TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (Xbox)

Within the sea of gaming, there’s usually at least one series you hear about on and off, but otherwise don’t pay too much attention to. For me, that was TimeSplitters, a series of FPS games developed by Free Radical Design. When the announcement came in 2021 that Free Radical was reformed by their new parent company explicitly to revive the series, I got a little more curious about the series, though I wouldn’t actually try any of the games out for myself until I had seen certain references to 2005’s Future Perfect, the third game, that caught my attention. Coincidentally, I found a physical Xbox copy out in the wild and now I’m glad that I gave this game a chance.

TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan

After the release of TY 2, Krome Studios developed a follow-up game, TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan, released the following year in 2005. While introducing some additional gameplay mechanics, the game notably draws on Australian folklore for its new enemies, the titular Quinkan. For now, let’s see how TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3 handles this concept and whether it’s enough to mix things up a bit from its predecessors.

TY as he appears in TY 3.

Some time after the events of TY 2, TY and Shazza are summoned by the Bunyip Elder to the Dreamtime, where they must stop an ancient enemy known as the Quinkan from overtaking the Dreaming. After fighting through a gauntlet of enemies, TY obtains the Quinkan Gauntlet, which allows him to actually fight the Quinkan via Close Rang Combat. As TY and Shazza return to the real world, a rogue Quinkan attacks them, throwing off TY and causing him to arrive after Shazza following some additional Dreamtime training. After following a thylacine name Ridge, TY discovers that Burramudgee has changed in the 6 months he’d been gone, as an invasion of Quinkan has turned Southern Rivers into a war zone. TY must now help take down the Quinkan in order to restore balance to Southern Rivers.

The gameplay of TY 3 is generally similar to TY 2, though there are still some differences. The biggest difference is perhaps the way Rangs work in this game; rather than buying Rangs with given abilities, you instead buy Chassis that do not feature their own abilities until customized with Stones. There are multiple Chassis types with their own features (ex. grappling, remote control) and number of Stone slots. Stones grant the Rangs powers such as electricity, fire, or even up to slowing down time, with these abilities upgraded by having 2+ Stones of the same type together (ex. 2 water Stones gives the Rang a freezing ability); there’s also compatibility of different Stones being used together, though this is something I did not explore in-depth. (Protip: While these abilities are meant to aid in Close Rang Combat or dealing with certain situations, you don’t really need much else when you have the Duo Chassis (2 slots) and 2 Earth Stones, which creates an explosion that allows you to essentially bypass the Close Rang Combat entirely in addition to opening metal crates you can find for more Opals.)

TY (right) battling Quinkan (left).

The open world returns from TY 2, though much bigger this time and with a different layout, plus you ride the Crabmersible to travel around the world rather than the decommissioned Bush Rescue jeep. The Crabmersible is also a little more versatile since it can travel underwater, plus losing all your health while driving it will revive you on the spot, even after you passed an outhouse. The world of Southern Rivers is split into two sections, Burramudgee and Cassopolis, with their namesake towns each featuring their own Rang Shops and environments/characters to interact with, with Bunyip shops being located throughout the world. As with TY 2, buying from each Rang Shop will get you different Chassis and Stones, so you will have to make the long trek all the way to Cassopolis to get certain things, which sometimes made me wish fast travel was a thing at the time.

The Kart Racing minigame makes a return here, and with it the addition of a Gunyip minigame that can also be accessed from the main menu. However, rather than being completely optional, the story absolutely requires you to play through some Gunyip and Kart stages to advance. The Kart missions can be particularly annoying since, on top of having to come in first, you are often required to complete some outrageous objectives that can require several tries to get right. In general, the game feels a bit more vehicle-centric compared to the previous two games, since there’s now hardly any points where you are actually on-foot, which ended up being somewhat of a disappointment for me. This would be rectified with TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4, however I’m getting ahead of myself.

The new means of traversing Southern Rivers.
(Finding usable screenshots is still difficult.)

The graphics continue to improve over the previous game, featuring a minor art style upgrade to make things a little more stylized. There isn’t much in terms of random wildlife running about, though their general absence makes some amount of sense given the premise of the Quinkan invasion. As with the previous games, the sound design is really good, with the background music sounding familiar, yet different enough from its predecessors. As for the voice acting, it’s evident that every (main) character suffers from Dante Disease, however I appreciate them trying to still sound consistent enough with the previous voices; while they still sound a little different, you do get used to them after a while. The subtitle issue from previous games persists here, though I’m aware the first three games came out at a point before cutscene subtitles became a more common option in games.

TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan once again improves over the previous game visually, though it has some issues gameplay-wise. While I don’t know much about Australian folklore, the fact that the mythological Quinkan were used as the main villains adds a unique flavor to the game to help it stand out a little from the games it was evidently influenced by. I would still recommend TY 3 to Ty fans, primarily so the story for TY 4 makes more sense, whereas newcomers are better off still going through the first two games first in order to better follow along with the plot and character dynamics. As with TY 1 and TY 2, if you don’t own or can’t obtain/play a sixth-generation console copy of the game, TY 3 is also available for purchase on the Steam digital distribution platform.

TY the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue

Following the success of the original TY the Tasmanian Tiger, Krome Studios developed a sequel, released in 2004, known as TY the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue. Among other changes, this release sees a somewhat drastic change in general gameplay, as platformers of its kind were wont to do. Continuing our look at this series, let us take a look at TY the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue.

Following the events of the original game, Boss Cass’ subordinate, Fluffy, is attempting to break him out of prison, however TY tries (and fails) to stop her. Sometime after this, Boss Cass has formed his own sovereign nation, Cassopolis, solely as a means to gain diplomatic immunity and get away with whatever he wants. In response to this, a group known as Bush Rescue is formed, with TY put at the center, to help those in need within Southern Rivers and protect them from Boss Cass. Meanwhile, with the aid of an old koala named Karlos, Boss Cass has been developing an army of Uber Frills in order to take over Southern Rivers.

The primary gameplay is similar to the previous game, primarily TY’s moveset and the presence of platforming, except now the levels take place in a more open world. Outside the starting town of Burramudgee, you move around the various missions in Southern Rivers via driving the Bush Rescue jeep (a minimap, like in TY 1 and 3, is provided to help you find your way). These missions can vary in terms of design and objectives, and somewhere deeper in the map is an area big enough to almost be an entire other hubworld.

The Bush Rescue jeep in action. (Finding usable screenshots remains
somewhat difficult.)

Burramudgee also has shops where you can purchase new Rangs and other abilities and story items, using Opals and other collectibles as currency. When you get past a certain point in the game, a new shop opens up on the map where you can purchase more powerful Rangs from Sly, a former enemy thylacine, which more resemble the Rangs from TY 1 to override the Rangs you can purchase in Burramudgee. (Protip: The Doomerang is the one you want for most situations.)

Being a game from 2004, the graphics are an improvement over the original TY game, including those of the pre-rendered cutscenes. There’s also sort of a minor art style change compared to the previous game, though it doesn’t deviate too much to be jarring. As with the previous game, it’s possible to see Australian wildlife running about, which can make one wonder how they could do that without sacrificing too much processing power. Also like the previous game, there is some good sound design, especially in the background music (at least one track even had me thinking of Ratchet & Clank of all things); the voice actors, however, are different from those in the previous game, making it a little jarring after you’ve gotten used to the previous cast. In spite of this, you do get used to the new cast after a while and they do a decent job putting their own spin on the voices without overall straying too far from how they sounded previously. There’s still the issue of a lack of subtitles in cutscenes, so you’d have to make do when playing.

One addition to the game is the optional kart racing missions (because there was a point where kart racing games were all the rage), which can provide a fun distraction to increase replayability. These minigames can be accessed from within the open world, however you can also access them from the main menu if you so choose, thus turning it into a potential party game akin to Mario Kart.

You also get to pilot a Bunyip at certain points in the game.

TY the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue is a graphical improvement over the previous TY game, and the added gameplay variety and more open world gives something new for players to explore. The change in voice actors can be a bit jarring, however one can get used to it after several minutes of play. This is a game I would recommend to fans of the original TY game and its ilk, however I would still suggest newcomers start with TY 1 for the sake of the story. As with TY 1, this game can be purchased and played via Steam for those unable to acquire/play the game for sixth-generation home consoles.

TY the Tasmanian Tiger

In 2002, Australian developer Krome Studios released the first in the TY the Tasmanian Tiger series, a late entry in the “mascot with attitude” craze and heavily inspired by Australian wildlife (and also named “TY” to avoid legal trouble with Ty Inc., the toy company responsible for the Beanie Babies fad during the ‘90s). The series proved to be successful enough to last a trilogy in its original release, followed by a fourth game several years later. Though I had been aware of the games when they first released, it wasn’t until recently that I had suddenly become interested in playing them, managing to acquire the first two at a used-game/movie store in Texas, receiving the third as a birthday present, and buying the fourth during the most recent Steam Summer Sale (as of this writing). The first three were also a personal excuse to dust off the original Xbox, while the fourth was only released digitally. With any further ado, let us start from the beginning with the original TY the Tasmanian Tiger.

As TY (a Tasmanian tiger) is exploring a forest, he stumbles upon a story of how the rest of the thylacines (aka Tasmanian tigers) were banished to the Dreamtime by Boss Cass, an evil cassowary who wants to rule over Southern Rivers. With the help of Maurie (a cockatoo) and Julius (a koala scientist), TY has to search for Thunder Eggs to help locate five talismans that will create a portal to the Dreamtime and rescue the other thylacines and defeat Boss Cass.

The core gameplay involves TY being able to throw various types of Boomerangs, or Rangs, that have varying effects on enemies he encounters and the environment, among them fire, ice, explosions, and seeing invisible objects. Rangs can be acquired either by advancing the plot or collecting enough Golden Cogs in each level. Aside from this, TY can also glide across gaps and use a bite attack in combat, the latter of which seems generally faithful to how big an actual thylacine’s open mouth can get.

TY's bite attack. (Finding screenshots for this game is difficult.)

Levels are accessed via a large hub world, which groups them by theme between a few locations on the map. Each level has their own set of objectives that need to be completed, such as going through specific events or collecting enough of certain collectibles, all to obtain enough Thunder Eggs between them to fight bosses to advance the story.

Though not quite the same, the general design feels somewhat reminiscent of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, including the fact that Opals, one of the staple collectibles required for getting Thunder Eggs, are essentially the equivalent to that game’s Precursor Orbs. There is also the presence of a Lives system, with Health represented by a pawprint and refillable via consuming pie (slices). Extra lives can be gained by finding representations of TY’s head (Protip: There’s one that regenerates in the hub world every time you load it) and losing a life gets you revived in the nearest outhouse that you have passed.

Though a game from 2002, the graphics hold up surprisingly well. Each set of levels also feels unique with its varying settings, and the overall design of the game is generally good. An interesting feature is the inclusion of random Australian wildlife, which adds to the world and helps it feel more alive. The named characters are also often based on more obscure Australian animals, such as the cassowary, lyrebird and Tasmanian devil; I should note here that, while TY himself is based on an obscure animal, the Tasmanian tiger, thylacines are officially classified as extinct in the real world. However, the immersion of the world can be broken temporarily when you discover the limits of the game’s skybox (particularly in snow levels) and there are no subtitles in pre-rendered cutscenes even when the option is on.

TY against the first boss, Bull.

The sound design for the game is actually one highlight, as the music creates what feels like an authentic Australian atmosphere. The characters also sport non-annoying Australian accents, plus the game has led me to learn some Australian slang I had not previously been familiar with. Though one should not get too attached to the voice actors when playing the games back-to-back, they do an overall good job in portraying their respective characters, giving them a distinct voice that future replacements have attempted to emulate.

Overall, TY the Tasmanian Tiger is a good start to the current tetralogy of games. Being an Australian developer, Krome Studios was able to deliver a very Australian experience that helps it stand out from the types of games it is attempting to emulate. I would suggest newcomers to the franchise begin with this game, as it sets up the major characters and world-building featured in later installments. For those who wish to revisit the game and/or do not have a sixth-generation console, TY 1 is currently available for purchase on Steam as of this writing.

[OLD] Alice: Madness Returns - Still Needs Treatment

This game has been re-reviewed. Read it here: https://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2019/10/second-look-alice-madness-returns.html

In the year 2000, Electronic Arts released American McGee's Alice, an unofficial sequel to Lewis Carrol's "Alice" books created by American McGee. It's themes were based on that of a demented Wonderland and provided players with an unforgettable experience. 11 years later a sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, was released along with a port of the original for those who are uninitiated. The sequel continues the story of the original rather well and proves to be entertaining, but sadly falls a little short of what could've been another amazing experience.

A year after being released from Rutledge Asylum, Alice is taken in by a psychiatrist named Dr. Angus Bumby, who runs the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth, a shelter in Victorian London. Bumby's job is to help children overcome traumatic events in their lives by making them forget so they can live happily. During a point where Alice is outside the Home, she is transported back into Wonderland. All seems peaceful until she learns that her safe haven is once again in peril and faces certain destruction by the Infernal Train, a manifestation of her madness. As she journeys through this new Wonderland, she remembers events in her past while learning more about her mental state and the fire that killed her family.

There are 6 Chapters in the game, each based on a different section of Wonderland. However, there isn't very much inspiration from Lewis Carroll's books as there was in the first game. While the levels are based on Wonderland, they're actually moreso based on Alice's psyche and reflect her current condition. While it was nice to try and figure everything out, there isn't really much of any of the Wonderland residents that Alice has met before, though this could be explained with the help Dr. Bumby is providing to Alice changing her fantasy world. However I still found the game to be somehow uninspired compared to the original American McGee's Alice, which seemed to feel more like you're actually travelling through Wonderland. Breaks between Chapters take place in London, continuing Alice's story in the real world as she gathers more information about her past and what's really going on.

During the course of the game you obtain a fair amount of weapons, including the Vorpal Blade, your standard weapon; the Pepper Grinder, a long-range weapon that fires pepper; the Hobby Horse, a powerful close-range weapon; the Teapot Cannon, another ranged weapon that fires scalding tea for massive damage; an Umbrella, used for blocking projectiles; and the Clockwork Bomb, a powerful bomb that can either cause destruction or be used as a weight. At times, you will need the Hobby Horse or Clockwork Bomb to destroy barriers that block your path or to damage certain enemies. The Umbrella can only be used when you focus on enemies (with a shoulder button on consoles), and what happens depends on what's being fired at you. The Pepper Grinder and the Teapot Cannon are often used for their own purposes: the Pepper Grinder is used for peppering Snouts and hitting targets to unlock items and pathways, in addition to taking care of enemies from a distance, and the Teapot Cannon is usually for taking care of large groups and destroying barriers that can't normally be hit with the Hobby Horse.

Weapons are upgraded by using Teeth, which you can collect by destroying breakable items and killing your foes. You can also Shrink at any time you wish, giving you a Shrink Sense that allows you to see invisible pathways and drawings (and sometimes Snouts). This is required to go through often-hidden Keyholes as well as use the power of Shrinking Violets. While encased in this flower, your Health, determined by Roses, becomes restored and growing back gives you more Teeth and destroys the flower. When you are low on Health during a battle, you can tap into Hysteria, which doubles your damage output and makes you invincible for a brief period. You can gain more Roses for Health by painting the Rose red, whcih requires going through 4 Radula Rooms for red paint. Radula Rooms are hidden shells that give you paint for completing a minigame, ranging from answering questions to playing a special level and surviving swarms of enemies.

On the subject of mingames, there are plenty of these scattered about that break up the action, including chess and sliding block puzzles, pressing buttons in rhythm, and rolling a doll head. While this does provide a breather every now and then, they can get annoying at times, particularly the doll head segments. Fortunately if you get too frustrated, unless it's for red paint, you have the ability to skip these segments.

Alice has the ability to triple jump, something not seen very often in games, as well as the ability to glide with her dress to gain more distance. This is what you'll be doing for most of the game as you jump from platform to platform to advance further through Wonderland. There is, however, a big catch: Alice cannot grab onto ledges, which can lead to many an untimely death, nor can she attack while in the air. These abilities would've been nice to have, though I don't know whether to blame the manual taking space on the disk as opposed to it being physical.

The graphics of the game are wonderful to look at, though there is some texture loading after some items and characters appear, such as the Cheshire Cat. Within all of this, the best graphics belong to Alice herself. Her hair and dress flow beautifully and realistically even with the slightest of movements, which really shows off the game engine's capabilities. The backgrounds compliment the setting really well, in fact getting creepier, if feeling a little generic, as the game went on. The voice acting is solid and the dialogue between characters flows well, sometimes upping the suspense of the events taking place. On the musical side of things, Chris Vrenna once again delivers an amazing soundtrack that sets the tone of the game perfectly at each locale.

There is one other complaint I have, and it has to do with the final boss. Compared to the boss fight at the end of the original, it isn't exactly that difficult to beat and I didn't feel the same excitment that I felt while beating the first game. Despite that, it can still get a little chaotic as it gets you constantly moving and dodging the onslaught of attacks.

Alice: Madness Returns isn't a perfect game, but it does provide a good, suspensful story that will keep you going. Fans of the original Alice will get a nice experience from this sequel once they overcome its shortcomings, and those familiar with Lewis Carroll's original books will have a good time spotting the various references spread throughout. If you have an interest in playing this game, I would suggest picking it up and playing the original first in order to aid the story.

[OLD] American McGee's Alice - A Dark Twist On A Classic Piece Of Literature

In 1865, an English author under the name Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) put out a book, entitled "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," followed by a sequel in 1871 called "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There." These went on to become two of his most famous works, gaining many adaptations and unofficial sequels as the years passed, one of the most well-known adaptations being the 1951 animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. Late in the year 2000, Electronic Arts (EA) released their first M-Rated game, American McGee's Alice, a notable game from the mind of American McGee that is now a valuable collector's item. With the release of a sequel 11 years later, new copies of the new game came with a code to download this legendary title, which is how I was able to finally play it. After completing it, I found the game to be quite challenging, but very satisfying by the time I got to the end.

Set years after the events of the Lewis Carroll books, Alice's house is destroyed in an accidental fire that takes her family along with it. Being the sole survivor of this tragedy, Alice becomes wracked with guilt and is admitted to Rutledge Asylum for treatment, a stuffed rabbit her only companion. Ten years later, she is transported back to Wonderland, which has been warped by her thoughts into a dystopian nightmare. Aided by the Cheshire Cat and a Vorpal Blade, Alice travels through the hellish landscape in search of the Queen of Hearts, whom she must kill in order to regain her sanity and restore Wonderland to it's original, magical state.

As you wander this twisted Wonderland, you can pick up other weapons to use aside from your starting Vorpal Blade, among them Cards, Jacks, and even Devil Dice. Depending on your usage of these weapons, they use up a blue Will meter at your right of the screen, accompanied by a red Sanity meter on the opposite side representing your Health. You can recharge both of these meters with Mantras, a small boost with small diamond-shaped ones and a much larger boost with bigger, heart-shaped ones. You can also pick up items multiple times for an upgrade, the most obvious visually being the Devil Dice, and some items restore only your Will or Sanity, though these are more sparsely placed.

You can obtain Mantras by collecting regenerating ones in the open or by defeating enemies, which differ depending on the stage, such as insects in garden stages or mini devils in more hell-like locales, but you most commonly encounter Card Guards. Grasshopper Teas can give a temporary boost of speed, Rageboxes give you extra strength for a brief period, Hand Mirrors make you invisible for a short time, and a Turtle Shell you obtain at one point allows you better maneuverability underwater. The Cheshire cat pops up occaisonally to give you cryptic advice, but these hints can easily be figured out.

Being a game released in the year 2000, there is a more gradual difficulty curve compared to other games both old and modern, which is good as it allows you to gain better reflexes for handling swarms of enemies. The graphics obviously don't age very well, especially given that it was originally a computer game for 10 years, but there is still a lot of variety in the visuals. Some of my favorite levels to look at were the ones in Pale Realm, an area made entirely of the game Chess, a theme from "Through the Looking-Glass." The area before you enter shows a great example of the creativity of the level design, as Chess spaces are haphazardly placed to create a deadly atmosphere out of a common board game.

The sound quality of the game is amazing, even for a ten-year-old game, and the voice acting feels quite natural. Though the voice actresses for Alice in this game and the Disney film are different, her game voice sounded similar to her Disney voice to me, but this strangely fits as that movie is most likely the one you associate the story of Wonderland with. Chris Vrenna, a former member of Nine Inch Nails, has created the perfect soundtrack for this game, and it's amazing how much of it is composed of old toys and other common sounds, such as opening doors and women screaming, crying, laughing, or singing eerily. You can even buy the soundtrack on CD, which sets the mood fantastically and actually gets you interested in playing the game.

Of course, no game is without it's problems. In this case, I ran into a glitch where Alice would just run off in one direction without my intervention, causing a death during the early Jabberwock fight. One time an enemy actually froze her in place, which I was thankful for because it actually got me back control of her. This only happened a few times though, but another nasty one came up a couple times where she would just go into a corner and the camera would fix onto one spot, once at the very beginning of the game and another time near the end. This also caused the controls to lock up, including the PS button, giving me no other option but to restart the console. This didn't come up again after the restart, but it was a rather annoying bug. Because this can come up, and for the sake of getting through faster, I would recommend saving at every chance you get.

American McGee's Alice is a real masterpiece of gaming that shouldn't be missed by gamers over the age of 17. A lot of care went into making this game and it really shows, spawning a legacy in the PC world that has now come to consoles through an official sequel, Alice: Madness Returns. If you have any sort of interest in this title, I would suggest picking it up as soon as you can. The experience is worth it in the end, your reward being the satisfaction of having played a great game that is sure to give you an adrenaline rush.

Bulletstorm: FPS On Steroids

In the world of the crowded FPS Genre, it gets difficult to stay on top. Every time a new concept comes along, various clones show up to try and cash in on the idea. However, one key concept always remains in an FPS: using the environment as a weapon. These usually come in the form of red barrels or some other form of explosive object in the background. The concept of realism also stands, attempting to combine the two into masterpiece crafts of the genre. If a game like Uncharted 2 is like a cinematic masterpiece and Call of Duty is a realistic war scenario, then Bulletstorm is a melodic blood symphony that makes the most out of its concept/tagline; Kill With Skill.

Looking first at the story, I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. Usually, a game with a concept as unique as that of Bulletstorm would just have a razor thin excuse plot designed solely to let you run wild. Instead, the story for this game has a surprising amount of depth to it. We start with a very intriguing and potty mouthed opening, which sets the stage for the story. Grayson Hunt finally encounters a ship that General Serrano is on and proceeds to attack it dead on. His ship crashes into Serrano's and both end up landing on the planet Stygia. After having surgery performed on his partner Ishi Sato, Grayson locks onto the location of Serrano and they both proceed to locate him.

It wouldn't really be right to talk about the plot of the game any further, as it is full of twists and unforeseen circumstances. But it would be right to say that it is full of truly spectacular moments and feats of scale never before seen in a shooter. For example, there is one section where Grayson gleefully attacks his enemies with a giant remote controlled robotic dinosaur, and another where Grayson and Ishi have to shoot enemies on an oncoming train while avoiding and attempting to take out a humongous wheel weaving towards them. The story was well-written in my opinion, assisted by top-notch voice acting and hilarious, if very potty mouthed, dialogue. Seriously, the amount of language in this game is enough to rival most games out on the market today. Even so, I was laughing all the way through the campaign.

The biggest part of Bulletstorm is the premise: Kill With Skill. Kills in the game are called Skillshots. In essence, there is a name for just about any kind of kill you can pull off short of just outright mowing an enemy down, each with a point value assigned to it. These points are then used as currency for the various dropkits scattered in the game, so the better you are the more weapons, upgrade, and ammo you can purchase for your guns. These skillshots come from skillfully combining your guns, leash, and standing and sliding kicks to pull off increasingly elaborate shots. Some also involve the environment, such as setting off an explosive near the enemy for the Enviro-Mental skillshot, which is one of the simplest skill shots to perform. If you want to start getting complex, you can use the energy leash's alt-fire, Thumper, to launch enemies into the air and kill them for Trap Shooting. And if you want to really get intricate, you can leash an enemy to your position, wrap a flail shot around them, and then kick them back toward a group and detonate the flail for the Homie Missile and Gang Bang skillshots. There are so many skillshots that I still haven't found all of them. There is a real thrill out of finding new skillshots and weapon combinations to use, which will guarantee more play out of the game in the near future.

The weapons are perhaps the most fun thing about Bulletstorm. Aside from the energy leash, kick, and trusty Peacemaker Carbine (PMC), you have a wide array of guns, each with their own powerful alt-fire modes. The alt-fire allows you to charge up your shots for equally ridiculous effects. For example, charging the Screamer turns it into a flare gun and charging the Head Hunter, a sniper rifle, allows you to detonate the sniper round midair for explosive results. Weapons also include the Penetrator, a drill gun; Flail Gun; Bouncer, a grenade launcher with bouncing orb shots; and Boneduster, a quadruple-barreled shotgun. While using them is always exciting, it helps that the controls are very tight and responsive, letting you feel more like a killing machine than ever thought possible. You can carry two other guns besides the PMC, and some are situational, but it's exciting to find that a combination was very effective even if it wasn't the "correct" one.

As far as visuals go, they were very detailed and fluid. The backgrounds are also very lush and colorful and the architecture is beautifully detailed, which gives you something nice to look at while you paint the walls with the blood and guts of your enemies. It was great to see a game like this use a large color palette, making for more inviting scenery and architecture than something like Fallout 3 or Bioshock 2. The game is also very linear, which minimizes backtracking to just going back to a strategically placed dropkit for a different load out or more ammo. What I knew going in was that the enemies in the game were more randomized to avoid being simply cookie cutter clusters, which I liked when I noticed some of the subtlety in the generated enemies.

Aside from the enjoyable Single Player campaign, there are also the Echoes and multiplayer Anarchy modes. Echoes mode has you replaying specific enemy encounters to compete against your friends by racking up points and finding more skillshots. While I enjoyed this mode for hours, I believe that leaderboard nuts will get full enjoyment out of this mode, compared to someone like me who prefers to play it to squeeze more fun out of the game. Sadly, I am unable to review the Anarchy mode due to unknown circumstances. I can't tell if it was the weather at the time or if it was a bad server connection or if it was my PS3 acting up, but I was unable to play a single map and at best stared at an infinite loading screen for about 30 minutes before giving up. As such, I am not one to say whether or not the online cooperative multiplayer is good or not; you may have to find out from someone else.

So, besides being unable to personally play the multiplayer and an okay ending to the story, Bulletstorm exceeded all of my expectations and then some. Never before has an FPS game make you think so quickly about various kills to the point where it becomes an instinctive reaction. I can definitely recommend this game to absolutely anyone who has played an FPS in their life and is willing to experience something that will expand their creative thinking. As for those who are still on the fence, think about it this way: in this game, you can fire a scoped sniper round at an enemy and redirect it midflight to make sure it hits your target, then control the enemy you just shot midair to another close by and remotely detonate the round.