It's been almost 3 years since Bullet Witch was released and so far, the game was a commercial failure and critically bashed by numerous game reviewers. Some review sites or groups labeled Bullet Witch being one of the worse games in 2007 or generation. Once you read all that stuff that I typed, you think this game is really that bad? Well to them probably, but to me, this game shines in many levels. I'm actually proud that I got an Xbox 360 because this game is a 360 exclusive and it's completely overshadowed by many of the mainstream 360 games like Halo or Fable.
So the storyline is a bit confusing at first, but you'll get it as you play through the game. It starts out with a cutscene of some random dude going into some dark forest and he literally sacrificed himself for something. Then it jumps to basic idea of the plot. It's 2013 and the world is suffering major neutral disasters and an invasion of demons (by the dude that sacrificed himself). Out of nowhere, you play as Alicia Claus, a witch-themed super soldier that's here to save the day. There you go, your storyline. However, the game will tell you why the man did what he did as you play through with backstory of Alicia. It may not be the best story in the world, but atleast it was engaging enough to keep it interesting for me.
Bloody hell, what is that thing?!
Come Get Some!
The sounds and graphics are somewhat low budget. However, the graphics looks much better in a HDTV compared to a SDTV. Everything in the environment from the character models, they all look fair at best. It's no Gears of War keep in mind. The sound it may not be the best because the weapons aren't really too strong so it does lack that power for the guns. The spells are very similar to the weapons. Voice acting are fairly done well. The main character sounds gothic and lifeless and the demons they may not sound the most scariest demons, but it's appropriate for them. They're pretty much like the Grunts from the Halo series. They'll throw a couple of funny lines at times when you fight.
One of the enemies in the game.
Don't worry about the smell of death, they'll be burned soon.
The gameplay of Bullet Witch is a run and gunner mixed with witch craft and destructable environments Your main goal in Bullet Witch is just to get point A to point B blasting hordes of Geists with your arsenal and magic. Before I move on, the game did have a goal with the 360. It wanted to show what it could do in terms of physics and the physics seems to be very well done. I'm not sure if it's comparable with Half-Life 2, but they are nice from what I'm seeing. It's about 4-5 hours long with 6 long stages or levels and that may scare some players. No worries, it's made to be replayable since you have an upgrade system that allows you to increase your damage of your weapons, earn new weapons, spells, and more everytime you beat a level. Keep in mind, the more kills you get, the more points you earned, and the more points you earned, the more "money" you get for these upgrades. Death will reduce your points and you are also timed and if you spent too long on the levels, you will lose your multiplier. Controls will take a couple of time to get used, but once you're used to it, they'll be very smooth. You can also customize your controls, but they're pretty limited like you can either change the jump button to LT to RT or RT to LT. The game got four weapons and they are the Machine gun/Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Cannon, and Gatling Gun. All weapons have their uses especially on a higher difficulty. There are about 8-10 spells and they can be used defensively or offensively. Some of them feature like you can summon a flock of crows to aid you in your fighting, create a wall for regenerating your life if you need to stay out combat, or you can add elemental powers to your weapons to make them stronger. Alicia can also cast "Great Spells" which are the her ultimate abilities like she can cast a tornado to suck enemies up and destroy pretty much everything around it's way or cast a meteor and it looks like the spell can actually destroy a couple of buildings into pieces. You do have mana and mana is pretty much your ammo and your ability to cast spells. To get mana, you must kill an enemy. Mana can also regenerate, but the more you use (from your spells), it'll limit the maximum amount that you can have so you have to kill to increase. Your life works in a similar structure with the mana also except you're simply just killing enemies to increase your limitation while regenerating. All of these features are there to help you to fight your enemies. Your enemies are somewhat lacking if you say. They're kinda like Gears of War in certain ways like you're basically just fighting Locust Soldiers. Well in Bullet Witch, you're usually fighting Geists soldiers and there are different roles of them like the heavy gunner or the shotgunner to keep game somewhat not repetitive. Sometimes, you'll fight a couple of different enemies like Worm Men. These things are probably some of the most disturbing creatures I've seen in a video game. They make this messed-up sound and they are usually in groups of 5-10 and they'll run up to you and kinda "spike you" with it's spike in its stomach. Your enemies AI are pretty brain dead, but on higher difficulties, they're much tougher to kill and they will hurt you a lot more. The game also features Commandos which he can command Geist soldiers to be more tactical in combat. Bullet Witch also features 2 boss fights and they will offer a challenge since they can be very unforgiving at times. If you don't think the games too challenging or looking for more content, Bullet Witch features about 15+ extra levels that's based on it's 6 levels for challenge and content in its DLC section. It also has free costumes by the ways if you want some new skins. To get to the whole point of the game, it's fun, addicting, unique rewarding, and challenging.
Before Bullet Witch was coming out, Atari tried it's best to make the game follow the same path as Halo or Final Fantasy did-a culture. However, due to commercial sales, it seems like the Bullet Witch is pretty much dead. That doesn't mean the game is a complete failure to everyone's eyes. It'll probably appeal to some people in the gaming audience. In the end, I really had a fun time with Bullet Witch and hopefully there will be a sequel to give the game another chance since it really does have potential to be the next Halo. 9/10
Up close and personal!
Alicia could've been the next Lara Croft.
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