via www.IGN.com
Bodycount Hands-on
Black's spiritual successor redefines the explosive videogame.
by Martin Robinson
March 15, 2010 - "It's all about the story of the player's experience. How do you take something like a wooden box and turn it into a three act epic story? It's difficult, but when you play our game you'll see that our boxes are f##king operas." Let us introduce you to Stuart Black, a Scotsman who speaks with the velocity and volume of a passing tornado, and he's telling us about the crates in Bodycount, the dynamic first-person shooter that marks the debut of Codemasters' Guildford studio.
While we're not sure whether they rank with Verdi, Bodycount's crates certainly are something quite special. Take a gun to them and they'll slowly, believably disintegrate, the wood chipping away to reveal a more stubborn metal frame and within an ammo box that sits atop a bundle of straw - shoot the ammo box and as you'd expect it's fireworks time. None of which may sound thrilling in itself, but here's the thing – this extent of destructibility extends to nearly everything in Bodycount's world. Spray a vending machine with bullets and it'll begin to tear itself apart convincingly until all that's left is a metal skeleton and a pile of broken glass. It's a first-person shooter with an exacting eye for the explosive.
That's a premise that might sound familiar, as might our host's name. Stuart's responsible for 2006's Black, the spectacular exercise in gun porn that came at last generation's end. It was developed by a core team at Criterion, which has since upped sticks and relocated a few hundred yards down the road and set up stall as Codemasters' new outfit, and it's a team comprised of many people that were working on Black's shelved sequel.
Black picks up the story; "After the end of Black I did three months on Black 2 and then I couldn't agree terms with EA so we parted ways. It would be fair to say that I wasn't overly surprised when it didn't go ahead, kind of due to a lack of direction." Three years and one new studio later – albeit one that operates from Criterion's old base, a sumptuous studio located in one of the quieter corners of Guildford, the UK's gaming capital – we have Bodycount, a title whose concerns strongly echo those of its spiritual predecessor.
"I ended up playing Black about a year ago and was quite taken aback by how much I enjoyed it," says Stuart. "There's a feedback and emotional connection that I can't get anywhere else – where's the modern version of that? Where's the 360 version of this tight shooting? I can't buy it."
Bodycount's hoping to fill that very void, its remit of unapologetic arcade action making a remarkably similar pledge to Criterion's 2006 game - but this isn't a sequel. "I thought if I ever made another shooter it'd be Black 2 and I didn't want to repeat myself in that way," explains Stuart, going on to assert that it's inevitably going to be similar in some respects.
"There's a lot of old members of the Black team so it's kind of like getting the band back together," he says. "But there's so many new people, so much talent that's got nothing to do with that - people from Lionhead, people from Media Molecule and people from Black Rock, and they bring these new ideas and this new approach, so even if I wanted this to be Black 2 it couldn't be. This is a new band – this is like a supergroup. It won't be a repeat, and I want to do different things but explore some of the same ideas."
So Bodycount is an all-new game, with an all-new story that provides a fittingly bombastic frame for its over-the-top action. John Doe's the man in the player's charge, a hero modelled on Steve McQueen, Josh Hartnett and Chris Pine's assertive take on James T. Kirk in the recent Star Trek reboot. Dragged out of retirement by a shady outfit called The Network and drugged to the point of unconsciousness by his employers, he awakes several thousand feet above an African warzone, free-falling head-first into a near future battlefield that's run by corporations and conglomerates. "Welcome to the Network," runs the on-screen tagline, "Your Safety is Our Concern."
It's a story that's as influenced by contemporary television as it is either cinema or games, a fact that's reflected in Bodycount's episodic approach to its campaign. Like recent successes such as Lost and True Blood, overarching elements of intrigue and mystery are going to propel the story – but really it's the torrent of testosterone that's the real driving factor, evidenced by the game's three operatives, three attractive young ladies who dole out Doe's objectives on the field.
The testosterone naturally spills out in to the game itself; Doe's billed as an 'overt assassin', a term that itself is a wonderful riposte to the reams of stealth games that have crowded the action market over the past decade as well as a fair indicator of what to expect from Bodycount – brash and ballsy first-person action. Doe's work on the field is primarily against other competing Networks fighting for total global domination, and the elimination of key targets from opposing factions helps give the game its arcade flavour.
Each battle arena has various marks, with Doe free to take each one down at his own discretion. Standing in his way will be patrols of opposing soldiers, all drawing upon a rigid class system. At the top of the tree is the tank, the Baron Samedi-a-like that's front and centre of the early artwork and screenshots and he's to be joined by other ranks that promise to be just as distinctive looking. Working out how to exploit each one will be key to success – for example, spot a medic and taking him down will result in a weakening of the surrounding troops. They're smart adversaries too, with the open nature of Bodycount's arenas promising to expose the enemy's intelligence.
Reinforcing the game's arcade credentials is a kill chain multiplier – get that eponymous Bodycount ticking over steadily and skills and abilities will be unlocked, be that Helicopter strikes, Predator Drones or access to a mini-gun. It's a mechanic that's going to be present in the game's separate co-op campaign, although there are few other details on how that slice of the game will play out.
It's all contained within a world that manages to be both colourful and moody. The militarised African slum that houses the early look at the game is set under an arresting orange sky and displays the potential for Codemasters' EGO engine to fuel a shooter that's at once gritty and beautiful. Indeed, the heavy filter that's been evident in games like DiRT 2 and GRID seems more fitting here, suggesting that the finished article could be no slouch in the looks department.
But no doubt the best bit about Bodycount's environment is its destructibility. An early goal was set around the first proof of concept – put someone in one of Bodycount's rooms, devoid of any enemies, and see if the resulting chaos was enough to put a smile on their faces. Having dithered in one of the early demos wooden huts, which splinters and shatters with a wonderful conviction, we can confirm that it's been massively successful.
An obvious initial reference point is the recently released Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but it's clear that Bodycount's demolitions already go above and beyond DICE's efforts. "One of the things I love about console development in particular is we're all working on the same hardware and we're all working to the same specifications, so it's all about where we choose to spend," says Black, a vocal fan of Bad Company 2. "We don't have vehicles and we don't have large open landscapes in Bodycount, so what [DICE] spend on that we spend on the destruction." It's got fascinating tactical repercussions which come clear in the playable demo – finding ourselves forced into a side room thanks to a corridor that's thick with enemy bullets, we spray a wall with gunfire and make ourselves an impromptu door that helps us flank the opposition.
All of which would be nothing without the tools with which to play, and Bodycount could well have the best toolbox in the business. First off there's those guns; Black had already elevated the video game arsenal to a fetish item, and it's work that Bodycount continues with aplomb. Even at this early stage – Bodycount's not due until early next year – its arsenal handles brilliantly and the inevitable tweaks that are to come over the rest of the development period are likely to put it in the top tier of shooters.
The final icing is delivered with Bodycount's unique cover system. With the iron sights moved to a click of the analogue stick, the left trigger is given over to attaching to cover. So far so Killzone 2 you might think, but once attached to cover the left stick enables total freedom to pick in and around objects - one thrilling example in the demo sees Doe hulk behind a pick-up truck, peeking up to shoot through the driver's cabin.
It's proof that while the destructible environments might be Bodycount's headline feature it's not the only trick that it's got under its sleeve. "It's a lot like a firework display," Black says of the need for diversity. "Imagine seeing the same firework over and over again for half an hour, it doesn't matter how brilliant that firework is, I'm going get bored of that same firework. And that's what I think of a lot of these games – it's cool, but after the twentieth time not so much anymore, so we're putting all different types of fireworks in our display."
Underpinning Bodycount is a spark that's instantly infectious, perhaps best embodied by the impossibly energetic Stuart Black himself but also a sign of one of the game's more offbeat inspirations - Lady Gaga. She pops up as a reference point on a number of occasions through the presentation, providing a fascinating counterpoint to Bodycount's macho heroics and the influence of the eccentric first lady of pop shouldn't be underestimated. "The impact she had on me when I saw her at Glastonbury last year was quite profound," says Stuart. "The game wouldn't have the feel and the tone that it's got now without that. It made me go back home and look at my game collection and made me realise they're just so beardy and so nerdy, and that we've got really lazy and insular as an industry. Something like that comes along and blows everyone away, so I wanted to capture some of that spirit."
If Bodycount comes good on its promise - and after this early glimpse there's every reason to believe that it will - there's every reason to believe that it can capture that spirit, and it'll be more than the game's crates that are opera. Expect more on the game here on IGN in the coming months.
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