Grand Theft Auto set in a school? How can this possibly be good?
In Bully, you play as Jimmy Hopkins, a boy who has been sent to boarding school so his mother and her new husband can go on a year long honey moon. Jimmy quickly gets in with the wrong crowd, and soon he starts trying ot take over the school.
Bully plays very much like a Grand The Auto game, but with some twists. Because you are at school, you have to attend your classes every day. Attending and passing will give you new skills that help you in the game. Skippping will get you in to trouble.
There are several clicks at Bullworth academy. There are the jocks, the greasers, the nerds and so forth. Every mission you complete changes the amount of respect you get from each of the clicks.
The missions work very well. They involve you pulling pranks on people, getting role playing cards for the nerds or beating up a bully who picks on people for no reason. They are essentially everything you never had the guts to do when you were in school.
Some times people will ask you to do a favour for thm. These are very simple missions, and are usually something like "Go pull he fire alarm" or "Stuff 3 students in to trash cans." Thy have no effect on the story, but they help you earn some good money.
Side missions an minigames are available. You can earn some money mowing the lawn, or placing bets with other kids in the school. You can get a job as a delivery boy or as a paper boy.
What will you do with all th money? Well, you can go buy jimmy a new wardrobe. In school you have to wear a uniform. But elsewhere, you can wear almost anything you like.
You can also buy presents for the girls, you want desperately to be your gilfriend.
A carnival is available to you, and you can play some good mini games to get prizes.
But what yould a GTA style gme be without weapons? There are obviously no guns in Bully, but there are still plenty of unique weapons. Fire crackers and stink bombs can be made in your chemistry set. You might be able to ind a carton of eggs some where. And just for fun, you can throw marbles or a banana peel on the floor to make some one slip.
Thhe graphics in Bully look really nice. The school is ver realistic, with plenty of rooms. The people are all unique, and not just a series of clones. You will start to learn every one's name over time. Great care went in to making Bully have a realistic world.
Bully's audio does an excellent job too, with some great voice actors and music. There is a standard music track that plays, but it quickly changes when you get into a fight. The voice acting is excellent, and very convincing, The script is very much how people speak in real life.
What's a shame about Bully is that it got tons of bad press that it didn't deserve. Yes, you can get into fights. But when you get into fights with people, you get punsihed. Bully is great all around, and any one who is even remotely interested in it should pick it up.