Bodycount

In the most competitive genre in gaming Bodycount just doesn't measure up, and certainly doesn't get anywhere near the brutal brilliance of Epic and People Can Fly's Bulletstorm. [Nov 2011, p.108]

It's a pity that a video game which attempts to revel in back to basics no nonsense escapism - through a hail of bullets and bodies - somehow ends up being more forgettable than the Black Ops campaign. And that's saying something.

Bodycount's lack of consistent game design, flitting between arcadey action and a sub-par story-driven campaign, ultimately causes the game to misfire. The lesser parts of Bodycount's gameplay ultimately shout the loudest, drowning out its charms and distracting from the flourishes of inspired ideas.

A twitchy, mindless experience filled with weak firearms, poor enemy behavior, bland environments, and multiplayer combat that you wouldn't find acceptable in a $15 downloadable shooter.

Bodycount tries to drown out its many, many shortcomings with the din of a few big, loud guns.

You begin to think that behind Bodycount there is perhaps the story of an heroic development team tasked with doing far too much with far too little, who have performed a minor miracle in simply shipping something that works. Well, works some of the time. It's an explanation. But the killer fact about Bodycount is that it's nowhere near good enough to compete in the FPS arena, and serves nobody - player, developer or publisher.

Bodycount is supposed to be a violence venting machine. A very arcady FPS, if you will. But though the action itself is indeed there, nothing is making it stand out from the other productions of the genre, and the load of shortcomings (poor AI, average production values, uninteresting special moves system, completely dull story) will probably ruin the fun for most. With some heavy eights of the genre incoming, or already there, it's impossible to recommend.

Largely an awful shooter. And instead of trying to do everything and failing to deliver virtually anything worthwhile, Bodycount probably would have been much more successful if its design was simplified by focusing on one or two key features it could attempt to do differently. But it didn't, and the end result is not pretty.

Niggly, thoroughly uninspired, and lacking variety, Bodycount is destined to sink without trace in 360's deep pool of generic shooters. [Dec 2011, p.100]

It does not happen very often that there's nothing positive to mention about a game, but Bodycount manages. The controls aren't adequate, the destruction and AI are largely missing and the scoring-system is misplaced. For a game that's supposed to be inspired by Black it's a slap in the face of gamers.

Bodycount is probably the most disappointing game of the year. The bad story, exceptionally stupid AI and the bad controls result in an extremely frustrating game. For the love of gamers, don't play this game.

Bodycount feels like something a developer would hand to a publisher as a proof-of- concept, not an actual game that should be on store shelves. Its brief moments of fun are overshadowed by poor controls, laughable story, and limited environments.

I don't want anyone to feel like they are trudging through the monotony and minutia of this game just to witness the pretty lights. It's not worth it. Sure, the environments are pretty, but that doesn't hide the ugly that is this game. For people looking for a quick shooter, you can find it in Bodycount, but other than that, look elsewhere.

Bodycount isn't entertaining, it looks awful and fast forwards through a story that is irrelevant in the first place. Bulletstorm did this concept ten times better, and wasn't haunted by imbecile artificial intelligence or major, game-breaking bugs.

Bodycount has been pinned as the spiritual successor to Black, but this couldn't be any further from the truth. The latter was full of quality at the end of the last generation's lifespan, while this title whimpers to a halt in a key point of 2011's gaming calendar.

Even if you're a hardcore shooter fan with an undying love for all things that involve action, you're going to be disappointed with the money you waste on this one.

With a non-existent storyline and fledgling gameplay that hinges solely on the run and gun mechanic, Bodycount simply is not anywhere on the level of a top tier FPS. Add in the fact that there is flat out no multiplayer to speak of and you have a game that was on life support before it even released.