Bulletstorm Notes

First task is to enter the now ever present EA online pass. I firmly fall in the camp that abhors the selling of second hand games by corporations and as such have to endure these things with a smile.

Next up is to choose difficulty, there are 5 options, though I am firmly a normal man these days. Gone are the days of being masochistic and choosing hard levels. Not coming straight from Dragon Age Origins where even the gamer baiting casual difficulty was annoyingly hard.
So normal it is.

Controls
Left and right sticks as usual.
Clicking left stick crouches.
Left trigger aims down sights.
Right trigger is Fire.
B is kick.
X is use.
A is used to climb over low obstacles, holding it runs. Double tapping A slides.

Prologue Chapter 1
On the road to hell
We see a space ship with a skull painted on it.
Presumably on board the spaceship two beer drinking men are interrogating a man tied to a chair, who sounds very scared. Probably because the drunk men are trying to shoot a beer bottle off the top of his head.
It seems our two friends have a large bounty on their heads. Someone called Sarrano is paying for the hit.
We find out that the unfortunate in the chair is a bounty hunter. We shoot the beer bottle, then blow him out the airlock.
We then have to exit the cargo deck. The door is malfunctioning and we have to pry the door open.
As we do the bounty hunter can be seen throwing a grenade at the ship window in presumably his last act. The window shatters and we have a pseudo quicktime sequence to get the blast door shut.
We then get shown the crouching and jumping controls. We are told that the ships is jumping. A call comes from the bridge telling us to get there quick.
Our hero is called Greyson. On the Bridge a large ship is in front of our ship. It is called the Ulysses. Seems that this is Sarrano's ship and Greyson and a few of the others have a grudge.
The pilot named Ishi is less demented than the rest and calls for reason.
However Greyson has the support of the other drunken war veterans and they attack.
We get control  for a little emplaced gun fun, however it's short lived.
The ship is wrecked, Ishi is either dead or knocked out. Greyson pulls himself to the controls and engages the thrusters and tries to warp right through the enemy ship.
amazingly the ship isn't broken entirely and crash lands on the planet they were in orbit of.

The scene shifts to a flashback. We see Greyson standing on the side of a building using gravity boots and on his way to an assassination mission.
We are with all the gang from the ship and are here to kill someone called Bryce Novak.
We find him and look in through his window.
Breaching in we kill him in quicktime lite.
Then we are told that Sarrano wants a bomb placed on a computer. Seems we are working for Sarrano.
Ishi, always the troublemaker it seems finds that Novak was a reporter and was finishing a piece on Sarrano's corruption. It seems the Greyson and his gang thought that they were killing gung runners and mass murderers when it has been civilians all along.
Miffed they call Sarrano for an explanation, he insults them and Greyson tells him that he will kill him. We try and leave and soldiers pour in. There is a kid in the room as well and Ishi is trying to save her. I try and fight but it seems to be a no win fight. I get knocked down and a cut scene shows Ishi about to be shot and Greyson take the bullet for him.

We shift back to the present and Ishi is hurt bad in the crash. We can also see escape pods from the Ulysses landing in the distance.
We have to help the others get Ishi to the med bay. We go down in a lift and into the med bay. We have to get a fuel cell which we don't have to save Ishi. The escape pods have them, so it looks like a little mission is in order.
We progress through the ship and find some local loonies attacking.
We can slide
We fight some more groups of mad maxers.
Then we see an escape pod with one of Sarrano's men.
In cut scene we see him take out some mutants with a whip lash type weapon.
However someone crashes a vehicle into him.
We go to the wreckage and get the leash weapon, which I am asked to use to open the engine and our friend takes the fuel cell.
we are shown how to use the leash to move certain objects in the environment.
Also to pull people into object to kill them.
We get back to the ship and into the med Bay. The doc starts the procedure to save Ishi and we have to stay outside of the sterile field.
As the doc works the savages get inside and attack.
They also start to attack outside as well.
We fight until there is an explosion, In cut scene Greyson wakes to find the savages shooting up his friend. Ishi comes to save Greyson and the other guy grabs an explosive barrel and urges us to shoot. I do and there is an explosion and everything goes black.

Act one Chapter one
Just like the old days
Ishi has had half of his crushed body replaced with robot parts. He is now half robot.
He understandably is pissed with Greyson. He is now more robot that person.
Sarrano is on the planet and stuck on a hotel. Greyson thinks that rescue will be on the way for him.
Ishi needs some fuel to stay alive.
We set out to get some from the natives.
We are shown exploding barrels, we can kick the barrels then shoot them when they are near enemies.
There should be some note made to the nice environment here, a rocky mountainous landscape with jagged claws of rock pointing at the sky. Desert sand and bones of large animals making bridges.
I come to gate and before it is a machine. The machine is dropped from the ship by Sarrano for his troops and is a gated ammo and upgrade cache. We can shop using skill points for new upgrades and weapons.
We are shown about skill points, which the leash gives by grading the style of your kills.
The gate opens and savages attack.
We come to a camp and fight all the savages here.
Then down in a lift into a refinery

Act one Chapter 2
Last train from explosion town
We go down into the refinery, Greyson wonders if this is a pirate mining operation, however Ishi thinks that it is using to much confederation tech and is too organized to be anything other than confederation in origin. Maybe it has been taken over by the savages?
We come to a large room full of gyro copters, Ishi tell us to destroy them. As we do savages attack.
A gyrocopter driven by a savage attacks. We have to leash the pilot and play a little mini game of click the button at the right time, like a golf game to pull him out.
We progress through shanty buildings fighting the savages.
I find a place where I can kick barriers that the savages are using for cover and kill them.
We fight in a room and suddenly the building collapses and we fall down into the floor below.
I come to the power source and Ishi grabs hold and charges up in a spectacularly painful looking fashion.
The impromptu recharge has overloaded the system and we have to leave fast before the place explodes.
A train seems the best bet so we head for it.
As we get there a larger chaingun toting enemy appears.
He is stunned by a charge shot from the gun and then we can hit his unarmored areas to kill him.
We then have some chaingunning from the train as savages swarm it.
In cut scene Ishi gets the train moving, however a  savage sets a grindwheel in motion. It is a huge serated cog type device It rolls after the train.
This is an emplaced gun ride on the train. Jeeps, a barge and gyrocopters give chase. Then a dropship type copter which fires ground burrowing torpedoes.
We then have to hit huge tanks by the side of the track to stop the grindwheel from hitting us.
A another train attacks and while I blow it up, it is still pushing us.
The brakes are out and the train crashes.

Act one Chapter 3
Whatever it is, it's pissed.
We are now in more green and water filled terrain, though still mountainous.
Gyrocopters and savages attack. One of the gyrocopters is damaged and lands. Maybe we can use it. We have to head through a cave to get to it though.
Inside the cave we encounter some eggs. To progress we have to blow up the eggs. As we do the mother creature stirs. We have to run and a timer appears in the top middle of the screen.
I run out to the gyroppcoter and we both get on in cut scene.
The mother creature bursts it's way out of the mountain to chase us, though we can't see it for all the dust kicked up. he train is still hanging above us and we shoot the fuel tank to bring it down on the monster.
The gyrocopter is too broken to fly much further and crashes.
A new gun was taken from the savages here, a screamer.

Act 2 Chapter 1
Damsel in distress
We are closing in on the beacon, the final echo trooper is nearby.
I find a savage that can't be leashed.
We proceed into a new area which is a villa type area, in the distance a huge city can be seen.
I shoot up a bunch of fireflies that I find here.
I also find a newsbot, these appear to be the collectibles.
We fight some savages in a square then find a club, which we enter.
We fight a boss in the disco then out the other side.
Now through some dock like areas.
I now have to contend with exploding enemies.
A dropship brings in a load of enemies and then  suicide bombers come in waves.
Another newsbot here.
A new gun here called the flailgun. This gun fires two chain linked grenades that wrap around the enemy.
I find the escape pod and it is empty.
We don't have to go far before we find the soldier in combat with the savages.
She tells us to get lost and not to follow her. Which I am sure won't stop us.
We fight through some more areas then we see her take out a bridge to prevent us following her. We have to take a detour through an attraction called the monster dome.

Act 2 Chapter 2
Worst family fun vacation ever.
There are a bunch of large robot monsters in here and one of them is missing.
It looks like you get to drive the monsters around and destroy a miniature city.
We enter the small city and have to fight the savages through the streets.
Then the monster turns up. We hide under the city in service tunnels.
We progress through the service areas avoiding the monster which seems to be trying to get to us.
I get dead ended by the monster and we see who is controlling it, one of the savages, killing him stops the monster moving and gives us it's controller.
We now get to semi drive the beast. We can aim to a point where we want it to shoot and we have a shooting gallery of savages and three bosses to take care of.
We then get to make the  beast knock a bus into a canal to make a path for it.
Then another shooting gallery with gyrocopters and jeeps.
We now get attacked by more gyrocopters in the same area and some savages.
The beast is used to break through another wall before finally breaking down.
Seems that the savages here were guarding a hole, it's possible they were guarding against what comes out of the hole. So of course we are going down the hole.

Act 3 Chapter 1
One sniper means a dozen.
We go down the hole and have to kick an obstacle aside, it brings the place down around us and we have another quick run sequence to escape the collapsing mine. We come out into more green and waterfall filled lands, the city is closer now.
I find that I have got a new weapon from somewhere called a boneduster.
We use a lift and go up the side of the dam.
We are seeing signs that suggest this is Kreeps turf.
These are even more crazy cannibal mutilating type chaps.
They avoid being kicked and can't be leashed.
Now we encounter snipers. I get the sniper rifle and it is a guided bullet type sniper rifle.
I pass through a boat house and come out onto some docks.
More snipers to deal with.
The leash can be used as a bomb type mechanism, you hold the left bumper and it thumps the ground raising all the nearby enemies into the air.
We pass through the marina and into a hotel type environment.
There are fireflies in the hotel area overlooking the damn view.
In the kitchen the freakier freaks are cooking the less freaky freaks.

Act 3 Chapter 2
A dam fine mess.
We come to a room with an open roof and balcony and we are ambushed.
We cross a bridge and there are  fireflies here.
Now we come to a blast furnace type area.
Here we fight freaks in a large fight box filled with roaring flames.
When it's done a cut scene shows Trishka kicking the snot, well the snot and the blood out of a freak before shooting it in the head.
Greyson tries to chat, however she knows who we are. She is also disillusioned with Saranno and a truce is called. Ishi is getting all robot overlord destroy all humans again.
Trishka tells us that the skulls and the Kreeps are at war.
Which is basically a prelude to seeing a huge fight between the two which we can get in the middle of.
We fight along the top of the dam, then into it's inner workings. We pull a piece off one of the giant wheels to make a path. However this may have been a bad move as the damn starts to break down explosively.
The large wheels break free and fall bringing the dam down, we end up in a makeshift raft floating down with gyrocopters after us.
A huge tidal wave hits the boat and everything goes black.

Act 4 chapter 1
The only way through.
we are now in the city proper. A soldier with a jump ships nearby, or at least was recently. Trishka wants to find him. The city is called the forbidden zone.
Trishka tells them to be quiet, the road is blocked by a chasm and we have to kick over a sign to make a bridge, when we do it blows up a chain of cars and brings half a building down. So much for being quiet.
New here are glowing yellow balls called nom parasites. They grab onto your head and try and eat you I presume.
You can kick them at enemies, you also have to be careful not to hit your allies as they get immobilized by the nom parasites.
Now we find the creator of the parasites, large man eating plants.
We use a zip line here.
After a fight with some snipers a cut scene shows the capsule we are looking for in the distance.
Gyrocopters attack in the cut scene and while Greyson and Ishi are shooting them Trishka makes a break for it. Ishi shoots the ladder she is climbing and nearly beats her to death.
Greyson is starting to worry about Ishi, also feel guilty.
We are tasked with working out how to pass a road block, when I can't Trishka shoots a large wrecking ball of a sign down and it ploughs into the road block opening the way.
There is a news bot behind the dropkit after the wrecking ball.
Also a bottle of juice in a tent.
Now we find a new boss which shoots exploding balls.
same as before, stun him then grapple his helmet or butt.
We get his gun which is called a bouncer.

Act 4 Chapter 2
Maneaters prefer tight spots.
We move into a sewer type area. Some of the nom plants are here and shooting them releases clouds of rage gas.
Ishi climbs through a tunnel to open a gate, this puts him ahead of us up the stairs. When we start to climb them he shouts for help. A huge tentacle monster has erupted from the ground and it eats Ishi right in front of us, powerless to prevent it.
We progress down a long sloping terraced garden area. It's full of man eating plants and prickly bushes.
A helicopter comes to attack us.
The plants bring it down with their tentacles and a boss gets out to fight us.
We then progress up the terrace towards a large greenhouse type building.
Just before the boss plant there are some fireflies, there have also been a few obvious news bots on the terrace.
Inside the green house we meet the boss plant. It's a bulbous body with a long neck and a head full of teeth. It tries to bite us, which rapidly pressing B solves.
We basically have to circle around it and shoot the red bits as they are presented. A traditional boss battle, yet a fun one as I did it first time with no frustration and it was just pure fun.

Act 4 Chapter 3
Itchin to crumble.
We jump down the plant hole and find Ishi alive.
Trishka tells us that Sarrano was sent here to clear out the skulls and the Kreeps. The soldiers were given the skillshot system in some sort of twisted natural selection type experiment. Those that did well were able to resupply while the rubbish ones ran low on ammo and died.
Some electroflies here.
Now we are into the actual demo that was given away on xbox live.
Getting stuck on objects here, feet tangled in scenery isn't a good look.
A nice scene sees you bring an old lift down on top of about five enemies at once.
News bot just after the lift scene.
We get to fight through some open areas with large drops, lots of kicking the bad guys over the edge.
Mini boss here.
Now the building starts to really crumble and we have to run for it until we reach an elevator. In the elevator it is moving too slow to escape the collapse. Ishi tells us to shoot some canisters we can see and in cut scene we see the elevator propelled out of the building like a rocket on a plume of smoke.

Act 5 Chapter 1
Crash Resistant.
We survive the crash unscathed as usual.
Now we are heading for a monorail.
I use an elevator and a helicopter can be seen landing nearby.
We go over to this area and clear out loads of enemies. Then we  have to get the monorail working. This is really just a horde mode level.
Boss to finish and it's onto the monorail.
On the monorail ride Trishka is asked by Greyson why final echo could not control the skulls and kreeps as is usual in FPS games he is wiping out their entire population single handed. Well Ishi and Triska are there and shooting but they don't seem to kill much.
Triska tells us that we haven't seen the worst yet. There are totally mutated creatures called burnouts to deal with. Oh look, speak of the devil, here is one now.
The monorail is made to crash by the burnouts.

Act 5 Chapter 2
We get hemmed into an area with loads of incoming burnouts, they are men shaped blobs with glowing orbs. Shooting the orbs is advised, however sliding into them knocked them off their feet and nearby prickly plants and bombs make quick work of them.
There are fireflies behind a kick barrier just after the burnouts and a news bot as well.
Now we go into a smaller room and are mobbed by burnouts.
This is a trap and it's a good one.
Sudden difficulty spike though.
There is some juice here to drink.
Skulls attack in a helicopter and blow open the wall. Now there are lots more burnouts. We are told there are too many and to just keep moving.
Though there aren't and I take them out, the skulls chopper goes down and it makes a nice death trap to kick the burnouts into.
Now a boss burnout. Which needs shot a lot then kicked into the blades to take it down.
We get into a lift.

Act 5 Chapter 3
I see we're all a bit upset.
We see another survivor in the distance fighting. We are making for his position.
We fight some more kreeps this time for variety and then a cut scene.
Trishka falls down a hole and is knocked out. Ishi is in robot mode and wants to leave her. Greyson wants to save her. Ishi tells Greyson that they need Sarrano alive and not to kill him or he will have Ishi to deal with. Greyson goes down to Trishka and argues with him about all this being about his issues with Sarrano. Of course her world view of Greyson comes from Sarrano so she is biased. Greyson tells her some home truths about why he was so angry with Sarrano and we find that the reporter we killed was her father, the girl in his office was possibly Trishka. She is angered, Greyson does not tell her that it was him who killed her father.
Now we are in the bowels of this hotel, in a sewage type area. It turns out to be a burnout nest, or feeding ground. Lots of bits of body lying around. The game tries for  some Dead Space style scares here.
I come to a cauldron of glowing green stuff.
A large boss burnout appears however it falls in the cauldron, it might be dead, but I think we are going to be seeing it again soon.
We crawl through some rubble and out into the hotel type area again.
A news bot here.
We fight some more skulls.
I come out into an open area and fight some burnouts and leash a bus into a gap in the street to progress.
There is something wrecking the skyscrapers around here. Looks like the thing we met in the cavern way back on the second level or so is still looking for us.
The burnouts attack again and we progress down the street. The creature appears at last and is a huge burnout boss, Trishka calls it a Hekaton.
In cut scene we see Greyson and Trishka run from the huge monster into a lift.
We come out onto a rooftop and find Ishi fighting skulls. A helicopter is nearby and Trishka flies while we use the emplaced gun.
We shoot at skulls and protect  Ishi, also the Hekaton which has a point on the back of it's head that is vulnerable. The ship flies around and eventually a cut scene starts.
Ishi saves Sarrano who is running out of ammo. The escape pod is set to self destruct and the monster eats it and blows it's head up.
Sarrano and the rest of the gang are reunited. Ishi won't let anyone kill him.
Trishka asks about her father. Sarrano tells them that a bomb which will kill everything on the planet that is living is set to go off in two hours. The problem is that the dropship is coming in three.
I need to go to the wreck of the Ulysses and deactivate the bomb.
Sarrano pushes Trishka off the building, claiming to have done Greyson a favour.
I don't think we have seen the last of her. Though I am guessing that the game can only handle two a.i. players so we needed her out of the way.

Act 6 Chapter 1
Daddy'll get you out.
Saranno tells us about tunnels that will take us under the city and away quickly and safely.
A large electrical storm has started in the city.
Basically any window or hole in the ceiling lets the storm in and gives you plenty of opportunity for electrocuting enemies.
We fight a lot of enemies here in a more fight box style of gameplay.
Sarrano tells us that the city was staffed with convicts.

Act 6 Chapter 2
Bad trouble a knockin'
We take a lift down to the prison level where there were cells for 28,000 inmates.
Seems that they also stored the toxic waste here as well.
We take a run through some toxic waste after being dumped in it by a rickety platform.
Then some burnouts appear for a fight.
Some good fun here with lots of burnouts and lots of exploding stuff to hurl them into.
We see Sarrano get knocked off a platform and we have to go and save him.
Greyson and Ishi have a little heart to heart and Ishi tells him that he doesn't blame Greyson and that he followed him of his own free will. The quest to kill Saranno was one of atonement not revenge for all of them.
We have some snipers to take out.
We go down into a large canal type area filled with radioactive waste. Sarrano tells us that the population here is probably mostly tourists who missed the evacuation ships.
We see some burnouts coming towards us, however they are actually running form scorpion type enemies.
We have a scene where the scorpions try and break a lift that we are going up in for some unknown reason, they don't attack us just the lift cogs.
We have to shoot as many of them as we can to keep the lift going up.
At the top we have too run for it before a door closes on us.
I come out onto the surface and we are at the wreck of the Ulysses.
We use a zip line to get there fast.

Act 6 Chapter 3
Ponderin' them bodies.
I get caught in the ground here by Ishi and can't escape, I have to restart the checkpoint.
We have to make our way through the building that the Ulysses is crashed on top of.
There are lots of the crew of the Ulysses lying around dead. The burnouts have been eating them.
I get into the Ulysses.
We progress through the ship with Greyson and Sarrano arguing. Sarrano trying to make him feel guilty about all the people dead on the ship and Greyson ragging Sarranno about taking down his prize battleship with a much smaller ship.
I come to some flammable fumes.
We have to fight some burnouts using only kicks and leash.
There are some handy giant fans to use.
Now we come to a large hexagonal multi story area. There is a control in the centre that turns off low barriers which have glowing pink energy on top. We have to turn of the field and jump quickly over. The enemies can be hurled into the pink field for fun.
We come to a corridor with a giant burnout, we have to push it back towards an electrical field to kill it.
We come to the bomb, Sarrano tells us that he has to turn a key when we enter the deactivation code on the bomb. I sense a trap here. Of course it's fairly obvious and I don't feel that I am clever by saying that.
Of course Saranno has betrayed us and we have now just armed the bomb and he gets away leaving us trapped in the room with the bomb.
I run around frantically trying to find a way out and climb through some ducts. They just lead to huge drops or back to the bomb. Trishka appears to save the day.

Act 7 Chapter 1
That thing is leaving without us.
We are now heading for the spaceport where Sarrano is getting picked up.
Here we split up from Ishi and Trishka and they take a lower road and we cover them from above, while also fighting people on our level.
We then come to a lobby type area with a few levels, this is a survival room, which soon fills with loads of bosses and enemies.
Now we have a two minute timer to get to the ship before Sarrano leaves without us.
Which is a headlong dash through loads of skulls. We have to get to the dropship, a vehicle explodes and Greyson is knocked down. A cut scene shows Sarrano being escorted onto the dropship.
We have to run to it in a very tight time limit and leash the ramp back down.

Act 7 Chapter 2
I don't hold you accountable.
We are now on the escaping dropship, which is filled with heavily armored troops.
Again we kill lots of soldiers by ejecting the cargo hold that is filled with them.
Sarrano again tries to make us feel guilty about killing all these people just to get to him.
We get to a door that is locked to us. Trishka goes through a vent. Ishi thinks she isn't coming back and has gone on to kill Sarrano on her own.
He opens the door by electrocuting himself again.
We rampage through the ship, these enemies take a lot more pounding but go down just as well as the freaks.
We get to a door that needs hacked. Ishi hacks it while we hold off waves of soldiers.
Inside we get a cut scene.
Trishka is holding a gun to Sarrano's head. She asks if he killed her father, he tells her that he ordered it and Greyson did the deed.
Sarrano uses a leash to hack into the robot part of Ishi and control him. Ishi beats up Trishka and Grey and we have to press B repeatedly to stop ourselves from dying in Ishi's chokehold.
Ishi resists the control and Sarrano shoots him. Sarrano throws Grey around with the leash and is about to shoot him when Ishi dives in front of the shot.
we have some quicktime to do to finally beat up Sarrano and apparently kill him.
Some soldiers appear and we see a not quite dead Sarrano eject us from the ship.
Back on the planet we are left fighting some more soldiers that got ejected with us.
Trishka forgives Grey for what he did.
We find ourselves back at the Ulysses just in time for the DNA bomb that is going to wipe out all life on the planet to go off.
We have to run through the soldiers to get to the escape pods on the ship before the bomb goes off. Some technobabble excuses why we didn't just do this the last time.
The final cut scene shows the escape pod leaving the atmosphere as the dna bomb goes off killing everything on the planet.
In the escape pod Greyson is guilty about all the friends he lost. Trishka asks what now and it looks like there is still Sarrano to go after. Bulletstorm 2 anyone?

10 hours approximately.
290 Achievement points for one normal playthrough.