 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Midway Austin |
| Publisher: | Midway | |
| Genre: | FPS | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 (2-10 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play), HDTV 720p |
No matter how much time and money is put into a project, sometimes things just don’t come together in the end. Such is the case with Blacksite: Area 51, one of 2007’s high-profile titles…and also one of its biggest flops.
First, the good news…underneath this mess is actually a playable FPS. FPS veterans will quickly adjust to Blacksite’s controls, and there were moments where I found myself actually having quite a bit of fun. So while this is not a disaster for Midway of Hour of Victory proportions, unfortunately Blacksite’s gameplay never advances beyond that very basic level, and the game is saddled with all of the signs of a rushed project released without regard to quality to cash in during the Christmas season.
No area is that more apparent than in the NPC A.I. Blacksite: Area 51 is designed to be Rainbow Six-lite, with basic squad tactics, but for the most part it fails at it. I frequently saw my teammates standing out in the open and failing to use cover, just waiting for the enemy to kill them. Enemies have the same A.I. shortfalls of course, rarely acting as if they value their lives. While somewhat understandable for the alien creatures in the game, it’s just laughable the way human enemies often react.
When it came time for me to order my squad to do something, often it was only after they told me that I should tell them to do something that I could actually do it. So my squad mate tells me that we should check the side of a bunker, but then I have to tell him to actually go do it? The whole squad-based nature of the game just feels horribly tacked on, like the developers built the game to accommodate player commands, but then couldn’t think of any good scenarios to put it to use.
The game also uses a morale system. While simple, this part of the game actually seems to work decently enough. Simply put, if your team is doing well squad mates will be more enthusiastic and efficient, but if you’re not doing well they’ll be of little use. Squad mates are also more talky in general than what you’ll find in most games, only that talk consists of mostly lame one-liners, bad puns, and clichés with generic voice overs that fit each stereotype perfectly. So they’re funny in a hokey sense, but hardly effective.
Posted: 2008-09-09 07:42:42 PST