Review: Bulletstorm VR (Updated)
When the first trailer dropped announcing that Bulletstorm was getting a Virtual Reality port, I was instantly excited. The memories came flowing back of those fun and crazy kills the game offered back in 2011. The question was though can that style of game still live up to today’s gaming?
Release Date: Janurary 18th 2023
Developer: Incuvo
Publisher: People Can Fly
Price: US $39.99 / CA $53.49 / €39,99 / £32.99
Reviewed On: Playstation VR2 / DPVR E4 Black
* Access Provided For Review *
The Feeling Of Being Used
In the game you will mainly play as Grayson Hunt, who is government assassin tasked with taking out bad people. However, you soon learn you have been used by General Sarrano to kill innocents to cover up his crimes. Now you have only one thing on your mind, taking revenge on General Sarrano, and anything or anyone that gets in your way is only going to be your next casualty.
Kill With Skill
If you have played Bulletstorm before the game has not deviated away from what the game did in the flatscreen release, so it’s important you manage your expectations on what you are going get from the game.
If you haven’t played Bulletstorm before, as aforementioned on your way to finding General Sarrano you will be have no remorse for anything or anyone getting in your way. Where who you are killing doesn’t seem important, that way you are doing it is. This is due to game using a skillpoint kill system, which will then be used to buy upgrades to your weapons. The more stylish your skill, the quicker you can do those upgrades.
To rack up the best scores, you need to mix up your kills, using your slide, kicks, leash and guns. Mixing in environmental kills like kicking explosive barrels at them, kicking them into a cactus or over a ledge to their death to name a few. Where mixing and matching parts together is mindless fun. With the updates since launch offering more VR feeling to the interactions like actually whipping your hand back to use the leash, it feels that more immersive than ever and being doing all the actions removed some of the clunkiness from the initial launch – although it does not irradicate it all.
However, this is a shooter from 2011, so you wont get the sort of level of upgrade trees and progression you see now, with each gun allowing for Max Ammo and Charge shots upgrades. The other use of the skillpoints is upgrading your leash, buying ammo (if you ever fall short) and charges for your weapons. As with the leash the weapons have also received some very welcome VR interaction updates, that really pulls you into the game more. With the team now adding interactions to each gun to activate you charge shot, be it pulling back the handle on the rear of your assault rifle, push I button on you shotgun or twisting the barrel on your six-shooter. Add these to actually now needing to pick your ammo from the guns or the ammo crates your now open and, some new VR skill kills like while duel wielding throwing the guns to the other hands and getting a kill – its all little touches like this that make it feel more like its been built for VR the original release was missing.
They have added in a few extra missions that weren’t in the original where you play as Trishka Novak, who is looking for revenge on whoever killed her father. These don’t really mix it much compared to playing as Grayson, as you will be doing the same thing, you just have an energy blade. But, I didn’t use it much as it is really over-powered, and removed some of the fun out of the kills.
With the further addition of a fun Horde Mode that will see you taking out ever increasing amounts of enemies inside of murder domes, with the aim being surviving long enough to top the leaderboards. The leaderboards are also available on single-player campaign acts as well, meaning you can even try and top these if leaderboards are your thing, which adds some extra reasons to go back into Bulletstorm after completing the campaign.
It’s An Age Thing
As with the gameplay, you need to set your expectations when it comes to the presentation, again this is a port of the game from 2011 and not a full ground-up remake for VR. So it doesn’t really make much of an improvement over a game that came out around that time, but does bring in dynamic lighting which really shows in Virtual Reality. With the updated textures since the original release, a lot of the problems I had with areas issues with visually have since been improved.
When booting up the game, you will be given a message informing the audio has not changed from the original, and 2011 was a ‘different time’. Which I think is the best approach they could have taken, because it kept it true to the original, when this sort of game was matched with insults, loudmouths and cringey jokes. Again given the time this was released, you are going to get that sort of ‘meathead’ mentality with deep-gruff voices and expletives (optional) as the story and dialogue plays out. Nothing has really changed here, the voice acting and writing shows its age as well, and although its passable it would be much more improved today, but again it’s in keeping to games original feel.
Comfort
The Verdict
Bulletstorm VR in unapologetically true to the original, meaning you have you set your expectations before going into the game. It might have remastered release level visuals, sound design and writing that shows it’s true age as a game, remember this was part of its charm when it released in 2011. But, what the game was always about was the skillpoint kill system, and where this feels a bit more clunky in VR, all the little touches in the interactions like flicking you wrist when using the leash, manually reloading the classic arsenal and manually activating the charge shots feels so good and immersive. While still keeping a load fun trying to take enemies out in various ways and rack up those points. It’s great to have another shooter in Virtual Reality that isn’t about being serious, precision reloads and hyper-realism, just go in with expectations of playing a game that released in 2011 in VR and have fun mindlessly shooting, leashing and kicking your way through each chapter – and then taking out the enemies in Horde Mode afterwards and trying to top those leaderboards.
Review Updated: 23/09/2024 / Following: Patch 1.4 / Previously graded: 69%