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Sword Art Online has been around in some form or another since all the way back in the prehistoric times normally referred to as 2002. Originally a serial of low-cal novels, information technology'southward been praised for its exploration of themes relating to the intertwining of real and virtual worlds and the issue this has on the psyche and physicality of those who experience information technology in a long-term capacity. Set in the near hereafter, it sees protagonist Kuzuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and his friends locked in a VR tournament in which death ways actual expiry; their real-world bodies withering away in hospital beds, they accept no choice but to ascend the 100 levels of Aincrad in order to exist ready costless.

After this initial incident is resolved the heroes go on to duke it out with evil forces, laugh, love and form relationships together as they take office in various virtual reality massively multiplayer online games, or VRMMOs, across the several series that brand upward Sword Art Online as a whole. These VR tournaments and battles take changed themes over the course of Sword Fine art's life and it'southward the globe of Gun Gale Online, a VRMMO based entirely around shooting ruddy corking big guns, that's the focus of this videogame adaptation.

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In terms of exploring bug such as the nature of love, life and death in a VR realm or the effect of sustained exposure to VR on the homo psyche, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet does away with near of the series' more cerebral flourishes in favour of giving you as many guns as yous can mayhap handle and letting yous shoot massive robots in their faces repeatedly in a variety of offline and online modes whilst keeping the melodrama – and there's a lot of very boring-moving melodrama here – firmly grounded in oddly misogynistic conversations, teen relationships and subservient robot ladies territory.

Indeed, Sword Art Online has besides often been criticised for its attitudes to women, who tend to be or survive in order to placate men. For the nearly part, it seems women's futures are controlled and often roundly cutting brusque because of the "heroic" decisions of the male characters, and it doesn't accept long for misogyny to raise its head in this game in the form of a new character, Basalt Joe, who'due south introduced early on in the plot and is, for all intents and purposes, a grubby middle-aged human with a worrying fixation on young girls, their bodies and the idea of owning them completely.

In something of a departure for the series, rather than assuming the role of a Sword Art Online grapheme, here yous create your very own avatar with which to engage the world, planting you correct in the middle of the action as a blank slate for the kickoff time. At that place is an unlockable Kirito style available as you progress through the story – consummate with its very ain ending – simply to begin with, you have an all-new identity.

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The story begins with your carefully created character (there's a robust cosmos suite on offer here, especially if you lot like to spend fourth dimension making sure your boobs are just the right size) winning a rare item in their very start game of Gun Gale Online, which turns out to be an ArFA-SYS robot, or Type X, which takes you as its main as before long as it clocks you for the showtime time. The Type X will exist your fighting companion in Gun Gale Online; the most advanced robot of its kind, everyone wants a piece of it but it's all yours and you lot're well-nigh immediately whisked back to the character creation suite to give information technology a name and make sure information technology'southward proportioned to your tastes. You tin even give information technology pocket money if yous like, so it can buy things. No, really.

From here, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet proceeds to spend in the region of around an hour slowly explaining its various systems to you whilst introducing a cast of characters no doubt familiar to fans of the series. It's glacial stuff and isn't helped by the fact that in the aftermath of such a long tutorial we nevertheless didn't know how to equip new weapons or take the gear we found in our get-go match evaluated without having to resort to looking information technology upwards. There are lots of menus and access points to get your head around here, points to assign, gadgets and skills to unlock and level-upward and XP to spend. There'south crafting, customisation and clothing galore, and you lot tin can even make your own outfits. The wealth of guns at your disposal can all be upgraded and fitted with as many dissimilar boons and traits as you could possibly imagine and at the end of every match y'all play you'll be hammered with stuff to sift through in your inventory, walking off the battleground with all-sorts falling out of your pockets. It actually is all quite overwhelming.

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Almost of this would exist fine of class if it wasn't for the fact that the bodily gameplay in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, the famous Gun Gale itself, is really rather boring, bland and repetitive stuff. Arenas tend to vary between the tiled corridors of an industrial circuitous – grey room following grey corridor, following gray room – or endless characterless tundra filled with identikit enemies who may occasionally vary in colour merely more often than not always stick to the same combat blueprint of standing about in exposed areas shooting at yous until y'all impale them. To be fair, they do occasionally exercise stunt rolls, simply rarely to anywhere that gets them out of harm'south manner.

Alongside the wealth of traditional weaponry at your disposal – machineguns, sniper rifles, pistols and rocket launchers – yous're also equipped with the Ultimate Fibers Gun (or UFG for short), which y'all tin apply to fire at a location and and so send yourself there via a magical light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation tether. As a ways of traversal, it'due south certainly got potential, but information technology'southward never utilised in any meaningful way and it'due south actually its secondary function – knocking airborne enemies out of the heaven then nicking $.25 off their bodies for equipment – that you'll find yourself using for the most part.

The arena combat in Sword Fine art Online: Fatal Bullet reminds us of nothing more than when you make up one's mind to "go loud" in whatever Metal Gear Solid game pre-V. There'south that very aforementioned feeling of unease. You've got all the latest equipment, you're armed to the absolute teeth, you've got a gadget for every occasion blimp into your trousers, but you still can't milk shake the feeling that the controls are going to let you down when the rut gets turned up.

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Everything is slightly more awkward than it needs to be here; even throwing a grenade – which requires you to tap the right shoulder push to get to gadgets, and so concord information technology in, press whichever face button you've assigned to grenades and aim in roughly the surface area y'all want information technology to go, which it usually won't – is painful. You can dodge out of the way and do a little forward scroll, but neither of these manoeuvres is 100% guaranteed to get you out of harm's manner. You tin can likewise crouch backside things, which is, we understand, universally regarded as a expert thing to do if yous're beingness shot at, only yous can't shoot over barriers, so when y'all desire to return fire yous'll need to get back out in that location, fully exposed, take a shot and motility again.

The shooting also feels rather imprecise with no tangible feedback, even with the 'assisted' mode engaged, and this is partially downward to the fact that enemies don't react to being shot across the obligatory damage numbers floating out of their bodies. The guns also tend to feel calorie-free and don't have any real bite or satisfying noise to them, which is a real shame because a lot of time and effort has obviously been spent modelling them and providing as much information as y'all could ever want as you purchase them from the game's store.

Nevertheless, if you're willing to forgive Sword Fine art Online: Fatal Bullet its long and drawn out melodramatic sequences, bland level and enemy pattern and slightly clunky combat systems, there is plenty for you to sink your very forgiving teeth into here. The aforementioned customisation options are deep and you can gear and spec your avatar up in an impressive number of means. XP earned by defeating enemies tin be spent on levelling-up the skills required to handle amend guns and accessories that grant you special tactical effects. CP can be poured into six dissimilar areas of growth – the usual strength, vitality, intelligence, etc – and the weapon and outfit customisation really is nigh endless.

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Returning to SBC GLocken, the VR globe in which you live outside of the VR tournament in which you partake, yous'll ever have a ton of merchandise to sell for credits to utilize for endless tinkering. Your Type X is too fully customisable and levels-up alongside you, and y'all'll certainly be kept busy organising both it and yourself for the next quest or battle.

In terms of modes there's an impressive number of things to do, from solo story missions, side quests and problems or treasure hunts, to co-op battles with up to 3 other man players (and their Blazon-10 companions) and a PvP Mark mode, which sees one specific man role player with a bounty placed on their caput beingness hunted by other players for a big prize. Ane unfortunate thing we did also notice over the class of this review is that currently the online modes seem pretty sparsely populated and getting into a game or joining upwards with other human being players was a real hit or miss thing, at least in our experience.

Fans of the series are, apparently, guaranteed to get much more than out of what's on offer here equally they'll likely be much more engaged in the drama that's wrapped around the gameplay, and with that aforementioned unlockable Kirito fashion and multiple endings to see there's certainly enough of story hither for those who're into it. For everyone else, if you can somehow ignore the often troubling attitudes to female person characters, there's even so an okay feel to exist had if you're really, actually into shooting stuff and hoovering up collectables in between long breaks for interminable churr betwixt Sword Art Online's cast of characters.

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In terms of the port itself, in both portable and docked modes, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet runs pretty much flawlessly on Switch. In that location's a very definite blurring of the image in handheld but with a huge game that looks as good equally this often can it's non really a big surprise to see the resolution dropped for portable play, and, although the prototype is much sharper docked, it still looks good in both modes. Furthermore, nosotros didn't notice any framerate problems or bugs in our fourth dimension in SBC Glocken.

Determination

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is 1 of the stronger outings for the series in a video game format. Even so, it's still bogged down by heavy-handed and frequently thematically troubling melodrama that'southward delivered at a glacial stride and prefers to eschew the potentially interesting aspects of the world information technology depicts in favour of stereotypical male heroics, teenage matters of the eye and questionable attitudes to its female characters. Beyond this, and judged solely as a game, the combat of Gun Gale Online itself is a rather banal, clunky and repetitive experience – albeit ane with a ton of customisation options and modes of play to engage with. Fans of Sword Art Online will already know whether they're into this or non; for everyone else, information technology'due south a pretty tough sell that doesn't really manage to do anything it attempts well enough to earn a recommendation.