Bully

"A gem, one of the most enjoyable games of the year"

You really can't talk about Bully without first touching on the controversy. So, I'll lay it down right here: Bully is nothing that its, er, ‘critics' made it up to be (I'm looking at you, Mr. Thompson). It's definitely not a “Columbine Simulator”. You can't kill anyone. Hell, you can't even knock someone out. They'll just be down on the ground in pain. And if that someone is a figure of authority, female, adult, or young child, you've probably got about two seconds before you're taken down by a cop/prefect. This actually becomes a problem, but I'll get back to that later.

That isn't to say that there aren't some shocking moments in the game. Weapons like stink bombs and itching powder seem appropriate, but I was surprised that you can throw firecrackers or shoot bottle rockets at people. However, there's no blood or dismemberment, so it's actually pretty clean. In fact, the only real gun in the game shoots potatoes. I guess you could also count a slingshot, but it's just a slingshot.

Surprisingly, it is in a nutshell GTA at a juvenile level, but in a different way than the adult stuff. The game appears to use the GTA engine. I only know this from what I've heard about Grand Theft Auto, since I've never played it, but I've heard a good deal. The sandbox gameplay style is very apparent here. First, there's an open world, where missions/tasks are initiated by walking to the specific spot and pressing triangle. There are many things you can do besides the main missions, and I'm not just talking about side- missions. You can deliver papers or mow lawns, take part in bike or Go-Kart races, go to the carnival to earn tickets to buy prizes, or do various hidden tasks to get pieces of clothing, or some other reward. Your dorm room has a bunch of “trophies” that you collect over time from various tasks, ranging from jerseys to giant plants to panties.

The game is massive. After beating the game, I checked, and realized that I had spent a whopping 21 hours, 25 minutes completing 87.64% of the game. The next %13 was clothing, trophies, or other miscellaneous useless things. Although they're fun to collect, it's kind of tedious to collect them without any in-game direction (since I had done all the missions) so I decided to shelf the game. However, that was 21 and a half hours well spent in my mind, and I truly enjoyed them. The only thing I wish for was more side-missions. In five chapters of a game (not including the endless sixth chapter, which doesn't add any content and just lets you go and do all the stuff that you haven't yet) there were only two or three side missions compared to about 8-12 main missions.

Given all the publicity, you should probably know the story by now, but for those that don't…

You play as 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, a juvenile delinquent that's had 7 expulsions in his past. His mom, who's about to go on her honeymoon with her fifth husband, drops off Jimmy at Bullworth Academy, a crazy school full of different off-the-wall cliques- Bullies, Nerds, Jocks, Preps, and Greasers (tough guys). After following a strange kid named through a false-hope of taking over the school, Jimmy is betrayed, and instead tries to put an end to the madness, one clique at a time. Each chapter centers on gaining the trust of a certain clique. There's a trust system, where each clique will like you or dislike you depending on how much trust they have for you. Trust is gained/lost by doing missions that help/hurt a certain clique. The system is ultimately disappointing, though, as there's nothing you can do to change your trust except do missions, and the results are scripted. So, you can't “side” with a certain clique at any time, unless it's part of the storyline.

Another way it's similar to GTA is the unpolished graphics. I know it's previous-gen, but really, towards the end of the PS2's life, I expect more. I guess it's more the PS2's fault than Rockstar's, though.

The controls are good most of the time, but occasionally they can get a little slippery. The targeting system is a little spotty, as scrolling through targets requires moving the right thumbstick left or right. This would be okay is it didn't target bystanders. There were many occasions where'd I'd fail a mission or added some unnecessary problems to it because I accidentally shot a cop or a girl. Also, scrolling through your weapons or items is done with L2 and R2. With about a dozen weapons, frantically trying to find your slingshot while you're getting pummeled isn't much fun.

These are some minor flaws, and the rest of the game is very fun and well built. Rockstar has got a sweet formula they've cooked up, and they should continue to use it. I truly enjoyed Bully, and look forward to the possibility of a sequel. Overall, I'd give it a 9.3/10 and highly recommend it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/07