On paper these were all things that you could find in countless other similar games before and after Black, but what Criterion was able to do with those core elements was dress them up in such an effective non-stop haze of explosions, bullets, and absurdly awesome-looking guns that you never really had a moment to realize how familiar those waters were. You were too busy having fun blowing up entire buildings with well-placed rockets and shooting doors off their hinges with SPAS-12s to think about that. For all the excellent work that went into Black, it was received pretty well by critics and sold reasonably well, too. Criterion’s unbroken devotion to over-the-top action and reloading animations paid off by making Black a hit with most critics, with the only prominent complaints being a lack of the multiplayer mode and limited replayability.

Like the lingering concussive after-effects of one of the game’s many explosions, Black continues ringing in the minds of shooter fans. Often ending up on prominent “top 10 first person shooters” lists and various other nostalgia pieces – like this one. Knowing that, you’d think Black would have become its own franchise by now – or at least earned a sequel or two, but no such sequel has ever surfaced. It’s not every day that a classic like Black comes out and doesn’t turn into a trilogy if not more than that. So why hasn’t it? Why hasn’t Black gone on to become a franchisee at least as long as many lesser shooters have? What the hell happened to Black? And where the hell is Black 2?

Something that’s probably worth pointing out before any theories get created;  Criterion was primarily a developer of sports and racing games. From the hoverboarding game Airblade early in the PS2s life, to the Burnout series, and eventually a couple of Need for Speed titles, Criterium wasn’t really known for making shooters, and that just wasn’t really their role within EA. They already had teams in place for Battlefield and Medal of Honor games, so one could surmise that to have a third team spending time in that same genre, while they were already seeing relative success in two completely different franchises, might seem like an endeavor into redundancy.

While you or I may be inclined to feel like, “hey, the more the merrier!”  I can also understand why people looking to maximize profits and get a good read on what franchises are doing the best within the company wouldn’t want to risk cannibalizing themselves and making their long-standing first person shooter franchises appear weaker than they actually are in terms of sales. I have no concrete evidence that this was the thought process over at EA but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that came up when discussions of a Black 2 wear being had.

We do know that those discussions did happen though. According to an interview conducted a while back, co-creator and designer of Black, Stuart Black, did admit that plans for a sequel to Black were definitely a thing for a while, but we’re ultimately scrapped because of differences between Stuart and Electronic Arts. Unfortunately, details on what those differences were and how exactly they led to the downfall of Black 2 remain elusive.  but knowing how big game Publishers were trying to cram multiplayer modes into everything back then one could reasonably suspect that that might be part of the problem.

Black was criticized for not having multiplayer in a time where pretty much every shooter was expected to have one. Even the most generic, uninspired multiplayer modes generally added to how well games were reviewed back then, and it’s likely that a shift in focus from a highly orchestrated single player over to a more sprawling multiplayer experience might have been pushed on Criterion during development, which obviously wouldn’t have jived with the creators because that’s just not what Black was about. Black was a linear, focused, set-piece heavy game. For a sequel to be anything other than that would have just felt too different.

Regardless of what exactly happened, Stuart Black would eventually move on from Criterion and EA to make the closest thing to Black 2 he was going to be able to with the help of a new team over at Codemasters – another studio with a disproportionate amount of experience in racing games. The game of course could not be called Black 2, so the title Bodycount was decided on, which pretty much gets the same vibe across I suppose. Bodycount would sport a lot of the same ideas that Black did. Destructible environments, non-stop firefights, and a very purposeful devotion to action-movie style obliteration of the enemy.

Bodycount would add another layer on top of the moment-to-moment gameplay with almost Call of Duty-style scorestreaks that rewarded headshots with higher scores and devastating power-ups. Interestingly enough Bodycount would also have multiplayer in the form of competitive death matches as well as a co-operative horde mode where players would team up and survive as long as they could against wave after wave of enemy forces. Despite Codemasters bending to the apparent will of the market by including those extra modes and a scoring system that encouraged multiple playthroughs, Bodycount wouldn’t be received nearly as well as Black was. While most reviewers would cite that this type of action game never fully goes out of style, some common complaints among players and critics alike would surface.

For instance, the shooter market was different in 2011 than it was in 2006, and many other shooters like Bulletstorm had come along to claim the throne of insane bombastic gameplay that the original Black may have had a tighter grip on five years prior. This made Bodycount seem tame by the current standards, and thusly, not nearly as exciting. On top of that, the destructible environments had also already been done better by the Bad Company games, which also came out between Black and Bodycount. Aside from that, while the scoring system did provide a little bit of depth to the game play, it also sort of undercut its own gameplay ideas by encouraging you to play slowly and methodically to get the best possible scores.

If you played Bodycount the way you played Black, guns blazing and precision be damned, you would be punished with low scores. Yet, to be rewarded with power-ups and favorable scores, the gameplay would suddenly feel more like a much more generic affair. It’s hard to not respect what Bodycount was trying to do, but at the end of the day it was not a worthy follow-up to Black, and may have even contributed to EA’s lack of interest in the IP with how quickly Codemasters’ new game fizzled out.

That said the failings of Bodycount are not necessarily indicative of a lack of interest in Black 2. And given the climate of first-person shooters today, where you either have the action of Wolfenstein on one side and the straight down-the-line military shooters of Battlefield and Call of Duty on the other, I think there is an argument to be made that there is room for something to take the best ideas from both of those worlds and exist somewhere in the middle. Given that Criterion has recently been put back in the driver’s seat for the Need for Speed series, I wouldn’t expect them to have the time or the interest in a Black 2 for some time to come, but the IP still exists over at EA. If they’re ever so inclined to take a little risk we could end up with a Black 2 someday, but for now I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Bodycount is highly accessible. Too bad rest of the features are not so pretty.

The story is very simple: You are a member of “The Network” going into war torn areas to bring peace by killing any and every one that is fighting. Eventually you get tangled up with a rival organization known as “The Target” (In a world of violent shoot outs, who would name their organization “Target” any way!?) and the rest is well… nonsensical or nonexistent. Almost every single plot element in Bodycount contradicts itself, feels forced, is cliché, or just doesn’t make any sense. It’s as if the developers created a game, and then tried to put the trappings of a story on it with scotch tape and staples. I know, story doesn’t really matter in a shooter – especially one branding itself as a jump in and kill people shooter. But every other great shooter I have ever played had at least a workable or engaging story. For example, Time Splitters had a story full of time paradoxes that don’t make any sense from a logical standpoint, but the story was still fun and engaging enough to keep you going. The fact Time Splitters didn’t take itself seriously also helped, Bodycount might be trying just a little too hard to be serious and it comes off as something I might have written in third grade.

Level design turned out to be OK. Many of the levels are fairly open with multiple paths which let you choose the way you want to tackle your mission. Only a select few levels can truly be classified as a “Corridor Shooter”. Sounds cool enough, but there’s a catch to it: Many of these levels are riddled with bottlenecks and your freedom of choice is really inconsequential in the long run. “Do you want to take path A, where you’ll run into eight enemies in an open market place? Or do you want to take path B through the alley where there are ten enemies shooting at each other?” Either way you’ll wind up at the same spot you were going to and will probably still need to kill all eighteen of them. In addition, there’s a lot of back and forth in the levels, taking you from point A to B crisscrossing the level as you try to obtain meaningless objectives. Add onto that the fact there is maybe six or seven different areas out of the dozen or so missions, and these areas get stale very fast.

Destructible environments are the highlights of the game.

Let’s talk a little bit about gameplay, the heart of this game and the single biggest merit it should be judged upon. Bodycount is a pretty straight forward FPS. You go into a level, shoot guys on your way to the next checkpoint or objective, and… continue this a lot. As I said earlier, the gameplay seems to be a bastardization of both the “Evasive” shooters and the “Cover” shooter. For those of you unaware, an “Evasive” shooter is like Goldeneye or Halo, while “Cover” shooters are your Call of Duty type games. The health system is very much Call of Duty’s unrealistic “You can shoot me with a million bullets and I won’t die… just don’t shoot me with them all at once.” regenerative stamina system that plays into the strengths of a cover based shooter. You get overwhelmed? You duck and cover till you’re ready to rejoin the fight. Meanwhile, with destructive environments and such, this game punishes you for taking cover too long. Assault rifles will chew through cover fairly quickly, and when you find yourself facing down twenty or so enemies reliable cover is at a premium. The actual shooter feels more like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Time Splitters, etc. though in which enemies blindly bum rush you, stand in open areas and shoot at you until you die, occasionally taking a side step or two. Only a few enemies will actually utilize cover efficiently, and team AI seems to be completely lacking. Thus I can’t help but feel they may have been better off with using the less popular health system.

I did mention the horrible AI didn’t I? Well, there is one area where that gets kinda grey and that’s grenades. The enemies in this game can lob a grenade from across the entire level and have it land perfectly at your feet ready to explode. You would swear you were up against an army of quarterbacks with their amazing ability that far surpasses your own. The only time this seems to backfire on the computer is when it decides that its perfect path to your feet needs to go through the wall it’s standing behind. In these sad moments, the computer tosses a grenade, only to bounce off of the wall and kill itself and many of its comrades. Also, don’t try to imitate the computer’s awesome grenade arms, you have very little control over the actual grenades you toss and should seek to only use them for easy throws.

Killing enemies in this game can be a chore, especially in the early levels where your guns are awful. The enemies all seem to have huge reserves of health, and unless you land a head shot you may be shooting at your target for much longer than feels comfortable. This takes away from the intended feel of mowing down tons of enemies in your bloody swath to the end of the game but isn’t too terrible. When you do kill them, tons of power ups spill forth from the corpse giving you an easy indication that your enemy is dead as well as a reward for the effort. The most common of these are something called “Intel” which increases a meter you can use to enable many special effects from an adrenaline boost to an air strike. The abilities were cool, but I found myself rarely using them, save for the tough shoot outs since I never knew what was around the next corner. This is perhaps why I died a lot, even on easy. Thankfully, the game doesn’t’ punish you too badly for death. You can skip your death sequence and immediately respawn at the last check point with the press of a button, much like in multi-player mode.

Finally, there are things called “Skill Kills” in which, if you kill an enemy in many special different ways (Such as a headshot, shooting them in the back, etc.) you get a multiplier. The greater your multiplier, the higher score you will rack up at the end, and the more intel you will receive from the enemies you kill. The moment you kill someone the good old fashioned way, you lose the multiplier and have to start back at zero again. This method rewards careful game play and causes you to think about how you want to progress through the level. This leads to a very Arcade type feel, which is what Codemasters was going for. Unfortunately, I didn’t really care as there is little incentive to keep up the chain, and the risk far outweighs the reward. For this reason the largest multiplier I ever got was 8, and I largely ignored this except for achievement hunting during my first play through. For those that really want to polish their skills, this game does give you a method to track just how skilled a shooter you are.

For the most part, the shooting is not as solid as it seems.

Multi-player in this game is next to non-existent, so if that’s the reason you’re thinking of getting this game, don’t bother. There are a grand total of four maps with three game modes! That’s twelve whole ways to play online! In addition, finding people to play with was difficult. I would often be faced with large wait times, and it wasn’t worth the wait when I finally did get to play. I guess if you really have to scratch that FPS itch with a new game, and absolutely need to play this game, or find yourself stuck alone in a room with your console of choice and this as the only game, and you have all of the single player achievements, I’d still grab a DS or PSP to occupy your time during the wait. Oh, also, this game is online Multi-player only – the number one reason why I would never buy this game new. It’s not hard to code on console multi-player once you have the framework for network play established, and is a clear sign the developer really didn’t care about the title. This could have been the best multi-player experience on the best game ever gifted to us gamers, and I’d still be unable to give this game a 10.0 because of no support for on console multi-player.

So, all in all, the game isn’t terrible but it isn’t good either. It’s a very average, turn off your brain and shoot people FPS. If you find this used for a great price or in some bargain bin somewhere, don’t be afraid to pick it up. The game isn’t so flawed that it is unplayable by any means, and delivers a lot of great concepts to the FPS genre that demanded more attention, something that CodeMasters was unable to provide for whatever reason. For a full priced, £34.99 game, however, this falls grossly short of what is expected of such a title. My final verdict: Stay away unless you are a die-hard FPS fan, or you see it for sale at a lesser price. Renting is ok if you have no other games you planned to rent. Meanwhile, I’m going to keep dreaming of someone actually releasing an old-school FPS that’s actually worth buying.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

Complete Bodycount’s single player campaign with the help of this video guide.

***Please note this walkthrough was not uploaded by GamingBolt.com

Special thanks to Youtube user TheDoodleSlap.

In Bodycount players become ensnared in a clandestine global power struggle as a powerful combat asset with a green-light to eliminate enemies known only as ‘Targets’ on behalf of the ‘Network’. Equipped with a mouth-watering selection of contemporary weapons, players and opponents tear through destructible cover to execute explosive kills in a shreddable world where operatives are encouraged to leave no witnesses. Complimented by online multiplayer and co-operative game modes, Bodycount will blast outrageous action and spectacular fire-fights from both barrels.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

Check out the launch trailer for Bodycount. Tell us what you feel in the comments section below.

So sit back and enjoy the full interview below.

GB: Will Bodycount, being developed by the same team behind Black, have any link to the story in Black?

Andrew Parsons: Although we’ve often been termed the “spiritual successor” to Black, there are really no ties between that game and Bodycount- we’re a new team working under a different publisher. The only real links between us and Black is that there have been several members of the team who worked on Black too, including our weapons designer.

GB: What kind of multiplayer modes can players expect?

Andrew Parsons: We have Deathmatch and team Deathmatch modes for up to 12 players and online two player Co-Op, which takes the form of a custom-built “wave attack”-style game mode. All of them feature the same intense gun experience and destructive fidelity as the single player campaign.

GB: How will the destructible environments the game is based around fare in comparison to recent games like Red Faction Armageddon and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 that have had a similar focus?

Andrew Parsons: We’re huge fans of the games you mention- and they both implement their destruction mechanics in different ways. For us, it’s always been about an extremely high level of detail and fidelity when it comes to destruction. We term it “shredding”, because instead of “popping” an environment from intact to destroyed, the world gradually erodes around you, creating a very dynamic, visceral destruction experience.

GB: In a world where we have a million and one different online shooters to choose from, what will make Bodycount’s online modes special?

Andrew Parsons: Our Network team have worked incredibly hard to bring that same shredding and environmental erosion to the online game. What this means is that you’re constantly assessing and re-assessing your surroundings as you play, in arenas specifically designed to show off that tech. It can lead to some pretty intense firefights in deathmatch, but if you add AI in to the mix (as in Co-Op) then you’ll really start to see the shredding tech take on a life of its own.

GB: Will the game be supported by DLC post-release?

Andrew Parsons: We’ve not announced any plans for post-release DLC.

 GB: It’s interesting that there are no plans for a PC version of Bodycount. Was there a financial reason behind this, or was it a design choice?

Andrew Parsons: As a developer, part of the challenge of developing a next-gen title is choosing which aspects are going to be your main focus- “choosing your battles”, so to speak. For us, the “peek-and-lean” system in Bodycount was one of those things that would be very difficult to get right with a keyboard-and-mouse configuration- you need that lovely analogue control to really get the best out of the design. That’s a great example of a very difficult decision to make, but when it comes down to it, we wanted to create a best-in-class shooting experience on console first and foremost.

GB: Would you say that Bodycount is more gameplay or story driven?

Andrew Parsons: Our main focus has always been to provide a best-in-class shooting experience on consoles – to provide players with new and exciting ways to blow sh*t up. However, these days that can often not be enough. We wanted to give context to the carnage, and Bodycount’s story delivers that.

GB: Will the player only have a choice of the usual weapons, or will there be some more creative examples that are exclusive to the game?

Andrew Parsons: The weapons really are the star of Bodycount, and there are a couple of additions to the roster which have been specifically designed to fit the shady “Target” organisations. These guns are from a very present-to-near-future perspective, and provide a huge range of tactical options once you get hold of them. They’re amazing at cutting through enemies as well!

GB: Was the game designed with a lead platform in mind?

Andrew Parsons: We’ve always aimed for complete parity between both Xbox360 and PS3, so no; there isn’t a lead platform for the game.

GB: Black was noted for its breathtaking visuals on aging PS2 and Xbox. Do you think Bodycount will be the most visually appealing first person shooter this generation, just like what Black was in the previous one?

Andrew Parsons: One of the most obvious and distinctive differences between Bodycount and its competitors is its use of colour- when you see it in motion it really is a completely different experience from many of today’s shooters. We’re hoping that between the amazing colour pallet, the high-fidelity shredding tech and best-in-class gunplay, we can find our own place in a very crowded market.

GB: What can players expect to take away from the story in Bodycount?

Andrew Parsons: Basically, “don’t trust anyone” and “if in doubt, blow it up”.

GB: Is there anything else you want to tell our readers about the game?

Andrew Parsons: We realise that our fans have more choice than ever these days- especially at this busy time of year. I think the one thing we want people to do is grab the demo (out now on Xbox LIVE and coming soon to PlayStation Network) and just *give it a try*. We’re offering something unique in the shooter space- a refreshing change from the serious, po-faced, simulation- based titles that gives a fun, explosive new take on the FPS. Really, Bodycount is about over-the-top, arcade-style fun with the biggest explosions and the best guns this side of an Arnie movie.

Special thanks to Andrew Parsons for taking out his valuable time for us and a big Kudos to Rangebar Merani from 47 Communications for setting this interview up.

The demo for Bodycount is now out on Xbox Live, Codemasters has announced.

It will see the players go through the early African missions, assuming the role of a Network Operative dropped into a warzone. Equipped with a “turbo-charged arsenal of weapons”, including the likes of the G36 SMG, Super 90 Shotgun, grenades and proximity mines, your mission is to track down a militia warlord.

Here is the press release from the devs:

Go ballistic by downloading the Bodycount demo from Xbox LIVE Marketplace today. The demo lets players sample the outrageous and over-the-top arcade gunplay that takes centre stage in the shooter that will make players fall in love with firepower. A new video showing the demo’s explosive firefights is now showing at www.youtube.com/bodycountgame.

“Fans should expect a lot of mayhem, a lot of destruction, fun, fast paced arcade action,” said Max Cant, Art Director. “It’s much more of an A-Team experience than some sort of dour, self-obsessed, self-important thing. If you want to have fun, play Bodycount.”

Set in the early stages of Bodycount’s African missions, players will assume the role of a Network Operative dropped into a chaotic warzone, tasked with tracking down a militia warlord responsible for massacring an army unit. Players, equipped with a turbo-charged arsenal of weapons including the G36 SMG, Super 90 Shotgun, grenades and proximity mines, must engage forces from all sides in blistering-paced gun-fights set amongst a shanty town.

A PS3 demo will follow soon, Codemasters has promised. Bodycount is set to release in a few weeks for the PS3 and the XBox 360.

Check out our impressions of the game’s preview here.

Use your environments to take down your enemies in style.

I was recently invited by Zapak to get hands on the PlayStation 3 version of Bodycount and I came back heavily impressed.  The game is being developed by the same team who were behind last generation’s highly underrated Black. I got a chance to play across three different maps, each of them making sure of a unique shooting experience. One of the first maps was set in an industrial place, which was open by design, giving you and your enemies enough opportunities to shoot each other strategically. The mission objectives are simple and straight forward, consisting of going from Point A to Point B. One of the main features of Bodycount is the environment destructibility, with almost every object like walls and cover destructible. As is expected from the developers of Black, the game tries to create a dynamically-changing playing environment and is highly successful at doing so.

The second map was set in a sub-urban town and the artistic design accompanying it was mind blowing. Soothing visuals accompanied by heart pumping music set this level apart from the others. The third map was set in a sci-fi environment with ample opportunity for taking cover, pop out and shoot. The one gameplay element to be noticed here is that every level has different kind of enemies with each of them having different level of artificial intelligence. This is one of the points that sets Bodycount apart where you are actually fighting an unknown enemy, with different reaction times, something which may catch players by surprise.

One of the most eye soothing levels I have played in first person shooters.

Bodycount packs the player with a number of weapons and a few of them can be unlocked via weapon stashes found across the maps. However for some strange reason you can’t pick the weapons dropped by your enemies. I am pretty sure this was intentional by design so that game becomes a bit tough, but some players might find this a bit odd. You also have grenades and mines at your disposal, something which you can use strategically to take down some of the stronger enemies in the game. The game also features a cover system which can be compared to one which was present in Killzone 3, but for some reason I found the freedom factor to be more in Boydcount.

Bodycount is shaping up to be a promising shooter and tries to do something different. With its excellent level design, challenging enemies and the way players can use the dynamic environments to their advantage is something that first person shooter fans will fall for. I just hope that this game does not get lost amidst the plethora of first person shooters coming up in the months ahead.

I just hope that this game does not get lost amidst the plethora of first person shooters coming up in the months ahead.

Bodycount is being developed at Guildford Studios and published by Codemasters. The game will release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC this August in North America and September in Europe/India.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt.com for more Bodycount coverage.

If you’re interested in this new IP from Codemasters, then you have to see this developer diary. It gives a lot more details about the guns in the game, and we have to say, it’s quite interesting. The game is being made by the same team that created Operation Flashpoint: Red River.

“FPS fans are going to enjoy Bodycount because it actually feels impactful to fire a weapon. It’s got a consequence, something always happens. We’ve spent a lot of time crafting that and making it feel really violent,” says Andrew Wilson, Game Director. “Firing a weapon in real life is a visceral, dynamic experience”.

The arcade shooter will be out on September 2nd for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Meanwhile, you can follow the official Twitter channel here.

bodycount-wallpaper-1

Bodycountwill ship to stores across North America on August 30^th and  the EMEA regionon 2^nd September, Codemasters announced today. To accompany the news, Codemasters has also revealed the game’s final pack designs.

Bodycount puts the fun back into the gun with a focus on delivering outrageous and stylish gunfights. Gamers battle class-based enemies who work together to chase the player down as they hunt the mysterious ‘Target’, a relentlessly evil enemy who manipulate world events under the cover of civil warzones. From the chaotic battlefields of Africa to the dangerous city streets of Asia and monolithic Target bases which the player must infiltrate, Bodycount’s gameplay comes alive as players shred their way through destructible cover and carve a unique wave of destruction through each level.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.