Bully: Scholarship Edition - A Comprehensive Review

Welcome to Bullworth Academy, where the hilarity and awkwardness of adolescence collide in Bully: Scholarship Edition. This review delves into the depths of this open-world, third-person beat-'em-up, exploring its gameplay, story, characters, and technical aspects.

Story and Setting

Bully: Scholarship Edition takes place at the fictional New England boarding school, Bullworth Academy. Players step into the shoes of 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, a troubled teen with a knack for getting into trouble. Dumped at Bullworth by his mom, Jimmy must navigate the school's social hierarchy and survive the challenges that come his way. From beating the jocks at dodgeball to playing pranks on the preppies, saving the nerds and kissing the girl, Jimmy's journey is filled with mischief and mayhem.

Gameplay

Open-World Mischief

Bully is a third-person sandbox game that shares similarities with the Grand Theft Auto franchise, but with a more modest scale. Instead of mayhem and murder, Bully focuses on criminal mischief and knocking people unconscious. Players have the freedom to explore Bullworth Academy and its surrounding neighborhoods, engaging in a variety of activities.

Combat and Weapons

As Jimmy Hopkins, players will spend most of their time brawling. While the game offers weapons like the slingshot, eggs, stink bombs, firecrackers, a potato cannon, and even a bottle rocket launcher, hand-to-hand combat is the primary means of settling disputes. The combat system is simple, with buttons for jumping, running, attacking, targeting, grappling, and taunting. A local bum will teach you better attacks, and your wrestling coach will teach you grapples in class.

Missions and Mini-Games

The gameplay primarily involves moving from point to point to complete tasks and mini-games. Missions come in the form of odd jobs, story events, and classes. Odd jobs involve simple fetch quests or brawls, while story events offer more diversity. Classes take the form of mini-games that may or may not relate to the storyline, such as dissecting animals in biology or making words in English class. Other mini-games include bike races, go-karting, and arcade games.

Read also: Scholarship Edition English

Transportation

Since this is an open-world game, players will be doing a lot of traveling. The main way to get around is on foot, mashing the run button to go fast. Players can also unlock a skateboard, which is quicker but can't go upstairs or over muddy terrain. Bikes, lawn mowers, and mopeds are also available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Laws and Authority

There are plenty of laws in Bully, including those against violence, truancy, and curfew. The game uses a three-step 'wanted' level to indicate the severity of the offense. On campus, prefects act like the police, bringing you to class if you're truant, chasing you for dress code violations, and stopping you from bullying. The game makes use of stealth in some missions, but for the most part, it's just avoiding the gaze of the cops and prefects.

Time Table

The game is set to a timetable that can sometimes break the flow. You wake up in the morning and have two classes in the day. You need to find a bed to sleep, and if it gets too late, Jimmy will fall asleep where he is and wake up the next day. You can skip classes, but then the authorities will be after you.

Money

The money feels useless. You can spend it on weapons, but why bother when he has an arsenal in his dorm room from completing mini games? There are expensive clothes to buy and tattoos, but why bother other than for cosmetic reasons? Sometimes the game forces you to dress a certain way or get your hair done at the barber shop.

Factions

The game is broken up into chapters, each focusing on a different faction. These factions include nerds, bullies, greasers, preps, and jocks, each with their own turf at the academy and outside. All factions have a respect level for you, which affects how they react to you.

Characters

Bully features dozens of characters, each with a name and schedule. Most of the characters are downright evil, with a few exceptions. Garry, the over-the-top villain, Petey, the short best friend, the drunk Santa, the alcoholic English teacher, the two-timing dame, and Russell, the big dullard, are just a few of the memorable characters that populate Bullworth Academy.

Graphics and Sound

Graphics

The graphics in Bully: Scholarship Edition are dated, as the game was originally released on the PlayStation 2. While the Xbox 360 version received some graphical updates, it still suffers from bland textures, strange character models, and pop-up. However, the Wii version has received little in the way of graphical upgrades. It sports the same bland textures and messed-up character faces, although draw distance is improved and a new character shadow system gives Jimmy a realistic shadow. Also added is the ability to play the game in 16:9, which is a nice addition. Despite these modest improvements, the Wii version also introduces a series of graphical glitches.

Sound

The sound in Bully is quite good, with a wide variety of music that always seems appropriate for the situation at hand. The voice acting is also well-delivered, with each character having their own lines. The sound effects are good enough but are overshadowed by the quality of the voice acting and music. The soundtrack features 26 original tracks.

Technical Issues

Framerate

One of the biggest issues with Bully: Scholarship Edition is its framerate. The intro movie is a jerky mess, and in-game framerates are inconsistent. Indoor environments often see a freakishly fast framerate, while outdoor sequences are almost universally poor. The framerate issues can also affect the classroom mini-games, making them unfairly difficult.

Crashes and Freezes

Some users have reported frequent crashes and freezes, which can be frustrating. However, Rockstar released a patch that addressed many of these issues.

Additional Content

The Scholarship Edition includes additional content, such as new missions, classes, and characters. The multiplayer mode allows two players to compete in the in-class portions of the game. The game also features a robust stat page that tracks almost every action you take.

Achievements

The Achievements in Bully: Scholarship Edition range from easy to hilarious and can be picked up primarily by letting the storyline run its course. The great thing about the grinders (such as traveling distance on bike, foot, skateboard, etc) is that they should still be accomplished during the normal course of the game.

Critic Reviews

Bully: Scholarship Edition has received generally positive reviews from critics. Many praised the game's witty story, engaging gameplay, and memorable characters. However, some critics noted the game's technical issues, such as the framerate problems and occasional crashes.

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