Although Bullet Witch has the same cheesy sci-fi feel to it as say, the film Constantine, if given a chance it does become an enjoyable game.

Slow at the beginning with a bit of a drab graphical feel, once both the story and action gets going, it becomes quite fun. Set in the not-distant future of 2013 the world has been ravaged by giant earthquakes, wars and homicidal viruses, leaving the Earth’s entire population at under one billion. Demons have appeared, terrorising and killing the ever-shrinking populace and no-one seems to know why.

This is where you come in. The mysterious Alicia; a witch with a big gun, is on a mission to bring an end to these baddies. With an ominous voice which directs her from time to time, you travel through different settings kicking demon ass, and discovering more about what happened to the world and why. All the while, you’re also getting glimpses of her past and what exactly her mission is about.

A very generic third person action game, Bullet Witch really does start off slow and shoddy, but as the game progresses the story sucks you in, and the gameplay really improves. This is thanks to the growing variety of demon’s and challenges you’ll get to face, plus the cool guns and magic spells you have to play with.

There are demons to kill round every corner, and the Japanese designers have done a great job with creating grotesque looking-beasts. Depending on what you’re up against, you’ve got the option of either gunning them down or using magic to bring them to an end, and as you work your way forward, you’ll be given points with which to upgrade these skills. In addition, your end of level scores can be uploaded onto a ‘Live scoreboard; great for the competitor in all of us.

You start with your Gun Rod’s basic mode which is a machine gun, then can upgrade to add features such as a shot gun or sniper, depending on your style. Then on the magic side of things you start with the Willpower skill which lets you push things out of your way (and onto demons) with just a swish of your hand, and also the Sacrifice skill, which is the icky-looking spell to heal allies. This sees you shower blood from your wrist over fallen good guys to give them strength, and would probably make you feel a little queasy if the blood effects weren’t so bad.

The gameplay does have its flaws; you can’t invert controls, you can spend ages being shot at without being able to find out where from, and sometimes its unclear as to where you need to head to next, but most of the time you’re guided on a particular route, and have a constant supply of demons to destroy. You work your way through town, city, forest and even bizarre settings like an airplane at 50,000 feet, and this variety definitely keeps your interest, as does the evolving story. Also the different magic and weapon options at your disposal make the game more and more fun as you get new skills, and again the variety of monsters, and the challenges of killing them, all adds to the experience as you meet new foes.

Just some examples involve hunting down Walnut Heads; giant-brained floating monsters with telekinetic powers, and blowing up their brains in order to bring down forcefield barriers in your way, using your Lightning skills to destroy tanks from above, finding the weakness of a Giant the size of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and killing a flying fish demon that spits drilling eyeballs at you. Yes, you did read that right.

Graphically the game is average, often focusing on a specific colour; the town feels a little too brown, and the night time city too purple, but it isn’t too awful either, although the blood effects really should be better. Rather, being spoilt by gorgeous shooters like Lost Planet and Gears of War, this game simply looks a bit poor.

It does use the 360’s tech power to do some cool little tricks however, like the Willpower’s ‘push’ skills which sees cars and lorries fly across the screen and crash pretty damn realistically. The consoles physics ability to offer environmental damage makes it quite fun to throw everything about.

Musically the game is also ok, with the rock ramping up in full-on action and boss settings (a little irritating and ‘80s’ after a while) but the quiet wind effects and low-key sounds adding to its ambience.

Overall this game doesn’t hugely stand out against the competition, but it’s still an enjoyable action title in its own right. It doesn’t offer anything particularly new, but what it does, it does ok, if not always great. Still, its monster and gameplay variety definitely keeps you hooked, and although pretty average, if you’re looking for a game to fill a hole, this is worth trying out.