Posted by I was really excited for this game to come out. All the previous Sword Art Online games had only been on PlayStation with some on PC, but none have been on Xbox. Because of that, I was eagerly awaiting Fatal Bullet’s release. I love SAO; I have posters, books, Funko POP Figures, a PlayStation TV dedicated to playing the PlayStation Vita versions of the games, though I don’t play it much, and an insane amount of time invested into the app. This article is going to be a little different from my other ones, because I’m not reviewing the game. It’s too new and I’m not far enough in it to adequately review it, but I will be sharing my thoughts and first impressions.
First and foremost is the gameplay. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is not a traditional third-person shooter. Instead of needing to aim, you can toggle the assist mode on and off. What this does is cause bullet circles, just like in the anime, to appear around enemies. All you have to do when they appear is pull the trigger. Because of this, hip-firing sniper rifles is an extremely effective strategy, because you don’t really need to aim. Sure it may not hit the enemy’s weak spot, but it will hit. This makes the game somewhat easy for beginners, at least concerning hitting your targets, but the game is not easy per say.
Enemies can hurt and there can be a lot of them. Sure the robot scorpions and bees can be easy, they are melee based after all, but other enemies can be a serious problem. The game features respawning mini-bosses called unique enemies that can pack a punch while taking a beating. This is especially apparent when you try to take a level 28 one on as a level 5. I killed it, but it took a long time. And since the game just kind of plops you down in the first zone, you can just explore it and do whatever you want. The story will guide you along from area to area and I’m excited to see where exactly it goes.
Something else that’s rather interesting to note is that death is completely irrelevant. If you die, you respawn at the SBC Glocken, which is the main hub of the game, and you keep all the items and experience that you gained out in the field. This forgiving gameplay makes it especially nice for new players, especially because difficulty is there. I’m not saying that the game is ridiculously hard, but it can be tense. For example, when trying to kill two AI enemy players, my two AI teammates and I were getting flooded with enemy scorpion mobs and the unique enemy mini-boss. It was a tense fight, because both of my allies were frequently getting downed, and if I went down then we would be transported back to the hub. It also didn’t help that the enemy AI players kept healing and reviving eachother. We eventually beat them, but it took a little while.
And concerning health and healing, you initially can’t really heal yourself. Occasionally your teammates will heal you, but you can’t heal yourself until you purchase the med-pack gadget and equip it. Once you have that, you can heal yourself, albeit gradually. This results in one of the game’s problems: it does a good job of teaching you the basics, but then minutiae like that falls through the cracks. If you want to upgrade equipment, you need certain materials, but the game doesn’t tell you where the materials drop. This can be frustrating, especially because you never really know exactly what materials you have. Whenever you kill an enemy, its drops appear in the corner of the screen. These drops range from new weapons to materials to ammo. Because of this, it can be difficult to know exactly what you have, but at least managing ammo isn’t a problem. As long as you go in with between 50 and 100 bullets, all depending on the gun, you will easily end up leaving with at least double that. I went in with around 400 bullets for a submachine gun and I left with over 1000. Ammo is also pretty inexpensive, so even if you do need to buy it you won’t go bankrupt.
The gameplay is fun when you can actually play, but you will frequently find yourself reading dialogue. After playing for about an hour, I had to leave because I was going to a comic-con with a club at school. When talking to people about the game, I would joke that I played for about 5 minutes, and then read text for 45. As you progress in the game, the dialogue does become a bit less frequent. But I wouldn’t say that the dialogue is bad, because it’s necessary for introducing characters, developing them, and furthering the plot, especialy since the voice acting is in Japanese.
Overall, I enjoy the game. It’s a little difficult to learn at first, but I soon got the hang of it. The story seems normal enough, though I expect it to ramp up in intensity, especially because there are two campaigns: one as your original character and the other as Kirito. I’m not far in the game but I can’t wait to explore it and do everything it has to offer.
Broad Scope Entertainment 