It's very easy to say that Bully is just like Grand Theft Auto, but at school. This does go a long way to giving an impression of the basic gameplay, but there are a few differences. It's a fun look at school rivalries and some of the immature backstabbing, mouthing off and general behaviour that you might see at school, though often exagerrated and elevated to the edge of satire. Much ballyhoo was made of glitches when the game was released; as my console is generally offline all the time I don't usually patch games, but knowing it's history I did patch this game before playing it, and came across no major glitches.

Bully has you play as Jimmy Hopkins, being dropped off at Bullworth Academy by your mother and your billionth step-dad. The initial sequence proves Jimmy is not afraid to mouth off and doesn't like listening much to authority. The principal takes you into his office and gives you a good talking to, advising you to behave yourself. Then you are introduced to a few of your dorm mates who you befriend. The game is relatively open-ended, allowing you to explore at your own leisure, and take on missions as they unlock. The game is on a daily cycle, and some missions and activities may only be started during specific times. You will also need to go to sleep by 2am, or you will pass out. Classes at Bullworth Academy also occur twice per day, though you do not need to attend. It is beneficial to do so, as you can gain bonuses from completing them.

Each class plays out like a minigame of sorts. A few of these are quick time events and aren't very inspired, but there are a few fun ones as well. English gives you a handful of letters and you have to make as many words as possible before the time limit runs out, and Biology has you choosing utensils such as a scalpel or forceps and dissecting animals. Geography presents an unlabeled map and requires you drag the correct flags onto the appropriate countries or territories. Completing the class earns you a bonus of some kind. Completing Geography can reveal collectible items on your map, and English helps with your taunts or apologies so you are better at intimidating people or getting out of trouble. You can complete each class 5 times, and they get harder as you go along while offering better advantages.

While you aren't required to attend class at the specified time, prefects on the school campus are on the lookout for truants, and will also bust you for other indiscretions. For example, if you hit someone, break into a locker or are walking around after curfew, they will chase after you. You can usually just tap a button to escape if they get hold of you, though some actions will get you busted straight away if they get their hands on you, such as hitting girls. You can venture outside of Bullworth Academy into town, and the same indiscretions will have the police after you. Neither of them are hard to get away from, but are a deterrent from getting into fights unecessarily.

At first it seems Jimmy is a bit of a delinquent, and he is. He certainly doesn't mind breaking the rules, but usually he is not with evil intent. Often his acts of violence are to prove a point, even if it is a little misguided. Jimmy's run-ins with the various groups in the game (such as the Nerds, Jocks and Townies) is usually to teach them a lesson. In truth Jimmy is not the real bully of the game; often he instigates violence as a result of someone picking on somebody else. Often it seems Jimmy accepts the missions presented to him by others not because he really likes to help out, but because he knows that if he doesn't stand up for these people, they aren't going to stand up for themselves. There were a few head scratching moments where I couldn't figure out why he would accept a mission presented to him, but for the most part it makes sense.

You can load up your map that will show you the location of the current class and missions you can activate. It will also show other points of interest, such as shops around town, jobs you can do to earn money, and bike races. Money can be used to buy items, but I never found myself out of cash. The game provides you plenty and you don't need to spend it too often. Sometimes you can help people by doing a simple errand to earn more bonuses.

Holding down the left trigger will target people, and you can taunt them, talk to them, attack them or tackle them. This makes combat easy to control and you can block incoming attacks. Throughout the game you also learn combos from the local hobo which can have different effects such as knocking down your opponent, which can be handy when you are faced with several opponents. You can also select weapons to use which are unlocked as the game progresses. These start with basics such as marbles you can drop to trip up pursuers and fire crackers, to the slingshot which will be your mainstay ranged weapon, to bottle rockets. You can also pick up objects such as bats, or even throw garbage lids at your opponents. There are a few 'boss' fights in the game where your opponent reacts a little different than normal, such as the big bruiser who will attempt to ram you and require you to run out of the way, or someone wielding a sledge hammer.

It's the characters that really standout in Bully. All of the main characters that you will meet for missions are quite distinct and entertaining in their exaggerated mannerisms, such as the drunk teacher, the lunch lady Edna who spits in the food, the strict headmaster, the slimy Gary and the tepid Petie. Missions are quite varied, and completion of missions usually makes more missions available to you. The game is broken into chapters, and the beginning of each chapter represents a major progression in the story. Some missions may call for collecting things, whether they be panties from the girls dorm (because a teacher wants them to do their laundry...) or buying Edna some items for a date. Others are combat oriented, where you have to defend a position or protect a person or group of people. There are even a few stealth missions where you have to avoid teachers in the school after dark, or employees in the local mental asylum. All told there is a lot of variety, and a few missions have their own mechanics that are outside of the general sandbox gameplay, such as riding on the back of a bike firing your slingshot at enemies chasing you on their bikes.

There are a few 'vehicles' you can use in the game. You can whip out your skateboard at just about any time. A nice touch is that you can hitch a ride on cars, but seeing as you can skate faster than them, you never will after the first time. You can steal peoples bikes, or buy your own which you can access at garages around the town and school. It is possible to ride scooters if you can get a hold of them, but the cops will bust you if you aren't wearing a helmet. There is plenty of clothing to unlock or buy as you play the game, and while minor it does have effects on the gameplay. The game advises during loading screens that prefects will enforce wearing your uniform, but I never ran into trouble for not wearing it. However if you wear an odd headpiece, people will stop and laugh at you for wearing something so dorky, and girls won't kiss you if you aren't dressed nice. Kissing girls grants you a health bonus. While getting cozy with girls (or boys) doesn't affect the story in any way, it is funny to kiss one girl, then kiss another and see the first one run away in disgust.

As a remake of a PS2 game, graphically Bully isn't up to par with what the Xbox 360 is capable of, but it doesn't look bad. During cutscenes the facial animations and subtle body movements are enough to help convey the message. The voice acting is delivered with gusto and suits the tone of the game well. As mentioned, there were very few glitches once the game was patched, and mainly these were 'twitching' graphical hitches, or Jimmy doing a full spin in his chair on the odd occassion in a cutscene when he went to class. The camera is usually fine as you can control it in most places, but in a few places it switches between fixed places, such as in some tight corridors. When being chased, this switch can lead you to double back into your pursuers and get busted. I also wish that when you had finished the main story, that unfinished classes were made available for you to complete at any time. Otherwise you will have to leave your console on and wait for the allotted time to roll around. There is a 2 player mode, but this is just a gauntlet of some of the minigames you do in classes, or arcade games you can play in certain locations in the main game. A few of them are exclusive to this mode. However they won't hold your interest for long.

Bully is a solid game, and will keep you busy for 15 to 20 hours depending on how much of a completionist you are, as there are a number of collectibles and unlockables if you want to go the extra distance. However what will drive you is the ineractions between the characters, and finding out what mess Jimmy is going to get himself into next.