Bodycam is a tactical shooter whose main feature is the view from a camera mounted on a soldier. This explains the fixed field of view, constant shaking, and distorted image, reminiscent of a recording from an inexpensive action camera.
This idea didn't come out of nowhere. A few years earlier, Unrecord attracted audience attention – a game with a similar presentation, whose first video looked so plausible that viewers began to argue whether it was indeed gameplay. The author had to separately prove that the recording was made on Unreal Engine. At the same time, the project itself remains outside the mass audience: it has not been sent to early access, no demo version has been released, and no private demonstrations have been held.
Amidst interest in this format, Reissad Studio released Bodycam in early access. Two years have passed, and the timing of a full release remains uncertain. However, attention to the game was renewed by a major update with the Trenches map. The trenches and the general aesthetic of the location refer to modern armed conflicts, which sharply attracted a new audience to the project. Peak online players rose from several thousand to approximately 39 thousand and currently stands at 30 thousand.
The update itself did not turn Bodycam into a different game. At its core, it remains the same body camera shooter. Therefore, it is much more interesting to understand not the content of one update, but the project's formula itself: how well this realism plays out and what remains of Bodycam if you disregard the photorealistic picture.
Airsoft with firearms
From the Bodycam videos, it's easy to mistake it for an airsoft match recording. The weapon is roughly in the middle of the frame, the camera constantly changes position, and with sharp turns, the soldier's arms and body move independently of the gaze direction. Add to this the shaking, image noise, and lighting effects – and some fragments will be indistinguishable from amateur video footage.
During the game, the impression changes. Behind the unusual camera lies a familiar network shooter structure. The player assembles equipment, selects a mode, plays a match, votes for the next map, and repeats the cycle. Sometimes the lobby closes, after which you have to start searching again.
The modes are also well-known. There's team deathmatch with kill counts, a round-based variant, free-for-all, "King of the Hill," and "Gun Game." A ranked "2v2" format is separate. And for PvE enthusiasts, the developers have provided a zombie mode, but it cannot be launched now: the developers have temporarily disabled it and promised to bring it back soon.
The same applies to weapons. Barrels can be customized with attachments, changing recoil, aiming speed, and other characteristics. There is no complex weapon maintenance simulation or dozens of actions before firing. After getting used to the weapon's placement and camera movement, Bodycam becomes significantly clearer than it seemed when watching the videos.
The main difficulty comes precisely from the way events are displayed. In a normal shooter, the camera is in the center of the screen and almost always looks in the same direction as the weapon. In Bodycam, these things are deliberately separated. With a sharp movement, the barrel moves aside, the image sways, and the enemy is easily lost among the details of the environment. Because of this, the first few hours you have to fight not so much with opponents as with your own perception. But after several matches played, it becomes noticeable how traditional the shooter here actually remains.
Realism ends with the camera
The photorealistic presentation creates the impression that Bodycam should be an extremely hardcore game. However, a significant part of its mechanics is arranged according to the rules of ordinary network shooters.
A good example is time to kill. A headshot usually ends a firefight immediately, but an enemy can survive several bullets to the torso or limbs. The damage received is displayed through a gradual loss of image color. The decision seems strange given that the events are supposedly recorded by an external camera.
Health regenerates over time. The process takes significantly longer than in Call of Duty, and high damage often prevents full recovery in the middle of a firefight. However, the regeneration mechanic itself poorly combines with the image of a realistic battle recording.
Some mechanics still require mastering. A prime example is grenades. To throw, you first need to prepare the grenade with one mouse button, and then throw it with another. The main problem lies in the trajectory of flight: the projectile easily catches on the nearest surface and can bounce back to the player.
Controlling small drones is even more inconvenient. They are sensitive to any contact with the environment and can explode after a minor collision. In cramped spaces, you have to carefully control the direction of flight instead of just sending the device into the next room. However, in an open field, they can be used to safely hunt down lone targets.
Maximum beauty, minimum design
Bodycam's strongest side is its visual design. The game has more than a dozen PvP maps, and some scenes look as if they were digitized. The effect works especially well in rooms with natural light and small objects.
Among all the maps, Trenches stands out the most. Dirty trenches, wooden fortifications, earth, and narrow passages combine well with the body camera. However, photorealism conflicts with the need to quickly read information. A dark silhouette can blend with shadows and the environment. And a powerful light source blinds the player and prevents them from understanding what is in front of them.
Despite their beauty, the maps are very small areas. With their size, players quickly memorize the main passages, rooms, and directions of enemy appearance. The photorealistic landscape changes, but the firefights themselves still occur around the same doors, corridors, and cover. And the longer you play, the less significant the initial effect of the environment becomes.
Darkness becomes a separate mechanic. It both helps and hinders. In a dark corner, you can hide, set up an ambush, or wait for an enemy to pass. On the other hand, the enemy can do the same. Sound plays a much larger role than visuals. It is often easier to determine the opponent's direction by footsteps than to spot them among the shadows and map details. Good headphones here provide a practical advantage: the player has time to aim their weapon at the passage in advance and wait for the target to appear.
Lighting plays a special role in round-based skirmishes. As the match progresses, the time of day gradually changes. While the first engagements may take place in normal lighting, closer to the second half, the map plunges into absolute darkness. The same passages, positions, and landmarks begin to be perceived completely differently, and finding an enemy depends even more on sound and a randomly spotted silhouette.
But the most unpleasant problem with maps is not related to their size or lighting, but to the respawn mechanic. The game chooses positions for fallen players very strangely. It does not take into account the location of other match participants. Therefore, there are situations when a newly spawned player finds themselves next to an enemy. This works both ways. Sometimes the player gets a free kill, sometimes they only manage to spend a few seconds in a new body.
A game about grinding
Bodycam has a rich set of weapons, attachments, and gadgets for all occasions. But you can only use them after purchasing them with in-game currency. This currency is earned directly in matches. However, rewards are distributed very unevenly. In each mode, you will earn different amounts. For Gun Game and Free-for-All, you can get about 100 credits, while Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill bring 400–500.
If the goal is to earn money, normal gameplay takes a back seat. It is most effective to launch "rounds" against bots. Their artificial intelligence does not boast accurate shooting and regularly goes directly to the player. Money is awarded for kills and for holding a point. Such a match takes about ten minutes and can bring an average of a thousand credits.
As a result, unlocking new weapons is faster not through regular multiplayer, but through repeating the same PvE scenario. The progression system does not expand the gameplay, but forces you to choose between normal matches and efficient earning. You can play your favorite modes and slowly accumulate currency. Or you can launch your own lobby with bots for easy money.
Friends are superfluous here
Bodycam is much more convenient to play alone than with a company. The usual match search is designed only for individual players. You cannot gather a group, choose a mode, and go into matchmaking together. This also applies to ranked games, which are originally designed for paired competitions.
To play with friends, you have to create your own lobby. After that, you can only hope that the free slots will be filled quickly enough by other users. If there are no interested players, a full match with live opponents will not happen either.
The alternative is to fill the remaining slots with bots. For a few acquaintances who just want to play a couple of matches together, this might be enough. However, this is a completely different experience compared to playing against people.
"But I pressed it!"
Bodycam works best with slow gameplay. Running around the map non-stop is pointless here. The camera makes it difficult to quickly read the environment, and high damage allows the enemy to finish the firefight before you even understand their position. Therefore, the game encourages waiting. You need to listen for footsteps, control passages, and keep your weapon aimed where an enemy might appear. In many situations, the one who first hears the opponent and takes a convenient position gains a huge advantage.
This approach itself suits Bodycam. Problems begin at the moment of shooting. Hit registration works unstably. During matches, I encountered situations where an immobile enemy was shot in the head, but they only fell a couple of seconds later. The same happened with incoming damage: the shot was already fired, the bullet visually hit, but the damage was registered with a delay.
When a shot is delayed, it's impossible to confidently determine the cause of death or a miss. You'll never know who made the mistake: you, the enemy, or the servers. This is where the unusual design starts to work against Bodycam. The less information the interface and camera provide, the more reliably other systems must work. Otherwise, any developer flaws will be justified by intentional difficulty.
Early access status explains a lot, but it doesn't negate this drawback. Especially for a multiplayer shooter where almost all gameplay revolves around short firefights between real players.
Verdict
Bodycam is a specific shooter. First and foremost, it sells the most cinematic firefight experience. Photorealistic maps, a camera view, unstable visuals, lighting, and sound design create an effect unmatched by any other shooter.
However, behind this presentation lies an extremely simple game. The modes are familiar to everyone, weapons are just a tool for entertainment, maps are small, and battles turn into a casual meat grinder. Along with this, the game has terrible progression. Everything boils down to accumulating currency for another gun. At the same time, matches give very little in-game currency. The impression is most spoiled by regeneration, respawns, and hit registration. This completely destroys the project's realistic background.
This experimental shooter can only be recommended to fans of unusual and deliberately inconvenient games who are interested in the very feeling of "tactical." But it's not worth buying the project solely for the gameplay. Most of it ends with the visuals, and beneath the photorealistic shell lies an ordinary early access session game for a couple of evenings.