BPM: Bullets Per Minute (PlayStation 4)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (EU): October 5, 2021
- Publisher: Playtonic LTD
- Developer: Awe Interactive
- Genres: FPS
- Also For: Computer, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Game Features:
Bullets Per Minute is an action game like no other. Combining thump-heavy rock music and a gothic feeling FPS experience, Playtonic Friends, the publishing arm of Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic, has certainly deviated from publishing their expected collect-a-thon-platformers and branched out into something quite different altogether thanks to AWE Interactive's input.
Firing the game up you are met with a Rocksmith-like timing screen that you have to configure to ascertain your TV hardware latency. After a few seconds of smashing the button to the beat, you get a readout and the game adjusts itself accordingly. Delving into the settings you can also adjust the rhythmic window within which you have just a split second to unload your lead into the sprawling enemies.
The premise is simple, you shoot on the beat, reload on the beat and skulk around dungeons destroying enemies in time to the rhythm; however, this honestly sounds more simple than it actually is. As an FPS player from the moment I learned that such a thing existed; I have been blasting, dodging and reloading my way to victory across numerous titles over the decades, and I would go as far to say that FPS or First-Person Shooters are my main, my comfort zone, my favourite genre to partake in. This made next to no difference for me as I got entirely frustrated with Bullets Per Minute and pretty much gave up on it until I could still my anguish and come back refreshed to learn the ways of the rhythm.
Personally, I was absolutely no good at any of the musically oriented games, such as Rock Band. Having failed miserably at Guitar Hero, I found solace in the then-freshly released drum kit, but I still struggled to get any enjoyment out of it and really never succeeded past any intermediate difficulties. It’s ironic really as I taught myself pretty much everything I know about music production, and in specific genres saturated with drum and/or bass.
You begin BPM with Göll, a rather Devil May Cry-looking female Valkyrie with the simplest of move sets and the one of the highest value health bars. The aim of the game is simple: shoot, move, and reload to the beat, and either using audio acuity or the visual aid of the reticle that pulses in and around your gun sight, you simply have to clear each room of the attacking foes.
While this sounds simple, I really struggled to get my head around this concept. Having just levelled up to 90+ on Predator for PS4 recently, the switch to this style of shooter was incredibly difficult and honestly a lot more taxing than I ever thought it would be. I’m not going to skirt around it: I died 20-30 times in a row before making any sort of progress with BPM. Even with a pretty atypical FPS control scheme and feeling great to run around in, it was the learning curve that kicked my ass repetitiously, and I really didn’t get any satisfaction out of any of the challenges until I slowed myself down and took a deep breath. I can’t tell you how degrading it feels to get killed by the likes of “Baby Bat” or “Worm”; it’s utterly demoralising.
Clearing rooms yields coins, keys and chests. Coins can be offered to shrines scattered around the map to buff abilities such as accuracy and agility, or they can be exchanged in the store for health upgrades, amulets of power, or masks of destruction. You can also find keys and choose which chest to open with the said key, depending on your health, where you can backtrack the basic roomed layout of the map to unlock a chest that you otherwise might have overlooked.
There are a plethora of characters to unlock as you progress, including Freyr, Hildr, Njord, Odr, Skuld, Geri, Herfjötur, Run, and Sanngriðr. Each have their unique pros and cons for you to discover, but initially, you start out with Göll who has a double jump ability that I only discovered late on into my playthrough, and this seriously opened up the game for explorative adventure. I was now able to scale tall rooms and reach previously hidden artefacts that were just outside of normal view. Exploring gave me a little more to do in this game, as going room to room basting the same hoards over and over whilst dying in a repetitive loop was really stressing me out.
One aspect that impressed me was that the game appears to be semi-random with its dungeon generation. Playing the first time I thought I would try the same path again the second time only to find that the room I expected was no longer in that direction and that instead there was a shop in its place. You can collect coins, keys, nerfs and buffs throughout your gameplay and spending these coins in the shop unlocks various new weapons, of which there are over 60, and crazy new features to help you get around quicker. With a total of 29 trophies to unlock on your adventure, you should definitely make sure to toss a coin and make a tribute to ensure you make it further into the dungeons, and thanks to the Overdrive update bringing the original release of the game further difficulty levels, a new chapter and more, BPM is rounding off to be a behemoth of content and challenge for such a nominal price
Once you have slain every foe and obtained the necessary number of keys you can tackle the dungeon bosses. With nine of them to slay you have your work cut out ahead of you to retain your metrical assault. Going in underpowered makes everything way tougher so ensuring you are stocked and loaded makes for the best experiences here. Bosses have increasingly massive energy bars to deplete, and strafing, dodging and studying their unique attack patterns is an absolute must in order to vanquish them efficiently, else it just becomes a frantic blood bath and you will not last long at all.
The soundtrack is the game's strength here, with an absolute headbanger of an OST that blends metal with rock and opera to forge a retro-gothic-sounding, hard as nails line up that will keep you bopping way into each play session. The soundtrack will begin to get repetitive if you continually fail, so my pro tip here is to GET GOOD and progress to each new dungeon asap to avoid musical fatigue..
Overall I can see the merits of a title like this, but it is simply not one I find pleasure in. That said I managed to enjoy finding the hidden secrets, attempting to try different things every time I retried, but ultimately the frustratingly constricted gameplay made me not want to play it anymore, it just sapped away my morale much more than I expected any game could. There are things in life that I will never be good at such as rhythmic gymnastics, tight rope walking, and fondant icing a cake above a remedial level; I will leave them well alone as they are not for me, and nor, unfortunately, is BPM. If you try this game out and enjoy it, I really do wish you all the best with your endeavours; I will not be joining you.
Verdict
- Interesting gameplay mechanics
- Plenty of secrets to discover
- Challenge modes bring extra replayability
- A difficult learning curve for regular FPS aficionados
- You gotta git gud!
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