Nearly 5 stars. But the issues hit the 360 version hard.
Bully is a game devolved by Grand Theft auto and Manhunt creators, Rockstar games. It had been a rough 18months since it had been released on the PS2 console and very little has changed since. In this review I will discuss the game, whats changed and is it really worthy a purchase if you owned the PS2 version.
What I want to say before I start, please read if you want to purchace bully for 360:
When first released on the 360 console the game went under a lot of poor frame rate issues and lock ups, and not just locking up the game; the whole console. Since then the game after several patches is working better than before, the glitches still are in the game but it is rare for your console to lock up. You can play about 3-4 hours before it might lock up. However, if your Xbox is not hooked to Xbox Live you will NOT be able to get this patch and the game will run poor for you. I have to say though, if you are not online just forget about Bully. (You only need Xbox Silver (free online) to get patches).
Story:
In Bully you play the role of "Jimmy Hopkins", Who is a naughty 15 year old boy who has been sent to Bullworth School by his parents whom have just left him. So they have left him at this horrible school for a year which is jammed full of Bullys and very poor teachers and it is up to you what you want to do. You can either fight them, or try and settle in with people by doing missions and earning respect from people. Now, I hate to give gaming stories away and I know how it feels to have a game spoiled by some idiot telling you what happens, so I am going to leave the story segmant here.
Gameplay:
The game is about 95% like the original. You play like a GTA game; Open world, choose when to do missions, lots to explore and collectibles but it is NOT GTA in a school. The missions offer a great variety, like one mission you need to take a photo of a teacher selling tests to a student and there is also a sort-of boss battle type scenario at the end of each chapter in the game. One thing I really like about Bully is how it works with you and gangs. There is 4 types of gangs you will come across which are Jocks, Bully's, Nerds and townies. Doing missions gains or loses respect from these gangs. When you have low respect with a gang they might just see you in a corridor and then decide they want to fight you, whilst having a high respect they will not slag you off.The main thing is school and the clock; the game has a routine. You go to sleep and wake up at 8 in the morning, then you can prat about until 9 when you do your first class from 9 - 11:30. Then you have 1hr 30 minutes to do as you like, maybe a few story missions or just annoy some students. Then after your play time you have another class until 3:00 and then you can do as you like. Here you can do missions and also "errand" missions which the game offers; which is where a student will have a job for you or a pedestrian on the street and in my opinion these missions are the most fun. They are like "Spray 3 tags" "Shove 2 students into lockers" "Shove 3 students into bins" and it can be really fun. You only have until 2 in the morning until you pass out, and you can go to bed again after 7 and start over again.
What's changed since the PS2 version?
Graphics:
The textures are smoother this time and the game looks lovely. There is still that sort of smudged texture you will find here and there like you do in a lot of Rockstar's games but you don't encounter these a lot. There are reflections also and overall the game looks a lot less rough than the PS2 version did.Gameplay and missions:
Well not a lot actually. The routine is still the same, there is only 8 new missions and a few new classes to do. More to do would have been welcome here. It's just released with a few new Christmas missions and that's really it.I owned the PS2 version and beat it, is it still worthy of a purchase on 360?
Not really to be fair. Nothing has changed a great deal to give you a wow you had the first time you played Bully for the PS2. Unless you are mad on Xbox achievements and really badly want a reflection on the floor. The story is the same with just a new set of Christmas themed missions but they feel just like every other mission in the game.
