Bully (PS2) - Review
High: Very creative well thought out gameplay module, also very interesting environment and story.
Low:
If you believe the hype, the new video game Bully is the most corrupting thing to happen to teenagers since Elvis Presley gyrated his hips on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Critics have been crusading against the game on the talk show circuit for months, with one activist calling it a "Columbine simulator" as he filed legal arguments attempting to remove it from shelves.
That accusation would only be true if the Trench Coat Mafia's weapons of choice were itching powder and wedgies. In reality, the well-designed PlayStation 2 title from Rockstar Games is closer to a video game version of the movie "My Bodyguard," with fewer killings (none) than the typical episode of "Murder, She Wrote."
While it has many structural similarities to Rockstar's most notorious title, Bully is, at worst, Grand Theft Auto with misdemeanors. And it exposes the ridiculousness in much of the hysteria surrounding video games, which keep pulling a bigger share of the entertainment dollar but are still misunderstood by a large segment of the public and the media.
Pundits who focus on violence in video games are missing an even bigger story: Most games in the 21st century aren't very good. As the production cost for each game grows higher with higher-powered consoles including the Xbox 360, developers are taking fewer chances, and the result is more imagination-stifling sequels and imitations. Rockstar may be perceived as the Terrell Owens of video game makers, but from an artistic standpoint, it's one of the few companies that has consistently been part of the solution -- trying to innovate when others are settling for more of the same. But you know all about that from Problems with Gaming - Part one: the Story Game, so lets leave this at just that, Bully is part of the solution.
Bully has no shortage of creative energy, offering an immersive boarding school experience that is imaginative, funny and filled with surprises. You play tough kid Jimmy Hopkins, who enters Bullworth Academy as a last resort after numerous expulsions from better places. Bullworth turns out to be a totalitarian state, where the jocks, bullies and teachers rule with no mercy, and the nerds live in fear. Will Jimmy emerge as their leader and hero?
The tone seems equally influenced by "The Breakfast Club," "The Outsiders" and "The Karate Kid" -- with an episode or two of "South Park" thrown in to keep you laughing.
For the first three hours of game play, almost nothing critical happens. You might attend a few classes, skip a few others and get used to the social ecosystem at the school, where just about everyone bigger than you seems to have a mean streak. After a showdown with Bullworth's biggest bully, you start to roam away from the school, and townies become an additional problem. Structurally, Bully has a free-roaming vibe that plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, with much less territory but way more detail. While most buildings are impenetrable boxes in GTA, it seems like almost every structure in Bully can be explored at some point.
Bully's central plot is fairly routine, but the individual missions and characters are a lot of fun. Your roommate Gary is off his meds, and his choice of a Halloween costume -- a Nazi SS officer -- foreshadows psychotic behavior to come. Jimmy learns many of his fighting moves from a local hobo who's a Korea vet, and while the hand-to-hand combat and dark humor more than earn the game a Teen rating (the approximate equivalent of a PG-13 movie), there's an underlying morality that is pervasive throughout the game.
"Have you got any liquor," the hobo asks, the first time Jimmy runs into him.
"No," Jimmy responds. "I'm 15."
There is no blood in Bully, and the most menacing weapon I could get my hands on was a baseball bat. Jimmy can't kill people, and there was less sex talk during the eight hours that I played than the typical 22-minute episode of "The Golden Girls." The biggest knock against Bully is the constant fistfights. (At approximately the halfway point, I had engaged in more than 400.) But the writers are pretty careful to make sure that almost everyone who gets a beat down pretty much deserves it.
The furor that surrounded Bully in recent months highlights the stupidity of trying to ban a game that no one has actually seen. Without ever having played Bully, activist lawyer Jack Thompson labeled it "the violent Columbine simulator video game" and spent much of the last year trying -- and failing -- to keep the game from store shelves. Critics were more successful in Europe. PC World in the United Kingdom has decided not to sell the game, although through a gaping hole in logic, that chain is still stocking the Mature-rated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Misinformation such as the Bully scandal just hurts parents' chances of communicating with their children about video games. Every time kids see adults going berserk about a game that turns out to be relatively benign, there's little choice but to assume they're not ready for an honest conversation. Bully critics are using the same arguments we heard during censorship battles that focused on comic books in the 1950s, rock music in the 1960s and Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s. (Remember when that was corrupting our children?) Except this time, we have cable television talk shows and the Internet to spread misinformation and stir outrage. Though the media is not the only outlet to blame, theirs the parents themselves for not doing their own research but alas it's too much to ask for in this society.
Even if you agree that video games are too violent, focusing energy on Bully is like trying to raid a crack house and accidentally smashing in the door of the doughnut franchise across the street. Bully may have been the game CNN's Lou Dobbs was getting apoplectic about, but I can name 50 other titles released this year that featured far more gratuitous blood and mayhem. To that CNN and every news outlet that comes to mind shows as much violence if not more than a good percentage of the video game market.
But now that the game has finally been released, there are some signs that lessons are being learned. Bay Area viewers watching CBS 5-TV this weekend may have seen Jim Steyer, founder of the local child advocacy group Common Sense Media, acknowledging the violent aspects of the game while suggesting that parents decide for themselves whether Bully is appropriate for their teens.
And in the United States, legal attempts to restrict the game have once again failed.
"There's a lot of violence. A whole lot," Miami-Dade County Judge Ronald Friedman ruled in court earlier this month, according to a Miami Herald article. "(But) less than we see on television every night."
Now the new scandal surrounding this game is the ability for your character to not only kiss girls but to also kiss boys and wow them with flattery to try to win them over. Now there is plenty of room to say that's not right for everyone and that's fine, but to try to remove the game from the market because a person "could/can" do something is ludicrous. If it is not right for your teen, ask yourself these questions, "What can they see on the TV, or even at their school?" Unless you can say you lock them in their room and don't let them out ever and don't teach them anything ever, they have not only seen worse things but have done worse things, face it, it is a part of growing up.
Again this is not to say bully is for everyone, but don't always believe what you read or see on TV, in the paper, or any other source. The only person that knows if Bully is right for you, your kid is you, and maybe them. Sit down, talk you might be amazed how mature your child/teen is. Granted some people won't be mature enough to play the game, that's fine, but don't make up your mind based off what you heard on some morning news story.
In closing always look into things yourself whether you're a parent or just a consumer. Always do your own research, if it isn't enough rent the product if at all possible and try it yourself. Maybe it's not right for your teen but hey you might like it get a few laughs wishing you could have done that to someone that tormented you. Games are fantasy just like books, to most people games are no more immersive then a good book. So when you think about it that way why would anyone ever blame, TV, Radio, Music for all the world's problems. If that is the case then books are the root of all evil, but alas it's not that simple.
Though this is not a "review" I would recommend this game to any teen or adult mature enough to see it as a fun romp in a fantasy world, one where the bullies of the world pay for the bad doing. Honestly who doesn't like the sound of that, when it comes down to it isn't that what all mystery books are about.
High: Very creative well thought out gameplay module, also very interesting environment and story.
Low:
At a stretch the graphics could be better but they in no way hurt the overall feeling the title.
If you believe the hype, the new video game Bully is the most corrupting thing to happen to teenagers since Elvis Presley gyrated his hips on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Critics have been crusading against the game on the talk show circuit for months, with one activist calling it a "Columbine simulator" as he filed legal arguments attempting to remove it from shelves.
That accusation would only be true if the Trench Coat Mafia's weapons of choice were itching powder and wedgies. In reality, the well-designed PlayStation 2 title from Rockstar Games is closer to a video game version of the movie "My Bodyguard," with fewer killings (none) than the typical episode of "Murder, She Wrote."
While it has many structural similarities to Rockstar's most notorious title, Bully is, at worst, Grand Theft Auto with misdemeanors. And it exposes the ridiculousness in much of the hysteria surrounding video games, which keep pulling a bigger share of the entertainment dollar but are still misunderstood by a large segment of the public and the media.
Pundits who focus on violence in video games are missing an even bigger story: Most games in the 21st century aren't very good. As the production cost for each game grows higher with higher-powered consoles including the Xbox 360, developers are taking fewer chances, and the result is more imagination-stifling sequels and imitations. Rockstar may be perceived as the Terrell Owens of video game makers, but from an artistic standpoint, it's one of the few companies that has consistently been part of the solution -- trying to innovate when others are settling for more of the same. But you know all about that from Problems with Gaming - Part one: the Story Game, so lets leave this at just that, Bully is part of the solution.
Bully has no shortage of creative energy, offering an immersive boarding school experience that is imaginative, funny and filled with surprises. You play tough kid Jimmy Hopkins, who enters Bullworth Academy as a last resort after numerous expulsions from better places. Bullworth turns out to be a totalitarian state, where the jocks, bullies and teachers rule with no mercy, and the nerds live in fear. Will Jimmy emerge as their leader and hero?
The tone seems equally influenced by "The Breakfast Club," "The Outsiders" and "The Karate Kid" -- with an episode or two of "South Park" thrown in to keep you laughing.
For the first three hours of game play, almost nothing critical happens. You might attend a few classes, skip a few others and get used to the social ecosystem at the school, where just about everyone bigger than you seems to have a mean streak. After a showdown with Bullworth's biggest bully, you start to roam away from the school, and townies become an additional problem. Structurally, Bully has a free-roaming vibe that plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, with much less territory but way more detail. While most buildings are impenetrable boxes in GTA, it seems like almost every structure in Bully can be explored at some point.
Bully's central plot is fairly routine, but the individual missions and characters are a lot of fun. Your roommate Gary is off his meds, and his choice of a Halloween costume -- a Nazi SS officer -- foreshadows psychotic behavior to come. Jimmy learns many of his fighting moves from a local hobo who's a Korea vet, and while the hand-to-hand combat and dark humor more than earn the game a Teen rating (the approximate equivalent of a PG-13 movie), there's an underlying morality that is pervasive throughout the game.
"Have you got any liquor," the hobo asks, the first time Jimmy runs into him.
"No," Jimmy responds. "I'm 15."
There is no blood in Bully, and the most menacing weapon I could get my hands on was a baseball bat. Jimmy can't kill people, and there was less sex talk during the eight hours that I played than the typical 22-minute episode of "The Golden Girls." The biggest knock against Bully is the constant fistfights. (At approximately the halfway point, I had engaged in more than 400.) But the writers are pretty careful to make sure that almost everyone who gets a beat down pretty much deserves it.
The furor that surrounded Bully in recent months highlights the stupidity of trying to ban a game that no one has actually seen. Without ever having played Bully, activist lawyer Jack Thompson labeled it "the violent Columbine simulator video game" and spent much of the last year trying -- and failing -- to keep the game from store shelves. Critics were more successful in Europe. PC World in the United Kingdom has decided not to sell the game, although through a gaping hole in logic, that chain is still stocking the Mature-rated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Misinformation such as the Bully scandal just hurts parents' chances of communicating with their children about video games. Every time kids see adults going berserk about a game that turns out to be relatively benign, there's little choice but to assume they're not ready for an honest conversation. Bully critics are using the same arguments we heard during censorship battles that focused on comic books in the 1950s, rock music in the 1960s and Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s. (Remember when that was corrupting our children?) Except this time, we have cable television talk shows and the Internet to spread misinformation and stir outrage. Though the media is not the only outlet to blame, theirs the parents themselves for not doing their own research but alas it's too much to ask for in this society.
Even if you agree that video games are too violent, focusing energy on Bully is like trying to raid a crack house and accidentally smashing in the door of the doughnut franchise across the street. Bully may have been the game CNN's Lou Dobbs was getting apoplectic about, but I can name 50 other titles released this year that featured far more gratuitous blood and mayhem. To that CNN and every news outlet that comes to mind shows as much violence if not more than a good percentage of the video game market.
But now that the game has finally been released, there are some signs that lessons are being learned. Bay Area viewers watching CBS 5-TV this weekend may have seen Jim Steyer, founder of the local child advocacy group Common Sense Media, acknowledging the violent aspects of the game while suggesting that parents decide for themselves whether Bully is appropriate for their teens.
And in the United States, legal attempts to restrict the game have once again failed.
"There's a lot of violence. A whole lot," Miami-Dade County Judge Ronald Friedman ruled in court earlier this month, according to a Miami Herald article. "(But) less than we see on television every night."
Now the new scandal surrounding this game is the ability for your character to not only kiss girls but to also kiss boys and wow them with flattery to try to win them over. Now there is plenty of room to say that's not right for everyone and that's fine, but to try to remove the game from the market because a person "could/can" do something is ludicrous. If it is not right for your teen, ask yourself these questions, "What can they see on the TV, or even at their school?" Unless you can say you lock them in their room and don't let them out ever and don't teach them anything ever, they have not only seen worse things but have done worse things, face it, it is a part of growing up.
Again this is not to say bully is for everyone, but don't always believe what you read or see on TV, in the paper, or any other source. The only person that knows if Bully is right for you, your kid is you, and maybe them. Sit down, talk you might be amazed how mature your child/teen is. Granted some people won't be mature enough to play the game, that's fine, but don't make up your mind based off what you heard on some morning news story.
In closing always look into things yourself whether you're a parent or just a consumer. Always do your own research, if it isn't enough rent the product if at all possible and try it yourself. Maybe it's not right for your teen but hey you might like it get a few laughs wishing you could have done that to someone that tormented you. Games are fantasy just like books, to most people games are no more immersive then a good book. So when you think about it that way why would anyone ever blame, TV, Radio, Music for all the world's problems. If that is the case then books are the root of all evil, but alas it's not that simple.
Though this is not a "review" I would recommend this game to any teen or adult mature enough to see it as a fun romp in a fantasy world, one where the bullies of the world pay for the bad doing. Honestly who doesn't like the sound of that, when it comes down to it isn't that what all mystery books are about.
Scores:
Graphics: 75
Audio: 85
Gameplay: 90
Replay: 90
Overall: 85
Graphics: 75
Audio: 85
Gameplay: 90
Replay: 90
Overall: 85
