Isaac Lu (meepokman) reviews Blacksite: Area 51.
This is my first review of a game so please don’t be a dick and spout rubbish about how “an experienced gamer should know better” because this review is my own opinion and if you don’t like free speech go to the nearest Hillary Clinton/Democrat supporter and give him or her a nice big hug.
Ok, Blacksite then, ignoring the horrible title that sounds like a kinder way of saying arse, is about a group of US Army special forces dicks who seem to fit the stereotype tough guy that the Yanks love in action games and movies. They are sent to find WMDs in an Iraqi bunker in 2004, in a prologue mission that is frankly better exposition than most of the other shitty games out there (like hmm... Call of Duty 4, or BioShock?). They soon discover that instead of nukes or some typical evil madman’s toys, they find bio-weapons used to mutate people and summon monsters. Here’s where the game raises a feature uglier and more persistent than any level boss—your medic does what she was ordered to do, then she leaves one of your guys to die. This is where a bad point of the game shows up. What is this love affair that designers seem to have with mute protagonists? Just yelling at the bitch or having the balls to raise your fucking gun would have done the job of keeping him alive.
After that, the story goes on to Nevada in the present, where a so-called uprising has happened but, if you took the trouble to read the back of the game box and have an IQ above 70, you should understand that it is the aliens and mutated soldiers. It is all too obvious that the game is a bizarre cross between the 1997 shooter Half-Life and the 1992 movie Universal Soldier where in the titular Area 51, dick-heads down in the US Army want to make super soldiers out of dead troops. The story goes on and eventually ends with a canned showdown between you and the villain (who turns out to be your guy who was “killed” in Iraq). Right over there the story ends and you have to spend your time reading hidden “dossiers” left behind by some other dick-heads to understand anything else. The story is rather badly told, using the same hero-finds-diaries system in BioShock that has proven to be shit but is still in use for some reason.
Enough about the story; let’s talk about the game and how it works. In my opinion, this game is one of the best of the year, despite the horrible lack of polish and the producers fucking about with the dev team (in creative director Harvey Smith’s own words) and not letting them do their job.
First, the good points. Squad tactics are very well done with great NPC intelligence and easy to use squad controls. Graphics are decent although in the post-Crysis age they are by no means great. The single player campaign is fun to play through and is of a good length, seeing how games now are obsessed with making brutally short single player games. The physics in the game is also the best I have seen with environments getting shredded up by bullets like in John Woo Presents Stranglehold. This game is a real fun ride while it lasts, and is well worth paying S$55 for. And the historical accuracy in the Iraq levels where location and other US ground forces are accurately mentioned by name is just icing on the cake. The devs did their homework here; I wish it was extended to the rest of the game.
Now let’s go on the fucked up bits. The game was released in a far from complete state, and lacks essential elements such as animations for characters getting into a vehicle which they just appear in. The game sometimes also lags for no apparent reason on my gaming system which can run most games of the same graphics without a problem. Lastly, weapons and equipment are a little off somewhat—every fuckwit seems to have a advanced sight attached to his gun when such things so expensive, soldiers can only get them by buying them online. In this game, they are standard issue. We know you play as a Special Forces operative, but the sights can’t be THAT popular. AlienWare computers also litter the place when in real life, the US Army uses Dell laptops instead.
Wrapping up, Blacksite is a good game on the whole, the characters and story premise are well-written and in most ways it is better than the more expensive Call of Duty 4. All that is bad in the game can be fixed by just a little more time in development, in which case, a massive patch (which I hope you guys are working on) will make this game better than Crysis and other Game of the Year awardees.
So Midway games, please listen to me for this idea instead of paying some guy thousands to tell you what you can find online for free. All your game design ideas are good, even a fucked up project like Hour of Victory. Which of course shows that you have at least some brains in the creative direction but unfortunately, your producers are pricks who force unreasonable deadlines. So, that being said, jump off the silent hero bandwagon and give them some character and voice, along with giving your dev team a few more months. You have the potential to be better than EA Games (Airborne) or Activision of Call of Duty fame. Why not use it?
Still, I don’t think anybody in Midway will chance upon this suggestion, so anybody out there, please try to forward this review to people you know even if you are not interested in games so please don’t be selfish and help games grow a little.
Lastly, here is a breakdown of the game score using my brother’s “H.O.N.O.U.R.” system.
H – Honesty
For this category, Blacksite scores a 6.5 out of 10, mainly because of badly told story and lack of a speaking hero, but its merits are that the story is fun to play through. Unlike Call of Duty 4, where I am constantly picking out areas of shitty realism.
O – Originality
As for this one, the game can safely score an 8 out of 10 due to its willingness to step away from uncontrollable teammates and actually pulling it off. Still, it falls short from a blank slate hero.
N – N-joyment
It scores a solid 9 out of 10 for this one, with great AI and easy to use squads and weapons with meaty sounds. Still, more time could have been put into making the game less laggy.
O – Overhype
Blacksite gets a 8 out of 10 for this because they delivered what they promised—Medal of Honor: Airborne, anyone? Cool squads, great environments, they are there. It's just that more time could be spent on making the game.
U – User-friendliness
8/10 for this, falling short of a full score due to its use of 2 DVDs and having to download 2 big patches before having a fun time. Still, the controls are good and it is fun, unlike other squad shooters like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, which needs the limb count of an octopus and the patience of Job to play.
R – Revisitability
7/10, good replay value for some parts. Killing hadjis in Iraq never gets old.
Overall rating: 8.0 out of 10 (not an average). Give the game a chance, have some faith in Midway productions and forward this review to your friends if you like it.
Credits:
Review by: Isaac Lu
Imaginary background music: Isaac Lu
Idea for reviews: Isaac Lu and Lu Zheng Ping
Gracefully hosted by: Lu Zheng Ping
H.O.N.O.U.R. system by: Lu Zheng Ping
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