Controverisal Bodycam is causing a stir on Steam
As far as first-person shooters go, most of the genre is arcade-like. It's either respawn-heavy simulators that can't achieve realism through the cheese of coming back to life - no matter how hard Battlefield tries - or the game is completely arcade-like with Zombies or horror.
Even Counter-Strike has some level of realism-breaking as players make human pigeons for the best angles to peek.
But Bodycam is trying to become the ultimate realistic shooter through its flycam footage, and it is causing quite a stir on Steam.
Bodycam's 'mostly positive' reviews come with a lot of criticism
Having launched on June 7 in Early Access, Bodycam (previously notarised as Unrecord) has had its fair share of positive feedback, with 72% of its reviews being positive.
However, the other 28% are rather brutal.
Most players have taken aim at its "unoptimised" quality, bugs, and glitches, while others have targeted the overall game concept.
"The movements feel very clunky and inconsistent and it feels like a headache, it is ridiculous that the match Host can quit the match anytime and it kicks all of the players mid-game," one reviewer said.
After the "awe" fades with the graphics, players are left with quite a mediocre title, according to this review, which lauded Bodycam as "just plain shooting with little to no challenge/objectives/missions," and "just a tech demo at this point.
Another vigorously negative review said, "It was a good idea, but in reality, it is nothing like the video trailers, it's not as realistic as it first looks and is very clearly gameplay, the movement is slow and glitchy and it's unrealistic af."
Interestingly, not many people in the reviews took up an issue with its hyper-realism, despite the concept originally being questioned due to its almost life-like look.
A final summary of the reviews came as "30 dollars for a UE5 graphics test," which is one of the more "helpful" comments.
The game, developed by two teenagers, has a lot of refining to do before it goes live permanently, but it's a good sign for them that most players are unbothered by the unnerving realism.