Bulletstorm: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Bulletstorm_boxart_3445.jpg|frame|'''''[[Tagline|KILL WITH SKILL!]]''''']]

 

 

Hey, dick-tits! [[Describe Topic Here|This game ain't gonna describe itself!]]

 

 

The game's story, written by Rick Remender, comes [[Two Fisted Tale|straight from a pulp sci-fi serial]], starring two former black ops soldiers/assassins, Grayson Hunt and Ishi Sato, members of wetworks unit Dead Echo. After they discover that their superior, General Sarrano, has had them killing innocent people through their entire carreer, Grayson and his team go rogue, Gray swearing revenge for the atrocities Sarrano used Dead Echo to commit. We join Grayson some time later when he and his crew, now [[Space Pirates]] on the run from the law, encounter Sarrano's flagship in orbit around the former tropical paradise resort planet [[Death World|Stygia]], and Gray's subsequent (alcohol-inspired) kamikaze-attack results in both ships crashing on a planet teeming with mutated psychopathic ferals and all kinds of flora and fauna thirsting for blood. Having been injured in the crash, Ishi's new robotic implants are [[Cybernetics Will Eat Your Soul|gnawing away at his mind]], and it's up to Grayson to find the fastest way off of Stygia to get Ishi some real medical attention. Unfortunately, the only way to do so is to find Sarrano and hitch a ride on his evac cruiser.

 

* [[After the End]]: Sorta. The local world has gone through a nasty apocalypse.

* [[Alien Blood]]: Heavy Echo shocktroopers noticeably bleed ''white'' fluid when shot.

* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: Aside from {{spoiler|Sarrano}}, {{spoiler|the second Muta-Burnout}} is worse. After making a hugely dramatic entrance, the vibrations he creates loosen some sewage pipes above which promptly fall on him, causing him to lose his balance and fall headfirst into [[No OSHA Compliance|a huge pool of radioactive waste in the middle of the room.]]

'''Trishka:''' ''[[Deadpan Snarker|Why start now?]]'' }}

* [[Arc Words]]: "I don't hold you accountable."

** Burnouts, as part of their mutation, are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoG0UppbYV0 mentally regressed into lemmings.]

** Lampshaded in one of the hints displayed on the loading screen, which encourages the player to take advantage of Burnouts' stupidity.

* [[Attempted Rape]]: It is implied that this is what the Creeps wanted with Trishka when they were dragging her off underneath the dam. Of course, Trishka isn't that easy to subdue, and by the time Gray and Ishi reach her, she's beaten all of the Creeps to death with her bare hands.

** Waggleton P. Tallylicker in Act 2.

** Also the Hekaton, on no less than two occasions. Waggleton and the Mechatons are a miniaturized, robotic versions of the Hekaton... with guns.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The sniper rifle. Shooting tiny guided missiles sounds like that gun from [[Singularity]], but the Seeker's shots didn't dissapear when you lost sight of the guy you were originally shooting at.

** The [[Shockwave Stomp|"Thumper"]] upgrade for the leash. Capable of launching hordes of enemies into the air and [[Slow Motion Fall|suspending them for several seconds]]. Handy for setting up large skillshot combos or simply gaining some breathing room during a particularly difficult firefight. Effective even in indoor scenarios where thumping enemies can result in kills from impacting ("Flyswatter") or being impaled on ("Voodoo Doll") the environment.

** The Flail Gun is helpful not only for the amount of Skillshots it permits, but also as multi-functional tactical utility.

* [[Badass]]: The Game.

* [[Badass in Distress|Badass]] [[Damsel in Distress]]: The name of Act 2 is "Damsel In Distress". The damsel in question is Trishka.

* [[Black and Gray Morality]]: Grayson is the second most heroic character in the story, after Trishka, and he's basically a drunken [[Blood Knight]] who sees murder the way other people see [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|hammers]].

* [[Blatant Lies]]: Some of the dialogue the newsbots spew forth.

* [[Bloody Hilarious]]: [[Running Gag|The Game]].

* [[Blown Across the Room]]: A specialty of the Boneduster shotgun when fired at mid-range. [[Ludicrous Gibs|Close-up, it tends to make a mess.]]

* [[The Coconut Effect]]: Originally, the [[Exploding Barrels]] were going to be green. Then the developers realized none of the playtesters were shooting them. So back to the traditional red it went.

* [[Companion Cube]]: Waggleton P. Tallylicker.

* [[Co-Op Multiplayer]]: "Anarchy" Mode, where up to four players control members of the Final Echo team and battle waves of enemies. Much like the Single Player, the only way to succeed is to get creative with your kills. [[Up to Eleven|But doing this alone isn't even enough!]] You must work with your teammates to get cooperative skillshots, which are worth huge amounts of skill points. If the team gets enough points, they'll progress to the next wave.

* [[Crapsack World]]: The wider Bulletstorm universe is a beautiful place full of super-science and colorful people, yet dominated by a corrupt fascist kleptocracy and presided upon by nebulous amoral corporations. The focal point of the game, Stygia, used to be a luxurious resort planet. Now it's an irradiated dump.

* [[Crazy Enough to Work]]: Grayson's stupid idea to {{spoiler|get offworld before the [[Depopulation Bomb|DNA Bomb]] goes off.}} He admits it's crazy enough that it might not work, though... but given how [[Troperiffic]] Bulletstorm is, the fact it's a [[Million-to-One Chance]] is exactly ''why'' it succeeds!

* [[Cruelty Is the Only Option]]: Just painlessly headshotting a guy nets you 25 points. Leash the guy, kick him, then shoot him up his ass, and you get considerably more. If you manage an especially impressive skillshot combo in the middle of a gun fight, everyone stops shooting, looks over, and goes "Daaaaaaaaaaaamn..." ''That's right, you can cause a'' '''temporary ceasefire''' ''just by being unbelievably cruel to an enemy''.

** At the opposite end of the cruelty spectrum, there is a Trophy/Achievement available for completing an Echo round in the manner of a typical [[First-Person Shooter]], without any unnecessary violence. It's surprisingly difficult.

* [[Deadly Rotary Fan]]: There's a skillshot called "Sucker" for killing an enemy by knocking them into a fan.

* [[Death World]]: Stygia used to be a beautiful resort town but a combination of horrible toxic waste, radioactive electrical storms, dangerous local wildlife and some twenty eight thousand escaped convicts turned it into the hellhole it now is. It's a ''beautiful'' hellhole though: those skylines are still amazing.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: There are skillshots for practically every single way to kill a mook, short of simply shooting them. Kicking them into a paste against the wall? "Graffiti". Knocking a hot dog stand into their face? "Fast Food". Blow the stand up instead? "Sausage Fest". Shooting them in the butt? "Rear Entry". Wrapping a mook with the Flail Gun and pulling another towards him before he explodes? "Smart Mine". Wrapping a mook with the Flail Gun and kicking him towards another enemy? "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Homie Missile]]". Shoot an enemy in the throat and make him vomit blood? "Gag Reflex". The list goes on and on.

** Managing to leash and subsequently kill a [[Goddamned Bats|Flare Gunner mook]] (which is only achievable by making him airborne through [[Groin Attack|other means]]) nets you the "Gotcha" skillshot. Epic Games is clearly aware how frustrating the agile enemies are. Alternately, you can shoot him in the leg, leash him, and finish him before he hits the ground.

* [[Disintegrator Ray]]: The standard assault rifle isn't so hot as a weapon on its own but its charged shot is guaranteed to vaporize enemies, leaving behind a glowing skeleton. The skillshot for shooting someone in the head this way is "Overkill," while shooting someone as soon as you see them considers them "Boned." The best way to rack up points fast, however, is shooting through a group of enemies all at once with one shot for "X-Ray" which greatly multiplies how many points you get in one go.

* [[Door to Before]]: Parodied. One of the few times you encounter this, it {{spoiler|leads you right back to the room you were trying to escape from. Only now it's on fire.}}

* [[Double Entendre]]: One of the loading screen tips: "Reload often. No one likes getting down to business half-cocked."

** [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/bulletpoints-with-bulletstorm/708929 Michael Capps finishing a shower.]

** [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/bulletpoints-with-bulletstorm/709061 Cliff Bleszinski sleeping under his desk.]

** [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/uk-bulletpoints-bulletstorm/709310 Michael Capps runs out of cereal while pouring some for breakfast.]

** [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/bulletpoints-with-bulletstorm/710521 Cliff Bleszinski trying out an] [[Aerosol Flamethrower]] outside. [[Do Not Try This At Home|Appears to burn his hand.]]

* [[Gorn]]: Since the aim of the game is to make extreme violence as light-hearted and stylish as possible, this is par for the course. You can blow off enemy heads, incinerate the skin off their bones, kick them into electric generators, and impale them on various elements around the world. Deliver a boot to your target's face and watch as he flies off limply; aiming down the irons lets you slow the action down and pick your shots on their helpless body to maximize your brutality.

* [[Grenade Launcher]]: The Bouncer, a gun that shoots an exploding cannonball a short distance, and can explode multiple times with the [[Secondary Fire|alternate fire]].

* [[Groin Attack]]: Shooting an enemy between the legs causes them to writhe on the ground, screaming. Killing them nets you the skillshot "Mercy". Guiding a Head Hunter bullet into the enemy's crotch will net you the "Nutcracker" skillshot. Hitting him in the nethers with a Peacemaker's charged shot earns you "Boned".

* [[Half the Man He Used To Be]]: The Flail Gun is a grenade launcher that fires two grenades bound by a chain. Although normally they simply wrap around whoever they hit, its secondary fire heats the chain to the point where they slice through whoever they hit, getting you the "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Chain Reaction]]" skillshot. There's also Meat Slicer, what happens when you fire the Flail Gun and one end catches on something solid, and the other end swings into an enemy, cutting him in half. This is a great way of dealing with gatling gun enemies, as it will wrap around the gun, and chop the person running it in half. And even if it doesn't, you can detonate the bob and kill the enemy that way. Win-Win!

* [[Heel Realization]]: The Dead Echo members realize they've been killing innocent people when they log onto the computer of their last victim.

* [[Helicopter Blender]]: The helicopter has crashed and is therefore stationary in this case, with the blades preventing you from progressing. Punting an enemy into it earns you the ''Sucker'' skillshot, and ''Minced Meat'' for the miniboss; see [[Ring Out Boss]] further down.

* [[Hope Spot]]: {{spoiler|Gray and Ishi are trapped in a room with a bomb. They manage to find a way out...which leads right back into the room. [[Subverted Trope|Then Trishka rescues them]].}}

* [[Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball]]: The Bouncer weapon fires a large explosive cannonball which you can bounce around knocking enemies over before detonating it. You can turn this [[Up to Eleven]] with its charge shot, which causes the ball to ''[[Stuff Blowing Up|release an explosion every time it bounces]]''. You can kick it around to direct the blasts!

* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: The names of most of the chapters (if not all of them) are dialogue excerpts from the chapters themselves, leading to names such as "I See We're All a Bit Upset...." and "That Thing Is Leaving Without Us"

* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: There are no farms on Stygia, but lots of humans (or once-humans). Thus, most of the terrible gangs survive by ''eating each other.'' Yuck.

** The "Voodoo Doll" and "Pricked" skillshots require you to kick an enemy into [[Malevolent Architecture|exposed rebar/barbed wire]] and a giant cactus, respectively.

* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Several mooks, so long as they're wearing helmets. Grayson's boot apparently does more damage than a bullet since the easiest way to kill them is to hit them with a slide kick first, THEN shoot them.

* [[Kaiju]]: Grayson with the robot.

* [[Punched Across the Room|Kicked Across The Room]]: Aside of Grayson, the Anarchy Mode's Final Echo goons are also graduates of the [[Duke Nukem]] school of [[Cutting the Knot|putting your foot through things.]] Not only does it send enemies flying, it sends them into [[Crazy Awesome|slow motion]] and does a fair bit of damage besides. More importantly, it's key to setting up many skillshots.

** By far the best solution for Burnouts. It's also the most fun.

* [[Levels Take Flight]]: The {{spoiler|final}} level takes place on an evac dropship escaping Stygia.

* [[Mama Bear]]: Mess with the Hekaton's eggs, and she WILL hunt your ass down.

* [[Man-Eating Plant]]: Lashing a guy into the range of a giant venus flytrap is yet another skillshot. There's also a giant version that serves as a boss.

** Stygia is derived from Styx, the river of the dead in the Greek underworld. Doubles as [[Non-Indicative Name]]; although it sums up the planet's current state perfectly, it's not what you'd expect a paradise to be named.

* [[Mexican Standoff]]: {{spoiler|After arriving at the hotel, Trishka and Grayson have their guns trained on an unarmed Sarrano. It's a standoff because Ishi has sided with the general, as he is still hell-bent on getting off world, and needs the general alive.}}

* [[More Dakka]]: The Peace Maker Carbine's charged shot is explained, in universe, as the gun simultaneously firing 100 bullets at the same time, allowing more dakka in a split-second than most games would allow in one minute.

* [[Mundane Utility]]: One of your moves sends you sliding along the ground. You can use it to evade enemy fire, get up close and personal quickly, send enemies flying... or move through crawlspaces quickly.

** But damned if that isn't the [[Rule of Cool|coolest]] way to move through crawlspaces.

* [[No More for Me]]: Instead of drinking booze, you can shoot the bottles, granting you more (immediate) points and not screwing up your vision with blurry drunkenness.

* [[Notice This]]: The game actually bribes you to pay attention to crucial events by awarding extra [[Awesomeness Meter|awesomeness points]].

* [[One-Hit Kill]]: If you manage to score a headshot with the Screamer without hitting them anywhere else, you get awarded the "One Hit Wonder" skillshot. And if you do it with a charged shot, it's called Enlightenment. The charge shots on all your weapons function this way.

* [[Overheating]]: Miniguns can easily overheat if you go full auto for a sustained period of time - which is odd, as the entire point of six barrels is to ''avoid'' overheating. Evidently, on Stygia, more barrels just means [[More Dakka]].

* [[Plot Induced Stupidity]]: It's ''very'' obvious that {{spoiler|Sarrano is setting up a trap for the player when he takes you to the bomb}}. Unfortunately, you ''have'' to believe it for the game to continue.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Shockingly enough, in a game [[Cluster F-Bomb|this liberal with the cursing]], Ishi still manages to deliver one when he talks about what they'll do to Sarrano once they get off the planet. This is because he swears maybe two times before it, neither of which were insults.

* [[Press X to Not Die]]: The game is riddled with quick-time events, but they are far more forgiving of mistakes. It's based more on reward than punishment, mostly giving you extra skillpoints for faster reactions, and slowing the game down further and further the longer you take to push the correct button. A more conventional versions appears with the Venus Flytraps. Don't mash Y quick enough? You die.

* [[Rated "M" for Manly]]: If it's not the fact that a simple kick to the face can throw your target 10 yards away and the whole focus of the gameplay is to be as creative as possible with your frags, the main character's dialogue is a constant stream of swears and he even looks a bit like [[Wolverine]].

* [[Secondary Fire]]: All the guns have one, with the carbine's doubling as a [[Charged Attack]] that can singe flesh from bone.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: Trishka says this to Grayson as {{spoiler|he remarks on how he let Sarrano get away. Also: "God is dead" after the credits.}}

* [[Serial Escalation]]: Just how insane a skillshot & kill combo can you get? You thought that last one was pretty good? Bet you can score more if you try!

* [[Shaped Like Itself]]: If you stop and listen to some of the Elysium Newsbots before smashing them, you occasionally get little gems like this:

* [[Shock and Awe]]: The ''Shocker'' and ''Kill-O-Watt'' skillshots, for killing an enemy by throwing them into electrified scenery objects.

* [[Shotguns Are Just Better]]: The Boneduster is a ''quadruple''-barreled shotgun. Its charge shot is a blast of super-heated air that can melt flesh.

* [[Shout-Out]]:

** One of the later acts, in which you meet the mutant Burnouts, is called [[Burnout|Burnout Paradise.]]

** There's an achievement called [[Atomic Hate|Destroyer Of Worlds]].

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To ''[[Painkiller]]''.

** Or ''Wild 9'', by Shiny,

* [[Spikes of Doom]]: Yanking or kicking a bad guy into rebar or similarly sharp, pointy objects nets you the "Voodoo Doll" skillshot. Hurling them into a cactus, meanwhile, gets you "Pricked". And unlike some attacks, it still retains a high point reward for doing it repeatedly (most skillshots drop to fifty or lower after your first use. Voodoo Doll and other Kick into the scenery attacks give 100 points every time).

* [[Stuck Items]]: You can't ever un-equip the assault rifle, which means you only really have a choice of two other weapons besides it.

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: The Game

* [[Suicidal Overconfidence]]: Most enemies, especially those at the tail end of a skirmish.

** The Skulls are sometimes smart enough to run away. Whether or not they do so is another matter entirely.

* [[Take That]]: ''[[Duty Calls]]'', a free downloadable game made by the developers to parody "realistic" shooters.

** In the very beginning, you have to get through a jammed door. Because of they way it's jammed, the signal lights on it form a [[Xbox 360|Red Ring of Death]].

* [[Testosterone Poisoning]]

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: To say the least.

** The Carbine's charged attack is a one hit kill on its own, but you can get a headshot with it to net "Overkill".

* [[This Is a Drill]]: The final weapon you get in the game is a weapon that shoots drill missiles. It's an instant kill for any enemy other than minibosses or regular bosses, and if it pins a mook to the wall, you can watch as the enemy slowly spins on the wall from the drill stuck in him.

** Alternate Fire mode lets you spin the drill while you slide into enemies, killing them. Very useful in a packed corridor situation.

* [[Toilet Humor]]:

** Shooting a mook in the butt is the "Rear Entry" skillshot.

* [[We Hardly Knew Ye]]: The rest of Gray's crew besides Ishi in the prologue and first chapter. Parodied with {{spoiler|Waggleton P. Tallylicker's death}}, complete with requisite "fallen soldier" music.

* [[What Kept You?]]: When Gray and Ishi rush in to rescue Trishka, they are treated to a tableau of her beating the Creeps to death with her bare hands.

'''Grayson''': "What? [[Blatant Lies|No!]] Well....maybe...." }}

* [[World of Badass]]: Both metaphorically and literally.

* [[Worst Whatever Ever]]: Spoken verbatim in the chapter "Worst Family Fun Vacation Ever".

* [[Your Head Asplode]]: The result of many head shots, but this games sniper rifle comes with a charged attack that allows you to detonate the bullet after it hits, making this trope a tad more literal than usual.

 

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