finalark
SNORLAX
Link to original post: [drupal=1243]Review: Bully[/drupal]
It might just be Bully, but I'm not sure open-world games really do it for me any more. Yeah, Grand Thief Auto IV was interesting, if you learned to ignore your cousin calling you every ten minuets to ask you for a piggyback ride or something. Assassin's Creed was cool, but it got a bit repetitive and really didn't encourage exploration at all. Oblivion was really good, but it had a number of things that I didn't like but I'll save that for another time. So Bully, a game that I got at a Christmas party a few years ago and never bothered to get fixed and actually beat after lending it to a friend until recently.
Bully can best be described as "watered-down GTA." And for those of you who have never heard of this game (that's probably a small number knowing Rock Star's popularity) Bully is a game that chronicles a single school year in the life of a kid named Jimmy Hopkins. I'll admit that the setting is actually really original, as the game takes place in a boarding school and the surrounding town. The characters in the game are really amusing, as well are the missions you'll get. To say the least, you'll get some pretty interesting missions. Now that I'm on the topic of missions, I would like to say that you get a number of side-missions which award money and reputation with one of the four clicks in the school. But I can't help but feel that all of the side missions feel kind of pointless, because all of the reputation that you gain from doing the side missions you lose when you do the mandatory story missions.
The storyline is really hard to follow, as there are times where it takes ages for the storyline to develop and often times not much is explained. Yeah, I guess that everything somehow links back to the main villain but it's hard to find how things connect to him because he only shows up throughout the start, once in the middle, and at the very end of the game. And to be honest, until the end of the game I had forgotten about him. There are also a few interesting sub-plots, even though the only one that really gets rolling is the one involving your English teacher's booze problem. And that really doesn't affect the main plot at all. And the main character... there are times where you'll want to punch Jimmy's lights out because he can be a real ******* at times. But even though he might not be a likable anti-hero, he isn't heartless.
Back to what I was saying about game play a few paragraphs ago: it's (more or less) watered-down GTA. And if you're looking for a good sandbox experience... this isn't the game for you. The sandbox aspect of the game-play kind of sucks, the authority in this game is way to powerful to really make anything enjoyable. You get into a fight and if a prefect or cop is in view, unless you have means of escape or are ready to run it's over. There isn't a **** thing you can do to fight the authority, if you try to fist fight them they'll tackle you and either throw you in jail or send you to detention. When it comes down to combat, if you get in a fist fight and you've gotten training from either Gym class or you've gotten plenty of transmitters for the Hobo (don't ask) you're going to win. And you also get various ranged weapons that can be anywhere from eggs to firecrackers to stink bombs. But once you get the slingshot you'll wonder why you bother carrying anything other than that, your skateboard, camera and maybe some bottle rocket launchers around. The thing is so over powered that while in most boss fights, they'll give you hints to try and use their way of beating the boss. But when their way doesn't work you'll just say "screw that" and pull out the slingshot. And I think that Rock Star noticed at the end of the game that it's overpowered because they take it away for the final boss fight. And speaking of boss fights, they're all pathetic. There wasn't a single boss fight that I found hard. And the final boss... wow.... that's was just too easy. It was exactly the same as a regular fist fight only the last boss had a lot of HP and I couldn't shoot him with my slingshot after I tripped him.
All and all, Bully isn't terrible, but it isn't that good either. When you're actually doing a story mission that seems important it's a blast, but it just gets way to slow between the main missions and most of the side missions serve only as something to amuse you as you wait for another story mission to open up. The storyline reminds of one of these obscure high-school movies from the 80s where the nerds overcome the jocks but putting together some insane half-baked scheme that would never work in real life. And yeah the storyline is a big jumbled mess but most of the cinematics are genuinely funny. So Bully: If you're looking for a fun little game to hold you over until (insert game here) comes out, then pick it up. But if you're looking for wild sandbox mayhem, prepare to be very disappointed.
It might just be Bully, but I'm not sure open-world games really do it for me any more. Yeah, Grand Thief Auto IV was interesting, if you learned to ignore your cousin calling you every ten minuets to ask you for a piggyback ride or something. Assassin's Creed was cool, but it got a bit repetitive and really didn't encourage exploration at all. Oblivion was really good, but it had a number of things that I didn't like but I'll save that for another time. So Bully, a game that I got at a Christmas party a few years ago and never bothered to get fixed and actually beat after lending it to a friend until recently.
Bully can best be described as "watered-down GTA." And for those of you who have never heard of this game (that's probably a small number knowing Rock Star's popularity) Bully is a game that chronicles a single school year in the life of a kid named Jimmy Hopkins. I'll admit that the setting is actually really original, as the game takes place in a boarding school and the surrounding town. The characters in the game are really amusing, as well are the missions you'll get. To say the least, you'll get some pretty interesting missions. Now that I'm on the topic of missions, I would like to say that you get a number of side-missions which award money and reputation with one of the four clicks in the school. But I can't help but feel that all of the side missions feel kind of pointless, because all of the reputation that you gain from doing the side missions you lose when you do the mandatory story missions.
The storyline is really hard to follow, as there are times where it takes ages for the storyline to develop and often times not much is explained. Yeah, I guess that everything somehow links back to the main villain but it's hard to find how things connect to him because he only shows up throughout the start, once in the middle, and at the very end of the game. And to be honest, until the end of the game I had forgotten about him. There are also a few interesting sub-plots, even though the only one that really gets rolling is the one involving your English teacher's booze problem. And that really doesn't affect the main plot at all. And the main character... there are times where you'll want to punch Jimmy's lights out because he can be a real ******* at times. But even though he might not be a likable anti-hero, he isn't heartless.
Back to what I was saying about game play a few paragraphs ago: it's (more or less) watered-down GTA. And if you're looking for a good sandbox experience... this isn't the game for you. The sandbox aspect of the game-play kind of sucks, the authority in this game is way to powerful to really make anything enjoyable. You get into a fight and if a prefect or cop is in view, unless you have means of escape or are ready to run it's over. There isn't a **** thing you can do to fight the authority, if you try to fist fight them they'll tackle you and either throw you in jail or send you to detention. When it comes down to combat, if you get in a fist fight and you've gotten training from either Gym class or you've gotten plenty of transmitters for the Hobo (don't ask) you're going to win. And you also get various ranged weapons that can be anywhere from eggs to firecrackers to stink bombs. But once you get the slingshot you'll wonder why you bother carrying anything other than that, your skateboard, camera and maybe some bottle rocket launchers around. The thing is so over powered that while in most boss fights, they'll give you hints to try and use their way of beating the boss. But when their way doesn't work you'll just say "screw that" and pull out the slingshot. And I think that Rock Star noticed at the end of the game that it's overpowered because they take it away for the final boss fight. And speaking of boss fights, they're all pathetic. There wasn't a single boss fight that I found hard. And the final boss... wow.... that's was just too easy. It was exactly the same as a regular fist fight only the last boss had a lot of HP and I couldn't shoot him with my slingshot after I tripped him.
All and all, Bully isn't terrible, but it isn't that good either. When you're actually doing a story mission that seems important it's a blast, but it just gets way to slow between the main missions and most of the side missions serve only as something to amuse you as you wait for another story mission to open up. The storyline reminds of one of these obscure high-school movies from the 80s where the nerds overcome the jocks but putting together some insane half-baked scheme that would never work in real life. And yeah the storyline is a big jumbled mess but most of the cinematics are genuinely funny. So Bully: If you're looking for a fun little game to hold you over until (insert game here) comes out, then pick it up. But if you're looking for wild sandbox mayhem, prepare to be very disappointed.
