As a reviewer sometimes you want a game to be good, it may be for various reasons; a fondness for a development team or game series, or simply because the plot or setting of the game appeals to you. Well the Area 51 series first began as a light gun-based arcade shooter game that I played many a time, and a decent second sequel appeared on Xbox a couple of years back - a first person shooter that allowed you to eventually mutate into the alien form at will.
Unfortunately BlackSite: Area 51 doesn’t have anything as exciting up its plot-pipe and starts off with you as a US soldier in Iraq, ordering your 2-man squad around like some kind of mishmash of Call of Duty/Ghost Recon/Rainbow Six. And sadly it’s not a good start, with Call of Duty 4 so recent in the memory, Blacksite’s visuals just don’t cut it, characters are good but almost seem pasted on to the washed-out backgrounds, unnecessary, HUGE flashing icons indicate anything remotely interactive and when you notice that pickups (dropped enemy guns or ammo etc.) hover in mid air and/or flash like they’re radioactive, and then that enemies' bodies disappear as soon as you turn your back you may be hunting out your Blacksite receipt and the bag it came in long before you even see an alien life form…
Rather than catalogue all the faults I found with this game I’m going to quote some of the press release blurb to you and then comment: “it takes next-gen gaming to an all-new level integrating cutting edge technology, game design and story writing to create the ultimate entertainment experience. The player’s modern-day emotions and fears are driven into a world charged with grave responsibility affecting lives hanging in the balance and eventually finding himself torn between his professional orders and his own ethical standards.”. Ummm… what a load of nonsense! no it doesn’t. Like a lot of the best FPS out there, it uses Unreal Technology™ and Havok physics but I doubt you’ll notice the fact other than in a few spectacular set pieces. The B-movie storyline is actually quite good, but the way squad “orders” is oversimplified but still confused to the point where you don’t know whether you should open a door or get them to do it just so they have something to do. You can order your guys to any point you can see within about 60 yards or so, or target an enemy at which point they’re supposed to focus their fire on him. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t, sometimes they’ll take out an incoming target before you even notice it, and sometimes they’ll just run by and leave 2 enemies for you – you'll ask yourself 'do I order them to do everything and hang back, or lead and order them up when I need help?' The whole 'squad orders' thing gets completely ridiculous when you end up ordering a female research scientist - armed with just a pistol - on ahead of you anyway. This inconsistency gives the game an uncertain, mixed up and unfinished feel that sadly never goes away…
Oh well, Back to the press releases, Midway seemed to be pushing their one-button squad orders system and morale element before release so let’s get to that; “In the end, only the actions of the player and his squad can shape the outcome of BlackSite: Area 51 during this potentially pivotal moment in history. Al living, breathing squad, your elite Special Forces squad, assembled from the finest soldiers in today’s military, responds to your orders and your leadership in the most realistic in-game visuals imaginable. Lead your squad well and they’ll rally behind you when the enemy brings the fight, but waver in the face of the enemy and their morale will sink accordingly, affecting their aim, their fatigue and the will to fight”. That lot is, for want of a better word, nonsense as well - no, let's use a better word, it's bollocks. Other than having to make them open or breach certain doors you don’t need them at all, and everything else is predetermined or automatic. Their morale drops when they get shot, they get shot because their AI is stupid, regardless of how “tactical” you get, so their performance suffers – it’s a ridiculous system. Here's an example: we’d just killed 4 massive plant aliens and taken barely a scratch, and rather than whooping and hollering the game tells me that “Squad morale is low!” – it makes you want to shoot both of them - except you can’t, because weapons are disabled when aimed at non-hostiles – Grrrrrrrr! Oh yes, and as for weapons – well when playing any sci-fi shooter you can at least expect some imaginative or fun guns to play with… Nope, sorry. Blacksite has just 2 that I can remember, and they’re both CRAP (there is no better word to describe them) - whatever planet you’re from. I killed the end “boss” (and oh boy is he a disappointment) and about 90% of the enemies in the game with a good old M16, and even the Army-supplied sniper rifle was rubbish. A lack of satisfying or fun weaponry in a game of this sort is just unforgiveable.
Quite apart from gameplay issues, technically Blacksite seems to have some problems too, it often exhibits frame rate stutters, but on several occasions these become disturbingly jerky, like the game is about to crash. Thinking this might be a hardware problem we tried the game on another 360, but exactly the same thing happened - more stutters and freezes. On one occasion a dead enemy's body didn’t drop to the ground or disappear, but glitched around the screen until I looked away! Clipping is a problem too, with the wheels of the Hummer sinking into the tarmac on several occasions, and characters disappearing into walls and scenery - ugh.
The multiplayer game seems to have little or no support as I speak. But after a few days seeking games and forlornly setting up my own I did find one guy who’d played the game to death and got the full 1000 achievement points – but even he didn’t have a good word to say about it, so I guess that says it all. The maps are all themed like the campaign levels and play just about as well (or badly) as the rest of the game, but let’s cut to the chase; with Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 around why would you be playing this for your multiplayer fix… are you MAD? Surely the development time spent on this multiplayer game would have been better spent on polishing up the solo campaign, but you know what they say about polishing some things… And anyway, surely a co-op mode would have been more popular than just another run ‘n gun deathmatch game...?
Having been a fan of the previous Area 51 this is a major disappointment, a game that rarely looks or feels finished. But I’d like to sum up on a positive note so I’ll just say that the on-rails Hummer ride that happens early on in the game was exciting and fun, and some of the set pieces including the “Blackhawk ride” (also available as a free demo on the 360 marketplace) and special effects are spectacular. I’d really recommend that you avoid this game, but if you’re a FPS addict then maybe rent it or pick it second hand, if nothing else it’ll make you appreciate how polished some games, such as Halo 3 are.
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