Bodycount

Developer: Guilford Studio

Publisher: Codemasters

The world has gone to hell, and needs saving. Luckily though there’s an agency known only as “The Network” here to save the day. As an agent of The Network, it’s your job to get in there and sort things out when governments lose control. A war has broken out in Africa, so The Network have sent you in to figure out why, before finding a way to re-establish peace in the region. What better way to do that than drop a heavily armed agent into a combat zone and leave him to blow the life out of anything he comes into contact with?

It is perhaps a shame that The Network aren’t a real organisation, as their services would have definitely been called upon to regain control of the mess that became Bodycount.

Playing through Bodycount, gamers will undoubtedly feel that there is fun to be had, it’s just that most of the time you won’t really be sure where to find it. On one hand players are rewarded for being slow and methodical in their approach, but on the other hand the nature of the weapons and environments encourage players to run around blow stuff up and spray bullets in all directions.

Take your time and aim your attacks, gamers will be rewarded with score multipliers that go towards a rating at the end of the level, but ignoring that and going wild is the only way to experience the destructible environments and intense firefights that the box openly boasts. Put simply, the game is at its most fun when its main idea (score attack) is ignored.

Building upon the oddity of Bodycount, is an intriguing yet restrictive aiming system. Pull the aim button and the character will become rooted to the spot, allowing players to lean from left to right. After some acclimatisation, the leaning mechanic stops being an issue, but it’s another example of the games inability to decide whether it wants you to go mad, or take your time.

Visually the game is quite enjoyable. The environments are filled with bright bold colours which, coupled with explosions and destructible environments, can lead to some beautiful incidental moments. The problem with this is that there are only really three different areas in the game. With the developers opting to recycle environments and have players return to the same areas, only shaking it up by having them travel in a different direction.

As the game progressed, it also became painfully obvious that the objectives were merely spattered around and had little other motive than to force the player to move around the map. During several missions it is actually possible to just run from objective to objective not killing people, being able to stay alive by running fast enough and hiding in corners to regain your health.

Mechanically the game is very solid. Movement is unrestricted and responsive enough to deal with your foes and shooting for the most part carries a feeling of weight that is very satisfying. The destructible environments also bring a level of enjoyment to the game, although there are for some reason inexplicable exceptions to the environmental destructibility that will leave the player frustrated.

Other than the single player campaign, there are multiplayer modes that provide both cooperative and competitive experiences. Both work fine, but are unlikely to capture the imagination of a player base to warrant a long term community.

There is no disputing that Bodycount has some interesting and fun ideas. The problems arise when these ideas are brought together. It seems that it tries to be both a crazy run and gun shooter, whilst at the same time being a slow and methodical FPS that wants its players to be careful and plan their attacks. Sadly for Bodycount, these contrasting notions just don’t go together.

Having players run around like mad men, only to root them to the spot when they want to aim makes no sense, and having stacks of enemies run towards your location as you attempt to carefully make your way to an objective also doesn’t work. If each mechanic and aspect of the game is looked at individually, then for the most part the developers have pulled it off, but it’s when all these aspects are pushed together that the game seems to have no idea what it wants to be.

Playing in co-op, ignoring the story and ignoring the scoring system Bodycount wants you to use is the best way to play the game. Given the correct approach, it can provide a couple of hours of enjoyment. Sadly though, it is only the most hardcore of shooter fans that will want to pick this up. In a genre that is bulging with quality titles, Bodycount falls some way short of the pack, whilst at the same time having mechanics that are sound and responsive.