These four games like Bully should suffice to fans who just can’t wait for Rockstar to announce a sequel for the hit multi-platform offering. Lots of things make this title one of the best of all time. Take for instance its amazing action-adventure offerings taking place in an open world environment that can be explored and interacted with at will. Or its excellent depiction of what it’s like to study in a New England boarding school. This beautifully designed and artistic video game has been laced by Rockstar with extensive minigames, enjoyable combat, an utterly amazing story and lots of stuff you’d never even imagine would form part of a video game. It is truly a unique game by every sense of the term.
Released back in 2006 exclusively for the PS2, it made its way to the Wii, Xbox 360 and PC in 2008 in the form of a Scholarship Edition which featured added content. Just as in most titles by Rockstar, this one too came with its fair share of controversies. Fierce opposition to its content, ban on sales and many such issues greeted it around the time of its launch. But it managed to emerge a winner later on, going on to become one of the most successful and critically acclaimed titles of all time. It’s hard to find titles that offer identical experiences due to the above mentioned fact that it’s such a unique game. But we’ve gone through our libraries and picked out those which come close to offering the kind of gameplay Canis Canem Edit (its name in PAL territories) contains. Let’s take a look at them.
1 – Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
To be clear, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is not an action-adventure game; it’s a traditional role-playing game of the Japanese sort. But it features a school setting and that’s what makes it worthy of a spot in this compilation of games similar to Bully. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 has you don the role a high-school student who has moved into the countryside from the city for a year. Mysterious murders taking place at their school form the center of the plot for this amazing game which has a true old-school JRPG feel to it that will definitely appeal to you if you’re a fan of them. Its combat is another aspect which sets Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 apart from other titles. Its turn-based battle system is a trademark for the Shin Megami Tensei series, making for some really exciting scenarios. Released in 2008 for the PS2, it can now be played on the PS3, while there’s even an updated PS Vita version named Persona 4: Golden which features support for the handheld console’s various distinct controls.
2 – Grand Theft Auto V
Another game from the geniuses over at Rockstar, GTA V will remind you a lot about Canis Canem Edit. The kind of immense freedom which the PS2 game provided with its open world environments can be experienced in a whole new light since this is a new game fraught with fresh concepts and technological innovations. Grand Theft Auto V tells the story of three protagonists who take to bank robberies for overcoming their problems. It’s the fact that you get to play as all three of them that makes this game a wonderful experience. You can switch between them any time no matter where they are on its humongous open world map. Grand Theft Auto V also features the series’ customary vehicle-jacking system and all other awesome things that accompany it. Its superb missions constitute towards a killer story which is hard to forget. It can be bought now for the PS3 and the Xbox 360, with special PS4, Xbox One and PC versions rumored for release later this year.
3 – Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7
If you really wish to go back to school why not go to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Another school-focused Bully alternative in this list is based on the last three books from J.K. Rowling’s series and presents you with a full-bodied narrative. It’s gameplay is focused on collecting and exploring, but being a Harry Potter game, it also brings with it magical aspects such as spells and more. Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 also features cooperative gameplay which uses a split-screen technique. You can buy it on a number of different platforms right now, but its PS3, Xbox 360, PS Vita, PC and Mac versions are laced with the best experiences.
4 – The Sims 3: University Life
At its roots, Sims 3 is a completely different game than Canis Canem Edit with its life simulation gameplay and other attributes. But it has nonetheless made its way into this collection of games similar to Bully based on the fact that its University Life expansion allows you to experience life in an educational institute. In the game, you create a virtual person called a Sim and control every aspect of their life in a sandbox world. The University Life expansion furthermore, lets you enroll them in college, choose a subject to major in, take tests, join social groups such as nerds, jocks and rebels and a lot more. It’s a single-player experience which you can play on your PC or Mac.
Conclusion:
With that we end this list of games like Bully and again remind you that it’s a one-of-a kind game which doesn’t really have similarities with any other titles. The ones which we have picked here are remotely identical to it.