Bully

by Adam, 12.03.06

The World is Your Oyster... Until 2 A.M.

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Rockstar Games is notable for several traits. In the public eye, it's anarchy, controversy, and a general sense of un-dogooderness. But for gamers who know the studio well, it's well-written satire, and paradigm shifting gameplay. In Rockstar's latest effort, Bully, it transcends its yearly GTA canon of good modern crime epics, and expands its range into full blown magnum opus.

Much like last year's The Warriors, everything in Bully makes for a polished gaming experience that's hard to put down. It's shockingly well written and directed, and it carries Rockstar's keen eye for humor and satire to a place that everyone can sympathize with: the school.
Bully follows the wonder years of Jimmy Hopkins, a misguided youth who doesn't have a real family, and is getting shoved off by his ditsy mom to one last school before juvy. That school is Bullworth Academy, a sort of Hogwarts School for every well known social clique and stereotype ever seen on the schoolyard. You have the Jocks, Preps, Nerds, Bullies, and Greasers. A sixth unofficial clique exists (and the one I have the most experience with coming into the game) known as Outcasts, who have no place. Jimmy starts out there, and over the course of one school year it's up to him to turn Bullworth into his... well, bitch, basically.

Jimmy is the consummate anti-hero. At fifteen, he's got the cannery and subterfuge skills to subvert authority, with just a dash of childhood innocence and dimwittedness to keep the story from getting too predictable. He's genuinely likable in the way he bites his thumb at all who try to keep him under their rule. The game point of Bully, however, is to get in good with all of the different groups, each of which has a new story arc to it. Another great feature, is that every kid in Bullworth is unique, there are no repeated skins at all in the game. Immersion, mate, this is the way to do it.

Jimmy represents himself well to the school by attending classes during the day. These are optional, but missing them results in tighter security around the campus, and undeveloped social skills which help Jimmy's stats, such as fighting, and sweet talking girls and prefects (both to different ends, of course). The classes cover all the basic subjects one might find in high school, and take a mini-game approach so as to not get in the way of the more interesting scenes. The standout is English class, which tasks you with putting scrambled words together under a time limit.
However, once you've attended your requisite two classes per day, you're free to roam around the campus, or surrounding town and immerse yourself in the different story arcs. There is a bit of melodrama crammed into some of the characters, but it makes their roles as children or eccentric faculty more believable, and gives the game a much needed sense of whimsy to counteract the edgier portions. So Bully, while a tale of childhood and discovery, firmly sits in its own age bracket, you never get the feeling that things were toned down to accommodate Rockstar's younger than usual demographic. This is a game that anyone can play and sympathize with.

Part of that is the cutscene direction, which is honest to goodness real. Rockstar seems to be the only one that realizes actors on a motion capture stage should actually act, as well as delivering lines. As a result, all of the characters have their own physical characteristics, and speak with realistic, instead of hackneyed, hand motions and head nods. The only other games out there to get this right have been Gun and Killzone, but Rockstar is clearly the best of the bunch. The score as well, is utterly fantastic.

Standard gameplay is like an amalgam of GTA and The Warriors, but um (just for nervous parents), with more appropriate situations. This is not a "Columbine simulator," whoever said that is an ass. Jimmy does do a lot of fighting, but it's all of the playground persuasion. There isn't a drop of blood in the whole game, and in addition to basic combat moves (adapted from the above Warriors), there are more humorous strikes, like wedgies and head locks. Also, if the player chooses to go Carl Johnson on everyone then it's a fast trip to the prefect's quarters. And if you decide to hit a girl, welcome to the game over screen. It gives the game a nice moral compass, and provides a sharp nudge in the direction of "morally concerned liberals" and neo-con lawyers from Miami who wanted to get Bully banned.

Final Word

There's a lot more I could have said about the game, but I didn't want to spoil anything. Play it for the story, and you won't be disappointed. Everything here is done right, atmosphere, characters, gameplay, and etc. Once again Rockstar has given us a great game to make itself cozy as one of the year's very best. Nicely done.