Blacksite: Area 51 Preview

Closing thoughts

Blacksite: Area 51 is set to be shaping up rather nicely then. There’s the promise of a fully developed and beautifully realised story here thanks to the involvement of industry figureheads like Harvey Smith and Susan O’Connor and the utterly magnificent UE3 engine which ties it all together into one gorgeous package.

More important than any of the additions to the game and the improvements to the engine though are the things that have been pulled back and ripped out of the original template.

Gone are the celebrity voice ‘talents’ from the first multi-format Area 51 game. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed The X-Files as much as anybody else but the fact of the matter is, as Area 51 and XIII proved, David Duchovny was an awful voice actor and attaching him to the first Area 51 game left many fans with a sour taste in their mouths.

The focus on playing only in the Area 51 base is gone too and the new game will see players fighting in a number of different environments and locations at different times of day - the light and airy look of the Iraq levels definitely contrasts nicely with the dark and oppressive feel of the night-time levels in the various Nevada ghost towns.


Of course, there are some concerns that we still hold regarding the game. We’re a little worried that the on-rails vehicular sections of the game may feel a little jarring and out-of-place for the way they clash in terms of style with the majority of the FPS combat, but it’s a minor concern for what is bound to be a minority of the gameplay.

The main concern however is regarding the PC version of the game which, if it shares the Stranglehold engine, may also share the steep hardware requirements, which would put the PC game out of the market for many gamers and would favour the console variant.


That said, Blacksite is looking to be a massive improvement on the original Xbox 360 demo both graphically and in terms of gameplay. With a new story, from a new perspective and with new, varied locations it looks like Blacksite: Area 51 is shaping up to be a fun, frantic restart for the series and will be the multi-format FPS game which the arcade version always deserved.

In short, it’s going to be another reason to raid my brother's piggy bank and steal the required funds to pick up a copy. Not that I need an excuse to steal from my little brother though.

Blacksite: Area 51 will be released on November 5th for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but you can always discuss it in the forums until then.