Bet On Soldier

It's on display at Nvdia's own both at the Game Developer's Conference, and with good reason: Bet on Soldier is looking great, from a visual standpoint. But to write it off as just another pretty face would be to do it a grave injustice. Bet on Soldier is looking more and more like a top-notch first-person shooter every time it is demoed, and this has only a tiny bit to do with its high-quality visuals. There seem to be some compelling, original ideas built into this one, which, combined with rock-solid FPS gameplay, can go a very long way.

I'll cut to the chase -- if you want some expository information on B.o.S, please refer to last month's preview. The version I saw today was similar enough to last month's so as not to warrant a lengthy exposition about the game's world. Suffice it to say that the world is all screwed up, and the humans that inhabit it are even more obsessed with making war than the ones living today. You play the role of a mercenary/superstar (think American Gladiators with live ammunition), and you fight in many glorious battles across the world. If you're successful in battle -- that is, if you kill off rival superstar mercenaries -- you get money, which you can use to purchase and upkeep weapons and armor, and recruit squad members to fight alongside you.


Easily, the highlight of today's session was the demonstration of the exoskeleton. It's a huge, lumbering robotic suit that you can climb into, and wreak havoc with -- along the lines of Robot Jox, or those cool mech suits that the humans used in the last Matrix movie to fight off the machines. Basically, you get in one, and proceed to raise hell. The one we got to pilot was equipped with a mini-gun, and a sort of gauss cannon, the latter of which wasn't quite functional. One of my squad members got into a second one, which was equipped with a crazy-looking claw on its left arm. Of this I was extremely jealous. Anyway, just as you'd expect, these things move very slowly on the field, but they make up for it by having superpowerful weapons, and the ability to squash things. It was very much entertaining to run through the environment while piloting one, despite their functionality not being completely implemented. I fully suspect them to be totally sweet in the final game. At the very least, gigantic, deadly exoskeletons are much, much cooler than dune buggies, and if you argue with this, then you're almost certainly wrong.

A host of smaller improvements over the version I saw last month were evident. For instance, it is now possible to purchase ammo for your weapons, and repairs for your armor through the same shop terminal. In the previous one, you had to visit one for each. You can even fully stock your ammo stores, and patch your armor with the push of a single button. I guess even in times of abject conflict, user friendliness is still an issue. Speaking of armor, there's a cool effect in place now, when you shoot enemy soldiers -- as your shells hit them, you'll see chunks of their armor flying off. It looks a bit comical, but it's a strangely satisfying effect, somewhat akin to impact marks and blood spurts in fighting games. Also, it was impressed upon me just how cool the ragdoll physics are in B.o.S are, during today's demo. I'm not sure if "ragdoll" is the correct term; they models don't flail about, per se, but rather collapse in a manner that's just a smidgen more believable. Just imagine a human redwood being felled, but with a bit more buckling in the limbs. It's something like that.


So yes, if it isn't clear, even the most minute, silly details of B.o.S don't cease to catch my attention. If it turns out as well as I'm suspecting it will, then we'll all be in for a treat. Here's to that being the case.