The curiously named Bet on Soldier may not be the most anticipated game of the year, but it has won the backing of both AMD and Microsoft, who are bundling the title with the new AMD 64 processors and selected Microsoft hardware. Developed by the French software house Kylotonn and published by Digital Jesters, the game promised to give the player a new perspective on the already crowded FPS genre. So does it steal the crown as arguably the best FPS title currently on the market, or is it doomed to obscurity like many other games that have tried before it? Read on and you shall be enlightened.

The future is bleak; war has engulfed the Earth for over eighty years and doesn’t show any sign of letting up. It has become part of society, a way of life, with major corporations using the conflict as a way to make a hefty profit. Most people have to take to the battlefield just to earn money to survive, but a few willingly take up arms in the name of entertainment. These soldiers are part of the Bet on Soldier program, a television show designed to not only entertain the masses, but to line the pockets of the greedy corporations. Think The Running Man, but with the contestants matched equally in terms of firepower and you get the basic premise.

You play the role of Nolan Daneworth, an amnesiac who enters the Bet on Soldier program in order to take revenge on a group of BoS champions who killed his wife in cold blood, leaving Nolan to barely escape with his life. In order to face these murderers Nolan must first fight his way through the lower leagues in order to earn the right to fight Bet on Soldier’s League 1 Champions. It seems a simple storyline on first appraisal, but as you progress through the ranks a more sinister plot is revealed involving the corporations and the ever secretive Syndicate organisation. Just what is this dark past that Nolan Daneworth cannot remember?

The first couple of things you notice when you boot up Bet on Soldier are the inclusion of the Starforce protection software and the woefully long loading time. Starforce has been heavily criticised in the past for adversely affecting a gamer’s PC upon installation causing lockups and crashes even when not playing the game it came bundled with. Personally, I have encountered no such problems and think that it is prudent on the developer’s part to include some sort of anti-piracy measure to protect their product. However, there is no excuse for the appalling loading times experienced when booting up and playing the game. I may not have a cutting edge gaming PC, but my setup meets not only the minimum requirements, but also exceeds the recommended setup. Even then I have to wait at least five minutes before I reach the main option screen.

When you do finally reach the main options screen, you have the choice of selecting the single player story mode or squaring off in a multiplayer game. Due to the timing of this review I was unable to fairly judge the multiplayer mode so I’ll be focusing on the main story mode. THugh what I did get to test, it was fun and a competitive edge on the competition. The main game starts off with a monologue from our protagonist who explains the state of the world, the situation about his murdered wife and his quest for vengeance by joining the BoS program and facing his aggressors one-on-one. All of this is presented in dramatic sepia effect with a voiceover a-la Max Payne; representing Nolan’s clouded memories as well as progressing the story. After the brief introduction to the proceedings, you are met with a campaign map where you can select which mission you want to play as well as choosing equipment and hired help. Money plays a major role in the game and you won’t get very far without it.

As well as spending your limited starting funds on armour and weaponry, you can hire up to two squad members to help in the upcoming missions. Their roles range from providing extra firepower, giving extra cover or even repairing your armour on the battlefield whilst bullets whistle past your ears. Squad members aren’t all that intelligent as they stand stationary next to combustible barrels when firing upon enemies, but at least the enemy AI is even worse. Most of the time they stand in plain sight (usually near some sort of explosive barrel or other hazardous material) and are easily dispatched with one well-placed headshot. One positive thing that can be said about them is that they can spot you a mile off and are usually sending bullets whizzing your way before you can even spot them in the distance.

The final options you have to make on the mission select screen are the BoS soldiers you will have to face in the upcoming mission. Depending on the scenario you can end up facing four combatants before you complete you objective and each one is an opportunity to hone your skills as well as earn money and progress up the league ladders. Each soldier has a monetary reward tied to beating them that depends on their skill and how long it takes you to kill them. You only have sixty seconds to beat a BoS soldier, but none of them are physically stronger than the foot soldiers you encounter. They just experience a little boost in AI as well as equipping slightly better armour and weapons. As long as you keep your cool and exploit their weaknesses (which are handily explained in the betting screen along with their specialities!) they should pose no real threat. Even if you do find yourself without a hope in hell against your nemesis, you can always run and hide like a little schoolgirl until the sixty second time limit is up. Hey, you lose the bet but at least you live to fight another day. What’s more, the BoS soldier (if he’s still alive) must leave the field of play after the fight has ended.

As mentioned before, money is the vital to your success in Bet on Soldier. It decreases with alarming speed as you hire mercenaries or repair and reload your ammo stocks during a mission. Fortunately, you gain money for every kill you make. As you would expect, the BoS champions reap more rewards and offer nice lump sum payments (as do successfully completing missions), but you would be foolish to underestimate the amount of money gained from regular kills. There are many ways to dispatch your foes and each of them reap rewards. Precision kills or kills that are hard to pull off obviously offer higher spoils and you will soon find yourself striving to headshot each and every enemy you encounter. This means you will spend less time trying to locate a repair and ammo station and more time racking up those dollars!

Graphically, Bet on Soldier is able to showcase some impressive visuals. With a top of the range PC you can crank up the viewing options to fully appreciate your surroundings. I especially like the effects of the hallucinogen grenade that distorts your vision and makes your view shift wildly. The soldiers are well animated (when they do actually move) and it’s quite impressive to see three soldiers with shields providing cover for a grenadier who tries to bombard you away from harm. It’s just a shame that when you do kill these stationary soldiers that the grenade throwing adversary stays where he is. Any intelligent person would see that they are a sitting duck and look for cover. Another nice graphical touch is the way armour degrades when it is hit. With some well placed shots a soldier’s helmet splits into two pieces and falls to the floor whilst some more precision shooting sees his shield buckle and become useless as a piece of tin foil. One gripe about the visuals of the soldiers is the very strange sheen effect that they exhibit. It may look good on the metallic armour, but heads that look like they are made out of polished glass just look silly. And it may be assumed that with their military haircuts all soldiers look the same, but the fact that they use a grand total of about four head models for every soldier is ridiculous.

The levels themselves are a sight to behold and in one you are progressing through a network of trenches whilst the ominous shadow of a gigantic fortress bears down on you. In another, a wrecked tanker dominates the horizon as you make your way towards it. The dull, grey textures and fluorescent lighting of the trench levels also help to bring home that feeling of gritty, futuristic warzone nicely and the surroundings of each level fit in perfectly with their themes. It’s just odd that there are so many hazardous materials lying around in areas where they really shouldn’t be. I mean really, who leaves explosive barrels next to a whole squad of soldiers?!?

Unfortunately, to fully appreciate these visuals your PC needs to have a monster amount of RAM and a top of the range graphics card. Without them the game will lag so badly on the higher settings it will be unplayable. Cranking the settings down to minimum will allow the game to flow again, but you will have to deal with flat, bland textures. Even then the game tends to crawl in instances of crowded screens and the ever so infamous loading times remain.

Although the game’s musical score is unremarkable and sparse, the sound effects and overall ambiance are quite impressive. Even when you’re not in the thick of the action you can hear the rest of the war being raged around you. Another nice feature is the comments your team mates make to keep you abreast of things. They let you know when there are snipers around, when you encounter enemies with powerful weapons ("Watch out, heavy machine gun!") and also when the coast is clear. Just to in case you forget that the war you are fighting in is more of a commercial product than a conflict of differences, then the game suddenly turns into a gaudy gameshow as soon as you encounter your BoS adversary. The excitable host does his best to hype up the showdown as the screen changes to show the stats of each soldier and raise the tension as the ten second countdown begins. This really makes you feel as though there is an audience watching your every move and you find yourself putting on a show. And all this from a small interlude in the action.

In conclusion, Bet on Soldier would have been a great game had it not been for the poor computer AI, lack of variety in the models and the abysmal loading times/lag. Great levels, a smart presentation and immersing sound coupled with the betting aspect makes the game stand out in the crowd. It’s just a pity that the problems mentioned can render the game almost unplayable to the majority of gamers. Because of this the score is a little less than it should have been.

Click here to find out more information on Bet on Soldier.

This review was written by Godboko, on Thu, 17 November 2005 04:06:30 , and has been read 440 times. It is filled under the following Tags: Bet on Soldier

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