Bulletstorm sure is a crazy ride, but some missing elements drag this title down.
Heres in short what I thought of it:
The good:
-Fantastic locations
I've always been amazed at what Epic Games can come up with in this department. I thought Gears of War was an OK game overall for the PC, what I really enjoyed was the detail and level design in that one though. This still holds true for Bulletstorm, so much in fact, that some areas that I come across really made my jaw drop.
-Hilarious ways to kill enemies
I loved this feature of the game. Many, if not all fps games let you discover ways to kill enemies on your own with basically no hint to you. The problem with that is you'll most likely never figure out all the possible kill combinations. Bulletstorm lists all those combos and rewards you for executing them, making it easy and fun.
-Innovative weapons (except for machine gun)
All the weapons minus the machine gun were really great. All of them offered a different way to kill enemies and made for some really funny moments.
-Huge baddies
I really enjoyed fighting the huge monsters and wish there were more to go around lol Not enough games play around with this and more would be a welcomed sight.
The bad:
-Story and Characters
I wish the backstory was developed a little further. You don't learn enough about the Bullestorm universe from the game. The locations really make you want to understand more about whats going on and though some of it is revealed towards the end by the general, its really not enough to be a solid story. The same goes for the characters. All of them (minus the general) are too monotone and uncompelling. This is understandable for Ishi, since he's basically a robot through the entire game, but Grey's and Trishka's personality aren't developed enough. Epic Games really lacks in this department. The personalities of the characters in Gears of War were basically identical to the ones in this game.
-Underpowered machine gun that you can't get rid of
The machine gun that you start off with is terribly, terribly underpowered. I'm a firm believer that if you can pull off a headshot with whatever gun, then it should be a one shot one kill deal. I hate unloading into someone's head and only the 4th or 5th bullet in his unprotected face kills him. It just doesn't make sense. It wouldn't be so bad if you could just get rid of the gun for something else but for some reason you have to carry it with you at all times. Again, GoW had the same problem, you had to unload whole clips into common enemies before they went down. Even if you were making headshots.
-No vehicles to drive?
I figured I was going to jump into one and start driving around sooner or later, running over enemies at full speed, but no. Though you get to shoot a minigun from a helicopter, there is no driving or piloting involved. It would of been nice to have a scene with a jeep or tank or something along those lines to mix it up and cause even more mayhem. However, the part with the remote controlled dino-robot was pretty amazing and unique.
Overall the game is a pretty fun ride if a little too short and with no compelling characters or story. It could of been a worthy candidate for GOTY 2011 but the issues above drag it down to just another shooter in a sea already full of them. I would pick this up once the price goes down. At the current price tag I wouldn't recommend it.