Released by Codemasters for the PS3 and Xbox 360, Bodycount is considered the spiritual successor to a little game you might have heard of called Black (released back in 2006 for the PS2 and Xbox). Bodycount was made by the same team that developed Black, and got plenty of great reviews. Would this "sequel" hold up?
Well....no.
The story followed Jackson, an American soldier no longer serving his country, who was hired by "The Network", an enigmatic organization that deals with issues the United Nations doesn't. Your job in the game is to go into towns and stop wars between rival armies, and fight off a strange new foe that could only be considered aliens.
Basically, you're thrown into levels here and there and told to blow everything up and kill everyone while uploading data to your boss and defending yourself. You are able to gain abilities and upgrade them, like extra radar vision, and being able to call in air strikes. None of these actually do any good though.
The story is weak to say the least. You'll go from shanty towns in Africa to underground zones that looked like they were ripped straight from TRON. There's nothing quite confusing then going from a dusty blown up town to a bright underground futuristic setting. It doesn't work, quite frankly, and after the second level I was lost on what and who I was fighting against. One moment I'm defending a town, with two armies fighting for it, but no civilians and I'm allowed to blow everything up. Next I'm fighting robots (sic) along with rebels....I couldn't keep track half of the time. The game's story was just the first problem.
The next problem was the horrible controls. While set up to play like Call of Duty (which gave me hope), the smoothness of the control sticks left a lot to be desired. I turned the sensitivity up to one hundred, and my gun still lagged behind my push of the right analog stick. I was hoping the auto aim would make up for the lag, but even when it was switched on, it was hard to tell if it was working. Sometimes I would lock onto an enemy, but for the most part I couldn't if they were right up on me.
The next issue is the "aim down the sights", which is a joke in this game. The view zooms in, like the developers hadn't seen a first person shooter game made past 2007. Accuracy goes right out of the window when there is no true aim down the sights, and the auto aim doesn't work, and the analog sticks lag. Halo gets away without having true aim down the sights, because it's play mechanics work spot on every single time. Codemasters apparently didn't give a crap about making sure players could actually play Bodycount.
The graphics are so-so, nothing you've not seen already. Plenty of other games have done much better, three years ago. The game isn't ugly, but for a game that's released in 2011, and has a team with a certified hit under it's belt, you'd think they would have gone the extra distance to make the game look great.
The environments are destructible, but the issue this raises is, there's no freaking cover! Every time you get to a safe spot, so you can reload, you'd just get your cover blown away and then get killed. What's worse is the cover system is anything but. When I would take cover and try to aim out, there was no way from stopping me from walking out into open. For some reason they used the left stick to "lean" out from cover, which also makes you walk. Lean the stick too much, and bam you're out in the clear for everyone to shoot at. After ten minutes of trying to use the cover and shoddy aim down the sights, I realized the best method of play was just running, gunning, and hoping for the best.
The game's biggest problem, to me, is the downright stupid checkpoint system. Instead of throwing check points at you constantly, ala Halo or Call of Duty, they barely put them out there, and you can never tell when you're getting one. I would fight past a wave or large group of the enemy, and get a checkpoint, then I'd reach a small beacon that let me switch out weapons, and bam, checkpoint. Other times I'd fight past a wave of people, and not get a checkpoint, then die and come back and half to kill everyone all over. You'll find yourself going through large portions of levels, sometimes having to retread five to ten minutes of gameplay, because of the sloppy checkpoints.
The achievements are a decent mix, with some being for how many headshots you rack up, upgrading your abilities, and finishing missions. Decent for achievement hunters, if you're willing to put up with the game's problems.
Overall, the lack of polish on Bodycount is what kills this game the most. You can overlook the stupid story and characters (one who screams into your ear for ages) if the controls were smooth and the checkpoints were better. Bodycount got lousy reviews across the board, and it's really no surprise after spending sixteen hours with the game.
By all means, skip Bodycount. It's not worth your time renting and playing, the frustration you'll be dealt can't be made up in achievement points. If you bought Bodycount, I feel sorry for you. If you were thinking of buying Bodycount, spend your sixty bucks on something else, like on Dead Island, next week's review.
Overall Rating: 1/5
