Bullet Witch Remastered Review

Over the past generation in gaming there has been a resurgence in older and particularly venerated titles finding their homes on modern day consoles and PCs, namely through remasters or remakes. Timeless classics such as Bioshock, Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls - to name a few - have found new, respectable audiences through their own remasters, bringing a new lease of life to those games.

Which is why Bullet Witch seems like the least likely candidate for a remaster. Not particularity well received on its initial release back in 2006, this remaster doesn't seem to have done the game any favours.

Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, humanity is under attack from waves of demons who appeared out of a portal in some dense forest. You play as Alicia, a witch involved in the fight against the demons, but who isn't necessarily on the side of good. The storyline isn't anything special but it does make a passable attempt at a backstory to the demon invasion.

On a technical level the game can barely qualify as a remaster. Visually it still looks like a title that was released over a decade ago. Small improvements in resolution, lighting and a thankfully stable framerate don't mask the feel of a horribly dated game. And unfortunately, those improvements don't apply to the cutscenes, which run at a poor resolution and look choppy thanks to a decreased framerate. The simple, clichéd dialogue is made even worse by wooden and stilted voice acting, delivered by characters who are mere one-dimensional creations.

Alicia herself is a simple excuse for a sexualised object who never displays anything resembling an interesting or indeed independent personality. Instead, she's guided by a voice in her head, dubbed the 'Darkness', which turns her into even more of a blank canvas.

Bullet Witch includes half a dozen or so missions to play through, as well as bonus levels after the campaign. Environments are bland but functional and players will find themselves in a variety of locations, including American cities, forests and industrial sites. Frustratingly, the game doesn't offer clear objectives, a map, or in-game markers to help players navigate levels. This isn't always an issue but having to backtrack anywhere is annoying due to Alicia's painfully slow running pace. This might be excusable if levels were filled with interesting things to do, but the best Bullet Witch seems to manage is to have players kill certain enemies to progress through impassable barriers. The rest of the time you'll fight endless hordes of enemies, most of which are indistinguishable from each other, run around a lot, and occasionally fight a disappointing boss or larger demon.

You're graded at the end of each level but I never received a score of anything less than an A. The game is pretty easy and the only deaths I encountered were usually by my own hand when I misjudged the range of explosions or was hit by debris from a destroyed building.

There are a range of weapons to choose from and to the game's credit, the spells which Alicia has access to are good fun to use. Summoning your own cover for protection against snipers is a neat touch which shows real potential for fun and inventive gameplay. Other powers such as the Rose Spear show more creativity with a grenade that launches spikes from the floor, impaling any enemies unfortunate enough to be in the way.

Alicia's larger spells show off the game's impressive destructible environments, which whilst having aged, are the game's best quality. Using the Tornado spell during one set piece completely rips apart a military complex, making for an impressive display of wanton destruction.

Despite a few neat gameplay touches Bullet Witch ultimately fails to impress and this remaster only goes to show that this game should have stayed in the past. What could have been an interesting third-person shooter is let down at almost every point by frustrating game design and bland level design.