Enter the game Bullet Witch, which offers a look into a depressing near future of 2013. Most of the Earth’s populace has been destroy by war, disease and other natural disasters. Demons with horrible voice acting have taken over the world and if this is how people in the future communicate, be afraid, very afraid. Your goal: to become Alicia the Bullet Witch, a part human part demon character who wants to save the planet with one of the oddest looking weapons in a modern game. The game starts you out in a residential area where a few demons are destroying humanity. The surprise is you appear out of nowhere and decide to end their fun, if you can hit them. The aiming controls are some of the worst out there. There is a zoom function that is all but worthless as it doesn't make aiming any simpler, but actually more difficult. The good news is that you have some pretty sweet "Matrix" type moves that allow you to destroy the enemy with your fist, most of the time. After the first gun (fist) fight you get to run; get used to it, you get to run a lot in Bullet Witch. You run to the city, you run around the city, you run in the woods and you run in the city. There is no map to tell you were you are actually running to, so with some luck you may find the correct way to go. Rinse and repeat for the next few hours and you get the idea. Repetitive and uninventive gameplay abounds in Bullet Witch, which is unfortunate as the concept of the game is excellent. Other then the demons there are also some floating brain guys that chant, which is how you find them. Destroying them opens up more areas in the game that you get to, you guessed it, run to. Now you don't just have to use the gun, there are also spells that you get to use. The problem is that the controls for the spells are on a poorly designed spell wheel. Most of the spells are pointless but the game will force you to try them at least once to show you how to use it. The good news is that some of them, like lightning, are pretty sweet. The destruction that ensues is amazing but short lived. There is a type of leveling system in the game where you can build up your gun and even change the forms of the weapon, though the default gun is just as strong as the other guns. At least it adds some variety in this relatively short adventure. The graphics in Bullet Witch are something that could have been done on the PS2. Popups and draw-ins are all over the place. There is even a hint of jaggedness which plagues a good number of PS2 games, but this isn't a PS2 game, remember. With games like Gears of War that show what the 360 can do, it's disappointing that a game on the 360 can look this poor, given that the 360 is over a year old. There are huge amounts of slowdown when some spells are used, which should not even be present given the lower quality graphics in Bullet Witch. The sound effects and music are average at best and the voice acting is terrible, granted it was released in Japan first. The voice editing should have been done in a way that at least fools you in to thinking it was done correctly. The achievements are the basic "finish the level and you get an achievement" kind. There are a couple of achievements for leveling your weapons if you choose to play the game that much. The game is relatively short, most will finish it in less than 10 hours, and the replay value is almost non-existent as there is no online mode. Overall I give it 2 out of 5 because the destruction is entertaining at times but the rest of the package fails as a whole.
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