Thoughts on… Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
- Matt Quill
- Jul 8, 2023
- 6 min read
From The Past: This article has been imported from one of my past blog sites, written in 2019.
Welcome to ‘Thoughts On…’. Although it may not be the most recent title (nor will many upcoming game articles claim that). I’ve tasked myself with a New Year’s resolution to play through my backlog of games before they become almost insurmountable! But I’m excited to tackle the challenge, especially as there are some great titles that I’ve admittedly left sitting on the back burner for far too long. Kicking off this New Year resolution, I’ve journeyed through People Can Fly’s PlayStation 4 remaster of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition.
I’ve been curious about Bulletstorm since it released on PlayStation 3 just under eight years ago. I enjoyed the demo, but I never found myself compelled to buy the full game. The same thing happened when they released the remaster on PlayStation 4, saying that the whooping new title price tag probably didn’t do the game any favours on relaunch. Having now played the game, I can safely say that the remaster didn’t warrant its hefty price tag. That price did drop fairly quickly, with the title joining the November PS Plus line-up not long after.
So What is Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition?
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is a first-person shooter/adventure game set on a mutated planet after Grayson’s antics cause his crew and an old general’s warship to crash land onto it. So begins Grayson & company’s journey to escape the planet, as they try to make their way off-world by meeting up with the General & joining his evac ship. The main campaign will take you through 7 chapters comprised of 19 acts, mostly set in a good variety of locations; We’re talking collapsing cities, underground prisons, baron deserts, it’s all here.
There’s more to Bulletstorm than just its campaign, however, with several extra modes including Echos, which are timed sections of the campaign you aim to speed run and rack up high kill points for star-based skill ratings. Then there’s the obligatory multiplayer, which, as of writing, was a wasteland, with several tries I failed to even find any other player to match with. So don’t expect any comments on that prospect below.
The Good
Bulletstorm is a big budget B movie, overloading its holsters with crazy guns, gung-ho dialogue & fast action to match it. The gameplay is truly what makes Bulletstorm a blast to play at first. Its fluid movement and strong variety of combat options make scattering hordes of enemies an entertaining affair. There’s your usual arsenal of rifles, pistols & shotguns to grab hold of, but later on you’ll begin to uncover the games' more inventive weaponry, including spinning drill guns & bouncing bomb launchers. Whilst the varied arsenal & strong gun control make popping off enemies a delightful breeze, they don’t quite match up to the real star of the game… the Leash. Essentially an electrified-looking grapple that you’ll use a-plenty throughout your adventure. Whether that’ll be through interacting with environmental obstacles or working it into your combat style seamlessly. pulling enemies towards you, flinging them to the sides or better yet, yanking them out of cover only to kick them straight into a very prickly looking cactus, it’s a constant joy to use, and no recharge meter keeps the leash at the forefront of your arsenal. There’s plenty of environmental hiccups lying around to get creative with your kill, & the more creative you get, the more points you’ll earn.
The eccentric combat style is tied directly into your survival & weapon progression. As killing enemies gives you points, but better shooting & over creative kills will reap you even greater points, and it's points you’ll need throughout your journey. As they’re not only key to unlocking/upgrading your arsenal, but they’re also the currency you’ll use to resupply your ammo caches. Thanks to the intertwined system of combat & arsenal, there’s a constant push to get creative with your murder onslaught. So, popping off simple head shots begins to take a back seat, as you begin offing enemies via cactus impaling & hot dog vendor explosions. It helps keep the combat entertaining for most of the game's run time & the gradual unlock of new weapons also helps keep it fresh, even if the majority of weapons I unlocked took a back seat to the Shotgun, Rifle & Penetrator (drill gun).
The story is solid B movie fare, and the enemies are varied enough to encourage changing tactics on the occasional boss encounter. Though the big set piece spectacles are what keep the campaign from getting stale too quickly, as you’re chased by broken machinery, battling with gigantic monsters, and even do a bit of gardening with some overgrown plant life. Each act is punctuated with its ‘BIG MOMENT‘ that makes it stand apart from the others, though as the story begins to reach its conclusion, the game starts to feel more monotonous, as its spectacles dwindle & the creativeness dries out with it.
The Bad
Bulletstorm may be a blast to play at the start, but as the campaign begins to wrap up, I started to feel a sense of relief that the journey was finally over. It was fun to play, but the escalating difficulty started to lean less on new enemy types & combat environments, instead just filling smaller and smaller spaces with an abundance of enemies to kill. Simply put, it started to stagnate.
This may not have been the case for most, but with a remastered game from just under 8 years ago, there were still plenty of bugs that hindered my progress. I spent time trying to work out routes, only to discover the game had bugged and prevented me from progressing any further. The only solution was to restart the entire act just to progress. This happened on more than one occasion, as did the odd lag/slowdowns when the game crammed too much on the screen at once (most notably in the enemy-heavy finales). I even encountered a disappointing bug during the plot's biggest moment as the lead Grayson went mute alongside removing his subtitles, meaning I had to search the scene up on YouTube just to find out what happened. Though they weren’t constant bugs, and the game ran perfectly fine most of the time, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the bugs dampened my enjoyment, especially when they started to become more common in the game's final 2 acts.
Then there’s my issue with the story’s resolution. This is kind of a personal pet hate of mine, especially when a story’s ending seems so sloppily implemented, and Bulletstorm is unfortunately no exception. I mean, I know it’s cheesy B movie fare, but it’s still a solid revenge tale you can get behind, so I’m still going to be hoping for a satisfying conclusion to my journey. The game builds up to its conclusion, which, in all fairness, ends as I expected it to, finishing the act like any good 80’s action movie would. Then it decides to have a quick cutaway for no reason, which undoes the climactic battle that just happened for no other reason than to set up a sequel. I’m not going to go into detail about the ending for the sake of spoilers, just in case you want to play through the game yourself. But its conclusion felt unnecessarily tacked on just to dangle an ominous sequel hook. The game didn’t need it & even worse, it didn’t even make sense for the final sequel change to even happen. Much like the ending to Call of Duty: Ghosts campaign, this shooter left a sour taste in my mouth.
Overall
There’s no denying how much fun Bulletstorm was to play. Its solid shooting mechanics meant all of the weaponry handled well, and its emphasis on creative killing led to some inventive firefights (honestly, skewering mutants on cacti never got old). But when the excitement wears down, and the campaign's creativity begins to stagnate, the overall package suffers with it. In the end, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is still a good time, despite its shortcomings. I couldn’t recommend getting it at full price, but as a bargain pick-up, or PS Plus freebie, it’s certainly worth a crack.
+ Fun gameplay – Infuriating bugs
+ Good B movie dialogue – Lacklustre ending
+ Exciting action set pieces – Dull 3rd act
– Baron Multiplayer
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