|
Rockstar Games’ latest title is rated “T” for Teen but remains the most controversial game of the game. This is despite the release of Saints Row, which some described as Grand Theft Auto IV without the license. Rockstar’s Bully doesn’t even place you in the role of the bully; you’re the only being bullied. As with their other games, Bully is hip, edgy and undoubtedly fun.
In Bully, you play as Jimmy Hopkins, who is attending Bullworth Academy solely because his mother managed to get remarried to a rich husband. Your mother and your new father are not the most caring individuals since they plan on leaving you in this boarding school as they take a year-long cruise. Despite the rampant cliques that Bullworth is home to, Jimmy manages to find a friend in Gary, another outcast. Like Rockstar’s other games, the storyline in Bully is top-notch. The game manages to stay barely under the T rating but quite vividly displays its cheerleaders, jocks, nerds and clueless administration members thanks to rich writing and well-delivered dialogue.
Bully has a bit more structure than Rockstar’s games. You are required to wake up at 8 a.m., attend two classes each day (one at 9 a.m. and the other at 1 p.m.), be inside by curfew at 11 p.m., and be asleep by 2 a.m. The middle two requirements aren’t requirements per se, since you don’t really have to attend class or meet curfew. You will have to wake up by 8 a.m, though, and if you try to stay up after 2 a.m., your character will pass out from exhaustion. You will be better off attending classes though. The game has six classes (English, Chemistry, Shop, Art, Gym and Photography) each with five minigames. All of the minigames offer improvements for Jimmy. For instance, Gym class lets you increase your accuracy and gain new moves, chemistry class lets you learn how to build stink bombs, and English class lets you learn new ways to sweet talk your way out of problems.
Much of Bully’s structure is provided by the game’s chapter. Each chapter has you taking on one of the school’s numerous cliques, completing missions given to you by staff members, and generally being an annoyance to as many people as possible. For instance, some missions task you with going on a panty raid, stealing the school mascot’s uniform, taking dirty pictures of girls, or fighting some rival cliques. Aside from the missions, you’ll have to live a life at Bullworth which means building an entourage and even kissing a few girls here and there. The game has a fairly thorough fighting system which includes a solid grappling system, and includes plenty of accessible-at-school weapons including firecrackers, slingshots, stink bombs and a baseball bat here and there.
Bully is probably the best looking Rockstar game on the PlayStation 2. The game’s environment is adequately detailed although it obviously won’t rival the raw size of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto games. The character models are equally well detailed, although the animation is particularly good, and really helps bring the game to life. Partly because Bully is a tighter, more focused game, Rockstar had more time to flesh things out.
The audio is equally well done. The background music isn’t licensed as would have been expected, but fits the game extremely well because of it. The voice acting, as I hinted to above, is always well done and really lets you take the story in as richly as possible. The sound effects are as good as you would expect, although the voice acting and soundtrack were clearly the focus of the audio presentation.
Bully is the type of game that only a company like Rockstar Games could pull off. It’s undeniably well produced, pushes the envelope as to what is possible in videogames, and remains unquestionably fun. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 23, 2006
|
