I was surprised by this game. Based on the reviews and on Rockstar's reputation, I was expecting it to be enjoyable - but instead discovered that it's a whole lot more than that. I just hope the developers realize what they've done.

For the most part video games have had a hard time getting recognized as art in the same way that books, film, television, and other non-interactive media have. In the case of the latter, it's the lack of interactivity that makes it possible for the auteur (director or writer) to clearly focus on making an artistic statement or social commentary, both of which tend to be perceived as having great value - or at least worthwhile enough to be protected by free speech laws. Video games do not share these luxuries - they need to be fun, or they don't get played. Thus many don't contain a narrative, and don't need to, while those that do are very limited in the type of artistic or social commentary they can provide. In a lot of games it is essentially pasted on; the protagonist will typically be running around shooting bad guys while cutscenes tell you that he is emotionally struggling with other issues (relationships, grief, drugs, etc.) that don't relate to the actual gameplay.

Bully avoids these issues in part, maybe even in full. It definitely contains violence - of the punching, kicking, and Indian burn kind - but it's portrayed in an ironic light. Billy Hopkins, the titular bully of the game, is much less intimidating than his reputation; the reality is that the other students are much worse, and the administration an order of magnitude beyond that. It's only to compensate for the total ineptitude of the system that Hopkins does any bullying at all.

The top-level structure of the game is similar to some other Rockstar games - Hopkins progresses from mission to mission, acquiring allies and improving his reputation as he goes, with his increasing stats on display in the menu screens. Towards the conclusion of the game he's often referred to as the "King" of the school - a natural enough appellation given his increasing social status. Further references are made - as a joke - to King Arthur and his knights of the round table. However, I find this to be a rather telling parallel between real-world high school life and medieval conquerors - both fictional and otherwise. The frightening truth is that high school "bullying" - an essentially unpunished crime in American high schools - tends to go under the name "abuse" or "harassment" in the adult world, frequently spawning lawsuits. Whether intentionally or not the writers of Bully hit the nail on the head - the social structure of high school is not dissimilar to Europe in the Dark Ages. Hopkins accordingly plays the role of the unifying conqueror over the various fiefs, and in effect creates a better school environment than the school's administration did.

But despite this (and also despite what some critics may say), Bully is no more a glorification of bullying than Dr. Strangelove is a glorification of nuclear war - it succeeds in amusing us with its antics (and it's fun to play), but at the same time drives home a point - each high school forms it's own society, and inadequate regulation or protection of human rights results in much of the same problems of "real world" societies suffering the same issues. In this way the gameplay and the narrative complement each other perfectly, and there's no feeling of tacked-on-ness. The icing on this cake, of course, is the sheer irony of a video game so clearly highlighting the flaws of a system that typically uses video games themselves as its scapegoat.

Suffice it to say I liked Bully rather a lot. I think it's overall a more expertly-crafted game than GTA: San Andreas, though this is likely due to it's smaller scale. There were some shortcomings however. Typical of Grand Theft Auto and its progeny, there's some occasional inconsistency in characterization. Most of the dialogue portrays Hopkins as having a sort of vigilante code of ethics - he's got no problem with doing the "wrong" thing so long as the end result is justice. But there are some missions that don't really fit in with that - like the one where he steals girls' panties on behalf of a pedophile faculty member. Granted stealing panties is totally within his character, just not handing them over to a lusting adult. It's as if they Rockstar outsourced that plot to a writer who had no inkling of what the rest of the game was about. But then the writers semi-redeem themselves when in a later mission it's revealed that the faculty member once had a student expelled in return for not reciprocating his advances, and in return Hopkins manages to get him fired.

And one more sore point: while I can tell that the developers were trying to balance the offensiveness of the game by offending every group equally (meaning nerds, jocks, bullies, greasers, townies, faculty, etc. get abused equally), I personally found that gender balance to be off kilter. With one or two exceptions, the females are there for you to kiss and gain a health bonus from, while the males are the ones who run the school. Aside from furthering the alienation of women from video games and the game industry, I think Rockstar missed an opportunity here. While I obviously only have an observer's perspective on the issue, most women I've talked describe what seems to me a much deeper, more complex social system among high school girls than what I went through as a boy. It seems like that whole subject is ripe for some game developer to come along and work into new plots and game mechanics.

Before I forget, there's one more thing: the music to this game is mostly awesome. Although it eschews the GTA licensed music in favor of a musical score, I didn't regret the change in the least. None of the tracks (not counting the assorted arcade mini-game music) got on my nerves, and most were perfect for the given context.

So it's time for the rating: I give this game a 9.2 out of 10 (with 5.5 as neutral).