Bulletstorm

[Cross]

The thing about Bulletstorm is that it looks like Gears of War clone but plays like 90s shooters + a lot of movement.

It plays absolutely nothing like 90s shooters. It plays more like a first-person version of Gears of War, with the slow movement speed and inability to jump, weapon limit, regenerating health, on-rails level design and all the other hallmarks of the modern triple-A shooter.

the visceral creative kills often seem to be a bit to slow to implement them. Game needs more speed at least.

They got tedious really fast due to the overuse of forced slow-mo for everything. They also don't feel particularly satisfying to execute because the ragdoll physics in Bulletstorm aren't very good, especially when compared to something like Dark Messiah.

 

[Tehdagah]

Sliding is super fast.

 

[Ash]

The thing about Bulletstorm is that it looks like Gears of War clone but plays like 90s shooters + a lot of movement.

It plays absolutely nothing like 90s shooters. It plays more like a first-person version of Gears of War, with the slow movement speed and inability to jump, weapon limit, regenerating health, on-rails level design and all the other hallmarks of the modern triple-A shooter.

Exactly. Game is a great filter for determining who has shit taste. This game is basically a modern military shooter with a couple cool features or top. Not bottom of the barrel and slightly better than most modern shooters, but still pretty shitty.
At the time there was indeed not a single FPS of note in sight and this seemed like a breath of fresh air at first simply for daring to be 10 hrs long instead of 5, and featuring gameplay slightly more involved than virtual whack-a-mole, but ultimately it's still a decline era game deep to the core. Whack-a-mole with a basic challenge/points/upgrade system on top. Real game changer.

 

[Tehdagah]

There's no whack-a-mole in the game, it's possible to slide non-stop around enemies.

 

[Ash]

On rails set pieces wherein enemies pop up and you whack them, the gameplay doesn't get much more involved than that. Navigation is not a concern. Level design features no challenging obstacles, rather a few props to make whacking moles even easier. resource management is not a concern. Combat is a pretty basic shooting gallery affair. This game is not quite true whack-a-mole levels of simplicity seen in other shooters of the time thanks to creative kills, sliding and the points system but it's not far above either, and certainly no 90s shooter.

 

[Perkel]

It plays absolutely nothing like 90s shooters. It plays more like a first-person version of Gears of War, with the slow movement speed and inability to jump, weapon limit, regenerating health, on-rails level design and all the other hallmarks of the modern triple-A shooter.

The wut ? The whole game could be renamed "sliding game". And it is fast. The point about 90s shooters is that it is normal shooter rather than cover your shit non stop. It incentivized fast movement.

On rails set pieces wherein enemies pop up and you whack them, the gameplay doesn't get much more involved than that. Navigation is not a concern.

Sees game that looks like Gears of War. Posts on codex "it is gear of war whack a mole game". Play it for 15 minutes at least or shut up.

 

[Ash]

I always find it funny when people get passionate about mediocre games. I've completed it. It's not the worst thing ever. But it is far from great also. 7/10 at best. Maybe. I would recommend it only after the recipient of said recommendation has played about 40 other, better FPS first. And even then they should probably just check out other genres at that point.
Perhaps I am being too harsh, there is joy to be found in the creative killing for sure, but that's about all the game has going for it.

 

[Tehdagah]

On rails set pieces wherein enemies pop up and you whack them, the gameplay doesn't get much more involved than that. Navigation is not a concern. Level design features no challenging obstacles, rather a few props to make whacking moles even easier. resource management is not a concern. Combat is a pretty basic shooting gallery affair. This game is not quite true whack-a-mole levels of simplicity seen in other shooters of the time thanks to creative kills, sliding and the points system but it's not far above either, and certainly no 90s shooter.

"the gameplay doesn't get much more involved than that"

Yes it does, because the combat mechanics, the score system (echo mode) and arena fights are all great. Exploration is irrelevant in this type of game, I want to kill stuff. The 'props' are part of the mechanics, remove them and the fights would take too long. Resource management exists since alternative ammo is costly in all modes (singleplayer, echo and multiplayer) and they are very helpful in a lot of situations.

Compare Bullestorm to another frantic modern shooter, Doom 2016. The glorykills are just animations, there's no cascate effect, collateral damage, it isn't even possible to hit a second enemy using the same glorykill. It isn't systemic. Whipping/sliding/kicking in Bullestorm is.