November 23rd, 2007

Blacksite: Area 51

You have probably watched a lot of shows on Discovery TV about the “famous” Area 51 which supposedly does not exist, or if it does it’s not what most people think of it, and the reporters have been told by the US authorities that it is a restricted access zone anyway. So basically we do not know what’s hiding behind the whole “concept of Area 51”, but we (just as the game developers from Midway Studios Austin did) can speculate or make up stories and sell them as well. But what makes this game special is not its story - it’s the way in which the whole idea was implemented.
Older Trailer Of The Game

The game-engine is based largely on the Unreal 3 engine, thus offering playability on a wide range of computer configurations, from the classical PC desktops that handle Windows XP very well to the most up to date advanced PC configurations that are running Windows Vista. The game-story is not exactly complicated, it’s rather pretty simple actually and the plot is quite linear – even if you can go and explore the maps all you like, there definitely a certain point that needs to be reached in order to proceed to a new level. What I found rather “unique” is the extremely simple and very “empty-stats” HUD, just like very few other games have. What does that mean – the game developers wanted to give the player as much realism as possible, and in many scenes you may not even see the crosshair (that helps you aim better) and no health bar stats whatsoever – in fact you will get a hint telling you that if the screen gets hot red (while being shot at) – you’re about to be toast.
E3 2007 Trailer Of The Game

The action is divided on seven large maps, and it starts in Iraq. I must say this game gives a pretty accurate image of the “Iraq missions” of the soldiers – Aeran Pierce is the Delta Force (Delta Force again, like in Crysis?) soldier who was sent, along with 2 other soldiers to hit some objectives. As soon as the Iraq job is finished, the soldiers return to the Nevada area, to their main military base, which is in quarantine due to the infection of an “unknown” agent that resulted after the malfunction of an experiment sponsored by the government (isn’t that typical?). So nothing out of the ordinary so far, but as soon as Aeran Pierce starts exploring the new areas and even loses some of his team members, the perspective over the action changes a bit.

The soldiers are terrified (who wouldn’t be?) when they start seeing really big worm-like monsters blocking their path. Of course, they are trained not to show their fear and they would engage in fierce battle and heated fire even if they don’t stand a (serious) chance. The whole point in winning each step of the mission is that the main hero needs to perform his duties in an excellent manner so that the squad morale is maintained at a high level. Seriously, the script puts the gamer into some scenarios one wouldn’t agree with in the first place, but since most “end-level-actions” are scripted, there is nothing you can do about it really. As an example, there would be the “leaving behind” of the soldier Somers because there is no possibility to literally help him escape. Aeran Pierce is a silent character most of the times and likes to follow orders the best way he can – in some cases you would think he’s a machine, not a real person.

The idea behind the following levels is that the team needs to get from let’s say point A, on the map, to point B, sometimes with a few detours on the way, and most likely the soldiers will have to engage into spending bullets on monster-heads. Yeah, the monsters can be really annoying and some of them don’t just die at first shot – some of them get up and go back in action again, just like in movies. In some areas, Pierce will have to use special weapons that would help in finishing off the enemies in a considerably smaller amount of time. The big mission maps Rachel, Insurgency, Topside, Wrecked, and Topside Old are similar in concept, each having special tasks or key objectives that need to be acquired.

Pierce discovers that Somers betrays the troops by starting to help the enemy “reborn-soldiers”, yeah, that type of enemies which just keep popping up until there have been enough rockets blown to their faces (like in the “Serious Sam” game series). In the final chapter, the experimental unit that got out of control is destroyed and Pierce is picked up by an army helicopter.

I must say I enjoyed the helicopter machinegun sequences – they really give an “army” feel to the game. Overall the developers had a good idea and did a good job in creating the atmosphere for the action. What I noticed (just like I will present later on in the review of the Unreal Tournament 3) is that the Unreal 3 engine is capable of truly realistic effects, even comparable and in some cases better than the ones from Crysis, under the CryEngine 2, without being a resource hog: Now that’s what I would call smart usage of the computer resources and effective overall optimization! It’s not a coincidence that many game developers are using this game engine – it offers a lot without asking too much or over the top (exaggerated) PC configurations (which aren’t even capable to get exactly all the details at the maximum graphical settings – in games like Crysis). However, the advertisements in the game are pretty frequent and they all are about Midway Studios – now we understand that they did a great job and the effort need to be appreciated, but too much advertising can irritate the eyes after a while.
Gameplay With Developer Comments

The sound in the game is well connected to the musical soundtrack and it offers tactical information in the field of action. The developers must have been lucky enough to record the sounds for the weapons from real samples.

Digitainment Mark: 9.8 out of 10 (for the “army” feel of the game and the smart usage of the resources of the PC by the engine)

Developer: Midway Studio Austin

Publisher: Midway

Official website: http://www.blacksitegame.com