Another review on the escapist pointed the same problems. Overall it is a good game, but it could have been better if it wasn't traped by the modern conventions.

Pikey Mikey:

archvile93:
My favorite line in there would have to be, "Now, drop the net, hit him with sticks!" I have to disagree with his review of the gameplay though. Maybe I'm just better than him, but even on hard I spent very little time hiding behind walls. As long as they died before I did I was fine. And kicking an exlpoding bouncy ball was a blast (pun not intended).

I also played it on Hard and I think it was really fun, except for those fucking snipers and the fact that sniping an enemy in the balls was almost impossible (for me), because as soon as the (normal) bullet got near they would just cower and start running to the side, urgh, charge shot was great tough =). I really liked the weapons, but I think that the Thumper cost more than it was worth (cost more than you got from using it around 3-4 enemies). And I think I read somewhere that there would be "Epic battles with Giant bosses"...Yeah there weren't much of that. The Grindwheel wasn't really a boss, the Hecaton wasn't really a boss either (altough they were giant, so ½ point for that maybe?). The plant-like boss was ok.

Yea I do agree with you there, though the thumper is quite useful, especially indoors where enemies hit the ceiling and get insta-killed. There really is only one boss to, though the others make nice set pieces. The one that killed himself was humorously underwhelming. I also never got the sniper shot skill kills either. Hitting enemies in the head give you more points despite being easier. To get some ball shots, I recomend kicking them first so they can't dodge.

Just gonna say it: Painkiller sucks. I tried it for 25 minutes and I found it not engaging at all (silent main character and NO FUCKING INTRO STORY), and the gameplay was boring (I mean, if you want fastpaced massacre games, play serious sam).

Dody16:
Come to think of it, Yahtzee makes a good point. Who ever asked for all these realistic shooters anyway?
I've always said I only like games that let me do things that are either impossible, or improbable in real life. And although by just saying that I am still excusing the existence of a lot of games, I will say that my point is this: since we're in the realm of fiction anyway, why not take advantage of it? Besides, if realism is that important, for example you can argue that a health bar is more realistic then taking five bullets to the chest, hiding behind cover, and then being able to walk away as if nothing happened to you. In real life, if you get shot, usually the damage is a little more permanent.

But I've let my self ramble too much already...

yea but as everyone else says, taping a med-kit to your face really isn't any more realistic. Health bars are pretty unrealistic even without that since just about any hit would put you down anyway. Personally, I can enjoy both Duke-Nukem and Red Orchestra levels of realism, so I'm glad that both styles exist.

what the hell, it keeps eating my posts.

Everything I could say was said before.

Yahtzee, you are yet again right-o.

I just concentrated on the funny explicit violence.
I am suprised though, you did not mention the uberness of just kicking dues into spike things.
Seriously.

Augh! Thanks Yahtzee, now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for another 5 years >:(

I agree on some things here, but not all.
The thing is that Epic tried to make it cover based, but People Can Fly shone through and made it so that it wasn't nessecary. My favorite tactic involves slide kicking someone, blowing their torso off in mid air with the shotgun, and kicking their two parts into a deathtrap. Oppurtunity? Not extremely often. Fun as hell? Totally.
Although, did anyone else notice how short it was, or is that just me. Seriously, I finished it in two days. It was definitely worth it due to how much fun it was.
The dialogue was so immature but still hilarious, such as a conversation along the lines of:
"If you come near me again, I swear, I will kill your dick!"
"...What? You're going to kill my dick? What does that even mean?! Fine, I'll kill your dick!"
*awkward silence*
"Now, if you two are done with the dick killing we have more important things to do."
Also, glad I'm not the only one who remembers Doomguy's physics defying awesomeness.

esliang:
Bit of a shame that People Can Fly didn't just make a new Painkiller. I like GoW but adding that unrealistic element doesn't sound like a smart move. Oh well.

Well they did release about ten Painkiller versions and it was all just going downhill, they needed a new IP, this sadly wasn't what we wanted, ended up just another one in the huge pile of modern gritty shooters...

Hopefully the Duke will deliver

archvile93:

Pikey Mikey:

archvile93:
My favorite line in there would have to be, "Now, drop the net, hit him with sticks!" I have to disagree with his review of the gameplay though. Maybe I'm just better than him, but even on hard I spent very little time hiding behind walls. As long as they died before I did I was fine. And kicking an exlpoding bouncy ball was a blast (pun not intended).

I also played it on Hard and I think it was really fun, except for those fucking snipers and the fact that sniping an enemy in the balls was almost impossible (for me), because as soon as the (normal) bullet got near they would just cower and start running to the side, urgh, charge shot was great tough =). I really liked the weapons, but I think that the Thumper cost more than it was worth (cost more than you got from using it around 3-4 enemies). And I think I read somewhere that there would be "Epic battles with Giant bosses"...Yeah there weren't much of that. The Grindwheel wasn't really a boss, the Hecaton wasn't really a boss either (altough they were giant, so ½ point for that maybe?). The plant-like boss was ok.

Yea I do agree with you there, though the thumper is quite useful, especially indoors where enemies hit the ceiling and get insta-killed. There really is only one boss to, though the others make nice set pieces. The one that killed himself was humorously underwhelming. I also never got the sniper shot skill kills either. Hitting enemies in the head give you more points despite being easier. To get some ball shots, I recomend kicking them first so they can't dodge.

"Luckily enough", I got it after a while (Luckily in the sense that I could move on and stop using the sniper). And you also have to disrupt-shoot them or they will dodge your kick too. I had no problem that the Creeps could "dodge" the bullets, they did say that they are fast (leash immune etc.) but that ALL enemies could dodge it, that's just bogus. My favourite enemies were The Burnouts, just because they charged like pillocks and got me SO MUCH Skillpoints (X-Ray, Chain-Reaction, etc.) Those moments were the best =). And I don't understand why you couldn't use your own weapons while controlling the Mechaton robot thingy. At one point there were like 3 choppers shooting me as soon as I went to target them, when I get into cover, the robot would march to me, getting his face away from the choppers so I would have to wait while he turned around, getting me shot again so I had to go to cover. And then I shot them about 34 times and they didn't die, so I had to reload and do it all again, Why didn't they just let me leash the fuckers? This must all sound very negative, but the game is still very fun. It's just that part and the snipers/using sniper that's......appalling

LordOrin:
Augh! Thanks Yahtzee, now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for another 5 years >:(

what song?

Doom Marine is more of the Aliens variety, "How do I get out of this chicken **** outfit?" than of the pie-eating British tabletop variety of space marine.

Pikey Mikey:

LordOrin:
Augh! Thanks Yahtzee, now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for another 5 years >:(

what song?

He references it in the credits ("I LOST MY HEART AND VARIOUS OTHER THINGS TO A STARSHIP TROOPER"):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL6MAyTXMRA
Warning: the 70s were WEIRD!

Levethian:
Could not possibly agree more with this review.

ZZoMBiE13:
I hold no special affinity for the "OLD DAYS" of shooter history. I'm more a fan of the newer design philosophies of today's shooters.

Not sure why we can't have both audiences catered for. They're totally different types of games. Painkiller has more in common with Tyrian than it does with Bulletstorm.

I could not agree more. Heaven knows this industry is big enough for all the audiences to be catered to. BulletStorms problem is that it doesn't commit to either. Over the top GUN GUN GUN madness or Dirty Grey Space Opera. Pick one and commit. Don't give me a half hearted hybrid that tries to appease too much and delivers nothing either side can get behind.

Ultimately BS (heh, BS) is little more than the game you had to buy to get access to the Gears of War 3 Beta. Unlike Crackdown before it, there isn't a good game to hold onto and play while you wait for the beta the game gives you access to. Just another soulless shooter that will easily be forgotten.