The original Bulletstorm hit consoles in 2011 and it was met with plenty of, “meh.” I honestly don’t know why this was a first-day purchase for me and my Xbox 360 and I couldn’t gush enough about the game in 2011. People Can Fly and Epic Games really upped the ante with action and dialog. I’m guessing this wasn’t Gears of War enough for people so everyone just shrugged it off as another first-person shooter. This is sad because Bulletstorm is a game that needs to be played, and played with buddies online if possible. Jump forward five years and I hear of the impending Full Clip Edition with Duke Nukem as playable DLC and I can barely contain my excitement. My job of this re-release prompted me to replay the game, but this time on the PlayStation 3 and I enjoyed my time with Bulletstorm once again. I cannot wait to relive this game for the third time, and possibly a fourth time as Duke Nukem. This world seems built for him and hopefully, I’ll enjoy my time with Duke more than I did in Duke Nukem Forever. Here’s the rundown on Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition.
I played the original of this game less than 5 months ago and the one thing that I simply must impress upon you is how gorgeous the game is now. It looked pretty good six years ago, but there was slow down and tiling and a few of the cut scenes were very hard to watch. As I gasp at the updated cut scenes due to their absolute beauty, I hope that we will get a proper sequel to this title now. People Can Fly updated the textures, increased polygon counts, smoothed out the framerate, fixed up the audio and even threw in a 4K option for those you with a nice PC or a PSPro. I can’t imagine what this world looks like in 4K, but I bet it’s prettier than what I’ve got now. I’m legitimately impressed with how this remaster was handled, there have been a few high-profile remasters that went south really fast, I’m looking at you Ultimate Alliance. Thankfully People Can Fly and Gearbox actually cared about this game, and it shows in this amazingly updated version.
The story is the same one as before, Rick Remender’s tale of Grayson Hunt and his thirst for revenge against General Sarrano. Gray’s vengeful mind gets him stranded on a hostile, alien world called Stygia, where everything is out to kill you, and I mean everything. Along the way, your trusted companion Ishi continues to battle the computer processor that was hastily implanted in his head to save his life. So you must keep one eye on your companion and another on your surroundings. The humor in this game is top notch and insanely offensive, so of course, I love it. Good guy Gearbox was nice enough to put a disclaimer at the beginning of the game that would allow parents or easily offended folks to shut off the foul language and the gore. If you’re one of those people, don’t buy this game, the jokes, puns, and one-liners are what make this game stand out from all other first-person shooters. If you remove the blood and jokes then you’re better off getting Infinite Warfare instead.
Controls are another 5-star part of this title, they make it easy for you to rack up the kills and stay alive on Stygia. As with all shooters, the left thumbstick is move and the right thumbstick is the camera. LB activates your Echo Leash, which helps you greatly as you kill more and more and gain more and more points. You can grab enemies with the leash and pull them into spikes, into your boot, and into electricity; the leash is quite fun. Left Trigger is used to aim and Right Trigger used to fire your weapon; holding A while moving is sprint and B is used to kick. When you start gathering weapons you can press Y to look at your weapon wheel. The only problem with the weapon wheel is that it can hold just four weapons, here I sit with eight or nine badass weapons and the game makes me choose which four I should use. You can choose your load-out at the DropKits, so choose wisely. When you run out of ammo just press X and you’re locked, loaded and ready to go, use this button a lot, I had to.
The leash is what allows you to upgrade your weapons and purchase ammo if the situation is dire. When you’re running around a level your leash will let you know there is a DropKit nearby, go to it and leash it. There you can spend your skill-points on upgrading weapons and the leash itself to make your romp on Stygia even more fun. The weapons are some of the most fun to be had in this game, each has two types of ammo and boy does the special ammo pack a punch; I’d save those for the boss fights. At the beginning of the game you have the standard assault rifle, then you find a pistol, and then you find the best, most overpowered gun in the game; The Flail Gun. This gun’s ammo is a chain between two bombs and when shot it wraps around your enemy, then you can trigger the bomb when his buddies run by and splatter a whole mess of baddies. Once I got this weapon it was my main weapon through the game and once you find it I’m pretty sure you’ll feel the same way.
Full Clip Edition not only comes with the fully remastered game it has plenty of other goodies added into the mix. The cream of the crop, of course, is the Duke Nukem Tour Campaign where Duke has replaced Gray and portions of the dialogue have been re-written for John St. John, Duke Nukem himself! With Duke as the protagonist in the campaign the game gets even funnier to me, I’ve been a Duke Nukem fan since his exploits on the N64 and just love the character as a whole. Having him quip with Ishi and experience what Gray did really makes this game a day one purchase for me. What’s even nicer is that Duke doesn’t look like a plastic doll which was a huge problem in Duke Nukem Forever for me. This time around he’s less glossy and more human looking, so score one for the Gearbox design department. Duke is the cherry on top of a whipped cream covered atomic bomb and I couldn’t be happier. As Duke Nukem who knows how many times I’m going to replay this campaign now just to hear John St. John over and over and over again.
The rest of the additions aren’t as amazing to me since I’ve slowly inched away from multiplayer and challenge maps, but should I ever get back into them there would be plenty more for me to do. There are six new Echo Challenge Maps which brings the grand total to thirty now. Twelve online co-op maps which means that you and your buddies can do plenty of fragging and a New OverKill Campaign Mode that puts no restrictions on your guns or skill shots so can go full bore and utterly destroy your foe. That campaign is for those who need to release a little stress without going to prison.
This title is perfect for newcomers and older fans of the game, I know that Bulletstorm was greatly overlooked years ago but now you have a second chance to experience the awesome. The game has something for everyone, shooting challenges, fast-paced action, adult humor, a little romance, a lot of revenge and of course Duke Nukem. What’s not to like? The only fault that I really see in this game is the fact that they are releasing it the same week as Persona 5, not too smart in the marketing department there. This kind of reminds me when Meet Wally Sparks was released against the Star Wars: Special Edition, it was like they wanted Rodney Dangerfield’s movie to fail. Hopefully, there will be enough gamers too confused by Atlus’ latest release that they want a good old fashioned shoot ’em up. I can guarantee they won’t be disappointed picking up this updated and gorgeous shooter.
An Xbox One Review Copy of Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition was provided by Gearbox for the Purpose of this Review