Blacksite: Area 51 - Xbox 360 (Special)

Description

Modern day fears explode onto the streets of a small American town swarming with alien life. The government is desparate, struggling to contain secrets so terrible they can no longer be kept. You are Aeran Pierce, a Special Forces assassin thrown into one of the most explosive moments in American history. Everything hinges on your actions in BlackSite: Area 51

Features

• Online Multiplayer Modes: A wide variety fo traditional online modes, such as Death Match, Team Death Match and Capture the Flag, as well as, all-new unique modes created specifically for BlackSite: Area 51.
• One Button Squad Commands: Command your troops to perform a variety fo actions, including planting C-4 to blow doors, sniping enemies in guard towers, or taking control of vehicles - all with one click of a button.
• Incredibly Realistic, Fully Interactive World: From the war-torn streets of Iraq to small town USA, you'll need to use strategic cover points as you blow away your enemies in huge levels where nearly everything you see is destructible.
• As squad commander Aeran Pierce, you lead soldiers who respond to your every order. Lead well and they¿ll rally behind you when the enemy brings the fight, but waver and morale will sink fast, affecting their will to fight.
• Drive the latest military HMMWVs and commandeer civilian vehicles. Take a seat in the gunner¿s position during a daring, low-level helicopter raid against enemy positions. Fight with a range of modern-day Special Forces weapons.

Customer Reviews

Really, really, really short.
Daniel S. Boucher

I beat the game in just under 6 hours. Yikes! That figures to about $10 an hour for game play!You're a soldier for the US Army, initially sent to Iran to gather some highly needed, top secret information. From there the story gets fleshed out rather hurridly along with some well over used cliches. The gameplay is fun, the sound an graphics are great. Grenade explosions are really cool and the machine gun is very satisfying to shoot.However...This one is a perfect weekend rental. There's a good mix of run and gunning, driving and shooting from a helicopter. I have to repeat that this game was allot of fun to play. There were 5-6 levels (I forget exactly) each broken up into smaller "episodes" similar to the Halo games. Each level was pretty unique and at first glance the game could easily be mistaken for a Call of Duty title. Only a handful of weapons to choose from that sadly, didn't follow you between episodes and I found that I stuck with the machine gun almost entirely through the game except for some of the mandatory sniper episodes. There was also a very limited amount of aliens as well, which was surprising because I was expecting more. However, the ones that were there were very fulfilling, especially the larger "boss" type characters.I would have scored Blacksite allot higher had it been longer game. You can't imagine my dissappointment after spending $60 and then beating it the same day.Save your money for the likes of Assassin's Creed and rent this one.- Dan.

Do not pay full retail for this title.
gram parsons

The graphics are sub par, and no far beyond what you might see on the original XBOX. The game is very, very short. It's unpolished and buggy.I did play online one match and that was a little better. But this pales in comparison compared to some of the better shooters like Gears, Halo 3, and Bioshock. I picked this and Timeshift up at the same time, and Timeshift is a much better game.It's probably worth a rental but not much more.

Disappointing
N. Durham

A couple years back, Midway updated their light gun shooter Area 51 for the last-gen consoles in the form of an action, scare, and conspiracy theory-filled FPS that was surprisingly good. Blacksite: Area 51 is more or less a follow up to the aforementioned game, in which you play a soldier and find yourself searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, only to uncover an alien conspiracy. The first thing you'll notice about Blacksite: Area 51 is that the game is boasting some spectacular graphics. The characters, aliens, areas, and environments are beautifully rendered; making the game a joy to look at, but that's about it. The use of squad tactics doesn't work very well, and you'll mostly find yourself engaged in battles with your squad not doing much to lend a hand. It should also be noted that there are a fair amount of glitches and bugs that occur now and then, ranging from graphical glitches to bugs in the gameplay elements. The single-player campaign is decent enough, albeit much of the shock value and scares that were featured in the last Area 51 game are absent. The multiplayer mode is uninspired and boring to say the least as well, which is even more disappointing. For all its flaws though, Blacksite does offer some solid moments of intense action, and the political commentary does conjure a smirk. All in all though, Blacksite: Area 51 is a disappointing FPS that could have been so much better than what we get here. It is worth a rental at least for FPS addicts or fans of Midway's Area 51 license, but other than that, Blacksite can be avoided.

Bang for your Buck
S. H. Wells

Blacksite is a pretty fun first person shooter. It recalls the Call of Duty games in style and method of play with a little squad-based tactics thrown in for fun. The plot is a little confused (but who is really playing FPS for the story?). But you have a variety of weapons--many old favs like sniper rifle and grenades as well as some futuristic weapons. Your squadmates get happy the more bad guys you kill and they get bummed if you get beat up or pinned down. And the baddies range from Iraqis to alien/monster things. The screen gets redder the dead-er you get, but ducking for a while lets you get your wind back. And the checkpoints are frequent, so you restart not TOO far back from where you die (both features similar to CoD). A lot of reviews were luke-warm about the title, so I bought mine used through an Amazon marketplace seller. In my opinion it is solid 5-star bang for your buck. No, Blacksite is not as in depth as CoD4 and requires a lot less finesse than GRAW. But if you can find it for a good price, it sure is a heck of a lot fun.

It's no C.O.D 4, but what the hey...
Chris Van Deelen

Camelot. Stonehenge. The Great Pyramids. The Great wall of China.All of these names are ingrained into our culture. When we hear of them, we all think of what they are, and in some cases, what they mean. They all are indelibly burned into our collective psyche. Some are heavily inter-twined in mythology, while others are physical objects that are steeped in history.In the United States, there is another name that brings up an air of mystery, of conspiracy. You probably know already which site I'm talking about here...Area 51.This secret military site, that has long been denied by the federal government, is steeped in secrecy and mystery. Some believe that this location is where the government keeps the bodies of aliens that were discovered in the 50's. Others believe that there are LIVE aliens kept there.Of course, people believe it is the home of ultra secret black projects, or super high technology, technology that will help keep the American's at the top when it comes to global power.Now, when you have something that is as cloaked in secrecy as Area 51 is, of course people will speculate.And the media will take it one step further. There are dozens of novels about this secret location. There are many movies that deal with it, and it's been seen on television as well.Best of all, it has been used in numerous video games.Years ago, there was an arcade video game called Area 51. It was a first person shooter, one where you had to invade the military base and defeat not only aliens, but zombies that were brought back to fight with them.Blacksite: Area 51 is pretty much the sequel to this video game, with updated graphics and I'd have to say far better game play.When you begin the game, it starts instead of in Area 51, you find yourself in Iraq. The whole purpose of this, in my opinion, was to introduce the player to the games controls, and to give the player a little background information on several of your team-mates that would help you out later in the game.I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with the scale of the game. Sure, you start out in Iraq, but the story quickly builds from there. After losing one of your team-mates, the game fast forwards several years.I'll do my best to not give away too many spoilers from here on in.This is where the scale of the game really comes into play. You have to travel cross country (although you don't get much of a choice in your route) in order to reach Rachel, Nevada.Along the way you'll end up facing a literal army of the Reborn, the main foe in the game.The fight for Rachel is pretty intense and quite enjoyable in this reviewer's opinion, and of course it'll lead you onto the next mission, where you'll have to fight and defend the military base you're based out of.Finally, you will end up in Area 51, and confront the enemy in one final showdown.All in all, the game is divided up into a total of six missions, and depending on what difficulty setting you play it at, the time to complete will vary. Expect to reload numerous times if you're not careful.Even though I've only played a handful of Xbox 360 games, I found that this game played like the other first person shooters. You don't have a health meter, like in many other first person shooter games. Instead you can sustain a certain amount of damage and your screen turns red to indicate that you're about to die.When this happens, find a safe place to hunker down and give yourself a short period of time to regenerate your health. If you don't, well you'll have to wait for a reload.Fortunately, even though you can't choose where you save, there are numerous save points so you won't be forced to re-do large portions of a particular mission just to feel the frustration of having to do it all over again.You're also limited to only two different weapons at any one time, so choose what you carry wisely! And, if you do need a specific type of weapon, try to remember where you saw it, or where you dropped it last. That'll save you a great deal of frustration as well.Use your team-mates wisely. Try to go for head-shots as often as you can, as it improves the moral of your fellow warriors. The higher the moral, the better they fight. If you find that moral is slipping, get fancy and ventilate as many craniums as possible. It cheers up your friends.The nice thing is that even if your team-mates get taken out in a battle, if you successfully eliminate all enemies, they'll get back up after a short period of time to continue to fight along side you.As with several other games on the market, you are given a chance to drive in the game. Sometimes you are the driver, and your team-mates act as the gunners. Now this in itself can be frustrating, as they'll fire the main weapon until it over-heats and then you're forced to wait, usually taking heavy return fire, for it to cool down.Other times you are the gunner and you can control this factor, and when you get the chance I would suggest taking it. It'll save you having to reload from the last save point several times.The graphics, as I mentioned earlier, are very nice and clear. I had no problem differentiating the various enemies and I like how the game looked. Everything from fighting in the ruined bunker in Iraq to the tranquility of the trailer park, to a drive in theatre and of course Area 51 itself.The use of lighting and music really set the mood as well.There are a total of 44 different achievements that can be unlocked throughout the game, and many can only be unlocked during the multi-player mode. I have to admit that I didn't unlock any of those, but then again I've never been one that was big on multi-player games.If I had any complaints about the game, it would be that I found there were too few aliens to fight! Your main opposition is the army of the Reborn, the aliens seem to be there more for flavour than anything... but be warned, some of the aliens you encounter can be very difficult to take out.My other complaint is that the game is too damned short! I pine for the old days when it took me weeks of playing to beat Half-life. This game took me only about 6 hours to beat from start to finish.Overall, I enjoyed the game, and when I have time, I'll try beating it on the hardest setting. Who knows, I might even give the multi player function a shot, and earn a few more achievements.It's not the greatest game, and believe me, it doesn't come close to something like Call of Duty 4, but you know, it was enjoyable none the less.3.5 out of 5 Read more ›