Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Review

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is the remaster you never asked for, but we'll be damned if it isn't every bit the kick-ass balls-to-the-wall blaster that it was back in 2011. Who'd have thought that blasting bad guys to smithereens while racking up points for 'skillshots' would still be entertaining a whole six years later?!

Granted, Bulletstorm really didn't need to be visually overhauled; it already looked pretty bloody good, but when the likes of BioShock, Skyrim and others are all receiving the remaster treatment, there's no reason why People Can Fly and Epic's first-person shooter collaboration shouldn't be given the same spruce up.

And you know what? As digital paint jobs go, Full Clip Edition's is pretty bloody good, the touted increased polygon count, higher resolution textures and increased frame rate all conspire to make this updated version of the game worth a revisit. If you haven't played Bulletstorm yet, then consider yourself one of the lucky ones. It's still good.

Even six years on, few shooters pull off the kind of brazen, unapologetically action-packed approach that Bulletstorm does, hurling swears and explosions around with reckless abandon. The skillshot system persists in being ludicrously fun, spewing points that can be spent on upgrades and ammunition, transforming gruff hero Grayson Hunt into an even more efficient killing machine.

Once you've obtained the leash, you'll be pulling in enemies and kicking them into stuff, skidding across the ground to pelt them into the air, blowing bad guys out of the sky like exploding, offal-filled clay pigeons. As ever, spotting the opportunities put before you – be it exploding hot dog carts, whirring ventilation fans, hanging electrical wires, lethal cactus needles – and getting creative with your arsenal of weapons and abilities is Bulletstorm's not-so secret sauce, and one of the reasons it remains so enjoyable.

It's a bit of a masterstroke then, that the newly-added Overkill mode enables you to replay the campaign with no limits on the weaponry you can pack and the skillshots you can perform. It's Bulletstorm in its rawest, most undiluted form, giving you complete freedom to fuck shit up without having to concern yourself with which weapons you can carry. Usually, you're limited to three, so it's nice that the Overkill mode lets you off the leash.

Echo Mode returns to add more replay value, boasting skillshot score challenges to tackle in a bid to achieve a three-star rating on each map, with six new maps expanding the fun. What else is there then? The co-operative Anarchy Mode is back too, enabling you to team up with three other players online to take on waves of enemies and rack up a collective target skillshot score to progress.

And if you pre-ordered the game, there's Duke Nukem's Tour, pasting the cigar-chomping meathead into the campaign and clumsily fitting Jon St. John's newly-recorded dialogue around it. As bonuses go, it's kind of dispensable stuff; an extra that's more a curio than a worthwhile addition. Don't feel too hard done by if you haven't pre-ordered, as there's still more than enough to enjoy here without Duke.

There are no new achievements attached to the new content either, so you can simply go through the campaign at the various difficulties all over again (or for the first time), carry out all of the various skillshots, three-star all of the Echoes and so on to grab the full 1000G. The game's DLC has also been rolled into the core achievement list, so there's less Gamerscore up for grabs here, unfortunately. Still, it remains a strong list.

Still as gleefully fun as it was more than half-a-decade ago, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is a fine remaster job that preserves everything that was great about the game in the first place, with sexier visuals making the vibrant colours really pop and the overblown action all the more visceral. If you haven't played it before, it's well worth diving in, and if you have, it's certainly easy to recommend a revisit.