Bayonetta, a game where you play as an obliterating witch with guns attached to her set of heels, is one of the best action games on the market but did you know there was already a witch fighting off demons with her gun inserted in her broomstick? Meet Bullet Witch, a witch that blows demons to smithereens with her broomstick and destructive spells. If you put those two together in one fight, I wonder who’ll win? Here’s the review for Bullet Witch.
Bayonetta sets some high standards when it comes to an amazing action game, but I wonder if the developers based their standards on another witch game’s standards? If so, the game would have probably been Bullet Witch. Bullet Witch was an Xbox 360 third person shooter where you took up the role as Alicia. Alicia was, of course, a witch, but she didn’t necessarily choose spells to defend herself from demons. She chose to utilize her broomstick gun to fend off creatures and mix it up with spells to get some better survivability. After 12 years, Bullet Witch finds itself on PC and tries to impress us with its game and even though the game’s outdated, it does impress with some features!
“The only thing that stands out, is the environmental destruction.”
Bullet Witch has been released on PC “remastered” but you should take this very lightly. Even though the developers changed the game’s lighting and rebalanced the game’s mechanics, you wouldn’t notice those changes because the game’s just outdated. The game will feel more like a port than a remastered version of the game. Put the Xbox 360’s version next to the PC version and there will be no difference whatsoever. The only “up” the game provided was its stability. The game runs fluently without any frame issues, while the Xbox 360 failed to deliver on that subject. There’s also a configuration tool to change the game’s resolution, graphical settings, lighting effects and gameplay controls but this isn’t anything world wrecking or mind-blowing. Like I said, the game is fairly standard when it comes to “remastered” and the structured setup is basic too. The only thing that stands out, is the environmental destruction. It’s pretty great, especially for such an old game.
The game’s storyline isn’t anything to write home about because of the game’s setup. The game’s campaign is played through different missions. These missions mostly have the same objectives that can be completed through the use of the same “mechanics” over and over again. These missions take place in open structured environments and the game will often block the paths that glue these “environments” together with “easy to destroy”- obstacles. Most of the time, these obstacles can be destroyed by a lightning bolt, however, the game tries to mix it all up with magic barriers. These magic barriers are colored and can only be destroyed if you destroy the enemy that has the related color. These enemies aren’t very challenging but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your eyes open. These brain like enemies will throw different things to you and these projectiles will instantly kill you if you don’t go out of their way.
Bullet Witch combines the arts of magic with gun shooting talent and even though it’s been a couple of years, they made a game that runs fluently. Alicia starts off with a broomstick that includes some tremendous firepower, a machine gun. During your playthrough, you’ll be able to upgrade your broomstick to gain the shotgun and Gatling gun effect. Some gun modes will have a better effect on different kinds of enemies. Spells are also included in Alicia’s arsenal and can be upgraded the same way. I do believe that this gameplay mechanic makes the game a lot more varied and fun to play. You can try to use different spells to make useful combinations to eliminate the enemy the quickest.
A moment ago, I talked about the only thing that stood out throughout the game and that’s the destructiveness mechanic for such an old game. Nearly anything can be destroyed on purpose or will be destroyed as a result of battle. It’s still a great developed mechanic for such an old game. This makes the game a lot more “believable” and “enjoyable” at the same time. The game does the basics right. Cars, gas stations, … can be blown up and the blast can even fend off enemies. Then again, this mechanic is a double-edged sword as this also counts for the player. During these brain fights, projectiles will be thrown at you and when I say projectiles, I mean everything that’s not nailed to the ground can be thrown at you. These projectiles can instant kill you and that’s just not fun, especially when the checkpoint mechanic in this game’s just rubbish.
Conclusion
Bullet Witch is a great game, at least this would be something I could have said twelve years ago. It has some great ideas but the production value of this game just doesn’t cut it for me, especially when you have a lot more good-looking and far more enjoyable games on the current market. Then again, if you consider this game a classic, you can still play the game at an affordable price but like I said, the game just doesn’t fit the current market anymore. The “remastered” version stuck to the core build of the game and that’s a good thing. The game runs fluently, even on a “potato” machine. It’s great to have some extra configuration options but you’ll notice very little when you would compare the PC game with the Xbox 360 version.
