BlackSite: Area 51

Gameplay

BlackSite: Area 51 features standard first-person shooter gameplay. It uses a regenerating health system; additionally the player's character can absorb relatively large amounts of gunfire before dying. The game features six different weapons, though only two can be carried at the same time. The game also features the ability to use grenades and melee attacks. The game's main weapon, the M4 carbine, has a holographic sight that can be aimed through for zooming in on distant targets. The game does not feature the ability to lean around corners.

One of the main features of the game is squad tactics. For almost the entire game, the player will have a team of two A.I. controlled squadmates accompanying them. Squadmates can be ordered to move on a location, concentrate their fire on a specific enemy, man a mounted turret, or set explosive charges on certain items. Squad commands are given with a single button; the commands are context sensitive based on what the player points the cursor at. Squadmates cannot be killed, and will only be knocked out for a brief period after taking a certain amount of damage. The game also features a morale system, where squad morale increases as the player kills enemies or scores headshots, and decreases as the player takes damage or as squadmates are injured or incapacitated. At high morale, squadmates fight much more effectively and can survive more damage, while at low morale they contribute much less to firefights, and are incapacitated much more easily.

The game also features several vehicle sections, where the player must drive a civilian van or military Humvee cross-country to reach a location, while dealing with enemy attacks. The player can exit the vehicle at any time to collect items, investigate buildings, or man the Humvee's mounted machine gun.

The multiplayer features modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the flag, Siege,and Human VS. Reborn. The Siege and Human VS. Reborn are different and unique from other games. It allows the teams to attempt to control each of the level's territories while trying to capture one another. The Deathmatch mode, as well as the rest of the online portion of the game has a maximum number of 10 players. There is no local multiplayer.

Story

The game begins with Captain Aeran Pierce and the rest of his Delta Force Echo Squad being sent to investigate a supposed weapons bunker in Iraq. They are accompanied by the head of an elite science team, Doctor Noa Weis. The bunker is infested with mutated humans and wildlife (referred to collectively as Xenos) created by an alien crystal found in the bunker. This crystal incapacitates Pierce and forces the squad to retreat. One member of the squad, Lieutenant Logan Somers, is left behind during the retreat.

Three years later, a heavily armed militia has taken control of Area 51 and the surrounding area, accompanied by an outbreak of alien creatures identical to those encountered in Iraq. Echo Squad and Doctor Weis have been chosen to reclaim the base. They begin with the nearby town of Rachel, where they discover that the “militia” are actually cybernetically enhanced US soldiers known as Reborn. Echo Squad finds survivors in Rachel, but as they rescue the survivors, they find Lieutenant Somers, now a Reborn. Somers explains that the Reborn program was designed to replace the volunteer army of U.S. citizens with expendable supersoldiers, using subjects forcibly recruited from groups of people who could disappear without being noticed, such as the homeless, illegal immigrants, and military without family. Because of the harsh experiments, one of them led an insurrection.

Back at base, they find out that Weis was in charge of the Reborn program, but it was shut down years ago and the soldiers sealed in Area 51. Somers led the Reborn to escape and seek revenge, using an alien device of which the crystal in Iraq was a stolen component of. After being revealed as the Reborn leader, Somers betrays Echo Squad and retreats back to Area 51 as the Xenos and Reborn attack the base. Echo Squad successfully repels the attack, then joins another military division in an assault on Area 51. During the assault, Pierce is captured and the rest of Echo Squad is killed.

Inside Area 51, Pierce discovers that the Xenos were actually created by spores emitted by the alien device, and that Somers is using the device to spread the spores across the surface of Earth. Pierce escapes with the assistance of Dr. Weis, then shuts down the device and kills Somers in a shootout. The game ends with Pierce and Weis flying off in a helicopter to assess the damage caused by the Xeno spores.

Development

The game uses Midway's modified Unreal 3 engine. This allows for more realistic graphics and effects, such as having rain bounce off the player's weapon. Many destructible objects are featured, but most of the environment is not alterable. On May 11, 2007, a demo for the Xbox 360 was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. A second demo was released onto Xbox Live Marketplace, a week after the game's release.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews on all platforms according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. The game has been noted for its cynical political commentary, which challenges the often black and white viewpoint of many first person shooters with an unusually messy and nebulous situation.

On November 29, 2007, Harvey Smith, the game's designer, came out publicly to announce how ruined the game's development schedule was. He claimed the schedule caused the low reviews due to the fact they were not able to test the game properly. He lost his job at Midway soon after making this comment.