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An average time killer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I seriously picked this game up on a complete whim. The games concept, to me, was hilarious, at best, and this game would either be very sad or mediocre, again, at best. I will admit I was mildly drawn in by the main characters looks and costume; I was actually looking forward to battling my way through hordes of enemies with her, much like I did with Blood Rayne. On that note, I think users can expect a bit of influence from the Blood Rayne concept that has seen a good amount of success.

You play as Alicia, who is a scantily clad witch that also happens to walk around in stiletto heals and carry an oversized gun. I really don't understand this penchant with oversized weapons like we see in Final Fantasy, for example. They're just unwieldy and no one could logically use these things. I realize the developers want it to look like her "broom", but that's just kind of goofy. Ah well, either way she is definitely the best developed character in this game and basically the best scripted during the video sequences. You end up learning about her history as the game goes on, but when it starts you're in a small suburban town on the outside of New York City and it's being attacked by these undead looking creatures. Apparently demons are attacking the world and when the army was sent in they were possessed or something, because there are vast amounts of soldier demons. However, Alicia certainly isn't defenseless for she has magical powers and a gun rod at her disposal. Basically you fight your way through the stages, meet up with some other human defenders, and learn more about the story behind why the demons are attacking.

Yeah, it's a pretty basic game, but it was decently fun while it lasted. There are some really cool things you can do in this game, but there are some major hang ups as well. Character control was pretty decent, I really like the fact that Alicia can jump really high in the air. She manages to execute some really intense jumps; similar to what we saw on Blood Rayne, but it naturally makes me wonder how she lands in those high heels... Anyway, the user view feels a little weird because you're basically always focusing off to the right and even more so when you use the zoom function. The zoom function is hugely necessary, but it has some serious problems too. Such as if you're trying to hide or have some sort of cover and there's something behind you don't expect to be looking at the enemy you're aiming at... yeah the camera doesn't compensate for objects behind you so you see the inside of them. This is even more frustrating with some of the human defenders that follow you from time to time, they constantly step in front of you while you're trying to aim at something or stand RIGHT in the way blocking the camera. They seriously need to adjust some parts of the AI for this game, because it's pretty twitchy. Like the game should know I'm trying to zoom because the view is so limiting so get those extras out of the way! I was pretty glad when they were eventually killed off half the time. The same goes for the enemy AI. A lot of times you're in a situation where you need to completely kill all the enemies in the area before you can progress only to find out there's some random soldier demon too stupid to realize he's walking into a box.

The world you're put in is very lush and well developed. I would put it on par with Half Life 2 even, in terms of quality. However, it's much less interactive. I really wanted to be able to go into houses and explore many different areas. You really don't get to do any of that with Bullet Witch, unfortunately. The world and levels is actually surprisingly large and there are a lot of places your character can go, this is especially good in a city setting because you get to explore a lot of cool alley ways. However, Bullet Witch left out some very important things for maps this large. Basically, there is no map function. I have basically no idea where I'm going or what my position is and when you're in the forest it's sometimes hard to tell if you've gotten turned around until you find that tank you blew up. It looks like the developers learned from Halo only half the time, a Nav point does show up from time to time to help you out, but it's quite a rarity. With levels this long and large where there is a lot of walking, and you have no map, a Nav point is almost essential to your success without wandering around for an hour like I did in some cases. Don't get me wrong, I like to explore the game; I just don't like it when it's forced on me.

Another part that was really cool about this game was that it has a degree of Role Playing feature in the fact that you get points and you can upgrade your weapon and magic abilities. I thought this was a great feature and I'm really glad they included it so I could choose what I wanted. These options and the different feel of guns or magic that you could use was probably the best part of the game. My favorite magic weapons were the "rose spear" and "lightning". Lightning was absolutely essential for this game when you came across tanks or large enemies. Meteor Shower was awesome in concept, but somewhat impractical because it caused so much destruction. However, the destruction it wreaks is quite awesome. The one problem with the magic is that you have to go through a menu of sorts to pick out what you want to use. However, the game isn't paused while you choose your spell, things just keep going. The most annoying aspect was when you use a big spell like Lightning or Meteor Shower it goes to a cut cinematic every time when you summon the power. Again the enemies don't pause they keep shooting at you and they keep moving, I realize that's more realistic, but it's not useful in a game. This is immensely frustrating with Lightning because after the cut sequence you then have to aim where you want to fire the lightning and the enemy you want to shoot may have moved by then and is now out of range!

Overall this game had its good moments and its bad moments. The story wasn't anything spectacular and the script during the cinematic sequences was pretty terrible at times. Like the guy playing the male love interest (which I don't know why that's even in this game) he has the worst lines. To the point where he just sounds stupid and annoying! Regardless the graphics during the videos was great and rather akin to Final Fantasy's "The Spirits Within" movie. As a gamer I wouldn't expect a huge amount out of this game. It can be frustrating and challenging at times (especially that lengthy final boss battle), but I think the degree of fun I got out of it outweighed those poorer moments. The length is pretty decent and took maybe ten plus hours on easy, granted a lot of that is because I got lost in some areas for a while. Either way, I'd recommend this if you're really itching to play a game of this style. The closing scene kind of left it open for a possible sequel, I can only hope they improve upon some of the parts that made this game annoying, because it certainly has the potential to be quite good.

Lost potential..... But give credit for the effort.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Yes this game isn't the best of its class but it was a very hard concept to make and by this 3rd party Developer Atari that made games such as Enter the matrix and so on, One can't really expect an Award winning "Game of the Year" Franchise to follow through. This game would have been more successful had it been Rated Teen since the gameplay is simplistic as Devil may Cry and there was no need for the ultra gore. Overall Its an above average game that didn't do too hot in the market that was targeted for a small group of gamers. Not too bad but not too great either.

You like it or hate it!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Well i really like this game, it have all the graphics problems but in the end is a fun game.
People are going to like or hate this game depending how fun you think its is.

Pretty OK

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game was alright if you like demons and witches and all that stuff, but my real only complaint was that it was way too short and that really made me mad. I thought it was a good game, but the shortness of it was one of its greatest downfalls.

So Bad I Had To Write A Review

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: June 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm glad that I didn't shell out the money to buy this game. I wasn't expecting it to be game of the year but I was hoping to be entertained at least. The graphics are so-so and the controls aren't too horrific. The AI might as well not be added into the equation at all and the environments are expansive..........too expansive in some cases. There were many a time when I couldn't move forward in the game till I found the glitched out zombie hidden in some corner somewhere in the city. I really wanted to get the gamerpoints as they are pretty easy to achieve but I was so disheartened by the game that I had to return it. If you really have the urge to play this then I highly suggest renting it over buying it. Afterwards then you can take comfort knowing you only blew a few bucks on it.

Nice Idea but Poor Implementation

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: June 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bullet Witch for the XBox 360 is a goth shooter. You're Alicia, a black-wearing witch of the future who is humanity's only hope for survival. The city landscape has been overrun with gigantic demons.

I'm always thrilled when they have females as main characters, especially in traditionally male-dominated areas such as shooters. You do have to deal with the fact that these females are usually busty and very skimpily clad, but progress doesn't always come quickly. In this case, the belly-dancer-garbed witch carries gigantic swords and uses magic. She's up against nasty looking, gigantic demons which stomp around a dark, grafitti-filled city. Think the future of Terminator, but with demons instead of robots.

These maps are very large, dark, and nicely detailed. On the other hand, there often is no directional indicator - so you're wandering for long periods of time around a huge map, with no idea of where to go next. It can get frustrating. Now, while I thought for example that the brickwork and detail of the sewers was of good quality, my boyfriend's comment at this point was "the game starts stupid-looking, and slowly advances to mediocre".

The enemy demons are a mixed bag. Sometimes they show reasonable AI, hiding from your shots, strafing you and so on. At other times, you can just sit behind a wall while they come at you one by one, getting "stuck" on the corner and letting you plink at them like a shooting gallery.

The sound is reasonably nice, changing from throbbing battle-music to more low key skulking-through-the-sewers songs. Voice acting isn't high end, but it's not awful either.

My main complaint with the game is that it is rather short. I suppose you could say it takes a while because of the lack of a map, but once you actually know where you're going, the game has little gameplay. Games on the XBox 360 often stretch on for weeks and weeks, providing very enjoyable gameplay all along. With Bullet Witch, you can probably end the game in a day of playing without all that much effort. That's just not enough enjoyment for the price of a game - or for the investment of your energy to learn the button scheme and connect with the characters. It's like getting fond of a new TV series, and learning who all the individuals are - and then having it get cancelled only a few shows in. You were expecting much more.

A great idea, but I think the game needed a few more months in development to flesh out the AI and add on more storyline / maps to fully complete it.

An (overall) decent game that heavily lacks polish

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

After careful inspection (having played through and mastered the game on practically every difficulty level), I can honesty declare that Bullet Witch is nowhere NEAR as bad as some of the critics have panned it out to be. The game was met with a rather moderate reception when it was originally released in the 2nd quarter of 2006 in Japan. Fast forward several months later and the title finally sees the light of day stateside, thanks to Atari. Problem is, it hits at a time when the consumers have already been introduced to much higher budgeted and produced shooters (from the Gears, to the Lost Planets, to the Rainbow Six Vegas' and on down). It almost seems as though the critics were so desensitized by the other shooters on the market, that when Bullet Witch finally came along (stateside), they viewed it at as a competitor, thus rating it unfairly. Sure. the game has flaws, (some more overt than others) but what games don't?

You play the role of a reclusive witch by the name Alicia. The setting takes place in 2013 A.D., at a when time demons appear to be an even bigger threat to the human race than before, summoning Geist (subhumans made from demon quota) to do their dirty bidding for them on Earth. As Alicia (the only witch powerful enough to take them on) it's your duty to vanquish the hellspawns to wence they came. However, you're not entering the battle alone. Along the way, you'll be allied with humans who will fight alongside you in hopes of salvaging humanity from the demons.

Gamesplay basically consists of getting to point A to point B. Weapon's consist of the machinegun (your primary weapon), shotgun, cannon, and gatling gun (my personal favorite). These weapons can either be upraded or powered up (in-game ). Upgrading can either be done between stages or from the title screen's options menu. It enbables for stronger weaponfire damage, as with powering up. Powering Up gives each weapon a special, unique, attack effect. For the machinegun; fire, shotgun; wind, gatling gun; lightning, and cannon; first-person sniper view. You never really run out of ammo since the guns' ammo are magically generated, thus require magic points to reload. Magical spells (BW's main highlight) are generally a well balanced mix off offensive and defensive skills. In some instances you'll need to use a powerful attack spell to take out an overpowerful enemy, in which normal weapons simply won't take out. You recover magic points by taking out enemies with your guns. Through battle you'll occasionally run into civilians and soldiers (NPCs) to whom you can lend help to (granted their in need). Some will express their gratitude in by giving you an item in which will replenish your health much quicker (your health recovers gradually overtime, considering you've lost any). You aren't required to rescue or save any civilians or soldiers, but doing so (or not) does have a substantial hold on your overall ranking at the end of each mission.

The graphics are for the most part, decent. Huge, open-ended, scenic environments. Most objects in the game are fully destructible and can be used to your advantage in many instances. The physics are quite impressive. Especially being that Cavia (the developers of BW) used their own proprietary physics engine, rather than working off an existing one, such as Havok or PhysX. However, there seem to be some MAJOR clipping and collision issues. Despite all of Atari's attempts at cleaning these up for the stateside release, some are just too unmistakably obvious to pass up. You'll walk through a trash can, yet can oddly shoot it to pieces. There's also some irregular pop-ups (in the background) from time to time, knowingly in the wider scenic areas. The game is visually at it's finest on the airbase/railroad stage (beautiful scenery and dynamic multi-tiered environments and physics) and it's somewhat a pity that the developers were unable to achieve this type of quality all throughout the game. My only guess and reasoning for this is that the game was rushed at some point.

Enemy A.I. is alright for the most part. Geist soldiers are cocky and arrogant (they have plenty of character, some will even attempt to bribe you into sparing their lives) but can put up a fight. They'll try to strafe, dodge, and roll out of the way off oncoming fire, so it's not like they just stand there and let you hit them. You'll occasionally run into some overly aggressive soldiers who will practically do everything in their power to not get hit by you (some geist soldiers weapons doing more damage than others) but will constantly keep a strong trail on you in the process. The snipers appear to be the most unbalanced enemies in the entire game. Seemingly having godlike bird's eye accuracy and can aim from 200 acres afar (literally). They never miss. So the moment you see red lights trailing you, if you've not hidden yourself for cover in time, it's all over.

Controls are average. Ducking/crouching is pretty much useless being that you move like a tank when trying to do so. This leaves you open as a huge magnet for gunfire, since you can't evade attacks while crouched (cannot roll or jump). Another huge issue is the magic window. There are times when you can be well positioned (with the right amount of magic points) and for whatever reason, the spell won't activate. Since spells can only be casted through live window, it's very common that you can be killed while attempting to assign one. For instance, if you try active the lightning spell and miss, you're open to attack for a few agonizing moments. Perhaps the developers were trying to make is so that you'd make tougher decisions in using spells in tight situations, but in the process made it more frustrating. It's almost like they were trying to torture and penalize you for trying to enjoy the features in which the game possesses. Hit detection is also off some. There are too many instances in which an object can be hurled at you and be off several frames, yet it will still do full damage (as if landed at you accurately) wiping you out in an instant. Other instances, you can be aiming/shooting directly at the enemy and your attacks won't register.

Voiceacting is a mix. It can range anywhere from intermediate to "When's my next break at again?" The music, on the other hand is astonishing, with a great deal of the compositions being symphonic, fitting the game's atmosphere.

Bullet Witch is an overall decent game. While the game spands only six stages long, extra missions can be unlocked via Xbox Live, along with constumes, which help add replay value and longitivity. It's a fun fast-paced/action shooter. If you can look beyond some hindering flaws (and ignore the overly harsh critic remarks) , beyond all of the rubble lies a potentially great game (which just seems that the developers weren't able to fully capitalize on for whatever reasons). Unfortunately some may find the game's faults too unbearable to consider giving it a fair chance. Hopefully these problems will be addressed in the sequel. I'm anticipating much in store from Bullet Witch 2. We'll definitely see more of Alicia (whether it be in comics, games, or even potential anime spin-offs).

read me \/

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As you can see this game must not be for everyone, but I dont see any problem with it. The story was referred to as "an embarassment to storytelling", but this story doesn't seem any more stupid than the ridiculous story presented in halo. Personally I wasn't expecting an incredible story from a game called "bulletwitch". I was looking to blow everything up as a woman in a schoolgirl outfit. And thats exactly what I got. You can download outfits for free on xbox live. I was amazed by the effects and massive scale of a game that got such a poor review, and I am very satisfied.

Is There A Spell T o Refund My Money?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Too bad you can't use curse words on Amazon, because there would be a ****load right now. This game is filled with good intentions and some nice ideas, but just not thought out as well as it should have. Mowing down demon soliers in a suburban neighborhood should be alot funner than this. And while the magic effects are nice, the overall feel of this game is very mediocre; The movements are awkward, and while some of the graphics are nice and sharp, the overall bland enviornments will just have you shaking your head. Sure, all the explosions look 'purty', but don't they all on Next Gen? This could have a been a really fun guilty pleasure with a little more effort behind it, but instead it's just very ho-hum. Another year in development could have maybe turned this around. But....

Just play Bloodrayne 2 again.

pretty cool game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: May 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

i know the experts gave this game like a mediocre rating or something,but i myself liked it,it has a "dusk to dawn" type of feel,and the boss fights was great especially the last guy,i think you should try this game,or at least give it a chance,i did,and i'm glad

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