14 DAY TRIAL // The Call of Duty series is at the moment the undisputed king of the first-person shooter genre and at least one developer working on a competitor believes that the only way to compete with the Activision series is to take a different approach and create a smaller, more focused and more polished experience.
Speaking to Edge Andy Wilson, who is the director for the upcoming Bodycount, has told Edge that, “I think the biggest thing in the FPS genre right now is trying to distance yourself from the hugely successful examples like Call Of Duty or Battlefield,”
He added, “We’ve seen recent examples where it doesn’t work out so well if you just try to copy that and go one better.”
Wilson might be talking about the rebooted Medal of Honor from Electronic Arts, DICE and Danger Close, which took a lot of elements out of Call of Duty and tried to build on them.
The game managed to sell well, although it was not critically acclaimed, but it came nowhere near the figures posted by Black Ops.
Wilson then went on to say that the overall philosophy of game development at Codemasters encourages teams to look for experiences that they can simulate well and then polish as close to perfection as possible.
The designer added, “We obviously want to find a place of our own with Bodycount. Visually it’s pretty different. Gameplay wise it’s getting pretty different as well. I can’t think of anything comparable at the moment.”
Bodycount is a shooter that focuses on an ex military man that is recruited by a mysterious network, equipped and then sent out to battle similar other organizations.
The game will have fully destructible terrain, making missions more dynamic, and the cover system is being designed to offer a lot of freedom to the player.
Bodycount is planned for a 2011 launch on the PlayStation 3 and on the Xbox 360.