Bulletstorm is an action adventure-based first person shooter game released on Feb. 22, 2011, with a VR port now available for the game, though the base game is available on all consoles. It was created by the game company People Can Fly and published by Gearbox. 

The game is a comedic take on the stereotypical action shooter. Not only did it parody shooters from before, it bumped up the gore to 11, making it one of the most brutal shooters of all time. However, in-game names for some kills – such as cutting someone in half being called a “topless” kill – was incredibly controversial, causing mass news outrage about the effect of violent video games, despite the game’s 17+ rating. This destroyed sales, and the game sold only 1 million copies in two years.

But that didn’t stop 10-year-old me from playing my step brother’s PS3 copy in 2016 and experiencing one of the best video game experiences of all time – I didn’t even know until recently that the controversy existed. 

When the game starts, you play as Grayson Hunt with your crew in space. Earth has been completely ravaged, and you’re intoxicated and about to make the worst decision of your life, fighting and driving into the ship of your old commander who ruined your life. 

As the game progresses, there is a wide variety of weapons and methods to play the game. The sniper rifle takes the cake for one of the coolest weapons of all time, allowing you to literally become the bullet when you shoot it, guiding it to enemies in third person. There’s also a really cool original weapon that is pretty much an electric whip you can use to grab far away enemies. The game really encourages you to use this feature and throw and kick enemies into things for more stylish kills that give you points that let you upgrade your weapons.

At first glance, the game can be seen as incredibly boring, but it’s quite the opposite. There is fun and comedic writing, decade-old humor that still gets a laugh out of me to this day. Despite its humor, the game doesn’t treat itself like a joke and has a deep and interesting story that is only best experienced if you go in completely blind. 

It makes me really sad to see that this game never really got the chance it deserved because of the negative media attention. This game is incredibly well crafted, and has fun humor, darker tones in story, and brutal gameplay. Hopefully with the recent VR port availability,  the game will truly get the second shot it deserves and possibly even get future content greenlit. 

I give this game 5 out of 5 cardinal heads.