(BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP) You (BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP): The "Bulletstorm" Review

I have become the horror guy for a good reason, yet, I enjoy being the "Shooter" guy a lot more as of late. I guess that's why I was assigned Bulletstorm, a game that makes shooters cry.

The plot for Bulletstorm is simple. You're Grayson Hunt, a space pirate drunk on booze and revenge (mainly booze) against General Saranno, a space confederation general who hired Gray and his team, only to betray them. Gray does something incredibly stupid (again, drunk) that causes his pirate gang to mostly die, taking Saranno's ship with them to the planet Elysium. The once paradise is now over run by mutants and bikers, and it's up to Gray to escape with his remaining pirate.

Aiding him is his new toy, the Leash, which allows Gray to toss an enemy (or "thump" a room of them) into the air. Along with that is the Skillshot system in which the more complicated or original your kill is, the higher score you'll get to spend on upgrades. The first time you accomplish a skill shot, it's worth more than the subsequent times i.e. "Mercy" (shooting a guy in the groin then shooting or kicking his head off) is worth 500 the first time and 100 the other times. These shots, while inventive and some of them taking a lot of practice, would get old over time, except for the fact that there are so many of them to do, and so many ways to combine them, that the game encourages experimentation. This, in turn, adds something we rarely get to see in FPS's lately, the "F" word.

No, not that one (we see that all the time, this game especially). I mean "fun." Yes, Bulletstorm is a lot of fun. Of course, how couldn't it be? In the course of it's lush 8-12 hour campaign, you'll drill enemies, free a cyborg from a man eating plant's belly, and control a robot dinosaur named Waggleton P. Tallylicker. The only low point is the poorly written climax, in which Gray seems to forget everything he has in his reach. This does lead to an inevitable ending, yet it feels more hopeful. By the end of the game, you want more of it. A lot more.

Luckily, there's "Echoes" mode, which allows you to replay parts of the levels, but with the emphasis on skill shots. The one multiplayer mode, Anarchy, plays like Gears of War 2's "Horde mode," in which more and more enemies come to attack you in waves. Playing on a team means team Skillshots. Too bad EA constantly closes servers before you can long on to play.

Despite some weird hiccups, namely getting stuck in walls, the game looks and sounds great. The voice work is over the top, but so is the writing. How can you take any of these character's seriously when they use "Butter Dick Jones" or "Dick-Tits" as a way to express dismay? What's tricky is the game isn't always laughs, and that's where the writing truly shines. On top of that, the characters look human enough to be related to. Ladies, you finally have a realistic depiction of a female in a video game that isn't supposed to be real. I mean, she doesn't have the impossible proportions of Lara Croft. This is very refreshing to see.

I thought that Bulletstorm would bore the hell out of me in the first ten minutes. Surprisingly, it;s more fun than any other FPS I've played recently. Drop your jocks and pull up your socks, because Bulletstorm is here to stay.

Overall: B+

+ Actually fun

+ Skillpoints

+ Great writing

+ A Robot Dino!!!!

- A Bit buggy

- Online servers are crap