Bully

Bully for PS2 is a sandbox game made by the mother of all sandbox game makers, Rockstar. At first this game may feel like Grand Theft Auto "goes back to school", but once you get under the hood and give the game a few hours, you're going to realize that Bully has its very own unique style, heart, world, and a Trapper Keeper full of humor.

You play the game as Jimmy Hopkins, a bit of a rebel without a cause who is sent to a boarding school called Bullworth Academy as a way of getting him out of his mother's hair, so that she can spend some alone time with her new husband, and Jimmy's new step dad. Jimmy doesn't take too kindly too the new environment and he sets out to do one thing, take over the school. With no friends, and no clout, it's going to be a long process of winning over the school cliques. Before it's all over Jimmy is going to have to deal with groups like nerds, jocks, greasers, preps, and the school drop outs, all while not attracting the attention of the faculty or the local law enforcement.

Bully's main mission structure is set up much like a GTA game. Stars appear on your map, and when you approach these starts you are given a chance to activate these missions. Missions usually involve the advancement of the game's plot, and almost always affect your "respect" meter with one (or all) of the school cliques. The missions are almost always of the fetch quest variety, but the variety of those missions is as deep as an ocean. It might be something as simple as taking photos of local landmarks to something as complicated as breaking into the local insane asylum to break out your favorite teacher. No matter what though, no two missions ever feel entirely the same, and all are wrapped under a twenty four (pseudo-real time) clock. Curfew is at 11:00PM, so it's advisable to not get caught outside after this time. It's best to just hoof it back to your dorm room and go to bed, instantly starting a new day at 8:00AM.

The game also has its fair share of side quests too. Some are very simple quests where a student or local citizen asks you to do something for them. These are usually very simple and can be done in a few second, scoring the player some quick cash. That cash can be spent on fun stuff like new cloths, hair cuts, and bicycles. There's also classes that can be attended, which unlock new abilities and additional missions. Most are little mini games that can also be completed in just a couple of minutes. There are also optional collection quests to find things like hidden playing cards, rubber bands, radio transistors, and garden gnomes. These can be a little annoying without a good online guide, but they end up being a really good way to get yourself acquainted with the surroundings and landmarks within Bullworth. And lastly there are a sizable amount of race tracks set up throughout the town. Once you get a bike there are several bike races you can to try to win, and later, at the carnival, there are go-kart races. All are easy ways to get a lot of cash very quickly, and all control surprisingly well.

All of these game mechanics help make the game feel very GTA in style, but Bully has something that helps lift it up above that franchise, it has very real sense of soul and self. Bully has to be, without a doubt, one the (very few) genuinely funny games ever made. Some of the humor can be very lowbrow "college" type of stuff, but it's written in such a way that 99.9% of it made me at least chuckle, if not actually laugh out loud. The town of Bullworth is also nothing nearly as large as something like Vice City, but I actually think that Bullworth is better for it. It's packed with a ton more character than any of the GTA games and it has a more closer, intimate feel. More down to earth. It also has some really great voice acting and a spot-on soundtrack too, but this is sort of a given from a Rockstar game now-a-days. All of this lends itself extremely well to helping the player grow an attachment to not only Jimmy, but to all the citizens of Bullworth. This is easily one of Rockstars best written and genuinely funny games to ever come out of their studio and a real pleasure to experience.

If the game has an negatives they are very minor. There were a few times where the graphics seem to hitch up, the frame rate dipped, or textures popped in. I also had one incident where the game froze, but if you learn to save after completing each mission, it ends up being a very minor annoyance, but as I said I only had one point where I actually had to reload the game, and that was in about 30 hours of total gameplay. It's also worth noting that, for as much mission variety as there is, the game's difficulty is pretty easy overall. There were several times where I jumped into a mission not really knowing what might happen, or what I was actually suppose to do, but enemy A.I. is weak enough that I never really felt as if I were in over my head or actually being challenged. For some that fact may actually be a plus, for me it's a very small minus.

Bully is a game that Rockstar tries to promote as a kind of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City High School clone, and at its very core that's what it is, but you would be greatly mistaken if you decided to brush it under the rug and not give it a try. Bully has a lot more heart, soul, and real world humor than just about all of the last three GTAs combined. and it's totally worth your time to check out and play.

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

+Really great, intimate level design
+Very nice variety of mission objectives
+Excellent voice work and sound track
+Well written and genuinely funny

-Minor graphical hiccups
-Could be considered to be a bit too easy by some