LogFAQs > #949563317

#72 Bully (Playstation 2, 2006)

When I was first putting this list together, I forgot all about this game. But Bully is an incredible experience. It took the style of open-world game that Rockstar is known for and managed to fit it into the concept of a boarding school. A lot of the Grand Theft Auto elements remain, but made appropriate for a game about teenagers.



Despite its name, the main character is not really a bully. Jimmy is a tough kid with a bad family life who gets a chance to start over at a new school, Bullworth Academy, which is dominated by a group of bullies. Throughout the game Jimmy is working with various factions within and without the school to improve the culture. It's a surprising good story that manages to elicit empathy for Jimmy and the people that he encounters.

The gameplay involves doing things like attending class and performing tasks to win the trust of other students within the various cliques at the school. Later on, the focus shifts away from class and more to the local town and the people there, and Jimmy also can do jobs for money or participate in activities like bicycle races. A lot of it is familiar if you have played any GTA game; if you misbehave, school staff will chase you, and you can collect various "weapons" like firecrackers, marbles, slingshot... you get the picture. It's a surprisingly robust game with a ton of things to do and I think a lot of care was taken to make the world very lively and dense with content. I really wish that they would do another one of these.

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At least your mother tipped well