Bodycount Review
Developer Guildford Studio’s
Publisher Codemasters
Platform PS3, Xbox360
Release Date Out Now
Fall in love with gunplay is the tag line and from the very first moment you are introduced into a world of over the top action that’s exactly what happens. Despite usually hating fast paced first person shooters I found myself quite enjoying Body count as it doesn’t take itself too seriously at all. The developers have wasted no time on things like story and plot or narrative and as soon as you boot up the game up you are dumped into the action.
After a very brief cut scene you find yourself in another very brief tutorial, set in Africa where you are sent to quell the unexplained tensions between the military and the rebels. Both are now your targets and quite happy to kill you as quickly as they kill each other. As they fight you use the mayhem to clear out as many as possible, always guided along by the strangely detached female voice and always collecting intel from downed enemies.
Shortly after landing in Africa you stumble upon a strange doorway leading into an even stranger underground bunker with an even stranger private army inside. Which you must despatch, why is not made very clear but you must blast them with an array of weapons in a variety of different ways.
In an attempt to make things interesting skill shots have been introduced, headshots, shots through cover or killing two enemies at once will net you skill points and open up kill chains. It gives the mindless shooting some coherence but I was having too much fun blasting everything that moved that I found it difficult to slow down and concentrate on the skill shots.
Interestingly they have tweaked the conventional control method, the L1 button now instead of simply aiming down the sights as you move, should only be used when in cover as holding L1 roots you to the spot. You can peek out to the left or right or over the top of the pieces of cover. It does give you a very good cover mechanic but it does take some time to get used to in the beginning. Far too often did I find myself standing still in the open just to get a clear shot, but once you do get to grips with it, it does work quite well.
When you kill an enemy they drop either, ammo or power ups. The large circular orbs are collected and fill your power/ammo bars. Once full you can use these power ups to increase the damage you can dish out. Either using something like an adrenaline burst or maybe an increased fire power for a limited time. The higher your skill points at the time the more intel you get rewarded with for killing enemies.
You have ten different guns at your disposal and bucket loads of ammo. The environments are semi destructible, meaning that you can’t tear the place down but if needs be you can often tear yourself a new pathway. Of course each level is filled with red barrels that will also add to the explosive element.
Multiplayer is pretty standard, it doesn’t do anything new but it what it does it does well. It is perhaps a bit light in both the multiplayer and the single player modes. Body count doesn’t do anything wrong, it is pretty smooth and pretty enjoyable in both modes.
Overall : Despite thinking I would hate Body count I found myself playing it with a huge smile on my face. It’s just fun, outrageous fun. In a market this packed though I’m not sure if it can carve out a section for itself. Bodycount is a very welcome break from the intense modern shooters out there alright. Perhaps if this had released at the start of the summer it would do a lot better, just right now it really is going up against some heavy hitters.
Score 7/10
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