Bulletstorm

People Can Fly is known primarily from Painkiller , which - as one of the few Polish productions - has won the respect of players not only in our country. The studio also prepared a PC conversion of Gears of War and was bought by the creators of this brand - Epic Games. Bulletstorm is a new idea of Adrian Chmielarz and his team to conquer the market of first-person shooters, and at the same time breathe new life into this fossilized genre. For some time we have had no doubts that the basic concept of the producer to diversify the game works great in short forms. It's time to verify the carrying capacity and freshness of the ideas of native developers in a full-fledged game. Prepare yourself for strong impressions, because Poles have focused on ruthlessness, insolence, carelessness, uncompromisingness and a lot of other "mocking".

Who starts a solo campaign with a scene of abuse of a drunk prisoner and ends with the slogan "God is dead" from the mouth of an Asian cyborg? Bulletstorm is definitely a postmodern sputum coming from Satan's own bronchi. This is obviously a compliment to the writers who have had a good time and show that this game is a perfect fit for our time. We get a story that is predictable, macabre and extremely vulgar, but in a way atmospheric. The authors juxtapose the characters in an interesting way and treat us to dialogues in the style of field conversations with idiotic teenagers. The main character stands in opposition to an extremely analytical and cool cyborg friend, a girl who can repost each of his taunts, and the unscrupulous general Sarrano. The life ambition of the latter is to release more and more sophisticated bunches in each sentence. How many obscene expressions of male nature are you able to come up with? You'll find more in Bulletstorm anyway.

It is interesting that although the production of the People Can Fly studio actually exudes political incorrectness (there is no lack of racial or sexual jokes) and sometimes runs into the sandbanks of forced meat-throwing, it is not really particularly misogynistic (which they probably counted on so ignored in male chauvinists in recent years). In Bulletstorm there is a strong and resourceful female figure, which you will not find in Killzones, Crysis or Call of Duty. Grayson Hunt himself, a seemingly ruthless mercenary, cosmic nomad and alcoholic, hides a tough guy who is quite good-natured and yet positive hero. During the absurd events of the game, we even witness its partial redemption and transformation, which, contrary to appearances, is not seen very often in games. At the same time, Hunt's crusade does not end in Bulletstorm, so the continuation of the series is obvious from the plot side.

Unfortunately, the game is not as brilliant and cleverly tailored as Inglourious Basterds, and the excess of pointless profanity can irritate some (yes, it's immature). The creators, however, hit a good style and were able to use it to build a crazy crossing. One of those you want to talk about in detail. Grayson Hunt's adventures are uniform in that the protagonist usually leads to a more or less disaster and loses consciousness. During these few hours we get up from the ground at least several times. However, there is always why, because the following chapters offer surprises and ideas that are unusual and at the same time disturbingly obvious (why has no one done this before?). The ending, however, is ambiguous and unsatisfactory. Among other things, due to the lack of completion of the revenge to which we matured after watching and listening to all these atrocities (it's a bit like watching an exploitation movie without punishing the perpetrators). Another thing is if you would like more fun and anticipated scenes - joyful, open and unusual.

You probably all know what the Bulletstorm combat patents are all about. In a typical shootout, we try to eliminate opponents as quickly as possible. When you start playing the Poles, you have to throw away this type of habits - this is where "Skillshots" reign (which, by the way, have been neatly justified in the plot). For each creative and unconventional kill we get a certain pool of points. Later, we can use them to buy ammunition, upgrades and new weapons in quite densely scattered drop points. It should be noted that by repeating the same patents over and over again, we will not conquer the network rankings and we will not go crazy in the store - what counts above all is the implementation of new, more and more sophisticated ways of bringing death. To make it not too difficult, the game with the help of a handy encyclopedia gradually introduces us to the secrets of inflicting pain, and even rewards us for side activities (including, for example, watching scripted events).

Hitting opponents' heads would not be possible without the right equipment. First shock - only seven types of weapons. Not much, but it must be admitted that we haven't had such successful toys for sowing destruction. Moreover, each of them works in two modes - regular and burnt. The basic rifle in a packed ashes form, the pistol sets fire to the fire, and the shotgun literally melts the enemies. The more advanced guns are also great - the sniper rifle shoots projectiles that we direct ourselves, and the "bumper" spits out exploding balls that we can kick at enemies like a ball. Well, Grayson Hunt has envied a friend from years ago and also has the power of a classic kick. And even more, because we also get an energetic lanyard. These two unusual "extras" have many functions - they are used to interact with the environment (read: demolition) and just to play with enemies who slow down in the air, giving us time to implement crazy ideas. There are many more objects in the game itself - information robots, hot-dog carts, spherical bombs, barrels with explosives, carnivorous plants, poisonous buds - including contextual traps related to specific and unique elements of the environment.

Shoot the opponent in the groin and then kick him in the head. Throw all enemies into the air with the "thunder" (special leash ability), then shoot the first one with a rifle, treat the second one with a flaming flare, and shoot the third at the point where the back ends. These are just a few of the basic rules on how to use the weapon. It sounds macabre, but the more "heart", determination and imagination we put into killing enemies, the more firepower we will have. The system definitely works and motivates to search for new solutions, experiment, combine and repeat levels. Thanks to this, individual fights do not become monotonous almost to the very end of the story, and the returning bosses are happy because we can try new solutions on them.

As you can see, there are plenty of possibilities and completing all the Skillshots is fun in itself. This makes Bulletstorm fun for a long time, even after completing the campaign, which takes 7-10 hours on the first try. The lovers of the collectibles also get a portion of information robots to destroy, alcohol to drink and energy fireflies to kill. In addition, there are two special modes: Echo and Anarchy. In the first of them, we go through individual episodes of Grayson Hunt's adventure in terms of scoring (the results are published in the online rankings). We could play a short fragment of Echo in the console demo of the game. People who have memorized it will experience a funny situation during the solo campaign. When we come to the moment marked by a holographic clock, we immediately accelerate and recreate the previously known path with great speed and precision. Later, we return to normalcy and discover new places more peacefully. After the passage of Echo, the campaign takes on a new meaning - it becomes a field of almost sports struggle.

Anarchy is a four-person cooperation mode in which we move to one of the six maps and fight several waves of enemies. It's not about survival, but about scoring with individual and group Skillshots. The idea develops patents from the solo campaign in a rather interesting way and introduces additional possibilities of using combat equipment. In this mode, we also get a substitute for the currently popular experience system - for points, we unlock elements of outfits or character animations. The very name of the mode describes what is happening online - unfamiliar players simply smash enemies in an uncoordinated manner. Contrary to appearances, it has its charm and sometimes leads to funny situations (when we manage to do something together). Bulletstorm has multiplayer potential, so it's worth playing with your friends. Nevertheless, it seems that Anarchy is only an extra-curricular attraction and even the announced additional maps will not change much here.

There are many attractions in Bulletstorm - explosions, surprising scenes, funny themes, and yet the game sometimes disappoints. After spending a long time with the campaign, the fight becomes the act of acting out learned scripts and patents, the number of which is large (over a hundred) but apparently not sufficient for the greedy mind and imagination. In other words, it is often the case that we do something particularly spectacular and the game spits a paltry 10 points in our face. It is a pity that this has not been resolved with some general bonus for unpredictable behavior. On the other hand, the need to close the system within a certain framework is understandable - in this way, we get a solution that will appeal to players looking for a short, spectacular adventure, as well as fans of achieving the championship in a given title.

Bulletstorm uses the Epic Games engine, so it should look respectable by design. It is indeed so, although the location level is uneven. Some of them, especially caves or other interiors, are empty and not very expressive. Later, however, we go outside and admire the perfectly realized landscapes of a futuristic city, built with tourists in mind. The artists managed to keep a certain characteristic color scheme that distinguishes the game from other titles. In terms of technical solutions, the production is unlikely to jump to competitors fighting for the leading position in the graphic race, although it can make up for it in terms of design. After all, the Crysis 2 seems faded and gray, and the Killzone 3 brown and overly speckled with effects. Meanwhile, Bulletstorm is bright, colorful, juicy and at the same time somewhat nostalgic. The work of the studio is also visible during the fights with the bosses, which are really spectacular.

The PC version of the game uses Games for Windows LIVE, which is unacceptable for many players. After a short perturbation with logging in and launching production, the Microsoft service did not cause me any problems, and joining the multiplayer game took only a few seconds. Another thing is the lack of advanced graphics settings or other extensive possibilities to modify how the game looks and works (at least from the menu level). We just got a title that resembles console productions and does not contain dozens of hidden functions prepared especially for PC owners (is that a disadvantage? Nevertheless, the fun with the mouse and keyboard, as I tested Bulletstorm, is enjoyable and does not cause major problems. As in every game, there are several technical shortcomings - occasionally companions get stuck somewhere, graphic babes appear (which, of course, may be due to a million factors), the script for jumping over an obstacle does not work properly or does not surprise, and the opponents get spatio-temporal convulsions (matching the designed situation).

Bulletstorm is an extremely creative, visionary, spectacular and uplifting production, the didactic value of which cannot be overestimated. Only in the Polish game will you expand your vocabulary with completely new phrases, visit one of the most beautiful tourist resorts in the history of electronic entertainment, meet real friends and discuss with them the most important concepts of Fryderyk Nietzsche's philosophy (did you know that the slogan "God has died" is a translation error? ). Seriously, People Can Fly has made one of the best games in recent years, so if you download it from a torrent, you will definitely go to Hell. For fans of original and fresh productions, it is a must-have, which - hopefully - will show publishers that we like this approach as well.

. Szymon "Hed" Liebert

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