Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition

Lore & Background

Bulletstorm takes place in the 26th century, where the universe is run by the "Confederation of Planets". Grayson Hunt (Steven Blum) leads Dead Echo, a black ops team, with his comrades Ishi Sato (Andrew Kishino), Rell Julian (Chris Cox), and Dr. Whit Oliver (Robin Atkin Downes), all under the command of Confederation General Victor Sarrano (Anthony De Longis). Dead Echo assassinates a man named Bryce Novak and accesses his personal files; they discover Novak was not a criminal "separatist" as they had been told, but a civilian reporter, documenting evidence of Sarrano's corruption and his use of Dead Echo to eliminate his political and personal enemies. When Sarrano tries to have them killed for questioning him, Grayson and his team desert, flee to the edges of the universe, and become pirates. Ten years later, the now-alcoholic Grayson's ship is intercepted by the Ulysses, Sarrano's flagship, near the ruined planet of Stygia. In a drunken rage, Grayson attempts a suicide attack on Ulysses. Both ships crash land onto Stygia, fatally wounding Ishi. Oliver sends Grayson and Rell to find an energy cell to power the ship's medical equipment so he can operate. Grayson locates an escape pod from Ulysses, retrieving its energy cell and a device called an "Instinct Leash". Doc manages to replace most of Ishi's body with cybernetics, including an AI processor for parts of his brain. However, in the middle of the operation, marauders break into the ship; Doc and Rell are both killed; Ishi survives, but is left permanently disfigured by the incomplete surgery. Despite Ishi blaming Grayson for their losses and misfortune, they decide to work together to get offworld. As they work their way towards the nearest city, the AI processor in Ishi's brain takes over several times, fueled by his anger at Grayson's selfishness and refusal to give up his vendetta. The Leash leads them to another escape pod, where they find Trishka (Jennifer Hale), a member of Final Echo, Sarrano's replacement for Dead Echo. She agrees to work with Grayson and Ishi on the condition that they help her rescue Sarrano. Grayson eventually learns that Trishka was Novak's daughter; after Dead Echo inadvertently saved her life, she joined the military to hunt down the "separatists" who killed her father. Grayson tells her that Sarrano was in fact responsible for Novak's death, but lies about his involvem

In Their Own Story

Hunt adjusts his grip on the plasma rifle, the hum of the weapon vibrating through his gloves. Above, a Gorgon drone hovers, scanning the ruins of the old city for targets. He spots a loose cable dangling from a broken gargoyle and aims not at the drone, but at the cable itself. The shot snaps taut, yanking the drone into a pile of unstable fuel tanks. As the explosion rocks the alleyway, Hunt grins, knowing that in this world, creativity is the deadliest weapon of all.

Reader's Guide

As a first-person shooter, Bulletstorm focuses on combat. The game features eight weapons, each with their own distinct behaviors. In addition to standard firearms such as shotguns and assault rifles, the game features unusual weaponry such as the "Bouncer", which shoots explosive bouncing cannonballs, and the "Flailgun", a cannon that shoots bolas weighted by grenades. Each weapon has an alternate fire mode that uses "charges"; for example, the Screamer revolver's "charge shot" turns the weapon into a flare gun that ignites an enemy and sends them into the air. The protagonist Grayson Hunt is equipped with an "instinct leash" that allows him to pull enemies towards him; an upgrade unlocks the "Thumper", which slams down a ball of energy that launches all nearby enemies and explosive barrels into the air. The player can also kick enemies or run and slide into them. If an enemy is launched into the air from the whip or by being kicked/slid into, they go into slow motion, allowing players to perform "skillshots". Skillshots reward the player for killing opponents in the most creative and unusual ways possible. Points are awarded for various actions, such as killing enemies in midair, making use of environmental hazards such as kicking enemies towards spikes and impaling them, or using a weapon's distinct feature. The more complicated or unusual the skillshot, the more points players acquire. Points are used as currency at "dropkits" scattered across the planet to purchase firearms, ammunition and upgrades. Dropkit checkpoints are also the sites where players can swap their weapons, access the Skillshot database, and view players' statistics. Besides the single-player campaign, players can access two additional modes. In "Echoes", players must play through a single-player level and kill the enemies in the most unusual ways possible within a fixed period. Each player is given a rating on their performance, which is then uploaded to a leaderboard. Another mode is "Anarchy", a four-player co-operative multiplayer mode. In Anarchy, players must fight through waves of enemies and perform skillshots. When the group of players gains enough skillshots, they can then unlock new levels and arenas. The Anarchy mode has its own set of skillshots and a unique progression system.

Did You Know?

• Bulletstorm was originally envisioned to be a cover-based third-person shooter, though the core combat loop and gameplay perspective went through multiple revisions.
• Pulp magazines, Burnout, Duke Nukem, and Firefly all inspired the team during Bulletstorm's development.
• The team experimented with competitive multiplayer modes and campaign cooperative multiplayer mode during production but decided to remove them because of technological constraints.
• Bulletstorm amassed a great deal of controversy with Fox News during its release window for its depiction of sexual jokes for humor.
• A sequel was put on hold as the studio reallocated its resources to work on Gears of War: Judgment.