In the golden days of yore, they used to use that whole sex thing in order to sell things. Now-a-days, however, it’s all about the shock value, baby. And Bulletstorm is tangible proof of such. The latest shoot ‘em up endeavor from the creative team of People Can Fly and Epic Games (and released by Electronic Arts, who live up to their old “Challenge Everything” motto with this one) is one hell of an outrageous and politically incorrect title; guaranteed to make even the most hardened and desensitized gameheads drop their jaw or (at the very least) administer a self-inflicted facepalm or two over the constant potty-mouth dialogue and sexual innuendo.
Set in a slightly-dystopian intergalactic future with a serious Civil War tone goin’ on for it, we meet our main hero, Grayson Hunt. The leader of an elite squad of mercenaries-on-the-run, Gray drinks, swears and fights like a sailor. His hotheadedness gets the better of him, though, and he decides to ram his beloved ship into the battle cruiser of General Serrano, a near-dictator-like villain who has put a price on the heads of Hunt and Co. (and whom the boys used to do dirty work for, until they figured out they were being used to kill innocents).
Crashing onto a planet below, survivors Gray and Ishi (a merc-turned-cyborg after the ship go bang) discover that the globe they are now stranded on was once a beautiful resort — which has gone to hell since several bands of ruthless and cannibalistic mutants have taken over. From there on in, the player tries to find his way to Serrano in order to get off the planet before his impending rescue team comes and goes.
Bulletstorm takes a first-person perspective and boosts it with adrenaline and really bad taste. But that’s what makes it a keeper in my book. Players roam one former vacation-paradise-turned-fucking-shithole of a locale to another, discovering even nastier inhabitants with every turn. Kicking, shooting, and blasting their way into oblivion, the game also introducers our main character to a cybernetically-enhanced Energy Leash — which can be used to pull enemies (and weapons) toward you before you kick them off of the ledge, into live wires, or impale them upon giant cactus plant thingies and spiked walls.
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