Bullet Witch

"Beautiful girl. Too bad that is it."

Bullet Witch. What is the first thing that pops in your head when you hear this name? "A hot girl with a big gun" Sadly, that is all that this game is. Perhaps one of the most opinionated game ever to hit the Xbox 360 has its ups and downs.

Storyline. This game is short, so if I say too much here, it will really spoil a lot of the plot. Basically, you are a witch by the name of Alicia wielding a huge gun and equipped with different sorts of magic to use. You are in a world where mankind and the human race is almost wiped out due to war and corruption. There are many creatures that roam the earth from over exaggerated big giants to flying fishes. There are even undead troops that kills civilians and wear their skin and of course, these guys shoot back. What is the purpose of Alicia and why is she attacking these alien like creatures and helping the humans? It will all be revealed throughout the game as your progress. That is why I cannot write too much about the plot.

Graphics. Now when you first watch the intro for Bullet Witch, it does look like Playstation 1 graphics, which had me worried for a bit. But then actually playing the game, I think the graphics in this game is really done well. The texture of Alicia's costume and the facial expressions on the characters is really good. As for the background, many things can be destroyed or used as a hiding spot for Alicia. There are some parts of a stage where however, looked rush and looks bland but most of the time those places cannot be accessed anyway.

Music. Not a huge fan of the music in this game. I do like the theme though, but I think Atari could of done a better job. There are some areas where there aren't music at all and all you hear is Alica's high heels tapping which can get pretty annoying after awhile. I do favor the bosses have some cool upbeat music though.

Game play/Controls. The controls took me a bit to get use to at first. The game doesn't exactly give you a training area, you basically start expected what to do already. Bullet Witch like Gears of War and Lost Planet has the shooting button as RT. LT is used to dodge, which is also doubled as a jump button. The RB and LB buttons are to bring up the spell screen where if you press A, X or B, you can choose to use a spell depending on what screen you are on. For example, by pressing RB twice and then B, you can use a spell called Sacrifice where you heal civilians or friendly units.

By pressing down the right analog stick, you go into a zoomed in mode which is how most battles are fought. By pressing B normally you can switch the style of your gun. From machine gun, to shotgun type and even sniper type is here. Pressing X normally makes you reload and pressing down on the left analog stick makes Alicia crouch. Finally, the A button is melee attacks which again seems dull. It's hard to physically attack some enemies when they run around and Alicia's physical aim seems really off. You will basically be most of the time shooting instead of using this button. Now having all the buttons covered, you might be asking "What about the Y button?" Well, in this game that button is only used when you bring up your spell menu and by pressing Y, you cancel from that screen. Otherwise, there is no other purpose at all.

In this game, there are no items at all. There is a good and bad thing about this. A bad thing is that it seems really easy and boring. The good thing is that you have infinite ammo. As for your health, it recharges by itself if you aren't getting hit. As for the magic it is the same thing but instead it recharges whenever you kill an enemy, so wasting magic is really not recommended. There are some really powerful one hit kill spells that are so powerful that everything around the area is interacted and destroyed. But using these spells completely drains your magic points.

Replay Value. Being a very short game and no multi player options, this game doesn't really have replay value. You can however, play the game over on different difficulty to unlock achievements.

Flaws. Truthfully, the biggest flaw of this game is itself. And the only reason it sold for me is because of Alicia. If this game was any other character especially a male, I wouldn't even think of picking this game up. Another flaw is that there are no maps in this game. You find yourself running around getting lost. I don't really like running down a road just to reach a dead end. Another thing is the enemies are kinda too good in aiming. Remember the only way to gain health is to not get hit, but it is really hard to do that when you are getting hit non stop. Hiding behind cars and other things only makes them run up to you and trap you. I think of this more of an annoyance than a flaw actually.

To rent or to buy? I would say please rent first. This game is entirely based on opinions, some love it, some hate it. I for one love it, but all for the wrong reasons.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/07