Another Brick In The Wall, Part IV.

User Rating: 9 | Bully PS2

Bully is the debut title from developer Rockstar Vancouver (formerly Barking Dog Studios known mostly for Homeworld: Cataclysm) which has endured hardships most games won't ever be able to comprehend. But now that Bully is finally out, it can speak for itself. Once you set aside the controversy you're left with nothing more than an excellent game. Bully uses Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto formula, but adds so much of its own into the mix, it ultimately feels like an entirely fresh experience. Rockstar Vancouver kicked out the extreme violence and mature subject matter and introduced a highly original premise and setting as well as improved and fine-tuned gameplay mechanics.

You play as Jimmy Hopkins, a 15-year old troublemaker who has been expelled from every school he has ever attended and is now left to fend for himself once more in the toughest school around - Bullworth. Jimmy's objective is to survive one year (the time his mother will spend on a luxury cruise with her fifth--elderly and very rich--husband) in a school filled with bullies, corrupt/alcoholic/pervert teachers, students with delusions of grandeur, and a whole lot more. The storyline is told in classic Rockstar manner; totally overblown stereotypical characters and loads of humorous satire. The dialogue is very well written and the story remains interesting throughout. The minute you begin playing you'll realize just how dangerous Bullworth can really be. Bullies beating up and robbing other kids of their lunch money, jocks humiliating nerds, and preppies trying to put the greasers in their place. Jimmy is going to be caught in the middle of all of this right from the start. Do you fight back the bullies? Pay up, apologize? Or just run like hell? It's up to you to decide how to behave. You can even bully other kids yourself, although there are severe consequences for being violent towards smaller children, girls, and adults as the prefects and especially the cops are extremely unforgiving.

Even though Bully is an open-ended game with plenty of side missions such as street kart and bike racing, lawn mowing, and paper routes, it is a story-driven game divided into five chapters - each depicting Jimmy's encounters with one of the school factions. Bully is a mission-based game and anyone who has played any of the 3D Grand Theft Autos will immediately feel right at home. Jimmy is too young to drive cars, but bikes, mopeds, lawnmowers, and skateboards make good transportation devices. The fighting system is very similar, although simplified, to The Warriors. There is a decent amount of moves and combos to keep the fighting from getting too repetitive. However, it's the weapons that make Bully's fighting system shine. There are some standard weapons such as clubs and baseball bats, but stuff like firecrackers (and the subsequent firecracker launcher), stink bombs, slingshot, itching powder, spud guns, cartons of eggs, and bags of marbles are a hell of a lot more fun to use on someone.

Apart from all of the story and side missions, you can also choose to attend classes - you are in a school, after all. You could always just skip the classes and get on with the game, but you would be missing out on some really fun mini-games that bring along useful benefits. For example, attending Shop class will unlock new cool bikes, English will get you the ability to talk your way out of a fight, and Art class will make you more successful with the girls. And let's not forget Gym class - smashing a jock's face in a game of dodgeball never gets old.

Bully is running on Criterion's Renderware engine just like pretty much every other last gen Rockstar game and it looks great. The environments look very detailed for a PS2 game, and the effects look very nice. Graphically, Bully won't blow anyone away, but it more than gets the job done and you have to take into consideration that it sports a pretty large and varied gameworld. It simply gives the feeling of a highly polished game with some of the best animations I've ever seen - everyone moves so nice and fluid, convincingly human. My one main gripe about the game would be the fairly frequent and long loading times that tend to break and take you out of the experience.

The soundtrack is definitely one of the highlights that makes the action sequences (or simply walking down the street) all the more exhilarating. Unlike most of Rockstar's games, Bully has an original soundtrack written and performed by musician Shawn Lee. The emphasis is on the rhythm section (drums and bass) accompanied by glockenspiel and harpsichord melodies. The voice acting is top-notch as is to be expected from a Rockstar game, truly bringing the myriad of colorful characters to life.

Even though the PS2 is on its way out and the new, high-tech consoles are already here, you owe it to yourself to play one of the highlights of last gen gaming, as Bully is a unique game that takes most of Rockstar's innovations from the past five years and moulds it into a high-quality, extremely entertaining, and memorable action/adventure experience.