News

• Reviewed on: PS2
• 
  
• The Good: Represents the teen experience with maturity and emotional accuracy, if not realism. A well designed and highly interactive world.
• The Bad: Not truly open-ended; the mission based structure belies how much it owes to the Grand Theft Auto series. Complex controls.
• The Verdict: While it doesn't manage to transcend the controversy or comparisons to Grand Theft Auto, Bully is a mature title with a unique setting and excellent design.
• 
  
  

When Rockstar Games announced Bully in mid-2005, the controversial name led to protests from not only vitriolic Florida lawyer and anti-video game campaigner Jack Thompson, but normally more rational organizations, such as anti-bullying charities and parents groups. However, the majority of these complaints came before any real details about the game emerged.

In the final release version of Bully , the player, as Jimmy Hopkins, a newcomer to the run-down boarding school Bullworth Academy, has the ability with the push of a button to attack or otherwise torment adults, little kids and members of the opposite sex with traditional schoolyard pranks such as itching powder and stink bombs or, yes, his fists, or even a baseball bat.

However, in near all cases where Jimmy is expected by the narrative to perform acts of violence, it is in self defence and Jimmy is never expected to attack children or girls. Even attempting to touch a girl without her permission is guaranteed to result in a swift kick in the tenders and a trip to the principal's office.

Semper Fidelis

While the possibilities on offer to the player could allow them to very much play the part of a bully, the game world rules heavily frown upon any bad behaviour and the narrative describes the real situation; though a tough and troubled kid (Jimmy is dropped off at Bullworth by his uncaring mother and her disinterested new beau before they speed off on their year long honeymoon) Jimmy is a simply kid looking for acceptance. He agrees to perform jobs and errands for the members of many of Bullworth's cliques, which include the staples of John Hughes movies; jocks, nerds and preppies.

During the course of the game, Jimmy is bullied mercilessly but never fails to stand up for himself and make his own way as he desperately tries to survive the year. It's no coincidence that the school's Latin motto (and the game's title in Europe and Australia) is Canis Canem Edit, "Dog Eat Dog."

Rated Teen (suitable for ages 13 and up) by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board , while adults may wish to pretend that even the early teens are a time of innocence, the reality is far closer to the world represented in Bully. Though I would hesitate to call the game realistic (or educational) at points it's certainly representative of parts of the teen experience and in its own way could in fact be cathartic.

Carpe Diem

Ignoring the controversial possibilities offered by Bully's design and setting, Bully is a very strong game produced in the Grand Theft Auto mould; almost certainly the strongest currently on offer. Divided into plotted chapters which can be experienced at the player's leisure, the game has a day/night cycle that follows the routine that could be expected of a student; the day is taken up with classes and the early evening can be filled with part-time jobs or leisure activities, while the night is for high jinks.

Though going to class sounds boring, the classes in Bully take the form of mini-games, which are never less than interesting. Most successful (and educational) is English class, which tasks you to create words from a limited selection of letters, and art class's transformation of painting into a facsimile of classic arcade game Qix is a more than pleasant diversion.

Other classes, such as chemistry take the form of simple button pushing exercises. To encourage the player to attend class (truancy is possible, as long as you avoid the ever watchful prefects) successful completion of a level rewards the player with new powers or tricks. Jimmy is bestowed with a cornucopia of abilities, and with so many objects to interact with (from bicycles to arcade machines) the controls are suitably complex.

Outside of class, part-time jobs, errands and adventures offered by classmates, friends and teachers all follow the same template as missions that can have multiple objectives and be time limited. Again, removed from the setting they tend to be similar to those experienced in the GTA games, but are no less entertaining, and interestingly offer a greater variety of rewards, such as money, respect with one of the cliques or even a health restoring kiss.

Sic Transit Gloria

Bully is not a ground-breaking title; though open ended, the title still conforms to the restrictive mission based structure first created for the very first Grand Theft Auto in 1997. Despite this, the title moves in many important directions, with a daily schedule during each day/night cycle, meaningful interaction between cliques and the player, and a setting and narrative that is far deeper and more interesting than the simple gang violence seen in most GTA clones. Bully offers something different and entirely worthy, and it's unfortunate that the controversy that surrounds the title may have hidden that.