Bulletstorm is a breath of fresh air in today's shooter market; and a game ever action fan should enjoy.
Story : 6/10
First difference: this game has a story. Yes the characters are as cliched as they get, yes the antagonist is the most irritating person you'll ever see (somehow that's not a good thing), and yes there are extrememly predictable twists and character growth. But somehow, between all the havoc and killing, Bulletstorm makes you care about its characters. And for a shooter, from Epic Games no less, that is quite an achievement.
Graphics: 9/10.
This is a game by Epic. How do you expect it will look? Bulletstorm looks phenomenal. Easily one of the greatest looking games on both consoles, the environments are a sight to behold, and while damage modelling might be a little shady, there's nothing here that doesn't leave you in awe every time you look at it.
Its not without it's issues though. Texture pop in is still a frequent (it kind of fades in, but its annoying nontheless), and I've never seen this reported anywhere else, but i experienced heavy framerate issues on the last level. Now, this is a game on Unreal 3 by the people who made Unreal 3, so it shouldn't be happening. I don't know if its common or not, but yes i experienced it, and downright choppy framerates on a console is unnacceptable in this day and age.
Sound: 5/10
In a word: Meh. The in game sounds are nothing to write home about. The swishing of flesh when you maim an opponent is always satisfying, but that's more due to my lust for gore than an achievement by the devs. Music is trashy. Standard video game stuff, and while it never leaves you wanting to turn the sound down, it doesn't add anything to the game.
Now, the dialogue. Its an iffy topic. I'm a 16 year old male, so i found the dialogue quite funny at times and suiting the tone of the game. There is extreme profanity here, so that might be a turn of for some people. However, there is an option to turn the swearing off, which is a blessing for people who have kids in the house.
Gameplay 9/10: So there are two main mechanincs in Bulletstorm. The first is, you can kick things. This is extremely useful, as you can kick enemies down heights, onto spikes, into fire, said fire into enemies, and so on. The second is your leash, which well, leashes things towards you. Using a combination of these two and the variety of weapons available, you are expected to kill things with as much 'skill' as possible. You get rewarded with points for every different 'skillshot' you used, and some can be quite hard to execute. There's even one for shooting people in the ass.
The whole of Bulletstorm revolves around these skillshots, and for the most part, it works. The game is exceedingly fun to play, and a considerably long campaign gives ample opportunity for multiple playthroughs. There are a few problems though. Its slow to start off, and there is one extrememly annoying sequence in the middle which i cannot believe made it in past QA. If i hadn't spent money on the game, I would have left it there and then.
Stick with it though, and you shall be rewarded. In today's market where straight up shooters are the norm, Bulletstorm is a breath of fresh air. If you don't like the genre, its doing nothing to change you, but if you do, Bulletstorm is an experience you'll enjoy very much, and most probably revisit, if only to see how many other ways you can kill that damn thing.
Also, two rants here. First, the tagline. "Kill with Skill"?! Really EA?? You have billions of dollars for marketing and you use this?
Secondly, there's a 'secret ending' after the credits. Which is not entirely secret, cause the credits are skippable (Gears 2's were not - I sat through the whole goddamn thing), and if you have been playing videogames for more than 10 years, you will see it coming from 20,000 miles away. Its pathetic really.