[5/15/08] Bully

[Devia Eleven]

 

 

Published by: Rockstar Games

Developed by: Rockstar Vancouver

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

Release Date:

US: October 17, 2006

Europe: October 27, 2006

Also Available On: Xbox 360, Wii

Media Size: 1 DVD

Emulators: PCSX2

 

Story/Background

Bully, is a game that was released by Rockstar Vancouver in 2005. In 2008, a special edition of the game was released for the Xbox 360 and the Wii. This game is the Scholarship edition, which introduces new features not found on the PS2 original. The game is based on a youth named Jimmy Hopkins. In the beginning Jimmy is troubled with his mother’s new husband, and he hates him with a passion. Jimmy’s behaviors in previous schools have been unsatisfactory, and his parents have enrolled him in Bullworth Academy, in hope that the school will improve his manners. Throughout the game, your goal is to take over the school, (becoming most socially popular), among all students and staff alike. The game begins with Jimmy being dropped off in the front of the school, and this is where the adventure commences.

 

 

Gameplay

The game is strikingly similar to the gameplay of Grand Theft Auto, and The Warriors. Considering that this game is made from the same company as the others, it is no surprise that they share similarities. This is a sandbox type action adventure game. The player can freely roam around school grounds, the city, and the inside of the school. The city is surprisingly spacious, and the school grounds can somehow be compared to the size of a college university. While roaming around the city or school property, you can see many different types of people walking around and socializing. This includes various social groups like the nerds, jocks, preppies, etc. The staff also walks around, to make sure that everyone is keeping their noses clean. You can freely attack anyone you want, but depending on who you attack, will result in a dire consequence, hitting a boy, will just have the staff running after you. If they catch you, you have one chance to escape from their grapples. They will always grab you by the ear and pressing buttons repeatedly, will make you perform a low blow, or some cheap shot so you can get away. While running away, you have many options for the staff to leave you alone. The running system is the same as GTA. If you are inside the school, you can hide in lockers or in bathroom stalls. If you are outside, you can simply run away into the city, hide in a trash can, or just go inside the school. Depending on your skills, you can even apologize to the staff, this will be explained later.

 

 

Attacking a girl is an automatic detention on contact. The school has zero tolerance for female abuse. If you attack the staff, you will need to be ready to run away as quick as possible. If you are caught, you will have to serve detention. Detention comes in 2 ways, snow plowing, and lawn mowing. Depending on the current weather, you will have to mow ugly looking lots with weeds sticking out every which way (with a tractor), or snow plow lots with unbearable amounts of snow (with a shovel). When you complete these tasks, detention is over. This is the most severe punishment. You will even sometimes have to go to the principle’s office, and the principle will give you a cliche type speech, a speech that questions your wrong doings. While inside the school, you can do many things. You have the ability to break into lockers, and steal items. You can throw people into lockers or in trash cans. You can even shove a person’s face in a toilet. There are some classes you can take as well, and when you pass a class, different skills will be increased.

 

The courses include;

-Chemistry (you will have to press certain buttons when they show up in a box at the correct time to advance)

-Photography (you will have to travel around the city or school, and take pictures of certain objects)

-Art (you will play a mini-game that is hard to describe with text)

-Shop (fixing bikes, you will have to press a button when it shows up on screen)

-English (you will need to make as many words as you can out of a group of letters that are given to you)

-Gym (you will either wrestle or play dogeball)

 

Each class serves a large purpose in character development.

 

-Chemistry (gives you different weapons and chemistry sets that will be available in your dorm room at all times)

-English (will give you better skills at socializing with people, the more courses you pass, you will be able to tell off bullies, apologize to the police and school staff)

-Photography (will earn you a Digital Camera, and capacity)

-Art (increases skills with talking to girls and kissing them)

-Shop (will gain you new bikes)

-Gym (will gain you new attacks and grapples)

 

 

Obviously, all of these classes are important, and when you pass a course, the next course (takes a number which means the next level), is more difficult. Passing all of these classes makes you a well rounded person. You can either choose to be an aggressive bully, become a popular jackass, or a respectful person who is most known for being powerful. Jimmy takes crap from no one, and it shows in the various cut scenes. You cannot do the same things you do at school in the city. You cannot beat up a grown woman or man in a city without the police chasing after you. This is much more serious than a school crime. If you are caught by the police, you will automatically be escorted back to school. There are many things that you can get punished for off and on school grounds.

 

-Physical violence

-Weapon violence

-Verbally attacking authority

-Verbally attacking a person

-Going out past curfew

-Skipping class (truancy)

-Dress code

 

 

If you roam around too much past curfew, you will pass out. Passing out means that you have gotten so sleepy, that your body has no choice but the pass out where you are. When you pass out, you will always wake up in the same spot you passed out at. Sometimes you will even oversleep and you will miss classes. There are reasonable means of transportation in this game. You can swim, ride a bike, a mini motorbike, walk, run, or take the bus. To take the bus, you will need to go to any type of bus stop in the city, and the bus automatically takes you back to school without pay. This is probably the best method of getting back to school when you need to make a class without being late. The city is very attractive, but you cannot steal cars. There are different walk-in type stores, you can buy clothes, items, bikes, or get hair cuts. You can talk to adults, beat up people, and run errands for people. Jimmy can climb latters, and that is basically the only aspect of platforming elements present. Errands are requested by kids and adults. These errands can get you quick cash. Another way to get cash other than completing errands or missions is to do tasks. You can run a paper route, or mow lawns. When mowing lawns, you will be required to complete a certain percentage of the lawn. If you run over objects in the lawn you will lose points. When doing a paper route, you will be required to throw out different newspapers right into mail boxes. In real life, this would be too difficult to pull off. And most of the time, the same blasted dog will always chase after you while you are on your route, and it becomes very annoying. Sometimes when you are trying to aim at mail boxes, you will accidentally hit a person, and they will run after you as well.

 

 

You can’t really take the time to eliminate them physically because if you get off of the bike, you will fail the paper route mission. Speaking of eliminating people, you cannot kill in this game. You can only knock someone unconscious. There are many weapons that accessible in this game, all of them contain some minor comic relief type violence. You have the;

 

Bottle Rocket

Beakers full of acid

Slingshot (touche)

Bat

Eggs

Firecrackers (thrown)

Cans to throw

Etc.

 

The inside of the school is very realistic. You can start fights by verbally attacking a person, and often times these insults are amusing. You can greet people kindly, or rudely wail on a person. Sometimes bullies will try to attack you from nowhere. Depending on your social statues and English skills, they will leave you alone, or you can push them and they will run away. There is a boy’s dorm, and a girl’s dorm. The girl’s dorm is much larger than the boy’s dorm for some odd reason. The boy’s dorm doesn’t even have a bathroom or shower, and there is only one floor. The girl’s dorm however, has two floors, an entire bathroom with a shower, and an attic. The girls are basically living large in this game. There is a football field, a gym, and a basketball court as well. You can even throw freebies around.

 

 

There are many places to sleep other than the boy’s dorm. Each social group has their own hideout, and by completing a special mission, you can claim their spot as yours. In these pads, you will have a save point, arcade games, and a bed. Some other things can be found there as well. Even the townies, (people who rule the city), have their own hideout, and there’s can be taken from you as well. Behind the school, lies the nerd’s headquarters, and an asylum for troubled people. Missions in the game take place wherever, and mostly every mission is being completed to gain respect of a certain social group. Sometimes completing missions even makes you lose respect from a certain group, and you will always gain money from completing them. By the end of the game, you will have loads of money. Most of the clothes are cheap, and your money can only be spent much by buying drinks and clothes etc.

 

Sound:

The soundtrack for this game is broad. There is a unique type of music that you would never think would be in this type of game. The game’s theme song is played throughout the game, in different variations using different instruments, even when you start riding a bike, the music in the background changes. The music for the detention missions are great. I have yet to actually find that single track used for those missions. Music plays when you are in certain situations, when you are getting chased by staff, the music changes. When you are getting chased by certain social groups, a different track plays for each. Each track that is played suit’s the social groups attitude. The voice overing is great as well, and the cut scenes can be hilarious at times. Jimmy Hopkin’s voice actor really digs the character, and he has a snobby (you cannot mess with me) attitude in his voice and movements. For a PS2 game, the game is decent lip syncing. All of the other sound effects are to be expected.

 

 

Graphics:

Considering that this is a Sandbox type game, you cannot really focus on the graphics much. One thing I can say is that, they look better than the crappy GTA game graphics. I don’t think they could have made the graphics any better without sacrificing the performance in frame rate.

 

Presentation:

Pretty much sticking with what I stated above. You can’t look for more in a game where it has to load background constantly.

 

Conclusion:

Bully isn’t a game that you should buy, but I do recommend renting it. Once completed, there are things to do, but they aren’t fun. Most of them are just time consuming and nothing more.

 

- Graphics - 8

- Presentation – 8

- Sound – 9

- Gameplay - 10

 

Overall – 8.75 (B+)