Bulletstorm demo is immature, crass, and so much fun

The tutorial for Bulletstorm references someone's "poop passage" and mocks the reading of books, putting us firmly in the land of 15 year-old boys. Beating the demo once unlocks some content for the full game, while the voice-over points out that the game won't preorder itself. This comes after it calls you "dick-tits" and helpfully shows you that you can get more points by shooting enemies in the butt.

The quick, ten-minute-or-so section included in the demo gives you a few weapons and a bunch of enemies, and it's your job to kill them in interesting ways. Use the whip-like "leash" to grab enemies, pull them towards you, kick them away, and blow their head off while they're flying through the air in slow motion. One gun fires grenades lashed together with a rope, so you can turn an enemy into a walking time bomb, kick them towards a group of their friends, and then detonate the flesh-bomb to knock them all out and gain more points.

Experiment. Pull enemies towards you, or throw them into the air. Shoot them in the head, or the butt, or even worse places. Knock them into each other. Skewer them on the environment. Use explosives, use turrets, use your machine gun. Mix it up, try new things, and go for the high score. The mixture of combo-based gameplay and the high score mechanic to get you to actively search for the most brutal way to kill people activates a primal section of the gamer's brain: the need to go back and do it one more time, but slightly better. When you do something creative that causes the screen to light up with bonuses and extra points, you feel a huge sense of accomplishment. This is also one of those games that rewards company; it's even more fun to play with a friend and pass the controller back and forth. Online leaderboards show you exactly how you stack up against your friends.

This section feels great, but the big question is how much of that feeling can be maintained across a larger game, or for longer stretches of play. The online multiplayer is another aspect we're keen to try out. For now, make sure your kids are asleep, and try the demo available on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. The game itself is coming to the PC, 360, and PS3 on February 22.

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