All of us remember the days on the playground, days of enjoyment with friends and then the cruel harsh learning environment with Bullies to make you miserable, Geeks to put you to shame and the Sports people with their overly competitive nature. Bully (Canis Canem Edit in Europe) brings you back to them days, you play as Jimmy Hopkins a 15 year old boy with the pressures of modern life bearing down on him. Sent to an American boarding school Jimmy faces new threats, new accomplices and new romances in his quest to rid Bullworth Academy of its anti-social students.
The ever infamous Rockstar Games creators of the Grand Theft Auto series crafted this game for the adolescent gamers among us (either unfamiliar to the GTA games or restricted from playing such games) which can be seen in many ways, the game handles like GTA, many of the characters have similarities from those of GTA and the missions play out similar to those of GTA. Having said this you may be thinking, this is just GTA with a lower age rating but you couldn’t be further from wrong.
The game requires you to befriend the factions of the schoolyard which include: Nerds, Preps, Jocks, 80's style Greasers, Bullies and of course the girls. The girls are the most interesting of the factions as they belong to all of the above but for some reason they all like you regardless, as you progress through the game you befriend each faction separately in chapter style gameplay.
the whole game seems to be based around friendship as during the course of the game you make and loose many friends all who bring a little something extra to the story, the game will last you around 12 hours for missions alone but to find all the collectables and side missions will take you an extra 8 hours. The graphics are well designed and hold up well against games of today (considering the game was released in 2006) but the occasional bug and glitch can be found and some things don’t look normal compared to other things. Once you have finished the game there isn’t much point in replaying it apart from to relive the fantastic storytelling.
Perhaps what Rockstar attempted to do with the game was to bring the schooldays back to those who miss them rather than provide a above average game like they are used to doing.
Bully – 10/10
+A small, but amazing sandbox game
