Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

Bulletstorm is a First-Person Shooter following the testosterone-fueled antics of a musclebound group of rogue assassins in a sci-fi setting as they seek revenge on their former employer. This game was originally released on multiple platforms in 2011, with a remaster released on current-gen platforms in 2017.

Surprisingly, where other games like this opt to take the easy road and port over the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version of the game, Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition is actually a port of the remastered Full Clip Edition, and an impressive one at that. This game plays at a mostly-steady 30FPS and runs in a dynamic resolution that mostly sticks to 1080p with occasional dips down to 720p, with some very careful scaling back of textures and character models. While compromises are par for the course on the Nintendo Switch ports from other platforms, the choices made in this port to get the Bulletstorm remaster to work on the Switch are absolutely amazing.

To put it simply, Bulletstorm looks absolutely incredible. While I can make some complaints about a few textures here and there and limited poly counts in character models, on the whole this game is absolutely beautiful, with large, highly detailed environments, mostly fantastic textures, and smooth visuals that compliment the gameplay well. This is a phenomenal port job, and I’m honestly amazed that this game runs this well on Nintendo’s hardware.

On top of this, the game itself is a blast, featuring over-the-top, ultra-violent, cartoonishly silly gameplay with a focus on delivering a thrill ride of an experience, with showstopper set piece event after showstopper set piece event. Players are given plenty of variety throughout the game’s campaign, and there’s plenty of variety in the core gameplay as well, with one of the highlights being the “kick” and “leash” commands, allowing you to alternately yank enemies toward you and out from cover or push them away from you. What’s more, this combines with the game’s Skillshot system, which rewards players for finding unique and inventive ways to kill enemies.

Really, the biggest flaw in this version of Bulletstorm has nothing to do with what is here, and instead what isn’t. This game features no gyro aiming controls, and is sadly missing any form of multiplayer. And while the single-player campaign is still loads of fun, it’s sad that a port this fantastic is kept from perfection by these omissions. In their place is the new playable character, Duke Nukem, who… doesn’t really add much to the game. Choosing to play Duke just swaps out the character model and the voiced lines, but doesn’t change the gameplay. It’s a nice little extra, but hardly replaces the content that was removed.

Still, despite the loss of multiplayer and lack of gyro aiming, Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition is by far the best First-Person Shooter I have played on the Switch. The bombastic gameplay is fun and filled with variety, the visuals are absolutely stunning, and overall I would say that this game is a must-have for First-Person Shooter fans on the Switch.

tl;dr – Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition is an over-the-top testosterone-fueled sci-fi First-Person Shooter filled with tons of variety and lots of fun action. It is also a phenomenal port, graphically stunning on the Switch, although sadly the game lacks multiplayer and doesn’t have gyro aiming. Still, despite these omissions, this is a must-have for Switch owners looking for a fun First-Person Shooter.

Grade: A-

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