Review: Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet - A Game Not For Everyone (Topic)

Anime fans, unfortunately, are not often delighted with suitable game adaptations of their favorite universes. The developers from the Dimps studio volunteered to fix this flaw with their game Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet.

The game has a lot of pleasant for fans references to your favorite series, colorful graphics and classic action gameplay with an abundance of grind. But is there any sense at all to download Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet to all gamers to whom the name of the game does not mean anything, we will tell in this review.

Sword Art Online - A Brief Introduction to the History of the Series

Sword Art Online (SAO) is a series of Japanese novels light novel with a fantastic plot and a fantasy plot, it is a purely Japanese genre of literature. The closest association is comics with an abundance of text and a small number of pictures. The phenomenon is practically unknown in the West, but very popular in the homeland of the samurai.

The plot of SAO takes place in the near future, when another evil corporation releases the first ever game in virtual reality, which guarantees a level of immersion practically indistinguishable from real life. Of course, the unprecedented level of realism and the ability to escape from the gray everyday life attracts thousands of gamers to the game, but at the very beginning they notice a small catch. There is no “Exit” key in the game, and “Game Over” for any player ends not only with death in the virtual, but also in the real world.

To date, SAO has turned into a whole media universe, in which 20 volumes of light novels were published based on the manga series and more than 20 issues of thematic magazines, and in 2012 an anime adaptation was shown on television. Such a colossal success, of course, could not go unnoticed by the gaming industry, which is why more than 12 games based on the popular series were released. True, almost all of them were passable, were produced most often on smartphones and resembled projects that were made by bored programmers using one heel of their left foot.

To play or not to play is the question

Perhaps, with a brief excursion for beginners is over, you can now go directly to the review of Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet. The plot takes place in one of the arcs of the popular series, where gamers play Gun Gale Online, its main difference is the setting of the post-apocalyptic future and the use of firearms and futuristic weapons.

Cutscenes, a lot of characters and dialogues - all this is in the game, although if you are unfamiliar with the original source, then kawaii characters will rather annoy with their chatter. Apparently, the developers sharpened the game strictly for the fans, and if you are not one of them, then expect a ton of incomprehensible information to fall on your head, and the motivation of many characters will raise questions.

Okay, the plot didn't work out, but, as practice shows on the example of the recent Monster Hunter World, a bad scenario doesn't make a project bad if it's just fun to play. By the way, the example with the last MH is not accidental, because the game Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet is very similar in its gameplay concept: it is an action grinder, where all quests are reduced to killing mobs, in order to then improve the character and take another quest to kill mobs.

That's just in order to start killing mobs and grind new clothes, you need to endure the unsuccessful introduction of the game, where there is a minimum of action, players are taught the basics of simple gameplay and are introduced to a dozen cute characters. This approach can only appeal to ardent fans of SAO, who will be delighted with the opportunity to chat with their favorite characters from the light novel.

Exhausted in an hour and a half intro, you find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world, take on a standard firearm and start a crusade against local enemies. Shooting, by the way, is pretty good, and even a player who has never played action games can pass Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet without cheats - let's say thanks to the mode of keeping the target on the enemy. There is a large number of weapons, variable pumping - all the elements of a high-quality grinder, which, it seems, should make you constantly return to the game, but not this time.

Pumping practically does not affect anything, the weapons are the same, and local mobs have primitive intelligence and only one attack animation. Of interest are only other computer-controlled players, so they act in concert and attack with superpowers. If we really praise the game, it’s for good graphics on the UE4 engine. Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet on pc and modern consoles pleases with good textures, colorful effects and good fabric physics.

So what's the bottom line?

Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet is a game that with all my conscience I can recommend only to fans of the original light novel series and real fans of the grind. You can spend a couple of good evenings with Fatal Bullet, but we still recommend paying attention to the better hits of last winter - Kingdom Come Deliverance and Monster Hunter World, reviews of which you can read on our website.

The Topic of Article: Review: Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet - A Game Not For Everyone.
Author: Jake Pinkman