Meet Bulletstorm, the "Burnout of shooters." That's what Epic Design Director Cliff Bleszinski described as his elevator pitch of the game, in development at Epic subsidiary People Can Fly in Poland. Bulletstorm stars Grayson Hunt as a hard-drinking ex-mercenary who crash lands on Stygia, a "pleasure planet" for the rich which has recently gone to seed. Giant carnivorous plants now wrap themselves along the halls of ritzy hotels, and mutated rejects from a Mad Max movie stand in the way of Grayson getting his ass off the planet in one piece -- and maybe redeeming his dirty past in the process.

So just what makes Bulletstorm like the crash-tastic arcade racer Burnout?

Instead of the pop-and-shoot mechanics of most modern shooters, Bulletstorm harks back to the fast-paced action of old-school games like Duke Nukem and Unreal Tournament. Central to this is the Skillshot system, which rewards you for killing creatively. Standard kills earn you a pittance, headshots net you a bit more, but the real points come in when you combine moves and use the environment to your advantage.

For example, you could shoot an enemy in the groin and then, as he's doubled over, smash a boot to his head (that's called "Mercy"). Or you push your foot into another guy and impale him on an overgrown cactus. Each creative kill has a name and a point value associated with it, which appear over the heads of your decimated foes. These points can then be used to upgrade your weapons.

And you've got an impressive array of weaponry at your disposal. In addition to the standard assault rifle (which you can charge up to fire a swarm of bullets), Epic showed off the Flail Gun, which fires out two grenades attached by a chain. The shape of the projectile allows for all sorts of ingenuity: wrap it around a light pole for a quick and dirty proximity mine, or hook it around the leg of an unfortunate enemy to watch the giblets fly.

Grayson also wields a leash that can pull enemies towards him or fling objects (like, say, an explosive trash can) at foes. Epic demonstrated one of the upgrades for the leash, called "Thumper," which allows you to whip the ground and cause a massive shockwave that lifts enemies and objects into the air. You can then pick and play with them in devious ways as they fall.

Bulletstorm isn't due out until 2011, which should give the developers plenty of time to tweak the balance of the Skillshot system, preventing players from spamming one particular creative kill throughout the game. Hopefully they'll also implement multiplayer, because I'm itching to try out the Skillshot system with -- and on -- other people.

Head to page 2 for more screenshots.