REVIEW: Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition


Title	Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
Developer	People Can Fly
Publisher	Gearbox Publishing
Release Date	April 7th, 2017
Genre	Shooter
Platform	PS4, Xbox One, PC
Age Rating	M for Mature
Official Website

It has been a long time since I decided to pick up and play a First Person Shooter. In fact, I’m pretty sure our Review Manger Josh Speer, and the rest of the staff thought the end was near when I decided to review Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition. I loved this game when I played it back in 2011 for the over the top craziness and fast paced action, so I jumped at the chance to check out this upgraded and remastered version. Does this version make an already fun as hell game, even more fun? Let’s find out.

The story follows Grayson Hunt, who until a few years ago had been trained and worked for a General of The Confederation of Planets named Victor Sarrano. Grayson was the leader of a group called Dead Echo. This squad of elite black ops soldiers carried out many missions in which they thought they were helping keep people safe, however, they soon discover this is not true. While on a mission they discover they have been killing innocent people to meet the ambitious goals of General Sarrano. They desert their military posts and become Space Pirates.

They soon bump into Sarrano again over the planet Stygia. Grayson, overwhelmed with his bloodlust for revenge, attacked the general, leading both of their spacecraft to crash on the planet’s surface. During this battle, Grayson loses most of his comrades, except Ishi Sato. He was injured badly during the battle and the doctor helping Ishi was ambushed and killed before his medical treatment could be completed. This left Ishi half man and half War Bot Cyborg with a bad attitude. Now Grayson must find a way to get off the surface of this world if he is to save Ishi from going insane from his cybernetic implants.

While this plot is about as paper thin as they come I cannot help but love how this all plays out. I feel as if I’m watching a crazy action movie while I’m playing. The language is coarse, the jokes are crude, and ya know what? I love every minute of it! There is even DLC for this version that allows you to play as Duke Nukem. This DLC was free if you pre-ordered the game, but will set you back $5 otherwise. They give Duke his own unique lines to say during the story sequences, which can be a little odd at times, but hilarious at others. The bottom line here is this game doesn’t take itself seriously and is not realistic at all, and it is better off for it.

Graphically this version of the game has had a facelift for sure. All of the textures and enemy models look crisp and clean. I wouldn’t swear to it, but it looks like the draw distance has been improved in certain areas of the game as well. The game runs at a constant 60 FPS for the most part. I did notice a little slow down when the sheer batshit insanity of like 10 explosions was going on all at one time. Though honestly, I don’t know if that is a frame rate issue or the game slowing down for you to do more skillshots. There is simply too much going on when this happens to tell either way, and it doesn’t really effect the gameplay.

The music in this one is not bad, but very forgettable. I hardly even noticed it during this playthrough as I was too busy enjoying the screams of pain from the enemies I was blowing to bits onscreen. The sound effects add a lot to the immersion of this title. You have your standard gun blasts, your nice meaty sounds as you impale baddies, and of course the glorious sounds of explosions everywhere! The voice acting is campy as hell, but it fits this game to a tee, and really gives it that over the top 90’s action movie feel.

The gameplay is where Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition really shines. At first glance, you may look at this and think it’s just another arcade-style FPS game. Looks are very deceiving in this case, and while at its core it is an arcade style shooter, it has unique features that make it stand out. One great example of this is the ability to kick your enemies. Not only do you kick them into the air causing the game to go into bullet time for crazy skillshots, but you can also kick them into environmental death traps. These include water, spikes, man-eating plants, and much more. You also have a leash your disposal to pull enemies toward you or toward certain doom by a fan, spikes, or other environmental hazards.

The skillshots are what truly make this game a fun experience. Who would’ve ever thought a game would reward you for shooting a man in the balls and then kicking his head off? The naming of these skillshots is as equally hilarious and crude as the actions themselves. Such as sucking a man out an airlock is “Ejaculated” or blowing up several enemies with a single flail is called “Gang Bang.” The more skillshots you do, the more skill points you earn. You can use these at Dropkits to upgrade your weapons or buy ammo. The weapon upgrades give each of the eight weapons, including the leash, a second attack to unleash even more mayhem.

Stages are laid out in typical First Person Shooter fashion with little to no pathfinding needed. This keeps the action coming 90% of the time and you never feel like your wasting your time wondering around aimlessly. There are some hidden goodies to find, such as booze to drink and news bots to destroy for extra points. There are also a couple of on-rails sequences throughout the game. Thankfully these are well done and do not break the breakneck pace of the action.

Overall Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is a fantastic Remaster. It beefs up the graphics, sound, and makes the game run smooth as silk. There are even some new modes such as Overkill Campaign mode, which after completing the game will allow you to start a new game with all of the weapons unlocked from the start. You can even earn unlimited ammo for each weapon by completing all the skillshots for each. There are some new multiplayer Echo Maps to show off your score on the leaderboards with. I didn’t get to try out the online modes of the game since I couldn’t find a match due to this being a pre-release. The biggest issue I have here is the price tag, which is $60, though I have seen it for around $50 on Amazon. I think that is too much for any remastered game and was one of my issues with this game when it was released in 2011. You can finish the campaign mode in about 6 hours, so it’s pretty short. While this game is action packed and very well made I think for the amount of content you get here and the fact this is a remastered title, a $30 or $40 price tag would have been more appealing. That being said if you want a “balls to the walls” action shooter, there is none better.