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Zoals bekend is Bodycount de nieuwe IP van Codemasters. Een korte tijd na de aankondiging van deze nieuwe game zijn de eerste twee hands-on previews al verschenen. Wat mij opvalt uit de hands-on van IGN en Eurogamer is dat ze allemaal erg positief zijn over de game en dat de invloed van Stuart Black goed terug te zien is. Dit is natuurlijk altijd positief. Naast de belangrijkste quotes staan onderaan ook nog eens de nieuwste screens. Hieronder staan de belangrijkste quotes op een rijtje gezet van Stuart Black, IGN en van Eurogamer.

IGN meldt het volgende over Bodycount:

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.

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.

Stuart Black zegt het volgende tijdens de hands-on:

“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.”

“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,”

En Eurogamer heft het volgende uit de hands-on weten te formuleren:

we’re invited to play an early build and spend time simply spraying bullets around an enclosed environment to see what effect they have. Wooden crates don’t simply break apart in the usual prescribed fashion, but splinter apart piece by piece, scattering debris in all directions. The metal frame bends and eventually buckles, with its ammo-filled contents revealed, and you can take it even further by electing to blow up the ammo rather than collect it.

In the midst of a level, you’re suddenly aware that interior walls, floors and ceilings aren’t going to stand up to concerted punishment – and so it proves. Enemies cowering for cover beside windows and doors can be quickly flushed out, while a bit of speculative ceiling destruction promises to ensure that anyone hiding upstairs won’t be safe for long.

Aan de reacties te merken zou Bodycount nog wel eens een grote verrassing kunnen worden. De stijl van Black zit er in ieder geval al goed in verwerkt. Hieronder staan nog enkele screenshots van de nieuwe Codemasters game.