Blacksite: Area 51

Written by John Scalzo  on May 23, 2007

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Blacksite: A classified government facility whose existence or true purpose is officially denied by the US government.

Rachel, Nevada is a small town just outside Area 51. It is actually the last town before the famed military base and in the world of Blacksite: Area 51, it has recently become infested with strange organisms known as the Reborn. You see, while the government may deny the existence of Area 51, they can't deny what's happening there any longer. The Reborn, race of alien-human hybrids, have been created through a secret project that attempts to meld human and alien DNA. Captivity did not sit well with the Reborn however, and they have decided to take the United States by force, starting with the town of Rachel.

The demo begins when a squad of soldiers, led by Special Forces agent Aeran Pierce (a possible nod to the most badass Secret Service agent in the 24verse?), arrive in town searching for survivors. The player will always be in control of Pierce and, at least in the demo, he will be flanked by Mitchell Ambrose and Cody Grayson. A fourth character will join the squad at some point in the full game.

The entirety of the demo takes place in and around a Rachel gas station. This location is the perfect showcase for Blacksite's use of the Unreal Engine 3 as nearly everything is destructible and it all runs at a pretty good clip; even when things are exploding, Reborn are charging and (to borrow a military term everything is FUBARed). While the demo is short (the whole thing can be completed in five to ten minutes), it lays the groundwork for what could be a fantastic game. The focus of Blacksite is the game's one button squad command system. Pressing the Right Bumper is used to position your squadmates using the onscreen reticule and Shield icons appear periodically to indicate scripted squad events. The squad control is kept very simple, but it works. The rest of the control is solid and will feel familar to any Xbox 360 first person shooter veterans.

The other major piece of Blacksite: Area 51's squad setup is the morale system. The idea is that how you lead your squad influences their attack patterns, fire rate and shot accuracy. For example, falling back into the store and using the aisles as cover results in a tighter and more disciplined squad. Shooting out the windows and taking the fight to the wide open areas of the parking lot results in a bigger swarm of aliens and a looser squad formation. In this scenario the fight ends up very chaotic and your squad is not as accurate. When they're feeling outgunned your squad will cower in the middle of the battle and just scream (sadly, not УGame over man! Gamer over!Ф).

In a nice touch, the members of your team cannot be killed. If they take too much damage they will be knocked out, leaving you momentarily alone in the fight against the aliens. Once the immediate threat is destroyed, your squadmates will regain consciousness.



The demo reveals three types of aliens. The first are a buglike species that resemble the drone bugs from Starship Troopers known as Drudge Grunts. The second are a bipedal group, known as Reborn Scouts, that look like the tentacled aliens from Independance Day; they are also much harder to kill. The final type are the humanized alien-human hybrids (similar to the soldiers from Contra or Doom) known as Reborn Soldiers. These members of the Reborn also carry guns and they're not afraid to use them. As the demo ends we're given a quick glimpse at a fourth type: A Spire, a big bug that begins to tear up the town and it looks like a giant tower.

As I said above, the Unreal Engien 3 graphics look sharp. There are destructible environments including pillars, gas pumps, store shelves, windows and vehicles. There are some nice rain, smoke and fire effects. It's slick graphical representation of a small town street all around. There are also plenty of nice graphical models (the in-engine closeup of Ambrose at the beginning is very cool) and the aliens look appropriately slimy and menacing.