Bullet Witch sucks something AWFUL |
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by the hammer of Dan Zuccarelli! |
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I took a chance. I figured the game would be average. But this game isn’t just ‘meh’, it’s downright BAD.
What’s wrong with the game?
- Idiotic AI
- Unfinished graphics and ugly textures
- Lighted areas too bright
- Dark areas too black
- No lock-on
- No jumping
- No radar or onscreen notification of enemies
- Cheap deaths
- Horrendous voice-acting
- Cumbersome system for casting spells
- Camera angle too low to the ground
- Floating brains
- Bosses with huge pulsating weak points
- Invisible and visible barriers all over the place
That’s a start.
So let’s break it down. It’s hard to understand how bad the AI is, but enemies will just stand there as you shoot them if you’re far enough away. Or they’ll run into walls and just stay there. The graphics are unrefined and sometimes downright ugly. The shadows especially look like they’re having a seizure every time you move, which is quite a pain in the ass since the game is so dark.
The lack of lock-on (and slow turning) seem to exist only to artificially make the game harder. It might be alright if the aiming had a more delicate touch, but it’s clunky. 3rd person games almost need some sort of lock-on system, since you’re swinging the camera and moving yourself at the same time, so you could at any moment be looking in any direction.
The game’s lighting also works against the player. The lighted areas cast this weird bright light aff the ground right to the side of your feet, which felt like a sunspot while trying to play. At one point I actually held my foot in the way of it to help me see. Conversly, in the dark areas you can’t see an enemy right in front of you. Of course since there’s no on screen way to see enemies, you pretty much have to wait until they start shooting to see where they are.
Personally, the lack of jumping in a game is just laziness on the developers part. Unless you’ve replaced it with something functional, there’s no damn reason in 2007 that my character shouldn’t be able to leave the goddamn ground. I can’t tell you how pissed off it gets me when there’s a small ledge ahead of me but I have to take the LONG way around cause this chick can’t jump. It’s lazy.
Invisible barriers pop-up only to stop the player from moving on and dealing with some unforseen circumstance. Turn a corner, bang red-barrier in your way. Find the floating brain with the red aura and kill it. Yellow barrier, find yellow-aura floating brain. So on and so forth.
The spell casting is also difficult, needing to work multiple menus while the game continues to play. Many times I was killed trying to position myself and cast the spell. It never works well and after a few minutes I just gave up trying to use the spells at all.
Alot of the other problems appear in a good number of games, but they don’t bother us so much because the gameplay and mechanics are tight enough that we just kind of take it with a grain of salt. But since Bullet Witch doesn’t have gameplay or mechanics going for it, the shitty dialogue and voice-acting just grate the nerves even more than usual.
No Multiplayer of any sort, and lame achievements (beat level 1, beat level 2, beat level 3, etc…) round out the package and confirm the laziness of those involved. I could go on and on but I’m getting angry just thinking about it.
The only things the game really does well is the gun and a few of the spells. Unlimited ammo, cool power-ups and it just looks bad ass.
The “will power” ability to throw cars around is also pretty cool. Outside of that, this game is a total disaster. If you read this and still buy the game, you deserve to have a shitty time trying to play it.
I feel robbed. 2 out of 10





B on 01 Mar 2007 at 10:59 am #
Wow Zuke, I can feel the anger of you purchase through your review.
Dan Zuccarelli on 01 Mar 2007 at 11:05 am #
that, my friend, is pretty much what I was going for.
Looking at it now I can see it’s kind of a rambling mess of a review, but so be it.
It’s a hate-filled rant against a game that has no right to exist
Thegreatcerebral on 01 Mar 2007 at 11:22 am #
If you couldn’t tell this game was going to be this way from the game videos that have come out for it then you deserved to have a horrific time playing this POS.
What really bugs me is that this game (I will never play it mind you) seems to be horribly made and managed to get through Microsoft’s “rigorous” quality testing however Worms (which is a solid franchise) took FOREVER to get approved??? It appears that you can squeeze your way through the approval process as long as you throw some $$ at it. Either that or MS has a great idea going by allowing the release of crap games to make the mediocre games like Crackdown (I’m sorry but people only purchased this game the way it sold because of the Halo 3 beta) and Lost Planet look that much better.
L8r
Kevin Alexander on 01 Mar 2007 at 11:40 am #
Thegreatcerebral:
Have you actually played Crackdown? It’s anything but mediocre.
Katana on 01 Mar 2007 at 11:46 am #
I doubt he has, admittedly Crackdown is not the greatest game ever but it is a very good title in its own right. To me the Halo 3 beta invite is just an added bonus to an already good title. Of course I will say that its ending sucked, at least if they don’t make a sequel. If there’s a sequel coming then it was a great setup for that.
B on 01 Mar 2007 at 12:06 pm #
I will say this, and probably be gunned down on the way home by millions of Master Chief faithfuls. I didn’t buy Crackdown for the stinkin beta! Crackdown goes against all my beliefs of what a quaility game should be. It has no real goal or one to really push you to care about. It has no story. And its mad short. Yet I still love it to death. No its not perfect, but it is extremely fun. And because he decided to try a game, never played it, and didn’t know it sucked as hard as it did, he deserves to have suffered? Who died and made you the greatest god of gaming choices.I agree, games that are utterly terrible should not pass through Microsofts quality tests so easily, but for every good game, there’s hundreds of garbage ones. For the record, what games do you play that are so perfect that you can look down your nose on others for their purchases?
gnome on 01 Mar 2007 at 12:55 pm #
Guess it’s a wullet bitch then, aint it? heh. Yes, I know. Sorry ’bout that..
Thegreatcerebral on 01 Mar 2007 at 1:08 pm #
First of all I have played Crackdown and I did not like it. I do enjoy the occasional sandbox game however this one just never caught on with me.
Never did I say that anyone needs to listen to me and my ranting about games. I do have some experience and when I worked in retail (at a CompUSA no less) I had customers that would personally come into the store to ask my opinion about games because I was that highly regarded which is the reason why I was head of Video Games and still to this day I have people (whom I have not seen for years) call me asking me about x game and whatnot. I also worked as a part of the original Xbox launch team (retail rep).
To answer your question as of right now you can go to my site (click the little link where it says my name) and I have put my gamercard on my myspace page. Obviously from there you can see what I have played recently. Gears of War is really the game right now that never leaves the console and that game is FAR from PERFECT however since I am trying to do the Old Spice Challenge I have been stretching my games out to try to grab gamerpoints. I will still stand by my thoughts that Crackdown and Lost Planet were both over hyped and placing a beta into a mediocre game has been a ploy for quite some time to get sales of said game up. I will have to also say that two of the better games to have come out recently that were way underrated were Battlestations: Midway and Fusion Frenzy 2 and two games that are coming out that are going to be great are going to be Guitar Heroes II, Castle Crashers(no release date that I am aware of) and Worms(same here with release date).
I just don’t understand what is so incredible about this game. What makes it better than the GTA series or different from Saint’s Row? To me it has that “it’s been done before” and “same old thing” feel but with the ability to obtain super-human skills. I would think that one could have more fun with Gary’s Mod but then again like I said the game just didn’t do anything for me and I’m sticking to that.
On another note “for every good game, there’s hundreds of garbage ones.” This does not have to be the case as if this game was so horrible then it should have never gotten approval. Also my problem with “garbage” games on the new next gen systems is that everyone accepts the new $59.99 price tag and we are not at the point where garbage games are released for $29.99 or $39.99. I have a problem with that.
L8r
B on 01 Mar 2007 at 2:27 pm #
Well sorry, I didn’t know you were so “highly regarded”. But what does that have to do with anything? I worked at Babbage’s before it adopted the Gamestop banner, this was when Dreamcast came out all the way past the release of OG Xbox and Gamecube, but I will not tell someone that they deserved a bad experience for buying a game that they were hoping to enjoy. Nor will I tell you that I think your purchase of what I think is the most overrated game of all time, Gears of War, is not worth the price of $60. I will not tell you that I think Battlestations: Midway is a snorefest to me and I won’t say “Congratulations for buying a $50 Xbox Live equivilant game!” in reference to your purchase of Fuzion Frenzy. You know why? Because you didn’t ask me my opinion.
Zuke was doing us all a favor by giving us a honest review and letting us know how very bad this game is. To that I say, thanks Zuke for helping me save my money. And as far as there being more garbage games, yeah it shouldn’t be that way. But what are we going to do about it? Dev costs go up and we pay to play. Devs have more to implement in games with the same amount of time as last gen, it happens. But what do I know? I’m just B, I’m not Thegreatcerebral person that you are, forgive me.
Thegreatcerebral on 01 Mar 2007 at 3:10 pm #
It was the management team who obviously realized what I was doing and gave me the position I held. There is no reason for you to get jealous over this.
Also I will have you know that I only purchased Gears when it was (along with THP8) $39.99 at Target about a week after Christmas (I believe that was when it was on sale).
Also I can easily see where/why Battlestations: Midway would be a snorefest to some which is why I was giving my opinion. I also thing that B:M is a game that is very fun to play online with others. Single player is not all that fun and I would much rather load up Age of Empires III.
I never put Zuke’s actual review down. I was referring to the fact that nothing about this game that had come out to this point had been promising and that Zuke should have taken that into consideration and made mention when this article was written.
And for the record I will say now that I have only purchased a few games for my 360 and that is because they are games that I really enjoy and were priced what I felt games should be priced at. I believe that the way to go for this new generation of video games is gamefly, gameznflix or any other onine rental service. Your $ will go much further with a service like this than purchasing games and trying to play the whole trade-in game. I paid $12.99/mo. for 2 games out at a time. I had gameznflix and because they never had games in stock as well as my purchasing of Gears (which I found myself playing most of the time) I decided to cancel.
If this article from Zuke helped you save money then you are sad that either 1. You would flat out purchase a non-blockbuster title without trying it first or 2. that you seem to have an issue with paying $8 (local Blockbuster price) for a rental.
Regarding your thought that there need to be garbage games… No there is no need to ever have garbage games. Any game, no matter what the premise or story line, can be a good game if done correctly. As mentioned by Zuke, the developers were obviously lazy in their coding. Also saying that dev costs keep going up is wrong. This game did not have dev costs go up or they would have put out a quality title that would be worth people’s money. Dev costs do not have to keep increasing with each title released. The key is for companies to find a sweet spot and work with it. Look at the XBLA titles for example, those do not have high dev costs and some of them are better than some of the full-blown games to come out. There can be games in a genre you do not like and it is ok, there can be games that you may not like the idea or story line of and it is ok but by no means should a company be putting out crap and expecting people to pay top dollar for their crap.
BTW I did not give myself that name. That name was given to me by my friends YEARS ago, I started using it in games and everything else and it stuck.
greshkov on 01 Mar 2007 at 3:29 pm #
“There is no reason for you to get jealous over this.”
someone has an awfully high opinion of themselves, huh? how about we just leave this where it is and move on?
Thegreatcerebral on 01 Mar 2007 at 3:43 pm #
Actually I don’t but I have a sense of humor and the fact that dude tried to gloat his experiences as well goes to show that indeed he is jealous at what I said. I am very headstrong when it comes to what I believe and that is one of my best qualities and one of my worst qualities at the same time. Basically B should have known that they cannot change someones opinion of anything with words considering the information I already gave (that I have in fact played the game). Notice I never tried to change B’s opinion.
B on 01 Mar 2007 at 4:02 pm #
Why would I be jealous of you dude? I was stating that no one cares that I worked for Gamestop just like no one cares you worked at Compusa. You think I wish I had been in control of any videogame section in any retail store? Dude I was 16 when I started working there, 19 when I finished. There isn’t a day that I miss working at a retail videogame store. Being an assistant manager at a Gamestop isn’t one of the strong points of my resume.(There’s nothing wrong with working at a videogame store, just not fun for me like it was 8 years ago) Your rediculously self-centered attitude is off putting and arrogant. I’m done. Enjoy your day.
Jaradcel on 02 Mar 2007 at 5:53 am #
Hah! Atari wrote to me when I wrote a review on the Asian (Japan-only at the time, but still released all over Asia) version and called it a horrid dreck of a mess and gave it a flat Zero (And it ran in the newspapers too. I wish I could prove this, but being a freelancer, I’d sort of like to, ya know, keep my job)
Was brilliant to see Atari write back with a flaming letter demanding why and saying I hadn’t played the game to the end (Which I did… horrific as it was) and then seeing me write an equally long letter explaining in painstaking detail why it totally sucked.
I was hoping against hope that someone up there heard, what with all the hoo hah about it coming to America (And the new sets of costumes) but clearly it never got any way better. HAH! I feel vindicated now.
Dan Zuccarelli on 02 Mar 2007 at 9:38 am #
I would love for Atari to get ahold of me, then I can find out what the hell went wrong
DO NOT BUY BULLETWITCH says B.B.P.S « The Xbox Domain on 02 Mar 2007 at 7:49 pm #
[...] Click Here[B.B.P.S] [...]
Danny M on 02 Mar 2007 at 8:24 pm #
damn these comments are just way too long for me to start reading now. I’m going back to my good ‘ol “Speak and Spell”
Leo on 06 Mar 2007 at 3:15 pm #
Interestingly enough, this review makes me want to play the game. If it is THIS bad, I’ve got to try it for myself … I just won’t use my normal gamertag so that I can save myself the embarassment.
Scott on 06 Mar 2007 at 4:06 pm #
There is an error in this article. Your small ledge problems will go away if you hit the left trigger button. Yes you can jump. No doubt that would of added to your anger. Honestly I don’t see how you got very far in the game not knowing this. Especially in the subway tunnels when you shoot the ceiling.
The 3 major points I agree with are
1. Cumbersome system for casting spells
2. Camera angle too low to the ground
3. The shadows/lighting etc. at times are annoying.
Cheers.
Scott
Dan Zuccarelli on 06 Mar 2007 at 4:14 pm #
Scott, in the manual the left trigger is referred to as the dodge button. I used it to get around some obstacles, but usually just ended up being frustrated.
Scott on 06 Mar 2007 at 4:19 pm #
While that is true, you do in fact jump with it. You can jump onto cars, ledges, over rubble, bad guys etc.
It should resolve the “long way around” problems. I used it quite a bit.
Best
Yourmom on 06 Mar 2007 at 10:48 pm #
Apparently the reviewers suck to bad to work at a real website like IGN or Gamespot. Bullet Witch isn’t perfect but I would at least says its average. It can be a lot of fun and is definitely worth at least a rental.
jgats on 07 Mar 2007 at 8:25 am #
I love crackdown and I am currently playing bullet witch. Bullet Witch is not that bad. It has more issues than most .. but don’t let this moron who is only interested in traffic to his review steer you clear from the game.
saga456 on 07 Mar 2007 at 11:59 am #
just got it and its a 6.5 at most but seems to be gettin better as i progress throught the game
controls suck but they take some getting used to like any other game out rent it or gamefly it
ATDude on 07 Mar 2007 at 3:57 pm #
I work at Atari.
I had to play Bullet Witch for several hours a day as part of my job.
Let me just say that I sympathize. As a hardcore (and I mean hardcore. Like Warren Spector-worshipping, Beyond Good & Evil-loving, I-got-100%-in-Rez-and-an-A-in-Gitaroo-Man hardcore) gamer who just happened to find his way into a publisher’s office by luck and the grace of several minor deities, it was, how shall I say…
UNCOMFORTABLE
…to plumb the depths of a game like Bullet Witch to the degree I had to in order to do my job. When you work for any company in an industry that genuinely matters to you, you really, truly, honestly want the company to do well. It’s a matter of pride. I think I forced myself to like Test Drive Unlimited far more than it was actually worth as a result of this. But every once in a while, a game like Bullet Witch comes down the pipe, and all you can do is buckle down and hope the impending shitstorm manages to miss you on its way to the game’s creators.
Seriously, I wince every time I see the words “Bullet Witch” on a gaming website, because I know what lies on the other side of that hyperlink.
Remember the Silicon Knights IGN blog about “The Ice Bucket”, recounting the sordid details of Too Human’s spectacular failure at E3 2006? Well, it’s like that, but our game’s already on SHELVES. There’s no chance of salvaging the wreckage.
Oh, and there aren’t any Norse gods, which would’ve TOTALLY saved Bullet Witch.
pike on 01 May 2007 at 5:46 am #
I just got bullet witch and it seemed ok to me, yes it is rather repedetive but hey there are alot of games that are, it wasn’t that dark i donno what your tv is but it must be pretty bad if you think the game was dark as for the spell system being shit i think i was fine although i will admit the lightning spell was a bit annoying all in all its alright for a first attempt as i have never heard of the company that made it (and no it wasnt atari) but the story could have been a little better and the voice acting wasnt as bad as i have seen in some games (house of the dead :P) anyway thats my 5c
oxy_02 on 10 Feb 2008 at 3:26 pm #
A poorly thought out rant and every single argument can be countered.
- I have never once experienced the AI standing still. They are always on the move which makes it a bitch to hit them.
- I’ve found no problem with the graphics, as everything looks nice and crisp, and the “seizure shadows” seems blatantly made up.
- I will agree that the camera is difficult to control, but it isn’t exactly a steep learning curve to reign it in.
- I haven’t seen any “sunspots” while in lighted areas, but I’ll admit that darkened areas are almost too dark to see anything.
- Lack of jumping? Oh come on, some games jump; some don’t. Get over it.
- I haven’t encountered any “invisible barriers” either. Perhaps I’m just not trying to rush my way through the game.
- The hype here about the spell-casting being difficult is Grade A bullshit. When I was reading the game’s manual before playing I was thinking “Oh shi- This is gonna suck”, but when in game the menu system is massively easy. Hold down RB, press either Y, X, B or A. What the FUCK is difficult about that?
- The voice acting is a mixbag, at best. While Alicia (voiced by Sarah Natochenny) sounds satisfyingly brooding, Maxwell is overacted (although since his voice actor, Sean Shcemmel, has worked in Dragonballz before, this isn’t surprising).
The rest of the characters don’t even talk enough, except for ‘Darkness’, and that’s your generic demonic voice or whatever.
In conclusion no, Bullet Witch is not the perfect game it could in theory be, but neither are a lot of games. Halo 2 anyone?
But past it all it’s still enjoyable if you’re a fan of the genre (and since I’m not, that comes as a surprise to me).
bits bytes pixels & sprites on 15 May 2008 at 1:35 pm #
[...] can attest to this. There’s a whole gaggle of folk who spend time playing through shit like Bullet Witch just to get those 1000 points. To say it changes the way people play games on the 360 would be a [...]