This pupil passed with flying colours...
You play as a social outcast called Jimmy Hopkins. His mum and stepfather are off on their honeymoon... for a year. They don't want to take you with them, so they dump you at arguably the worst boarding school in Britain.
As soon as you enter the school gates, a load of bullies size you up, and God help them if they aren't quick learners. You see, Jimmy may be new and vulnerable, but he packs a punch.
The graphics in the game are amazing, as you quickly realize as you wonder around the school grounds after the unfortunate incident with the bullies. Sure, insults are thrown at you from every direction, and you have to watch your back- luckily though, with the game's excellent camera, watching your back is fairly easy.
There are different cliques around the school- hilarious, caricatured versions of classic types of schoolboy, whose names speak for themselves. The nerds, preps, greasers, jocks and bullies are all against you to begin with, but completing missions will soon have people diving at your feet and apologising profusely for mistreating you earlier in the game. Jimmy Hopkins demands respect.
Each chapter sees Jimmy trying to sort out each different clique. Like in any Grand Theft Auto, (the similarities between the GTA games and this one are endless- not neccessarily a bad thing) you are able to accept missions at will, whenever you like. You can happily play the game for hours without completing a single mission.
Completing missions has its benefits- namely by gaining respect from certain factions, and money (which you can spend at the local shops and hairdressers when the town of Bullworth becomes unlocked to you). Completing school lessons, which consist of mini games, helps you in other areas. For example, passing Art class will help you with the ladies, and gym class will help you to fight with more ease. English, a mini game where you must make as many words out of a set of letters as possible, allows you to apologise to authoratative figures (i.e. prefects and cops) so that you can get away with small crimes. There is an added bonus to completing all of your lessons: you are free to roam the town and school grounds without being brought in for truanting.
But only until 2AM! Jimmy is a school boy, after all, and needs his sleep. Carl Johnson of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, or most characters from any game really, can stand around and let time pass from day to night, to day again, without it having any effect whatsoever. Canis Canem Edit constantly reminds you that you are just a schoolboy, and face all of the problems an ordinary schoolboy would. This goes for uniform, too- wearing a clown costume to school is, shall I say, frowned upon by the prefects.
As the game progresses, not only can you fight better with your fists, but you get some kick-ass weapons, too. From the classic catapult to the powerful spud gun, from the stink bombs and itching powder to the firecrackers and bottle rocket launcher, Canis Canem Edit has it all. You can even use your spray can to vandalise public property... joy!
For the obsessive compulsive among you, there are loads of items scattered across the gaming world (which is huge, by the way) to keep you busy. There might be a garden gnome lurking next to the roller coaster in the carnival, or a collectable card hiding outside the mental asylum. Bullworth town is a very diverse place, and great fun to explore.
There really is too much to describe in a review. But the price this sells for nowadays... is an absolute steal.