Preview: Bodycount

Bodycount is, as you’ll have heard, all about the guns – it’s an interesting angle, not least because there aren’t actually that many of them in the game.  They are, though, in the words of Andrew Parsons, part of the game’s level design team who we spoke with last week, “ferocious” – and having played the game for the last few days now we can’t help but agree.

“They’re over the top and dialled up to 11,” he told TheSixthAxis, “to a point where it puts a smile on the gamer’s face and is truly best-in-class.”

I don’t often do this, but Bodycount made me roll out the surround sound headphones.  A competent set of speakers is one thing, but if you really want to hear the game (or indeed, any game) at its best then a pair of decent cans is the way forward, and (perhaps slightly controversially) I reckon they’re as important as a high definition TV for shooters.  For Bodycount, they really help to get across the game’s bombastic audio.

[drop]It’s clear Codemasters have worked hard on the look, sound and feel of the arsenal here, which is gradually unlocked to the player via a series of weapon caches found around the game – the two weapon limit works well enough, but it’s odd that you can’t swap your load-out mid level. Regardless, the guns are big and bold, responsive and direct but weighty and convincing, and – as with all good genre staples – you’ll find your favourites but still have an urge to diversify on repeated play.

It’s the freeform gameplay that Bodycount plays on so well – levels are often open to interpretation and different styles of play  If – like Parsons discussed with us – “you’re that run and gun type” you can charge in blasting with a machine gun or a shotgun but if you’re more of a “minimap and stealth kind of player” there’s the quiet approach with a knife and silenced pistol.

And all this places nicely with the game’s smart USP, the ‘shredding’, which is Codemasters’ way of putting a label on the dynamic, destructive nature of real ammunition and a variety of surfaces.

“The shredding supports both play styles without getting in the way of the core experience,” said Parsons.  “The thing that we’ve always tried to maintain is tactical player choice. There are a couple of instances where the shredding becomes a larger part of the game’s content, but when it comes down it we wanted to balance the shredding content so that it could be addressed by a broad range of player styles.”

Your cover is rarely bulletproof, as you’ll find out quickly enough, meaning that unless you’ve cleared an area of the enemy you’re constantly on your toes, especially when faced with one of the game’s tougher opponents.  It looks good too, especially with wood which splinters with impressive realism, and of course it’s not just your cover that’s at risk here.

If you spot an enemy quickly running past a window, why wait for him to enter the building by the doorway when you can pull out your shotgun and blast a large piece of masonary into his skull?  – Tuffcub

“There were definitely challenges involved in maintaining the shredding fidelity across multiple stages (in single player and competitive multiplayer as well as co-op),” Parsons tell us, suggesting it wasn’t a smooth ride getting DiRT 3’s EGO engine to turn its hand to a FPS. “I think we’ve met them head-on, though,” he says. “We’ve always had a razor focus on delivering the shredding in the highest detail possible.”

It ties in nicely with the game’s clever cover mechanic, which doesn’t snap you to a surface or allow an occasional tilt to one side, it actually roots you in place but gives you full freedom to lean and crouch in any direction.  It takes some getting used to (being on the same trigger as zoom – you hold it in all the way) but it’s pretty much a requirement.

[drop2]I asked Andy whether he thought the new control would fit in easily with what gamers expect.

“Obviously we’ve taken steps to explain to players how to use the cover system early in the game, as it requires a certain amount of ‘re-wiring’ for players who are more used to a traditional move/ shoot mechanic,” he admits. “Having said that, our aim has always been for Bodycount to represent accessibility and ease of use, so hopefully people will pick up the new control mechanics pretty quickly.”

Another feature that Bodycount sports is stackable attributes, which are strictly time limited and charged by collecting Intel. Intel appears after everything you do (visualised as little graphic orbs) and the more skillful you play (headshots, multiple tags from grenades, what have you) the more intel points you’ll get.  Mixing adrenaline with explosive shells, for example, even for the five or so seconds you’ll get, is a blast.

The build we’ve been playing features three levels from the game’s seventeen or so, and each level runs at between twenty and thirty minutes.  Some areas seemed like they were cut short in the preview code, and finished rather anticlimatically, but they did show off a few of the game’s locales, from the dark, rain-soaked fishing slum to the pristine, hi-tech interior Target base.

So whilst the sound is great and the core idea solid enough, the visuals aren’t the best in the genre. Despite some nice animation the textures and models aren’t that impressive and the PS3 version we tested suffered from the same low resolution effect caused by smoke that Gran Turismo 5 was slated for, let’s hope that might get ironed out before release.  Disappointing, especially considering this is the engine that powered the incredible looking DiRT series, albeit not the latest version.

But that aside, Bodycount’s shaping up well.  It’s hard to get a true impression of the game from such a small sampling of levels (and even they were from the game’s score attack mode, rather than presented as chunks of the campaign) but the basics are there and there’s certainly some fun to be had in a game that tries its hardest to be original.

Sure, it’s not perfect, but there’s a very slight air of the wonderful Goldeneye 007 about the game – whether it’s just the marginally too slow movement, the range of guns or just the fact that the game’s so open to different play styles I’m not sure, but there’s that occasional spark every now and again that makes you smile and with a full line-up of multiplayer modes Bodycount could be one to keep your eyes on…

Bodycount hits shelves in September.