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I had nearly forgotten all about Cavia’s old third-person game “Bullet Witch”, then again, who could blame me? Because the game originally launched for the Xbox 360 almost twelve years ago (Japan got the game in July of 2006, and the rest of the world got the game in February or March of 2007). So as you might imagine, I got quite surprised when Marvelous Europe told me that they (and XSEED Games) planned to launch a remaster edition of “Bullet Witch” for PC on the 25th of April.

That’s just the half of it though, because Marvelous Europe also asked me if I would like to review “Bullet Witch” for PC. Well, long story short. I said yes. So I’ve spent about four days playing and recording the game (you can watch our gameplay video of the PC version of “Bullet Witch” via our Youtube page), that’s also why I felt like it’s just about time for me to share my thoughts about the game with you boys and girls.

So that’s exactly what I’m going to do right here, right now. Well, right off the bat. I would be lying through me teeth if I said that the intro of the game was anything but cringe worthy. I mean, it’s a mix of really bad voice acting, and a rather messy background story (you’re left with a lot of questions at the start of the game, and even more questions once the game is over).

Simply put, you’re not quite sure in what direction “Bullet Witch” is trying to take you with its story…Because in one moment the story is dead serious, and in the next one, it feels like something taken straight out of cartoon or anime show. My point would be that “Bullet Witch” tries to be a lot of things with its story at the same time, and the end result is a rather tangled up mess of a story.

However, luckily enough for us, you start to get the bigger picture of the story at the very end of the game. So then the story at least makes a bit more sense. Anyways, in “Bullet Witch” you take on the role as a witch called Alicia, and you do so in the wake of a demon invasion that kicked off in 2007 (which also was followed by a whole chain of natural disasters). Nevertheless, when Alicia comes into play, the year is 2013, and humanity is on the brink of extinction (without spoiling too much, it’s all thanks to one person who more or less sold his soul to the devil in-order to bring back a loved one of his).

So when you finally get to control Alicia (it takes a while before the game’s intro ends), you soon realize that you are one of the very few humans left on the planet, and that you pretty much are humanity’s last hope and savior. Naturally, that means that the odds are stacked against you from the very start. However, in the case with “Bullet Witch”, the enemy A.i is so stupid that even if you play on hard you won’t have much of a problem walking through the whole game without dying even once (I only died because I was careless. So that fault was all on me).

As a matter of fact, there are very few things or monsters that you really have to watch out for (snipers, heavy machine gunners, fires, explosions and falling buildings are pretty much it). So if you have unlocked all the weapons, spells and reached the highest level (you can upgrade your weapons, witchcraft skills and character with points that you earn throughout the game), then you are more or less immortal (no one can touch you).

In my case though, I played through “Bullet Witch” on normal in just a couple of hours (and keep in mind that I watched all the story parts, so the actual gameplay is much shorter than a couple of hours). Furthermore, I finished off the game even faster on my second try even though I played on hard (I managed to do that mainly because I had upgraded all my abilities, witchcraft skills and weapons to the max level).

That’s also the reason why I felt very unchallenged for most parts of the game (since I’m used to play hard games, I could more or less just sleep walk through “Bullet Witch” without dropping one drop of sweat in the process). So, all in all, I felt like “Bullet Witch” is a rather big mixed bag of a third-person shooter, because some parts of the game is really topnotch (like Alicia, her weapons and magical powers), while other parts are best forgotten all together (and preferably as quickly as possible ).

So my experience with “Bullet Witch” was more or less one hell of an emotional roller-coaster ride. I honestly feel like “Bullet Witch” could have been so much more, and that a great opportunity was lost with this game. My point would be that “Bullet Witch” deserves a better faith than this. So in my opinion, it would have been much better if “Bullet Witch” had gotten a full-blown remake for PC instead of a remastered release.

As for here and now though, the PC-release of “Bullet Witch” is a pretty decent third-person shooter at best, and pure mediocrity at its worst.

Pros:

+ Alicia is a rather interesting and cool character (she’s like Bayonetta’s unknown sister)

+ The weapons and upgrades are pretty darn entertaining

+ Impressive and cool-looking defense and attack spells

+ Massive boss fights

+ The action aspects of the game are quite intense and fun

+ There are a whole lot of different costumes, stages and game modes to play through

Cons:

– The game is very short (it’s all over in less than two hours on hard)

– Even on hard the game is way too easy

– I’m not a huge fan of the long walks that you have to do between point A to B

– The enemy Ai. is beyond stupid

– The graphics is a mix of alright, great and anything but epic graphics

– The game’s voice acting is so cringe worthy that you could cry yourself to sleep for less

– Bugs from hell (most of the bugs are related to graphics and performance problems)

– I find the lack of music to be rather disturbing

Gameplay: 3.5/5

Graphics: 3.5/5

Sound/music: 3/5

Controls: 4/5

Replay value: 3/5

Verdict: 3/5

Bullet Witch is with no doubt the strangest game that I have ever played in my life so far, and it’s not because of the game’s content or theme. Nope, it’s because Bullet Witch is a really strange mix of brilliance, average gameplay to nothing lese than pure mediocrity. Simply put, Bullet Witch is a very mixed bag.

So you go from “this game is freaking awesome!” to “why am I even playing this game again?” in just a matter of minutes, and that’s how you feel throughout the whole game. In other words, unless you’re a hardcore fan of third-person shooters, then I would recommend you to wait until Bullet Witch drops in price (the game is also in need of some much-needed updates…).



Title: Bullet Witch

Developer: Marvelous

Format: PC

Genre: Third-person shooter

Resolution: Highest possible on PC

Release date: 2018-04-25

Difficulty: Normal

Spent time: +6 hours

Average grade internationally: 62.33% via gamerankings.com

PEGI/ESRB age rating: PEGI +16

Price: 14,99 Euros via Steam



Credit:

Robin Ek – Editor

***Disclosure***

Marvelous provided us with a review key for Bullet Witch.



Robin “V-Act” Ek

Editor in chief

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

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Tags: Action games, Bullet Witch, Marvelous, PC games, PC review, Third-person shooter, XSEED Games