Reviewed: March 27, 2008
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Rockstar Games

Developer
Rockstar Vancouver

Released: March 3, 2008
Genre: Action
Players: 1

9
9
9
9
9.2

Supported Features:

Despite all the bad publicity, favorable reviews, word of mouth, and the strength of the Rockstar brand made Bully a huge success. When I reviewed the game in 2006 I was totally impressed and my only real complaint was that the game was launching on the tail end of the PS2 lifespan while everyone else was moving into the next generation. Thankfully, somebody at Rockstar was listening (probably somebody in accounting) and we now get to go back to school – next-gen style.

Bully: Scholarship Edition is the remastered and enhanced version of the original game, now available for the Wii and the Xbox 360. In hopes of enticing former Bullworth graduates to enroll for another year of classes and adventure Rockstar has packed this new version with all sorts of extra material. The 360 version adds 8 new missions, 4 new class subjects, 4 new characters, 2 new mini-games, and of course, plenty of challenging Achievement point goals.

Bully opens with 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins getting dumped off at boarding school by his recently remarried mom. As bad as Bullworth Academy appears to be, it must be better than life with the new step dad. Jimmy will quickly learn his place in the social hierarchy at Bullworth, which is pretty much at the bottom of the food chain. You’ll then spend the next 30-40 hours rising through the ranks from new kid on campus to big man on campus.

Truth be told, there is very little “bullying” going on in Bully and when it does occur it usually isn’t from our main character. Jimmy is often the sole voice of reason, defender of nerds, and aspiring ladies man. Sure, the game deals with traditional high school clicks; the nerds, the jocks, the greasers, the preppies, etc. but there is nothing in this game that excels beyond the content of a movie like Mean Girls or Revenge of the Nerds.

After meeting the dean, getting some appropriate attire, and settling into your impressively large dorm room, complete with chemistry set (more on that later) you are introduced to several new characters and even more rules to follow. The core element of Bully is “time” and an accelerated clock in the corner of the screen will often determine what you’ll be doing and when. There is a day and night cycle as well as morning and afternoon classes that begin at a certain time each day with the ring of a bell.

You have the freedom to attend classes and play the associated mini-game that goes with each subject, or you can skip class to perform other non-school missions. Naturally the prefects will be on the lookout for truant students adding a bit of a stealth factor to these parts of the game. The clock also dictates areas that are off limits. You don’t want to get caught in the school buildings after dark and you especially don’t want to get caught in the girls’ dorm after dark. Eventually you’ll hit curfew where you can’t even be outside your dorm without getting in trouble and if it gets too late you’ll simply pass out and wake up the next day – usually with some of your cash stolen.

There is a lot of social interaction in Bully. Jimmy will need to talk to almost everyone – there are more than 100 NPC’s to interact with in school and the surrounding area. Sometimes these conversations trigger a personal mission like delivering an item to another person or getting something from their locker. Other times you’ll trigger lengthier story missions that advance the overall plot of the game. Some events, like a certain Halloween prank, can only be done on a specific night (obviously) and if you go to bed before doing it the opportunity is lost.

As you get further into the school year more of the campus and the city outside the campus becomes available to you. You’ll quickly find the use for a bike or skateboard to travel these distances more quickly, and there is even a school bus to get you back to school instantly. There is a theme park with rides and an arcade with actual playable mini-games. There are stores to buy bikes, new clothes, and a barber to change your style.

There are some benefits to actually going to class. Doing well in chemistry will allow you to make your own stink bombs and other prank devices back in your dorm room. Other classes will help you score with the ladies. Yes, there is the whole social interaction thing going on at Bullworth. You’ll need to sweet-talk the ladies and give gifts like flowers and chocolate and if you are lucky you can score a kiss. What’s great fun is once you kiss a girl, if she ever catches you kissing another girl a catfight will break out. It’s a nice ego boost that will also boost your health bar. Considering what you had to do in GTA to earn health, kissing is the logical teen alternative to sex under the bleachers.

I have to admit I was pretty indifferent to the new classes that were added to the Scholarship Edition, mostly because it seemed these new classes were totally geared for the Wii then ported over to the 360. Trying to quickly and accurately connect the dotted outline to dissect biology assignments within unrealistic time limits was aggravating a best. The music classes were fun and far more playable, but they still felt like a Wii game. Math was fun. I’m good at math, especially when the answers are multiple choice, and Geography will really test your knowledge of countries flags and their position on the world map.

Bully is a massive game, and much like a freight train takes some time to get up to speed, but once you get past the painfully long and sometimes boring opening (tutorial) level it’s hard to stop playing. There is just so much to do, both in story-based missions and secondary objectives, not to mention mini-games. Money still makes the world go round so Jimmy will need to earn cash working a paper route, flipping burgers, cutting grass, or just doing errand boy missions for his classmates. Of course, you have to work all these activities into your class schedule and that ever-ticking clock in the corner.

Violence is limited to standard schoolyard combat. There is a strong fighting engine that mixes boxing and wrestling moves that you’ll learn, both in gym class and from the crazy homeless veteran who lives behind the abandoned school bus. There is a lot of punching and grabbing and kicking with the overall intent to subdue your victim then verbally or physically humiliate him with a finishing move. Even more interesting is that each faction member you fight has their own fighting style, forcing you to change up your game when you go from jock, to greaser, to townie.

While combat is pretty much weapons-free, Bully does incorporate the use of makeshift weapons like a bat, and even a slingshot with a scope for ranged attacks. You can also throw bricks, firecrackers, and stink bombs or toss marbles and watch your pursuers crash to the ground. Schoolyard violence is not glorified but rather punished if witnessed by anyone in authority, and there is zero tolerance for any acts of violence on the ladies, even an accidental stink bomb.

All of this violence factors into a clever social interaction and a balance of respect amongst the social factions. Beat up a jock and the nerds will love you; stuff a geek in a locker and you’ll regain their trust. And as you might expect, even fashion plays a part in your social dynamic. You have to wear the right duds to get the ladies and avoid a brutal heckling.

One thing I had hoped for on the 360 was shorter load times but we still must endure 5-10 second pauses when going in and out of building or switching to any new area of the map that forces a load screen. The sheer extra horsepower of the 360 should have eliminated such load screens or at least shortened them, but they are still significant and annoying.

Character design is impressive and with more than 100 NPC’s comes 100 distinct looks. Granted, the peripheral characters like wandering prefects and non-imperative students start to double up in looks, but they are mere window dressing to make the school look like a living world bustling with between-class activity. There are a few instances of awkward animations and troublesome camera angles, especially trying to keep up with Jimmy on a bike or skateboard.

Some of the cutscenes suffer from jerky framerates, even on the 360, and despite progressive scan support I still had ot endure some shimmering textures in the wide shots, but once you get into the actual gameplay things look really good, but also a far cry from some of the more technically advanced games releasing right alongside this title. I loved the look of the arcade games (Future Race looks amazing on the 360) and their old-school appeal and the in-class mini-games were also great fun and actually relevant to the study content.

Perhaps the best feature of the entire audio package is the dialogue – nearly 40,000 lines spoken by Jimmy and the rest of the cast of major and supporting characters. Admittedly, a lot of the dialogue gets repetitive, especially in the free roaming sections, but once you get into scripted story events you’ll think you are watching a movie.

Sound effects are believable and attached to just about every environmental and interactive object in the game creating a world that sounds as real as it looks. The entire game is presented in Dolby Digital for a very nice and immersive sound mix.

Bully comes with a clever 20-page manual designed like a “Welcome to…” brochure and a nice foldout map that is usually reserved for strategy guides, although you’ll probably need a strategy guide if you ever want to fully complete Bully and unlock all its secrets.

The Scholarship Edition launched at $50, a nice bargain alternative compared to other AAA titles, and with the added game content and course curriculum combined with 38 challenging objectives to earn those 1000 gamer score points, you’ll find more than your money’s worth with this next-gen version of Bully. Those Achievement points are a great incentive to do a lot of those milestone events that you might have ignored on the PS2. I mean; would you really take the time to verbally taunt somebody 100 times or give 50 wedgies if you weren’t going to get 25 points for doing so.

There are a lot more good lessons to be learned in Bully than bad ones, especially the importance of time management, actually attending classes, and even getting an after school job. Sure, there are opportunities to engage in mischief and disrespect authority, but much like real life, it’s up to you if you want to choose that path or take the high road. Bully is all about choices and making something out of a bad situation. It’s also a really great game, with a lot of interesting new content and a minor cosmetic facelift. Bully: Scholarship Edition is full of humor and believable characters and I highly recommend it, even if you’ve played it on the PS2, and especially if you haven’t.