Bulletstorm multiplayer modes

Retr0gamer

Ok the embargo on this was up today so I'm allowed talk about it.

Anyway I was lucky enough to go to the EA showcase thanks to boards.ie a few weeks ago. One of the games there was of course bulletstorm. I really didn't think this game would be any good going from the teams previous games. The last game they made was Painkiller, a game I enjoyed but it wasn't anything special. Going from videos it looking from the videosit looked like the same sort of mindless game but with a weird laser whip thing. Well I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised when the game turned out to be far and away the best game I played that day and I'm really looking forward to it.

There's two things that differentiate this game from any other shooter.

First are the weapons. These are the craziest weapons you'll find in a game since the classic build engine days of duke 3D and Shadow Warrior. An show were the usual shotgun and machinegun but even these had secondary fire options that made them interesting. the other two was one that fired bouncing bombs and my favourite a weapon that fired explosives that attach themselves to enemies and can be remotely detonated. Asmentioned each has a secondary fire mode that greatly changes the use of the weapon.

The second is the whip weapon. It can be used to drag enemies towards you which puts them in a sort of weird airborne stasis that levels them open to your every sadistic whim.

The single player game wasn't on show but a solo mode and a co-op mode was. The solo mode they showed was a score attack mode. You ran through a level to get to the end and try to score as much points as you can to place on leaderboards. This mode really demonstrated how creative the game is. If you go around just shooting people you will get very little points. What gets you lots of points however is killing people is the most creative ways possible. Instead of just shooting some one why not use the whip to drag them towards you kick them away and shoot them as the drift in slowmotion away from you. Or better yet kick them into an abyss or a trap filled with spikes. How about my person favourite. Drag them toward you, shoot them with the aforementioned remotely detonated explosives and kick them into another group of enemies and then set off the explosive. The game is pure sadistic glee and backed up by some excellent gore effects. I'd say this will be a great mode to challenge your friends on leaderboards.

The other mode that was demoed was a co-op arena mode. You and up to 3 friends are dumped into a small arena and tasked with acquiring a set number of points from a limited group of enemies to progress to the next round. As the rounds progress the the amount of points required to progress to the next round far exceeds the amount possible by just killing the enemies on your own. Team kills reward much higher score multipliers than solo kills which reward a whole lot less. For example you are rewarded a lot more points by dragging an enemy towards you with the whip and having another player kick him into a venus fly trap obstacle.

These arenas maybe small but they are littered with enviromental hazards that can be used in various ways. The level that was demoed was donut shaped and had a massive hurricane in the centre. The rest of the level was covered in spike traps, electrical traps amongst others. Once you figure out the only way to beat each round is to work together it becomes great fun. the action is broken up by the ocassional enemy that rewards massive points for being killed in a predetermined way which is relayed to all the players. Some need to be kicked between each other, others need to be whipped between players while another one requires being shot in the eh... balls while another player finishes him off in the head afterwards. Just before each round players have a chance to upgrade weapons and purchase new ones.

I can see this mode being a big hit in multiplayer. I spent way too much time on it myself. It's basically kind of like Halo's firefight mode but done so much better.

Sabre0001

I am excited about Bulletstorm - played a level at Eurogamer...When watching I thought it could get boring - but it didn't. Plus, you could set your own limitations or goals (in your head obv - good ol' oldskool gaming ). The extra trailers just add that extra level of crazyness!

Multiplayer modes look interesting. I wonder what else they'll add to it.

Will be an insta-buy for me.

Retr0gamer

Same here. Should be great craic over steam.

cherryghost

Nice. Buying on PC fo sho