Developed by Midway Studios Austin
Published by Midway Games
Released for Xbox 360
Also on PC (11/2007)/PS3 (12/2007)
If you're at all familiar with the 1995 arcade hit Area 51 from Atari Games, then you'd do best to not build any expectations for this game based on its original source material. In fact, the only thing this and the old game really have in common is that they both take place in the location Area 51 and have you shooting aliens! This was not Midway's first effort at turning Area 51 into an FPS, as there was another game simply titled Area 51 that came out on Xbox/PS2/PC back in 2005, which was from the same developers.
Midway Studios Austin definitely had some ambition with this title. They tried to turn the simple rail-shooter arcade hit Area 51 into an FPS title with a cinematic presentation. To be honest, the lengthy and quite frequent dialogue-driven parts of the game bored me to pieces and I couldn't wait to just start shooting some aliens. These are peppered all throughout the campaign between action segments and are unfortunately unskippable. Also, in order to hear the dialogue you'll have to turn the volume way up as it's extremely quiet when compared to the gunfire and the developers neglected to include subtitles for those who would prefer to use that (I frequently use this option in dialogue-heavy games).
I can't help but reminisce about how action-packed the old Area 51 arcade game was, where you're shooting aliens within seconds and for the entire duration of your play-time whereas with BlackSite, there is a dedicated effort to build a story around the action and they play it as serious as possible. Personally I think had they applied the campy B-movie feel of the original game, this could have been much more entertaining and memorable.
The campaign features maps that at a glance may look expansive, which some of them are, but they are all navigated in an extremely linear fashion and are separated by lengthy loading screens. In certain parts you are allowed to drive your vehicle around, for some reason they decided to map the accelerate/brake button the left analog stick, which feels extremely clunky at first. One thing you'll notice about the boots-on-ground combat is that there is no run button. Also I wanted to note that the final battle in the game was quite a let-down as you just battle some alien soldier dude; I wanted a fight with some sort of gigantic alien beast but instead you fight a guy that looks pretty much like the grunt soldiers you're shooting through the entire game! Graphically the game looks a bit better than something that would have come out on the PS2, which is about what you would have to expect for a 360 game in 2007.
In addition to the single-player campaign the game also features online-multiplayer. While the servers have been shut down at this point, you would have struggled mightily to find a game on these even back in the day. There were just too many other, more popular options for FPS games even back in 2007. Given that this is a 10-year old game at this point, and one that nobody ever really talks about for that matter, I'm not at all surprised by the lack of online multiplayer. I also thought it would be worth mentioning that the game froze up on me on during the spore tower boss fight about halfway through the campaign.
In summary, BlackSite: Area 51 has some decent gunplay but the game drags on a bit longer than it needs to. While it may have been decent back in 2007, this one's not really worth your time these days. BlackSite reminded me of Duke Nukem Forever in a few ways, with its driving and turret segments mixed in with your standard alien-killing FPS action but without the humor, character or run button of that game. If you're really itching for some alien-blasting at the top-secret facility, then I'd recommend to go back and play the older but superior Area 51 game on the Xbox before messing with BlackSite.
Final Verdict: BlackSite features gameplay similar to Duke Nukem Forever in more than a few ways, with driving segments and helicopter turret areas mixed in with the traditional alien-killing FPS minus the humor, personality and run button. So, if you're one of the many who disliked Duke Nukem Forever, it's a safe bet you'd want to stay away from this title.
Purchase Links:
Buy BlackSite: Area 51 - eBay
Related Links:
BlackSite: Area 51 - Metacritic
BlackSite: Area 51 - GameFAQs
BlackSite: Area 51 Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
BlackSite: Area 51 - True Achievements
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