Bullet Witch

"It could have been amazing"

When I first started playing Bullet Witch it was difficult for me to pin down precisely what it has been criticized so deeply among the gaming community. Its strongest points are perhaps the ones that become most obvious – in short the gameplay is very good. Bullet Witch falls short only as you play it for more than an hour or so and realize that beyond the basics there is very little to the game. The basic concept is great unfortunately in execution the game is amateurish at best. In an age of $60 USD video games a game that has only a short single player campaign and no multiplayer options to speak of is clearly going to suffer from much deserved criticism. This holds true in the case of Bullet Witch as well. While the content that exists in the game is good, there is so little to it that it becomes impossible to commend Bullet Witch as a game worth purchasing. Keeping in mind that the gameplay itself is the best part of it, and it becomes prudent to save the best for last, I shall take time in this review to go over Bullet Witch's flaws first.

On the graphical front Bullet Witch has been accused of having, at worst, last gen visuals. This criticism should be taken with a grain of salt at best. While the character models in Bullet Witch are not particularly impressive, perhaps detailed only slightly more than fantastic sixth-gen era games as Resident Evil 4, the environments do not suffer greatly. Bullet Witch's greatest strength lies in its dynamic lighting, effects that simply could not be achieved on sixth generation consoles. The lighting makes what would otherwise be lackluster graphics look much, much better than they would be otherwise. Environments are not ugly but they suffer from a lack of detail. Streets and plazas are wide open with little to populate them suggesting that the programmers took little interest in crafting the levels beyond a few minor details. That is not to say the game is completely horrible to look at, certainly the suburban area that makes up the opening of the game and the rural area that appears in stage 4 have some nice visuals. Unfortunately, while these visuals might be nice, they have trouble holding up even when compared to first generation 360 games such as Kameo and Burnout: Revenge. For a game released some time after the 360's launch date this seems almost unforgivable. I would suggest that those who compare Bullet Witch's graphics to sixth generation visuals are being somewhat harsh – Bullet Witch doesn't look that bad. In fact it doesn't look bad at all. It just doesn't look very good compared to other games that have appeared on the 360 platform.

On the audio front, Bullet Witch has nothing especially notable about it. There are only a few tracks, and while this music is generally fitting none of it is especially noteworthy. Voice acting in the game is simply terrible. While the dialogue itself is serviceable, the lip-synching is so terrible that one has to wonder if the programmers took any interest in their plot whatsoever. At best in-game cut scenes are a time to grab a drink or hit the bathroom because frankly, none of it is worth watching. Many lines are said with such absurd seriousness that one is left rolling their eyes while Alicia herself rarely sounds like anything more than a half-wit. It is not my intention to be overly critical of the audio in Bullet Witch as I find that what I am given is completely, utterly, average. Perhaps if the audio had been the only place where Bullet Witch fell short, it would have been easier to be more forgiving of the title. Unfortunately, in a game where there is so little that is notable, lackluster audio only compounds the problem. Ultimately the audio is very representative of what the game is – good ideas saddled by the fact that it feels as if the programmers simply didn't care enough to make them any better. One has to wonder how the game would have sounded if only a little attention had been paid to lip-synching.

While I continue to insist that the heart of the game, the actual gameplay itself, remains solid, it does not receive any help from the way the controls are mapped to the 360's pad. Alicia has three rings of magic, unfortunately if you want a spell on the second or third ring you have to press the button multiple times. You can only scroll forward, which seems an odd design decision when one considers that her magic ring is mapped to both the left and right bumper. If, for instance, LB had scrolled forward and RB had scrolled backwards, then the player would have had much more control over spells that often need to be accessed quickly. Alicia's weaponry suffers the same flaw. You can cycle through her four weapons by pressing the B button but again, you can only scroll forward, not backwards. The Y button itself has no function at all in normal play which leaves one to wonder why a back scroll for weaponry couldn't have been selected. There are a number of situations in which you'll find yourself wasting precious seconds cycling to a weapon you need and taking damage during this sequence. On the easy difficulty this is perhaps not such an obvious flaw, but in a game where even on easy there are enemies that can one-shot Alicia, such poor control over weapons and powers can prove detrimental to the player. Nothing seems more frustrating then when an enemy kills you because you were in the middle of cycling through your different abilities. For the most part things do feel manageable however. Unfortunately, when your gun is zoomed in (a necessity in order to hit often) you cannot dodge and enemy attacks are frequently so quick that this can cause you to stumble. However, while the controls certainly have their flaws, charges that the game is awkward, again, seem unfair. The controls are not as bad as they have been made out to be in other reviews, or even this one. While there is no question that the controls are not especially notable, neither do they seem especially poor. The flaws, which I have just gone over, in the control scheme ultimately render the entire scheme average. In that sense, the controls are in keeping with the graphics and audio, both of which prove to be average at best.

The most serious flaw in the game seems to be the actual content in the vanilla package. There are six stages and three difficulties, with two more being unlocked as you beat the game. While action gamers always appreciate harder difficulties, they also appreciate a game with some meatier content. As I suggested at the beginning of this review, the price of a new game seems awfully high to pay for such little content. Perhaps it is in light of the fact that I was able to acquire the game used for only $25 USD that I am more forgiving to Bullet Witch then initial reviewers were when the game first came out. Regardless of how much you pay for the game (or even if you rent it), there is still very little content for your money. As I mentioned, with Xbox Live this can be ameliorated to an extent. Available on Xbox Live, free of charge, are additional costumes for Alicia, and at a pittance of 20 Microsoft points each a slew of levels, both remixed and original, that can give considerably more play time to the game. While this might sound like a great idea, the flaw is obvious – much of this content should have been shipped with the original game. Unfortunately the game was designed from the ground up to have much of this content available only on Xbox Live, leaving gamers without Broadband in the dark. When you look at Bullet Witch, just the content that games in the actual game itself, it seems as if what you're looking at is a game full of holes, a game missing content. And when one considers that these 20 M$ Point level downloads are only a few hundred KB each, one is left to wonder, “Am I paying for new levels or am I paying to unlock content in a game I already own?” As with so many other game studios who have attempted this experiment, I am left bitter and irritated that they would insult the intelligence of the gaming community by trying to tell us that this is “new and original” content. At least with Bullet Witch the levels are worth so few points that I can manage to convince myself that it's not a complete waste of money to acquire the “extra” content and, as I've indicated throughout this review, the gameplay itself I DO like. If you've got access to Xbox Live and you find you have a taste for the game then getting this content can make the game much more appealing though it still suffers from the obvious flaw of simply being far too short.

I feel as if I've savaged Bullet Witch enough, so I'd like to focus on what I did find good in the game. The core gameplay itself is (everyone with me now) very satisfying. Alicia has a number of abilities at her disposal that make the game more interesting than the average third person shooter. She has nine different spells under her command, all of which can be employed throughout the game to assist her. Among these powers include a shield that can be constructed to give Alicia a few moments breather for her quick hit point regeneration to kick in, and even an ability that can heal NPCs and allies (who frequently prove to be more of a burden then a help regardless). While she can't jump per say, Alicia does have a “dodge ability” that can be used to get over shorter obstacles. While one might be tempted to criticize Alicia's lack of jumping and climbing skills, it is worth noting that the “dodge ability” is more than many other third person shooters allow. Her spells prove to be the most interesting feature of Bullet Witch as her weapons feel somewhat lackluster. She has four different “guns” at her disposal (Strictly speaking she only has one gun but as you gain new powers for her you can ‘alter' the gun's power). These weapons include a machine gun, shotgun, rifle (or ‘canon'), and a Gatling gun. Each weapon has a considerably large clip and, in essence, you have infinite ammo for your weapons – stopping only as you burn your clip to reload. Don't make the mistake of believing this makes the game easy though for as I alluded to earlier, Alicia is a fragile thing and can be quickly disposed of by groups of enemies and stronger opponents. After playing games like Gears of War, GRAW, and Rainbow Six: Vegas, Alicia's inability to take cover is one of the most obvious flaws of the game and only add to the fragility of the main protagonist. Still the weapons and the spells offer enough variety that the game itself is very fun. Levels are not especially difficult to navigate but some of the combat sequences can be very intense and, fortunately, the level design is such that all of Alicia's different gunrods do prove useful at different points. Unfortunately, the lack of a number of features included in similar 360 games seems to keep the gameplay itself at an average score. The only especially notable thing about Bullet Witch's gameplay is the magic system which proves to be a little different from other third person shooters and somewhat reminiscent of an old PS1 game I was rather fond of by the name of Parasite Eve 2.

If you happen to be a fan of third person shooters then Bullet Witch is probably worth checking out. As I've tried to make obvious throughout this review, I generally agree that by and large Bullet Witch is completely average. It has a number of good ideas but unfortunately these ideas are ruined by a number of flaws that are also present in the game. Is it worth owning? Probably not, though the third person shooter fan will probably find it worth playing. If it can be acquired cheaply (say from the used game rack at Gamestop) then it is certainly entertaining enough to kill a weekend with. It is regrettable that its own mediocrity is likely to stop the ideas put forth in it from ever seeing any sort of successor as the setting of the game does prove to be mildly interesting but the story is so low key that you get very little feel for the world of Bullet Witch. For Bullet Witch, I would recommend a rental as the game is somewhat interesting and completely beatable in a single rental period. The fan of the third person shooter might find it worth picking up as the different difficulties combined with the downloadable content ought to give enough gameplay to keep the player busy for awhile. In the end, I mourn for Bullet Witch, a game that could have been spectacular if there weren't so many corners that had been cut. I will say that, for my part, I do not regret buying the game. Bullet Witch is not as bad as you have heard, but it is by no means especially impressive either. It is just about average, with a slightly extra nod for its magic system which manages to stand out in a world of tactical and “realistic” third person shooters. For this I rate it six points out of ten.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/07