Some of you may recall reading about the success of Dead Rising, a Japanese developed zombie game, set in the US. The success of Dead Rising’s sales surprised Capcom but more importantly it pleased them, very much so. Japanese analysts also suggested that general software sales in the US and Europe would be high; has this given the Japanese developers confidence and hope? There are countless Japanese games which many western gamers will not have heard of, let alone play and I guess it’s down to the various gaming tastes that separate Japanese from US or European gamers. Microsoft has certainly remained vocal about their ongoing mission to gain more Japanese support for the Xbox 360, mainly to boost Japanese sales no doubt. A good example of this would be Dead Rising, which is an Xbox 360 exclusive but also with incoming titles such as Lost Planet, Resident Evil and Enchanted Arms. When Bullet Witch was originally confirmed, it was only planned for release in Japan, however only weeks ago it sparked up interest over here because well known publisher, Atari made a publishing agreement with not so well known AQ Interactive a company which had previously published games such as Vampires Rain. The publishing deal has meant that we will see Bullet Witch in the US and Europe at some point next year.
Bullet Witch is a third person action shooter where the player takes control of Alicia, a witch with special powers, but who is also quite handy with a gun. The game is set in 2013 and Alicia has to help fight off a demonic invasion of earth. To fight the demons, Alicia is equipped with a gun-rod, which is presumably her standard weapon but she also has a number of magic spells at her disposal, with the number of spells expanding as the game progresses giving the player more variety. There will also be other guns, like machine guns and mini-guns available in the game that, like the spells can be upgraded. Judging by the trailers the game seems to be filled with very action packed gunfights and also some encounters with a number of large bosses. In the game, two bars are displayed, one for health and one for magic, both will start to rebuild after a period of time if they go down, so using cover wisely will mean no health packs, fans of Halo and Call of Duty 2 should feel right at home here. When Alicia reloads her main weapon, the gun rod, this will use up the magic meter (and so will the use of spells) but this will also replenish your magic bar. When I first heard about Bullet Witch, a third person shooter in which you have to fight demons, I thought of Devil May Cry. I’m sure there are similarities but I’m also sure that fans of Devil May Cry type games will want to check Bullet Witch out. Like most games there are certain types of enemies which are everywhere and fairly easy to dispose of, the ‘Geist’ are a zombie like enemy found in Bullet Witch and can be called the cannon fodder, however in numbers no doubt they will cause some hassle. ‘The Gigas’ are the next step up and are far bigger, towering in height and strength, the third class of enemy, would be the ‘Walnut Heads’, on the trailers these guys can be easily identified due to the size and shape of their over-sized heads and can be considered the boss of each stage and must be defeated to advance in the game.
Bullet Witch looks full of spectacular explosions, that look great, with plenty of fire and debris littering the screen. The fire can also be attributed to Alicia’s spells which look like they will do some impressive damage. There seems to be a selection of defensive and offensive spells in the game, one of the defensive spells being a stone wall, which will surely give Alicia cover from incoming fire. Offensive spells include bolts of lightening and rings of fire. It’s clear from what I’ve seen that there are plenty of destructible objects in Bullet Witch such as cars, buildings, trucks, trees etc. All of which will surely add some depth and variety into the game play. Although the game’s premise is a struggle for human survival, there will be humans around the levels. Players will not be punished if you fail to protect them and they die. What is also worth noting is that friendly fire is not in the game so within a group of allies, you wont need to choose your targets wisely. Bullet Witch, is ‘online compatible’ however this doesn’t mean death match type modes, it will contain scoreboards, rankings as well as downloadable missions and costumes.
Bullet Witch is already available in Japan, and reports suggest the game sometimes struggles to cope, especially at times when you take destructible scenery into account. It also seems that the game follows the classic kill some enemies, kill a boss and unlock the next stage, then repeat which can become a little repetitive. Considering the game isn’t being released outside of Japan until 2007, hopefully the developers can sort some of the frame rate issues and have some downloadable content at the ready for its release to attract gamers.
Preview By: Fraser Keith
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