Bullet Witch

Bullet Witch is among the second wave of next-generation titles, and it's an Xbox 360 exclusive. Can Atari's hot new heroine find love among action gamers?

Bullet Witch isn't a mindless blast fest: the game draws upon urban combat titles like Ghost Recon

Bullet Witch isn't a mindless blast fest: the game draws upon urban combat titles like Ghost Recon

Bullet Witch's developer, Cavia Interactive, is a bit of an oddity as far as Xbox 360 developers go. Japanese game studios that develop for the Xbox 360 are few and far between, but with any luck, Bullet Witch may just signal the dawn of a new era of global Xbox 360 game development.

On to the game. Bullet Witch puts players in the role of black-clad Alicia, who harnesses the arcane powers of witchcraft. Atari is keeping the character a secret for now, but we caught word of a "resurrection" and that the character was not always a witch. Alicia is imbued with an entity called "Darkness," who serves as a sort of spirit guide as she negotiates the demon-clogged streets of what appears to be a post-modern, bomb-blasted New York City. Alicia herself is a bit of a mystery: she looks like a goth runway model crossed with vampire vigilante BloodRayne, with the contortionist tricks of Lara Croft.

Witchy Woman

Alicia's primary weapon is a massive, broom-shaped rifle called the "Gun Rod," and it can be upgraded to a fire canon, shotgun, gatling, or standard machine gun ammunition. The Gun Rod also serves as a flashy close-quarters weapon, though not necessarily a very effective one: in the demo, it took multiple whacks to incapacitate nearby enemies.

The spells are much sexier. Many are huge in scale and look impressively cinematic. Calling down a lightning storm in the demo eliminated dozens of enemies and shattered a roadbloack. Other spells will fall into the fire and wind schools, and future spells will trigger massive tornadoes and meteor strikes, though the developers aren't sharing many details yet. Judging by our hands-on experience, the casting system is simple, requiring only that the player select the proper skill, aim, and fire.

Despite a decided lack of specifics, it's clear that recent world events have inspired Bullet Witch's gritty futuristic world. Atari is promising that the Japanese developers have put a great focus on the game's backstory, and admitted that despite the black humor, the plot has a "dark side" and ties into the "popular zeitgeist" of the current world we live in. This ties into the militaristic, fascistic look of some of the demons we fought. Foot soldiers in Satan's army, perhaps? Bullet Witch's setting looks suitably glum: it's another ruined post-apocalyptic cityscape where demons, warfare, and plague run rampant.

Titanic explosions are a hallmark of Bullet Witch

Titanic explosions are a hallmark of Bullet Witch

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