For a little over a year, there has been a genre in FPS that has been generating buzz, the famous Bodycam Games. They appeared in April 2023 with the game Unrecord, a project developed by an independent studio called Drama Game. This is a studio co-founded by rapper Foda C of the group Columbine, who withdrew from rap and music due to health problems with her voice. And the latter decided to retrain in video games with this FPS Unrecord, with graphics so realistic, that it disconcerted a lot of people, to the point that some cried out that it was fake. But it is indeed a video game developed with the Unreal Engine 5 and which offers a graphic rendering that is quite breathtakingly realistic. Quality of textures, reflections, lighting and animations, Unrecord amazed by its photo-realism, especially since the fish-eye camera placed at thorax level makes the immersion even crazier, a bit like watching recorded camera footage by the American Police. Unrecord will be a fairly ambitious single-player game with some game design ideas, but it doesn’t have a release date yet, nor is it playable. On the other hand, since June 7, there is another game available, it is called Bodycam, and it uses exactly the same principle as Unrecord, knowing that it is also developed by 2 French people, 2 brothers even , Lucas and Léo Dassier, who are 20 and 17 years old respectively. Yes, they’re very young, but that doesn’t stop them from being very clever, you’ll see. And since the beginning of this video, I intentionally mixed videos from Unrecord and Bodycam and you definitely saw no difference. An artistic blur on which the two brothers who created Bodycam have also bet on to both ride the hype of Unrecord, but also beat it to the post by releasing it in Early Access at the price of €30. It’s daring, even cheeky, but for us, it’s a fantastic marketing move, even if some people obviously call it a scam.
HATERS CALL IT BODY-SCAM
Unlike Unrecord which is intended to be a single-player experience, Bodycam takes the bias of being a purely multiplayer game. At the moment, there are only 3 game modes available: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Body Bomb. No need to explain the two modes to you, I think you know them. As for Bodybomb, this is a mode where two teams compete to either blow up a bomb or defuse it. The bomb can be placed anywhere, on the ground or stuck against a wall. It’s simple, but effective and you have to admit that you get the hang of the game quickly, especially since the team game works pretty well. In terms of gameplay, Bodycam brings a new way of playing, not necessarily in the mechanics, but rather in the sensations. Given that we are on a subjective view like a surveillance camera and with a wide angle fish-eye vision, the developers have opted for camera movements which may confuse you. It’s normal, as it’s new and we’re used to classic FPS games, it takes several dozen minutes and several matches before understanding the brothers’ proposal. Basically, we have the impression that there is a gap between the character’s gaze and the latter’s movements, as if the gameplay was floating, a bit like in VR games. But rest assured, you will not have motion sickness, just the need to adapt to this new proposition. It changes, but the immersion is even more thorough. On the other hand, it is obvious that it will not please everyone.
THE FRAGILE FIND IT TOO REALISTIC
Another thing to mention with Bodycam is the graphics which offer a photo-realistic rendering. And that’s normal, the game is based on photogrammetry technology which consists of taking real photos that we apply to the textures in the environment. It’s gripping, even disconcerting, so much so that you feel like you’re walking through the real world. We see it in the indoor maps, but especially on the forest map where there is reason to be taken aback. Moreover, speaking of the forest map, it is the one that disappointed me the most, because not only are there extremely crude invisible walls, but above all the lighting is poorly maintained, so that certain areas under the trees are illegible because of the shadows. We see absolutely nothing. So yes, you can shine the flashlight on the weapons, but that means giving your position to the opponent. Moreover, if you are ever shot with your weapon light on, it will remain so, which will illuminate a specific area. Quite practical. In any case, if there is a defect in the visual rendering of Bodycam, it is the overall lighting, which deserves to be readjusted. Just like the dynamic weather that arrives a little too suddenly. Sun, rain and even snow, it’s very cool to see these climatic changes, but there is not enough impact on the gameplay. That too deserves better work, but in any case, the will is there, that’s already good.
The immersion of Bodycam is all the more reinforced as the sound design is also of high quality. I imagine that the two brothers went to draw from real sound banks because the sound of the weapons is really ultra realistic, especially since they did not hesitate to turn up the knobs to saturate certain sounds, like gunshots. powerful fire, which even more simulates the raw sound captured by a bodycam. Well seen frankly. The feeling of the weapons is also disconcerting at first glance, since it is linked to the rather original movements of the game, but once you get used to it, you take great pleasure in shooting at all costs. The feelings are good. Otherwise, Bodycam also has very successful ragdoll physics. All the bodies that fall in the game fall in an ultra-realistic manner and react mainly depending on the environment. For example, he can hurt several elements before falling to the ground with the animations that go with it, roll down a staircase also realistically, curl up on himself after having put a burst of bullets in his stomach, etc.
By the way, when you die, you automatically take control of a drone, which is a sort of second chance for you, since you can report enemy positions to your teammates. And to make your job easier, the drone has three types of vision: normal, infrared and thermal. Be careful though, because the drone can be shot down at any time, and if this is the case, you then switch to assisted camera mode. That said, beyond the discovery and the good sensations, Bodycam is a game which shows its limits very quickly. The gameplay remains quite basic and not very scalable, the content is extremely poor and above all the number of maps is very insufficient and of uneven quality. Another concern, the game is accused of having used maps that come from assets offered by Unreal Engine 5 and therefore that there was no work done on them. Some will say that elements have been added here and there, but the two brothers are still singled out for this recycling which is still sold for €30. It’s true that given the rickety content of the game in Early Access, the price is clearly excessive.
CAPITALIZE OR LEAVE WITH THE MONEY?
Recently, we learned that a roadmap has been put in place to integrate additional content, and we hope that it is not just a carrot being dangled in front of a donkey, because the two brothers have still achieved a feat: riding on the hype of Unrecord to release their game as quickly as possible and position themselves on almost all aspects. Not only is the graphic resemblance between the two games uncanny, but also the fact of naming the game Bodycam is clearly marketing genius. How many people will confuse the two games? How many people remember the name Unrecord? Not many people in reality, while the term “bodycam” is undoubtedly the one that is most searched for when trying to remember Unrecord. In terms of SEO, this is genius. When we know that the Unrecord trailer received 7.5 million views on the official channel and more than 10 million on IGN, it’s clearly an incredible move on the part of the two French people. It seems to me that Bodycam sales are very good, and I hope that the two brothers will capitalize on this success to develop their game and not run away with the money like old scammers. To the wise…
