Bulletstorm

A gameplay screenshot showing the "Skillshot" system. Players receive points when they perform creative kills.

As a first-person shooter, Bulletstorm focuses on combat. The game features eight weapons, each with their own distinct behaviors.[1] In addition to standard firearms such as shotguns and assault rifles, the game features unusual weaponry such as the "Bouncer", which shoots explosive bouncing cannonballs,[2][3] and the "Flailgun", a cannon that shoots bolas weighted by grenades.[4] Each weapon has an alternate fire mode that uses "charges";[5] for example, the Screamer revolver's "charge shot" turns the weapon into a flare gun that ignites an enemy and sends them into the air.[6]

The playable character is equipped with an "instinct leash" that allows him to pull enemies towards him; an upgrade unlocks the "Thumper", which slams down a ball of energy that launches all nearby enemies and explosive barrels into the air.[7] The player can also kick enemies or run and slide into them. If an enemy is launched into the air from the whip or by being kicked/slid into, they go into slow motion, allowing players to perform "skillshots".[8] Skillshots reward the player for killing opponents in the most creative and unusual ways possible.[9] Points are awarded for various actions, such as killing enemies in midair, making use of environmental hazards such as kicking enemies towards spikes and impaling them, or using a weapon's distinct feature.[6][10] The more complicated or unusual the skillshot, the more points players acquire.[11] Points are used as currency at "dropkits" scattered across the planet to purchase firearms, ammunition and upgrades.[6][12] Dropkit checkpoints are also the sites where players can swap their weapons,[13] access the Skillshot database, and view players' statistics.[1]

Besides the single-player campaign, players can access two additional modes. In "Echoes", players must play through a single-player level and kill the enemies in the most unusual ways possible within a fixed period. Each player is given a rating on their performance, which is then uploaded to a leaderboard. Another mode is "Anarchy", a four-player co-operative multiplayer mode. In Anarchy, players must fight through waves of enemies and perform skillshots. When the group of players gains enough skillshots, they can then unlock new levels and arenas. The Anarchy mode has its own set of skillshots and a unique progression system.[14]

Bulletstorm takes place in the 26th century, where the universe is run by the "Confederation of Planets". Grayson Hunt (Steven Blum)[lower-alpha 2] is the leader of Dead Echo, a black ops team under the command of Confederation General Victor Sarrano (Anthony De Longis). Dead Echo assassinates a man named Bryce Novak and accesses his personal files; they discover Novak was not a criminal "separatist" as they had been told, but a civilian reporter, documenting evidence of Sarrano's corruption and his use of Dead Echo to eliminate his political and personal enemies. When Sarrano tries to have them killed for questioning him, Grayson and his team desert, flee to the edges of the universe, and become pirates.

Ten years later, the ship carrying Grayson (now struggling with alcoholism), and his comrades Ishi Sato (Andrew Kishino), Rell Julian (Chris Cox), and Dr. Whit Oliver (Robin Atkin Downes) is intercepted by the Ulysses, Sarrano's flagship, near the ruined planet of Stygia. In a drunken rage, Grayson attempts a suicide attack on Ulysses. Both ships crash land onto Stygia, fatally wounding Ishi. Oliver sends Grayson and Rell to find an energy cell to power the ship's medical equipment so he can operate. Grayson locates an escape pod from Ulysses and retrieves its energy cell and a device called an "instinct leash". They return with the cell, and Doc manages to replace most of Ishi's body with cybernetics, including an AI processor for parts of his brain. However, in the middle of the operation, marauders break into the ship; Doc and Rell are both killed, and while Ishi survives, he is left permanently disfigured by the incomplete surgery.

Grayson and Ishi decide to work together to get off the planet, despite Ishi blaming Grayson for their friends' deaths. As they work their way towards the nearest city, the AI processor in Ishi's brain takes over several times, fueled by his anger at Grayson's selfishness and refusal to give up his vendetta. The instinct leash leads Grayson to another escape pod, where they find Trishka (Jennifer Hale), a member of Final Echo, the unit that replaced Dead Echo. She agrees to work with Grayson and Ishi on the condition that they help her rescue Sarrano. Grayson eventually learns that Trishka was Novak's daughter; after Dead Echo inadvertently saved her life, she joined the military to hunt down the "separatists" who killed him. Grayson tells her that Sarrano was in fact responsible for her father's death, but lies about his involvement.

The three fight their way to Sarrano's escape pod, which landed on top of a skyscraper. Trishka holds Sarrano at gunpoint and demands answers; he manages to throw her off the roof and informs Grayson and Ishi that the Ulysses is carrying a "DNA bomb" designed to wipe out all life on Stygia so it can be repopulated. He claims that the bomb is damaged and that if it is not disarmed soon, they will die before help arrives. Reluctantly, the two fight alongside him to reach the wreckage of the Ulysses. Sarrano tricks Grayson into arming the bomb and escapes, leaving him and Ishi trapped. Just as it seems they are about to die, Trishka, who turns out to still be alive, rescues them.

The three race to Sarrano's rescue ship and get on board just as it takes off. They fight their way through Sarrano's "Heavy Echo" troops and confront him on the ship's bridge. Trishka demands to know who killed her father, and Sarrano reveals that Grayson and his men did. An argument ensues, and Sarrano then uses his own instinct leash to hijack Ishi's body and force him to attack Grayson and Trishka. Encouraged by Grayson, Ishi manages to wrest back control and winds up taking a bullet meant for his friend. Enraged, Grayson impales Sarrano on the wall, but Sarrano is able to eject him and Trishka from the ship back onto Stygia's surface. Grayson and Trishka race back to the Ulysses and board an unused escape pod. They launch it into low orbit, with the explosion of the DNA bomb propelling the pod into space. As Stygia is slowly consumed by the blast, the two talk about Grayson's revenge, the loss of his team, and Sarrano still being alive. Trishka asks Grayson what he is going to do about Sarrano escaping, and the screen fades to black. In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Sarrano is now a cyborg due to the extent of his injuries. Ishi also survives, albeit under the full control of his AI processor.

Rick Remender served as the game's writer.

Bulletstorm was developed by Polish game studio People Can Fly. They had previously created the Painkiller series, a first-person shooter (FPS) designed for the PC.[15] Bulletstorm was the studio's first triple-A game.[16] Development began in June 2007, and the game enjoyed a roughly three-and-a-half year development cycle.[17] During the game's production, the studio had about 70 people working on it. The game was a collaboration between PCF and Epic Games, which had acquired a majority stake in the studio in August 2007.[18] Electronic Arts (EA) published the game under its EA Partners program, after being impressed by the studio's work on Painkiller.[19] PCF's Adrian Chmielarz directed the game, which was designed by Epic's Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski, and penned by writer and producer Rick Remender. PCF confirmed on February 2, 2011, that Bulletstorm had declared gold, indicating it was being prepared for duplication and release.[20]

Since Bulletstorm was the studio's first video game developed for home consoles, Epic Games helped PCF extensively when they were porting the game to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[19] Epic's own Unreal Engine 3 rather than PCF's proprietary engine powered the game. This change allowed the team to create game demos quickly when they were pitching the project to publishers. The initial demo impressed Epic, who agreed to collaborate with PCF.[21] While PCF was the main developer of Bulletstorm, Epic Games ensured that the game was high quality by providing feedback and engine support. Some of the game's development was outsourced to external companies in Germany, China, USA, Sweden, and Poland.[22] Epic, an esteemed developer, helped to secure a publishing agreement with Electronic Arts.[21] While there were communication troubles among the three companies initially, this problem eased when the studio streamlined the communication processes. Whereas EA and Epic had provided their feedback separately to PCF, the new communication model saw EA providing feedback directly to Epic, which would then integrate EA's feedback with their own and deliver it to PCF.[22] Regarding the collaboration with Epic, Chmielarz said that the studio "got some tough love from Epic and their uncompromising approach to quality", and suggested that it was "a fantastic lesson on what quality means".[16]

Originally, the studio did not plan to have any unique gameplay feature or an ambitious goal for the game and only wanted to "offer a fun high adventure". The game was initially envisioned to be a cover-based, third-person shooter similar to Gears of War.[21] The gameplay underwent multiple iterations, and as development progressed, it became a cover-based FPS. The team later decided to de-emphasize cover after they had created the weapons, as they felt the cover did not complement with the cover-based gameplay.[23] The studio incorporated systems that would support emergent gameplay.[22] Mega Man inspired the slide mechanic, while Scorpion's spear in Mortal Kombat inspired the leash.[21] Through internal focus testing and seeing how fellow developers played the game, the team realized that "people were playing with their enemies like a cat plays with a mouse before he takes it out". This led to the creation of the Skillshots system, which aimed to reward players' creativity.[22][21] Bleszinski described the game as "the Burnout of shooters",[24] and cited Duke Nukem, Firefly and Serenity as his inspirations.[25]

While the studio had created a playable team deathmatch prototype, they did not incorporate it into the final product because they believed that the market was crowded with competitive FPS at that time. The team created the Anarchy cooperative mode as an alternative. The development of Anarchy began during the late stages of production, and it catered only to hardcore players. He concluded it was the "wrong choice for the online modes" retrospectively.[22] Bleszinski added that the unusual firearms featured in the campaign would not translate well to a competitive game environment, and it would have required PCF to rework all the systems. The game initially had a cooperative mode that allowed friends to play through the campaign together, but it was cancelled after the team had realized that it shifted the game from "being this kind of puzzle shooter into essentially this downhill skiing simulator". Its removal allowed the studio to encourage players to use Skillshots more frequently and enabled the team to create more unique scenarios.[26] The score attack Echoes mode was added in the last six months of production after seeing gamers and journalists competing against each other for high scores playing the game's E3 2010 demo.[22]

Chmielarz recruited Rick Remender in 2009, impressed by his work on comic book series Fear Agent and Black Heart Billy. Remender was invited to visit PCF's headquarters in Warsaw for a week and finished drafting the story with the game's team.[27][28] The game's story focused on "redemption and revenge", and the planet Stigya, a tourist paradise destroyed by a natural disaster of unknown origin, was to evoke the same feeling as BioShock's Rapture.[29] Remender added that the story telling was not intended to be serious, and that the narrative relied a lot on cliches.[27] The character Ichi was described as "Samurai Spock" while General Sarrano, who was initially only a placeholder villain, was described as a "classic psychopath" and "pure evil".[28][27] Pulp fiction such as Juan Buscamares (a comic series published in January 1998 in Heavy Metal magazine), Indiana Jones, and men's magazines covers from 1920 to 1970 all helped inspire the game's narrative and visuals.[30] The game was criticized on release for its heavy profanity; Chmielarz responded that as Poles, English's profanity was "exotic and fun to us" and he did not realize that the game had so much of it until he read the Polish translation. The team incorporated a language filter, though Chmielarz noted that few noticed its existence.[22]

In 2008, Electronic Arts announced it would be publishing a new Intellectual property (IP) from independent game developer Epic Games.[31] The name "Bulletstorm" was revealed when game developer People Can Fly filed a trademark request for the name in December 2009.[32] Originally, Epic Games designer Cliff Bleszinski was scheduled to announce the game alongside Gears of War 3 during an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on April 8, 2010. However, his appearance was delayed to April 12, 2010.[33] The game was revealed before Bleszinski's scheduled appearance when gaming magazine Game Informer released its May 2010 issue, which mentioned the game on its cover.[34]

EA provided extensive marketing for the game.[35] Epic released a limited edition of Bulletstorm exclusively for the Xbox 360 known as the Epic Edition. The Epic Edition includes bonus in-game content when playing Bulletstorm online, and access to the multiplayer beta of Gears of War 3.[36] In January 2011, a viral video for Bulletstorm was released, parodying the Halo 3 "Believe" diorama.[37] This was followed in February with the release of Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm, a free downloadable PC game that parodies the Call of Duty series as well as general first-person shooter clichés.[38] Players who preordered the Limited Edition for the PC also received a free copy of Klei Entertainment's Shank.[39] A demo of the game, featuring one of the game's Echoes missions, was released on January 25, 2011, for the Xbox 360 and on January 26, 2011, for the PlayStation 3.[40] Following this announcement, Bleszinski wrote a tweet on January 14, 2011, saying the demo was only for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which game reviewers considered was a way of making fun of PC players.[41] Epic Games' vice-president Mark Rein later clarified that a PC demo would be released after the game's release.[42] Epic released it on April 4; it featured the same level as the console versions.[43] The demo attracted more than two million players, though in hindsight, Chmielarz believed the demo had confused players, as the Echo mission did not adequately communicate the experience to the player.[22] The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on February 22, 2011.[44] Ragdoll effects, blood, splatter and dismembering were initially censored in the game's German version, despite the German Entertainment Software Rating Board granting it an "Adult" rating.[45] The German rating board later reversed its decision with Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, which was allowed to be released uncensored.[46] Both Bleszinski and Chmielarz criticized the game's marketing campaign, which focused extensively on the game's silliness and relied a lot on jokes.[16]

The first downloadable content (DLC) for Bulletstorm, titled Gun Sonata, was released on April 14, 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,[47] and on May 19, 2011, for the PC.[48] The content includes three Anarchy maps, two Echo missions and two Leash colors.[47] The second DLC, Blood Symphony, was released on June 10, 2011, for Xbox 360. The content includes two "Echoes" maps, three "Anarchy" maps, and a new mode called "The Ultimate Echoes".[49]

According to Capps, the studio had begun development of Bulletstorm's sequel but was sidelined as Epic assigned PCF to work on Gears of War: Judgement, a spin-off in the Gears of War series.[97][98] PCF became independent in 2015 following a management buyout,[94] and it retained the intellectual property rights to Bulletstorm.[99] Speaking about a potential sequel in 2019, Wojciechowski, said the studio wanted the IP to have a "second life" despite the fact that it was not the studio's short-term goal.[100] Wojciechowski added that should the studio return to the IP, they would consider ways to make it more popular.[101]

• List of commercial failures in video gaming

• Official website
• Bulletstorm at MobyGames