standard kill and 100 points for a headshot, but then if you leash your enemy and pull them towards you before wrapping a grenade around his neck, blowing his nuts off and kicking him into a carnivorous plant then the points really start to rack up.

The basics of the game are as follows, due to you being a bit of a useless drunk your ship and crew become stranded on a planet… we aren’t told what you did wrong but we know it’s your fault.

From here on out you need to fight through the planet to find a way to escape and to accomplish this you are given an electric leash which allows you to grab and pull enemies towards you, a standard assault rifle (Peace Maker Carbine), a flail gun (grenades on a chain), your incredible kick and a super slide ability.

The environment has obviously been designed to help you destroy people with carnivorous plants, lethal spikes and explosive barrels littered across the entire stage.

The gameplay itself was the biggest surprise for me, as much as I love Gears of War and Cliff Bleszinski’s work, when I heard that he was involved in this title I was worried that it would be yet another slow title. Thankfully this isn’t the case with your movement being incredibly fluid and agile. 

The demo consisted of one level which had you blasting around 40 enemies and using your imagination to rack up the most amount of points. My top scoring death was when I snuck behind someone, gave them a lead enema and then kicked them into the awaiting carnivorous plant which brought an odd amount of enjoyment to my life and summarised the game perfectly for me.

There isn’t much else that can be said about this game that the below video doesn’t show you, it looks and feels great and the end of round scorecard completes the surreal experience.

When I asked about multiplayer I was met with an awkward silence and a sheepish grin… apparently they are not ready to talk about how that will work at all but it will exist and according to them it will be awesome.

Bulletstorm is unfortunately only going to be released in 2011 but is already an absolute must buy for me.

Last Updated: June 25, 2010