Call me ill-equipped, but I’d never heard of Blacksite, had no idea what it was about or even what genre it took stance in. Well, I’ve amended that little list and I want to share it with you.
The first thing I took notice of, after the slick menus, are the superb visuals. This game looks glorious, the lighting and textures are top notch. Opening up with “Iraq - 3 years ago….” you’re quickly placed in the line of fire as you’re mission to get to the communications point, begins. You’re not alone, you have a couple of team mates who you have command of. Commanding them only requires the RB button.
As you fight your way through a labyrinth of Iraqi soldiers, you may start to feel a tad disappointed, I know I did. Here we have a great looking game that moves smoothly and is enjoyable to play, but you’re kinda left thinking; Geee….another squad based FPS set in the war zone backdrop of Middle Eastern Europe. Sigh……but then….
…..All of a sudden BAM! Blacksite goes all From Dusk ‘Till Dawn on you! Only these aren’t blood sucking vampires, oh no, these are body probing, genetically modified ‘dead!’ people and they are a little bitter to say the very least. Along for the ride are some of their beastie friends, too. It’s what can be described as one of the most satisfying gaming moments ever. Fantastic stuff. I’d guess, this will only have the impact it had on me - on you, if you never read this review and you’ve also never heard of Blacksite, otherwise please take this as a bit of self indulgence and a sly way to sneak in a From Dusk ‘Till Dawn reference.
Right, now we’re set, we have guns and we have the ‘Reborn‘s’. Let’s roll! Skip forward 3 years and you’re in the middle of the Nevada desert , heading towards Rachel . It’s at this time you’re greeted with the first driving section. Much like Half-Life and Halo, the driving sucks. FPS controls aren’t meant for driving games - you know this from birth. All is not lost however, because sometimes you don’t have to drive as you get to be the gunner in some off the rails sections.
You’re squad commands go into no greater depth than commanding one of your team to open doors. This doesn’t really bode well for our hero’s headstone; “RIP Aeran Pierce, Brave Soldier - but could never get the hang of opening doors. Will be missed.” If only you could melee through the doors. The melee attack has got to be the most powerful in FPS history; SMASH! It’s awesome and had to be mentioned. In exchange for them opening doors for you, you’re squad relies on you doing some good ‘old fashioned killing, do it well and your squads morale will be high, which in turn makes them more battle hungry, perform badly and morale will go down - turning your buddies into weak scaredy cats. It’s a neat little gimmick.
The stunning visuals I made haste to talk about earlier also expand into destructible environments. Every video game should have destructible environments. Admittedly, not everything is breakable, not even everything you think would be breakable can be blown up, but what you can tear apart looks mega. An enjoyable sequence in a court room, is even more enjoyable when the whole room appears to be crumbling around you.
Blacksite isn’t without it’s flaws. The end boss on Level 5 is one of those moments that brings the old forehead veins to the surface. You would think with 3 characters it would be easy, but because your two team mates are so incompetent, you’re left with the agonising task of distracting, avoiding and shooting the big beastie. It’s frustrating to say the very least and a real downer, as up until this point, things have been going swimmingly. The weapons you have at your disposal are very nice, the lack of them isn’t. During the campaign, I only ever used 4 guns, a missile launcher and a turret. You don’t need anymore than that, but it would have been grand just to have a few more to have a go on. Blacksite’s fatal flaw is perhaps its length. It’s pretty short and if the multiplayer isn’t your bag, then you may feel a little rejected. There are collectables in the form of Dossiers scattered through out the main game, and whilst the information you obtain for collecting them is a little dull, it does offer that tempting challenge of playing through again.
The weapons shortage spoken about above is also present in multiplayer. Although this is a little disappointing, the online multiplayer, for up to ten people, is fun. A choice of 8 generously sized maps all themed on the campaign levels. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag and Infection are your game modes, again maybe a little short on scope, for some.
Overall, the pro’s far out weigh the cons. Blacksite is stunning visually and plays a good game of FPS. The multiplayer may lack options, but it moves very well indeed. The story is engrossing and only one of it’s main stars is dislikeable. Hopefully you’ll get to kill her in the sequel…..
