VideoGame Dumb in good ways, dumb in bad ways, dumb in dumb ways
Bulletstorm is dumb and it isn't afraid to show it. Why do people float in slow motion when you kick them? Why can I steer sniper bullets? Why can everyone dodge sniper bullets? Why are there always such conveniently placed barrels? Who cares? It's fun.
There game makes no excuses for gameplay. Gameplay comes first and it's great. I only played this in 2020, 9 years after release, and the only games that I feel match or beat it are Doom and Doom Eternal. It has some of the typical cover-shooter tropes of its era, but doesn't force you into it. It has its own distinct style.
That said, the story and main character are pretty dumb too. He starts the game doing something idiotic, then throughout the game he regularly falls for obvious traps and so on. I wouldn't call it an Idiot Ball because he's consistently dumb the whole way through. Although you have to remember, the story really only serves to provide more gameplay, so every time he does something dumb it's an extra few levels of enemies to kill.
Now the dumb-dumb stuff. Dialogue. Yes, it's an immature game with a terrible story already. And there's a profanity filter option. But does every single insult have to be "dick"? Aren't there more words they could have used?
Overall, 8/10, great fun to play, skip the cutscenes because they're basically pointless.
VideoGame Im not like other shooters, I promise....
Let nothing decieve you; this is by all means a protoypical late 2000's/early 2010's shooter. Incessant quick time events (including the final boss), suffocating corridors with waist-high cover, no exploration, on-rails/turret sections, constant reloading, those moments where you wait around for your partner to move an obstactle or stop dead in your tracks to listen to your com-link, and most jarringly no jumping, are all here; just with some neat weapons and physics... oh and those annoying "arcadey" scoring notifications.
Not to say its a bad game at all; theres plenty of fun to be had but it all feels kinda gimmicky. Much of the "skillshots" arent really skilled at all and rely on random behaviors of weapons (the pitiful shotgun being the worst offender) and enemies; and others are just reskins (like impalement or zaps on different objects). I never felt like I had achieved anything despite the constant scoring. The level design is hit or miss; there are some great arenas but are constantly broken up with the mostly patronizingly railroaded hallway sections. Movement is clunky as if it were for a Gears-style cover shooter (probably not a coincidence) rather than an FPS; and NO JUMPING seems like a glaring omission for combat thats so gravity defying, and it sucks to need prompting to mantle over countless waist-high obstacles. And its frustating how many cool combos i've had ended by having to reload suddenly.
That said, its still fun to shoot a dude in the nuts and kick him into a cactus; or lasso a goon over, tie a bomb to his mug and kick them into an oncoming squad, among other creative tactics. Its even more fun on New Game+ with all the weapons (which take way too long to unlock on initial run), unlimited ammo (its oddly scarce for a game with this title), and a full inventory (WHY IS THIS NOT SO IN THE FIRST PLACE?!). Its just hard to come back after the new DOOM games and their exponentially superior level design, and deeper,crazier, more fluid combat (with jumping). Also if you get the 2017 re-release; switch to Duke immediately, never look back, and thank me later.