How Duke Nukem has met his match in upcoming PS4 shooter Bulletstorm

I’ll put my hand up and say I’m one – of the seemingly many – gamers whose radar the original release of Bulletstorm slipped under.

The 2011 adrenaline-fuelled shooter joined the likes of Beyond Good & Evil and Pschyonauts in falling foul on an unfortunate curse; critical acclaim that didn’t translate into commercial traction. A game that quickly, according to those that did play it, became a forgotten gem.

Six years on, enter Gearbox Publishing. It’s an easy fit between returning developer People Can Fly and the Battleborn creator; the latter is best known for its comedic and action-rich shooter series Borderlands.

Bulletstorm is as gory as it is fast-paced. It favours creative kills, even rewards you for them, and is the core of the gameplay loop. There’s no deliberation over ethics of gunplay. Just a succession of one liners and trigger pulls that are more action era Arnie than modern cinema’s more measured take on battlefield brutality. There’s much in its DNA that Gearbox likely recognised as a twin of its own creation. The pairing then, is an obvious fit.

And little wonder why Duke Nukem’s got in on the action as an alternate campaign DLC character, complete with full voiceover (by his real-world other half John St. John) and rewritten lines to suit the Duke. Though, this may be the first time the bubblegum-chewing, alien-killing machine gets outmatched and outclassed in the F-bomb department.

Because Bulletstorm leans hard into the 18 rating; swearing, blood and gore are frequent fliers in the fictional universe’s skybox (looking better than ever thanks to the HD touchup). It’s unashamedly full-on with its 80s-inspired action.

A robust weapon wheel calls up a solid range of gun types, most of which feel unique even in an overcrowded genre: the four (four!) barrelled shotgun, the chain-linked grenades of the Flail gun, the skin-piercing drill bits of the Penetrator, the mini-game inbuilt in steering your Headhunter bullets to their flailing targets… and each has a secondary fire mode. It’s carnage on the digital dancefloor.

I play an early section of the game that allows me to test these weapons of messy destruction out, as well as the wrist-mounted energy leash that pulls enemies close, and the zippy slide maneuver that lets me cross open areas and move between cover points quickly. Oh, and the melee kick. A boot to an attacker’s face at close range is as almost as satisfying a full stop to a bullet-ridden conversation as watching uour foe explode from afar.

So, it’s an easy win for adrenaline, with just enough combat strategy required to command the fight as multiple enemy types charge your location. On initial impressions, it’d suit those of us whose tastes stray towards both PlatinumGames’ Vanquish and Doom’s modern rebuild.

If you’ve played either you’ll note similarities – despite the separation of a half decade and console generations – but People Can Fly is eager to thrust its own enraged identity into your face. Bulletstorm’s open aggression – and gameplay purity – can feel like a guilty pleasure in the modern era. But that may also make it most welcome; a palette cleanser between those story-rich RPGs and multi-faceted adventure experiences. A power fantasy where the only moral choices are where you shoot a foe, and with how many bullets.

The question then, is not if People Can Fly can capture lightning in a bottle twice, but if there’s anyone around to witness its imprisonment. Will Bulletstorm find its audience? We’ll find out 7th April.

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