Bully [Video Game Review]
Eric Schomburg
October 24, 2006
Ah, remember the days of high school? Remember the crappy homecomings in which the popular girl/future train wreck would be praised for just being pretty? Remember the jocks? Remember the lackluster teachers that were probably smoking more pot than the students? Remember the bullies? Well, if you miss those days, then play the game Bully from Rockstar.
Rockstar produced a fantastically surprising video game that reminds you of Grand Theft Auto and the underrated Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. Put these two elements together and you get Bully.
Bully pits you as Jimmy Hopkins, a maverick who is more misunderstood as the pejorative by his mother, teachers, and some of the students; however, as you play the game you learn that you care about this character, which is rare in video games.
Rockstar places you at Bullworth Academy, a private institution in which the majority of the students are bullies themselves. The setting is big with just the academy alone; however, once you get to Chapter II of the game, a wider setting is present in which you can peregrinate through the town of Bullworth.
What is unique about Bully is the structure of going to classes. Rockstar has made Bully as real as possible, right down to curfew. Your character, Jimmy, wakes up at 8 p.m. and has morning classes, in which the staff members will make sure you don’t pull “hokey” or truancy and if you get caught you will be escorted personally to class. Don’t fret though, because going to class is part of the fun, and sometimes can be a blessing in disguise. Completing classes can help Jimmy upgrade into a wrecking machine, a love machine, or a more cerebral machine.
The cliques of Bully consist of the most stereotypical cliques in school; however, the cliches this game presents are dead-on.
The Jocks are the typical testosterone driven football players that try to strive to be number one, even if it means beating the snot out of your character, Jimmy.
The Preps are the rebuffed students that have a prosperous family and with it comes the snobby attitude. The preps, both men and women, are the only students in Bullworth that can actually enunciate and articulate without using a high-pitched voice [Nerds] or a boisterous grunt [Bullies, Jocks, Greasers].
The Greasers are the vocational students in which they focus more on their “wheels” than the laboratory or trigonometry. The Greasers remind you of the T-Birds from Grease. It seems like every one of the Greasers is either from Jersey or Brooklyn, because they sound like it.
The Nerds are the stereotypical nerds in which they play with their roleplaying card game, wear glasses, pasty, have high-pitched voices, seem to always get bullied, and always seem to be the hapless of the school. Be careful, they may lack in fighting, but they do have other weapons to “throw” at you.
The Bullies are the ones that pretty much beat everyone up. That includes you too. Sometimes a bully can ask for money, or just go ahead and beat the hell out of you; however, you’re the nonpartisan member of the game. You can either get bullied, or fight back.
What impresses me the most about Bully is how painfully funny it really is. It’s funny when you have a “Kick Me” sign and gently place it on the back of a hapless student and see random students stop what they’re doing just to take the time to kick the student. The dialogue is down right hilarious. My favorite is from a “nerd” in which he says, “If my blood sugar wasn’t so low, I’d beat you!” Of course it’s the player’s imagination that is the best part. With the assortment of weapons you can garner, it’s funny when the player’s imagination can analytically calculate different ways to pull pranks, bully people, and get away with it at the same time.
My favorite thing to do in Bully is to wait until curfew when everyone is asleep in the boys’s dorm, place two or three bags of marbles all over the floor, and quickly turn the fire alarm on in which the entire dorm tries to make an exit, but in the process most of the boys slip and fall on the marbles. It’s funny how a good plan comes together.
The idea of the game is to not bully people, but rather bully those that bully others. What I think is unique about Bully is the player has the choice to be the bully or be the savor by fighting back the bullies, jocks, preps, etc. If you have ever been bullied in school, then this should give you some closure. If you were the bully in school, this may put a tear in your eye and reminisce about the good old days.
The game is rated T for teen which has befuddled and befouled a lot of people, but after playing the game there was nothing besmirching about it except maybe beating up a bunch of students and learning how fast you can put words together with a group of jumbled letters, and no we don’t mean curse words.
A lot of controversy has surrounded Bully for it’s content, but what a lot of Miami Ambulance chasers, and critics don’t realize about Bully is, it’s not bloody, not gory, doesn’t have much foul language, and the sexual content is not going to make parents have cardiac arrest, unless you count kissing a girl-or boy-offensive, but if parents find that offensive then they might as well poke their children’s eyes out. Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Thompson, there is such a thing as homosexuality, get over it!
Bully is a great game for anyone who loves a GTA style game. It’s funny, entertaining, relatively cheap (only $40), and it has a great storyline with loads of surprises.
I would recommend this game, and I would recommend the player to not read the players guide to the game. 3/4 of the fun value is realizing the secrets and surprises yourself without any assistance.
This is the first time I believe that Rockstar has brought a game out in which teenagers, adolescents, and adults can like without the usage of blood, guns, and strong sexual content. Rockstar should be very proud of this game, and critics of the game should stop bullying the game into making it out to be something it’s not. Even a Judge went on to say, “I don’t see why this game shouldn’t be shipped?”
Rockstar’s Bully = 9 out of 10
Rockstar produced a fantastically surprising video game that reminds you of Grand Theft Auto and the underrated Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. Put these two elements together and you get Bully.
Bully pits you as Jimmy Hopkins, a maverick who is more misunderstood as the pejorative by his mother, teachers, and some of the students; however, as you play the game you learn that you care about this character, which is rare in video games.
Rockstar places you at Bullworth Academy, a private institution in which the majority of the students are bullies themselves. The setting is big with just the academy alone; however, once you get to Chapter II of the game, a wider setting is present in which you can peregrinate through the town of Bullworth.
What is unique about Bully is the structure of going to classes. Rockstar has made Bully as real as possible, right down to curfew. Your character, Jimmy, wakes up at 8 p.m. and has morning classes, in which the staff members will make sure you don’t pull “hokey” or truancy and if you get caught you will be escorted personally to class. Don’t fret though, because going to class is part of the fun, and sometimes can be a blessing in disguise. Completing classes can help Jimmy upgrade into a wrecking machine, a love machine, or a more cerebral machine.
The cliques of Bully consist of the most stereotypical cliques in school; however, the cliches this game presents are dead-on.
The Jocks are the typical testosterone driven football players that try to strive to be number one, even if it means beating the snot out of your character, Jimmy.
The Preps are the rebuffed students that have a prosperous family and with it comes the snobby attitude. The preps, both men and women, are the only students in Bullworth that can actually enunciate and articulate without using a high-pitched voice [Nerds] or a boisterous grunt [Bullies, Jocks, Greasers].
The Greasers are the vocational students in which they focus more on their “wheels” than the laboratory or trigonometry. The Greasers remind you of the T-Birds from Grease. It seems like every one of the Greasers is either from Jersey or Brooklyn, because they sound like it.
The Nerds are the stereotypical nerds in which they play with their roleplaying card game, wear glasses, pasty, have high-pitched voices, seem to always get bullied, and always seem to be the hapless of the school. Be careful, they may lack in fighting, but they do have other weapons to “throw” at you.
The Bullies are the ones that pretty much beat everyone up. That includes you too. Sometimes a bully can ask for money, or just go ahead and beat the hell out of you; however, you’re the nonpartisan member of the game. You can either get bullied, or fight back.
What impresses me the most about Bully is how painfully funny it really is. It’s funny when you have a “Kick Me” sign and gently place it on the back of a hapless student and see random students stop what they’re doing just to take the time to kick the student. The dialogue is down right hilarious. My favorite is from a “nerd” in which he says, “If my blood sugar wasn’t so low, I’d beat you!” Of course it’s the player’s imagination that is the best part. With the assortment of weapons you can garner, it’s funny when the player’s imagination can analytically calculate different ways to pull pranks, bully people, and get away with it at the same time.
My favorite thing to do in Bully is to wait until curfew when everyone is asleep in the boys’s dorm, place two or three bags of marbles all over the floor, and quickly turn the fire alarm on in which the entire dorm tries to make an exit, but in the process most of the boys slip and fall on the marbles. It’s funny how a good plan comes together.
The idea of the game is to not bully people, but rather bully those that bully others. What I think is unique about Bully is the player has the choice to be the bully or be the savor by fighting back the bullies, jocks, preps, etc. If you have ever been bullied in school, then this should give you some closure. If you were the bully in school, this may put a tear in your eye and reminisce about the good old days.
The game is rated T for teen which has befuddled and befouled a lot of people, but after playing the game there was nothing besmirching about it except maybe beating up a bunch of students and learning how fast you can put words together with a group of jumbled letters, and no we don’t mean curse words.
A lot of controversy has surrounded Bully for it’s content, but what a lot of Miami Ambulance chasers, and critics don’t realize about Bully is, it’s not bloody, not gory, doesn’t have much foul language, and the sexual content is not going to make parents have cardiac arrest, unless you count kissing a girl-or boy-offensive, but if parents find that offensive then they might as well poke their children’s eyes out. Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Thompson, there is such a thing as homosexuality, get over it!
Bully is a great game for anyone who loves a GTA style game. It’s funny, entertaining, relatively cheap (only $40), and it has a great storyline with loads of surprises.
I would recommend this game, and I would recommend the player to not read the players guide to the game. 3/4 of the fun value is realizing the secrets and surprises yourself without any assistance.
This is the first time I believe that Rockstar has brought a game out in which teenagers, adolescents, and adults can like without the usage of blood, guns, and strong sexual content. Rockstar should be very proud of this game, and critics of the game should stop bullying the game into making it out to be something it’s not. Even a Judge went on to say, “I don’t see why this game shouldn’t be shipped?”
Rockstar’s Bully = 9 out of 10
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