14 DAY TRIAL // What we know
Bulletstorm is among the few all-new intellectual properties set to appear at the beginning of the year, developed by Polish studio People Can Fly, of Painkiller fame, under the guidance of famous shooter studio Epic Games, known for Gears of War or Unreal Tournament, and set to be published by Electronic Arts, under its EA Partners program. Bulletstorm may seem like yet another Unreal Engine 3-based shooter, with burly space marines killing stuff on alien planets, but there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.
[admark=1]Instead of linear corridors one tacked onto another, where you kill everything that moves, Bulletstorm aims at appealing to your creative side.
It does that with its "skillshot" system, which rewards players for creative executions.
Sure, you can just shoot a guy until he dies, but it's much better to reel him in with your energy whip, kick him back towards a spiked wall and then stick a grenade on him to earn massive points.
The story isn't half bad either, throwing players into the combat boots of space mercenary Grayson Hunt, who needs to make his way through an alien planet filled with monsters and tough terrain in order to get revenge on someone who betrayed him.
Why it matters
In an age where sequels are flooding the market, specifically the shooter one, Bulletstorm aims at attacking the genre head on, right on the day when Killzone 3 debuts on exclusively on the PlayStation 3.
The game is made by People Can Fly, a studio that got a cult-like following the release of Painkiller, a fiendishly simple yet creative first-person shooter that was released only on the PC.
Also, Epic Games shared a lot of its shooter expertise with the development team, and even threw in early access into the multiplayer beta stage of its own Gears of War 3 title, to attract the legions of Gears fans.
Bulletstorm arrives on February 22 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.