XBOX-HQ.COM - Codemasters Reveals the Next Great FPS

Stuart Black and other members of the Black development team are working on an all-new new modern shooter with Codemasters.

Bodycount probably doesn’t mean anything to you right now. After you read this, it will.

Codemasters member Stuart Black is the man behind this new shooter monster that picks up and runs with Black‘s spirit. From the man who created “Black” last console generation (2006), we expect nothing else.

Stuart Black is a man who created a pioneer FPS. Black was a game with immensely interactive environments; a player was encouraged to blow up a guard tower rather than kill the guards inside; because they could, and it was fun. Almost everything in the game was destructible, or interactive. The graphics were great, and it featured game play that still sticks out in this writer’s mind.

Bodycount’s interactive environment can be summed up by the following: “Take a gun to a wooden weapons crate, and it will 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.” (Martin Robinson, IGN)

If that doesn’t have you interested, please check yourself for a pulse. Bodycount’s single player follows main character John Doe as he blows up, shoots apart, and kills everything he (you) can. The game boasts an intriguing, mysterious story driven by testosterone through what will become one of the best game environments to date. The main character, John Doe, is “dragged out” of retirement by a shady organization named simply “The Network”. The player soon finds that the Network is not a good place to work, though, as Doe is drugged by the organization; then wakes up free falling from a few thousand feet in the air. A message scrolls across the screen, “Welcome to the Network. Your safety is our concern.”

Bodycount implements a distinct class system with its enemies, much like Killzone 2, but in more depth. At the top of the bad guy food chain is the tank. As in every game, the tank is a well armed and hard to kill opponent. A great thing about the game is that the enemy ranks are not just broken up by the size of a health bar. For a little strategy, shoot the medic first in a group of soldiers and the rest will be weaker. Shoot an officer and they may become disoriented. Bodycount looks to be a game where a player can do anything. Run through the campaign with guns blazing, or develop strategy for each enemy encounter.

The game is also said to feature a chain multiplier that will unlock special abilities such as a minigun, predator drones, and helicopter strikes. How will it work? By the body count, of course. The faster and more you kill, the more points you receive. This feature will also be a part of Bodycount’s separate co-op campaign, but no word yet on whether or not the multiplayer will sport a similar system. Multiplayer and co-op from the spiritual successor to Black; the game looks to be an all-in-one package to redefine FPS once again.

The game is also said to feature colorful and beautiful areas, “other networks” with high-ranking agents, an intuitive cover system, and some of the same developers that worked on Black. Look for more news in the coming months, and hold your breath for Bodycount to hit shelves early next year.

News-Source: http://meodia.com/news/806/codemasters-reveals-the-next-great-fps/