Bulletstorm

Story

Bulletstorm is set in the 26th century, where the Confederacy of Planets is protected by a secret black ops army called Dead Echo, commanded by General Sarrano. A team of Dead Echo, led by Grayson Hunt (Steven Blum), is commissioned by Sarrano to kill a man named Bryce Novak, whom they believe to be a drug dealer and mass murderer. However, they soon find out that he was a civilian reporter who documented other civilian deaths caused by Dead Echo. Grayson and his team realize that they have been deceived by Sarrano and go on the run from Sarrano's forces as space pirates under the name Final Echo. Ten years later, Grayson's team attempts to flee Sarrano's battleship, the Ulysses, near the planet Stygia. When their ship's systems fail, Grayson, in a drunken stupor, orders the crew to ram the Ulysses to get revenge on Sarraro. The ships collide, are brought down, and land on the surface of Stygia. One of Grayson's men, Ishi Sato (Andrew Kishino), is severely wounded in the crash and Grayson is forced to find a power cell to run the ship's medical equipment. On the planet, a once-popular tropical vacation destination, the population has mutated into feral tribes and carnivorous plants. Grayson fights his way to one of the Ulysses' escape pods, where a Final Echo soldier falls victim to a horde of mutants. After taking out the attackers, Grayson recovers the escape pod's power cell as well as an "instinct leash" that, when worn, provides him with strange tactile information, such as points for each enemy killed. Grayson returns with the cell, and while Ishi is operating, the mutants attack their ship. The operation is interrupted by an explosion during the fight, turning Ishi into a disfigured cyborg. Grayson and Ishi, the only survivors, decide to work together to leave the planet, though Ishi disapproves of Grayson's thirst for revenge. The instinct line leads Grayson to another escape pod, where they find Trishka (Jennifer Hale), another Final Echo soldier, who agrees to work with Grayson and Ishi, but only after they rescue Sarrano. As they fight their way through the devastated city, Trishka explains that Stygia has been used by Final Echo as a training ground of sorts. The instinct lines worn by the soldiers were used to rank the participants in the test; only those who were killed could get ammunition and other supplies for survival. When Grayson learns that Trishka was Novak's daughter, he tells her that Sarrano was responsible for her father's death, but claims he does not know who actually killed him. The three make their way to the roof of a skyscraper where Sarrano's capsule has landed. Trishka accuses Sarrano of her father's death, but he simply pushes her off the side of the building. Sarrano then warns Grayson and Ishi that there is a weaponized DNA bomb on the Ulysses that will wipe out all life on the planet, and that they must disarm it because his rescue ship will not arrive in time. Sarrano leads them through the underground areas of the city and encounters radioactive waste and a huge prison. Sarrano snidely explains to them that the shields designed to protect the planet's surface from the deadly electrical storms created the waste and caused the population on the surface to mutate; the changes occurred too quickly for most of the people on the surface to be saved, and so many of the savage mutants Grayson fought were rather innocent civilians. Grayson is furious at this revelation, but continues to help Sarrano reach the remains of the Ulysses. Aboard the Ulysses, Sarrano tricks Grayson and Ishi again by getting them to arm the DNA bomb while his rescue ship still arrives in time to save him. When a fire breaks out aboard the crashed ship, the two are rescued by Trishka, who survived the crash because she was hit by a power line on the way down. The three run to where Sarrano's rescue ship lands and manage to get on board. They make their way through Sarrano's elite forces and eventually face Sarrano alone. Trishka wants to know who really killed her father, whereupon Sarrano turns Grayson in. In the confusion, Sarrano hijacks Ishi's computer systems, forcing him to turn on his friends. Grayson succeeds in breaking Sarrano's control over Ishi, and Ishi sacrifices himself to prevent Sarrano from killing Grayson. Grayson then impales Sarrano on the wall of a ship. While Grayson and Trishka regroup, Sarrano performs a final action, hurling Grayson, Trishka, and some of his men out of the ship and back onto the planet. With the DNA bomb about to detonate, Grayson and Trishka race back to the Ulysses, where an escape pod has not yet been launched; they manage to board and escape into low orbit, out of range of the DNA bomb when it explodes.