Bulletstorm is as Smart No More Heroes

[dunnace]

Tthe whole cigar is just a cigar I can understand for the last paragraph of my argument, but there is still no disputing that Bulletstorm is a game where the main character ends up losing, and that alone is rare enough to be impressed by.

 

[loudestmute]

Well, damn. I might just have to dig out Bulletstorm from my pile of "other games I never got around to finishing that were released this year" and get on it at this rate. And if there's hope for deeper meaning in a whiz-bang shooter like this, then surely there has to be some deep subtexts at play in the writing of Splatterhouse.

...Yeah, probably not, but one can hope at least.

 

[Something Amyss]

Maybe if the game actually focused on a point rather than schizophrenically switching between "drama drama" to "I'll kill your dick!" I could see your point. But no, all I see is dick killing.
Still fun though.

Agreed. I don't even like FPS games as a rule, but this seemed intriguing. Or rather, potentially so, because of said kicking of certain portions of the male body.

I really think you're reading too much into it. Sometimes, as they say, a cigar really is just a cigar.

In this game, a cigar is almost certainly a penis reference, probably in a crude joke, possibly itself making a penis reference.

Nested dick jokes. Hmmm...Maybe the game IS deep.

 

[Something Amyss]

Tthe whole cigar is just a cigar I can understand for the last paragraph of my argument, but there is still no disputing that Bulletstorm is a game where the main character ends up losing, and that alone is rare enough to be impressed by.

Depends, largely, on your definition of "lose."

 

[ShakyFt Slasher]

Thank you! It's nice to see Bulletstorm get the props it deserves. Great summary of the intelligence of that underappreciated gem

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Reading this made me take the listing for my copy of Bulletstorm off Ebay.

Seriously one of the funnest games I've ever played and it breaks my heart that we may never see a sequel. But then again, Two Worlds got a sequel...

 

[orangeban]

I didn't like Bulletstorm. I didn't like the gameplay and found the main character to be an annoying asshole. So I turned off the game and walked away. No idea if your analysis is correct, because I didn't really play enough to make that kind of judgement.

 

[XMark]

I think the original post in this thread is reading a bit too much depth into the story.

The game is fun as hell and I love the story, atmosphere, and characters, but it's definitely not a great literary classic. All of the elements of humanity, redemption, revenge, those are all stated point-blank by the characters themselves. Even the idea that maybe the people on the ship that Grayson brought down may have been decent people who didn't deserve to die... said in no inexact words by the general himself (pondering them bodies?). I'm not saying that's a bad thing - it's a good story nonetheless, it's just that it's not very deep. And in a game like Bulletstorm it really doesn't need to be deep.

As for the main character losing at the end - the game fairly obviously sets itself up as the first part of a series with at least one more game to come (if they weren't too put off by lackluster sales), so it's only natural to end on a low point. He's only halfway through his story arc.

 

[217not237]

I feel the same way. I just bought Bulletstorm on its release date because I thought it would be good, mindless fun. I came out of the experience with a sense of wonder at how much I felt for the characters. I hated the villain even more than the heroes did. I loved the characters far more than the developers intended. I was shocked by how intelligent it was (maybe in an attempt to show younger gamers a good story by advertising it as a prophane, violent, first-person shooter?)

 

[Zhukov]

Tthe whole cigar is just a cigar I can understand for the last paragraph of my argument, but there is still no disputing that Bulletstorm is a game where the main character ends up losing, and that alone is rare enough to be impressed by.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure the only reason that happens is so they could end on a sequel hook.

 

[James Crook]

Wow, there's no way I could argue with that. Sure the game looked immature and designed for immature people... but, seriously, your breakdown deserves many kudos.

 

[Mogget128723]

Wow, people are remarkably resistant to new ideas when they've already formulated an opinion. I'm going to stop checking this thread because it's making me depressed.

 

[dunnace]

I called Trishka wrong, fair point, forgot about the final scene, but I don't think Ishi does forgive Gray, and the point remains that even at the end Gray acknowledges he lost everything and still failed.

 

[SageRuffin]

For all the reading into the game, you sure got this part wrong. In the end it's made clear that Ishi forgave Grey, said that he regained his honor and again became the soldier he remembered, Trishka forgave him and even called Grey her FRIEND at the end, comforting him when he figured that all was lost. She even goes as far as blatantly egging him on to continue the quest to kill Serrano with a teasing "so, what are you gonna do about it?"

So no, the main character didn't lose. His objective merely changed and his initial purpose - to regain his honor and forgiveness for past actions was a success.

I think what the OP means is that Gray loses from his own point of view, not the audience's. A genocidal madman is still around to wreak havoc, and Gray, by all accounts, has lost all his friends, mainly due to his own self-centered and drunken foolishness. Sure, Gray himself is still alive and he and Trishka reconciled their differences (I guess), but in the end what did he really accomplish?

But I'm not looking for an argument. It's just something to think, like I believe what the OP was trying to accomplish. So on that note... dicktits.

 

[krazykidd]

A swaggering, arrogant, childish shooter produced by Epic came out this year, but it wasn?t Bulletstorm. Gears of War 3 certainly fulfilled that quota, yet it was People Can Fly?s first title under the Epic banner that truly caught my imagination this year. This stunningly original FPS was filled to the brim with characterisation, crass but clever humour and even a healthy dose of subtle philosophical undertones. Yes, like No More Heroes before it, Bulletstorm was what I like to call an ?intellectual trap?, a game marketed and aimed at a collection of gamers who weren?t expecting something smart to appear, but got a boatload of clever allegorical scenarios and a genuinely enlightening plot. Bulletstorm is as clver as No More Heroes, only this time nobody else seemed to spot it.

Let?s get something sorted out right now: Bulletstorm is not stupid. Childish perhaps, crass certainly, but the writing and plot are both absolute works of genius, and i can easily shoot down any thought to the contrary. Firstly, Greyson is an idiot. He?s a beer chugging, authority loathing foul mouthed outlaw with as much education as the rifle he wields. He?s the archetypical idea of what we view the gears of War crew as, but exaggerated to the point of humour. We?re laughing at his terrible jokes, not with him, and the sooner the player stands back and realises that Greyson is exactly the kind of person you should hate rather than be they soon come to love the character. A great example of how the developers use Greyson?s juvenile humour to remind the player that he is an idiotic egotist is when he first meets Trishka. After proving herself a badass by dispatching a few enemies she loudly declares ?You shitpiles pursue me I will kill your dicks!? Greyson response to this line summarises him entirely. At first he doesn?t understand the insult, it makes no sense. Then he realises his ego has been attacked, and so in a childish attempt to save face he declares ?Oh yeah, I?ll kill your dick how about that!? It?s a futile, useless response, and shows his complete inability to deal with people.

But Bulletstorm does something utterly unheard of for a game of it?s genre and style: it tells a redemption story whereby the main character is not redeemed, and is in fact made considerably worse by his journey. At the start of the game Greyson has a ship, a crew, a fine selection of beer and a bounty o his head that gives him the perfect reason to never settle down. He?s living the perfect life for a man of his personality. Yet when confronted by his only unsettled debt he decides to risk it all to get one final chance at revenge. Instead of succeeding however he ends up killing all of his crew bar one, his loyal but hate filled partner Ishi. By the end of the game Greyson has even lost Ishi, and ends up drifting into space trapped in an escape pod with a woman who hates him and no chance of rescue. Even worse than that, he failed to succeed in the one thing he set out to do, and as a result has bet it all and lost. This is a game whereby if you finish it, the main character loses.

Aside from the overall message of how selfish revenge can destroy a man, there is also a strong undercurrent of morality and humanism lying beneath the surface. Greyson is accompanied by Ishi throughout the game, a partially mechanised friend of his who now despise him for allowing him to become part robot. As the game goes on Ishi loses more and more of himself to the robot side of his personality, and as a result becomes more and more ruthless and uncaring. This worries Greyson, partly because he wants to save Ishi, but also because it starts to show a side of Greyson he tries to ignore. Ishi ends up being heartlessly violent, killing without care and threatening and harming those in his way to get what he wants, and Greyson comes to realise over the course of the game the only thing separating him and Ishi?s robot side is a few dick jokes. Previously used as an assassin who unquestioningly took orders he starts to realise his pursuit of General Sarrano is equally uncaring and dangerous. This comes to a head during the final scenes of the game, when Sarrano is teasing Greyson about all the people he has killed on his quest to assassinate him. Greyson?s response is a blunt and angry ?shut up?, which shows that Sarrano has clearly got to him. By the end of the game Greyson knows that everything he has done was wrong, and now he can?t change a damn thing.

To finish up I want to discuss a rather tenuous idea, one which I think may be me over stretching a little but I?ll type it out all the same. I think the planet that Greyson crashes on represents a society, and as Greyson charges through it, killing everyone uncaringly this displays his own anarchic views. Most of the wildlife was certainly happier without Greyson, and the green mutants seem to be perfectly content before Greyson turned up. It?s also not a coincidence the ship that Greyson takes down is called the Ulysses, the name of a Unionist general in the American Civil War. Greyson is, without a doubt, a Confederate kind of guy, and his opposition to society is fairly evident from his lifestyle choice.

In conclusion Bulletsotrm is exactly the kind of game I love. It covers itself in a sheen of juvenile humour to hide away it?s clever and involving storyline, one which I feel may have been overlooked and misunderstood. Far from ?another shooter? Bulletstorm displayed that most sincerely adult quality that you rarely see, something childish for the purpose of something intellectual. People Can Fly is picking up the style moulded by Grasshopper Manufacture, here?s hoping they can deliver more.

This was a good read . If more people could write and explaine their arguments like this on these forums it would be awsome. I had little to no interest in this game , partly because i'm not a shooting game buff and partly because of what people have said about it. You have convinced me to check out a game i had no interest in . A rare feat indeed.

 

[SageRuffin]

Well that doesn't really matter, does it? Grey is shown as a little crybaby throughout the entire game, with the maturity of a twelve year old. Even as Ishi forgives him, calls him a good man, all Grey does is complain and mope. He has no character arc, so the only failure in the game is him not evolving as a character (even though the story and everything around him does evolve and grant that character arc!), which is just poor storytelling, not deep or complex.

In the perspective of story, the ending is your run of the mill cliffhanger: the characters achieve their goal (escape the planet, get forgiveness from the girl whose father they killed), but have a new goal (finish the war against Serrano) which will continue in the sequel. It's almost directly picked from movies like Pitch Black.

Okay. Don't look further into it then - you obviously don't like it, so why even waste your time with this? No point in looking into something you don't care for, right?

As for me, I'm gonna go back to shooting baddies in the dick, then sitting back and laughing like a 10-year-old boy just getting into Beavis and Butthead.. [tips hat] Good day to you, sir/madam.