Bully Review

The school year structure is what makes it work. Classes run on a timetable, curfew is enforced, and lessons are minigames that unlock real abilities, so the world imposes a rhythm the open world games never had. Bullworth Academy is small by Rockstar standards and far better for it: you learn its geography properly, the cliques occupy places you come to recognise, and the seasons visibly turn around you.

Jimmy Hopkins is also the only Rockstar protagonist allowed to be decent, and the writing has genuine fondness for the nerds and greasers he keeps having to choose between, which is why the satire lands where the broader games only sneer. The flaws are real. The mission structure sags badly through the third chapter, the combat is button mashing dressed up with a couple of holds, and the endgame reverts to exactly the escalating chaos the rest of the game had been carefully avoiding.