AlwaysGaming

My name is Brad Tramel. I'm a video game journalist and college student, but I find time for all this social stuff, too. If you like what you read, follow this page to see all of my editorials, reviews and previews. You can find the entirety of my writing over at Gameblurb.net or by following @bradtramel on Twitter.
Happy gaming, everyone.

Bulletstorm: My First Impressions, And Concerns

First off, you’re probably wondering how the fuck I’ve already played the game. Well, I work at my local Blockbuster, where the employees can rent games and movies a few days before the official release date. So a few more blogs like this may be possible if the feedback is positive.

Now that that is all cleared up..

I played Bulletstorm for a few hours and over that time it inspired me to think about where developers are going with the first person shooter genre. Personally, I think that developers are using cheap gameplay mechanics to give the impression of originality. I really did enjoy playing Bulletstorm, but nothing new and exciting presented itself.

Through my time with the game I’ve experienced the following:

  • A particularly irritating glitch that rotated my point of view 90 degrees and inverted my controls, making it nearly impossible to navigate. Only after 10 minutes of getting almost nowhere and finally trying to slide (double-tapping the A button), did the glitch correct itself.
  • Another game belonging to an oh-so stale genre, that Epic Games has attempted to spice up with:  A “leash” (actually just a whip), some pretty fun “Skillshots”, and a points system for kills. (The points are used to buy ammo and weapon upgrades.)
  • A really intriguing story that I’m excited to delve deeper into.

This is usually what I get out of every FPS that I buy lately. A story that I can appreciate, minor upgrades to gameplay, and new gameplay mechanics that really don’t do much to spark interest.

Developers better start brainstorming. Because I don’t know how many more iterations of Call of Duty I’ll shell out $60 for. Especially when it seems like I’m getting nothing new aside from more guns, more customization and more 5 year olds to mute.

What do you guys think of the current FPS genre? What do developers need to do if they want to really stand out in the current age of shooters, where Halo and Call of Duty reign supreme? Discuss.