Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
At some point in time, you’ve probably wanted to become some sort of hero for the world. A quick glance at the news or papers will relay the horrors going on all over the globe: genocide, war, rallies by the Tea Party movement — it’s hard to sit by and idly watch these horrific things happen without wanting to leap up in the air and swoop down like Superman and bitch slap the shit out of everyone that’s being stupid. Now imagine if you could take that undersized desire and actually do something about it — like pick up a gun, drop into a war zone and restore a little balance and order?
In Bodycount, you get to do just that. So, who died and made you God? No one. You’re a soldier for The Network: a secret society that exists solely to pick up the slack that third-world governments have left strewn about. Following each mission, you’re transplanted to a new spot in a war torn Africa to smooth everything out — by wiping out both battling factions altogether. Later on, you discover there’s a competitive agency that’s working against you named Target, but that’s only if you can make it that far, as the game is incredibly repetitive and boring.
Gameplay-wise, Bodycount awards you points for new and unique kills, while various bits of intel skewered about from fallen enemies will award you a higher score. Weapons caches are hidden around your drop-off points, where you can exchange one or both of the two pieces of artillery you’re allowed to carry for new and/or improved models. Best of all, you can decimate most of your environment with your guns and grenades — providing the game lets you, that is: there are times that the programming gets a little fouled-up and won’t let you perform the simplest of tasks.
Frankly, as I whisked through Bodycount (and whisked, I did: it’s not a very involving game), I couldn’t help but feel this was a bastardized and somewhat conservative knockoff of Bulletstorm, from the weapons caches down to the unique kills. The only problem with that, of course, is that Bodycount is less interesting; far less interesting.
I recommend you play it only if you have nothing better in your video game library.
Bodycount is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood, Violence. This game can also be found on Xbox 360.
