It gets to a point with certain game series when you have to start wondering why they keep it up. Sometimes the entire series is just total rubbish which no one in their right minds would play, sometimes things have just been going steadily downhill since they started, and sometimes the series is relying heavily on fan service and a familiar name to make sales. Unfortunately, the latest game in the Sword Art Online series happens to be an odd combination of those last two, and nothing can save it now. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is the fifth game in the Sword Art Online series and finally manages to break the mould a little by featuring mainly guns and bullets instead of swords and/or magic. That makes this a third-person shooter which attempts to ape the style of a virtual reality MMO by populating its world with characters who all talk like no MMO player ever has done.
The story revolves around the main character, which can be pretty much anyone since you create this character yourself, who is a new player to the world of Gun Gale Online. You’ve been invited by your friend to play around in this game, and during your first tournament you accidentally stumble across a super rare item which turns out to be an AI assistant that you can create from scratch and who lives only to serve you. You and your new group of friends (basically, all the characters from the SAO series) must battle your way through the MMO world to try and protect your new item from enemy players who wish to obtain it and to seek out new pieces which will give your AI friend new powers.
The story is fine as far as a story about people playing video games goes. There are some weird elements to it, like the fact that your AI partner is technically an item but walks and talks like a human being, leading to some dialogue moments which just don’t feel right. It also feels like the Sword Art Online characters have been a little shoehorned into place here, especially considering that the game features original characters for you to interact with, and the series’ familiar characters might as well not even be there. This really all boils down to the real reason that they are there: fan service. As with the other games in the series, there are these ‘co-sleeping’ events where you can sleep next to a scantily-clad main character after you’ve raised your affinity with them enough. The characters you have to choose from are different depending on if you’re playing the game as your own character or if you’re playing in ‘Kirito Mode’, a game mode where you control the main character from the anime series. Obviously, a lot of anime games, and actual anime come to think of it, are dripping with fan service because it’s what a lot of the fan base want. If you’re into seeing characters you’ve come to relate to wear very little clothing in front for your own sexual gratification, then you’re going to enjoy this, it’s really that simple. However, if you’re made uncomfortable by badly implemented sexual titillation, then this is going to make you wish it wasn’t happening.
The nice thing about the shift from a fantasy-style MMO to a gun-based MMO is that the gameplay actually feels different from the last few games, at least in all the ways that count. Instead of having to run forward and use your sword to swat things around the head until they fall over, you now have to strategically use the terrain and cover to prevent yourself from taking damage while you and your team pick off your enemies in a variety of different ways. You pick two weapons from the selection, as well as two for your robot partner, then select from the cast of famous characters and game originals to make up a varied and efficient combat unit. Or instead of that, you could just give everyone assault rifles and watch them all do massive damage before they very quickly get taken down, it’s up to you.
Obviously, the gameplay is still a little flawed. The AI doesn’t seem to have a clue half the time, and the rest of the time it’s lying unconscious on the ground waiting for you to come and save it. Luckily, you do have at least some control over the AI characters. You can open a tactical menu during combat and command them to do a number of things, like prioritize healing, focus on attacking or sticking close to you to provide cover. If you use these commands effectively, you can even take down high level enemies that would normally be too strong for you to deal with.
As well as shooting things, you can also duck down to tuck in behind cover, perform a roll to get between cover quickly or dash to try and dodge enemy attacks. I say ‘try’ to dodge because so far that tactic seems about as useful as nicely asking the robots you’re fighting to stop shooting at you. Most of the time the dodge will get you out of the way of a single attack, but most attacks fire three of four times at least, and a good percentage of them are continuous beams, so you’re probably taking the damage anyway. It’s a much safer bet to just use your special abilities to buff defence or movement speed so you can stay out of the way of your enemies’ attacks or at least take reduced damage when you do get hit.
Character progression is handled in an interesting way, or at least it presents itself as an interesting way, but honestly, it’s just a pretty standard progression system. It at least functions pretty well. Every level up you gain CP (character points) which you can use to buy stat improvements, and as you collect more and more money from hunting monsters and completing quests, you gain SP (skill points) which you can use to buy new abilities. By combining these two things together, it gets pretty easy to create a character who focuses on your specific gameplay style. The abilities are all relegated to different weapons, excusing a few ‘overall’ abilities you can also buy. This means that if you like to use sniper rifles, you can buy a bunch of abilities that allow you to be a more effective sniper. To make a decent character, you then have to pick a side weapon and make sure that the abilities you buy for that compliment your sniper abilities, like the ability to move quickly so you can escape once you’ve been targeted, or the ability to buff your defence to prevent yourself from taking too much damage while scoping out your targets.
As well as your abilities and weapons, you can sculpt your own character’s appearance to your liking, and on top of that, you can pick both an outfit and accessories for your avatar to wear. The character creator is fine, but in a similar manner to games like the ones based on South Park, all the characters end up looking basically the same beneath their haircuts when you get down to it. There is nothing quite so varied as the Fallout or Dark Souls character creators here. The outfit selection gives you more options, but since they also happen to provide your character with defence and other important buffs, your fashion choice almost inevitably ends up taking a back seat to what numbers are the most important to your character. Luckily, there are also accessories that change your character’s look, but they can also provide stat bonuses. At least with accessories you can hide them if you think they just ruin your character’s sense of style.
The problem with trying to have a sense of style is that everything just looks and feels pretty cheap. The graphics are lacklustre and don’t have much style to them, the characters feel like strange paper-craft models of themselves, and nothing seems to have much personality behind it. As odd as is it to say this, what the game really lacks is heart. It doesn’t feel like anyone really wanted to make this game. It feels like someone wanted the game to be made simply so they could sell it to make a profit, but the actual creators just didn’t really give a rat’s ass. This is never more obvious than it is in the dungeons. Each dungeon is a boring, grid-based area that eventually leads to some sort of boss and a teleporter that takes you back to the overworld. This is a formula that the game never deviates from, and it makes the game feel more like a sleep aid than an actual piece of interactive entertainment.
Developer: DIMPS
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: 23rd February 2018