Customer Reviews

Blacksite: Area 51

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Blacksite has a great story, a very current world with of course a sci-fi twist. the graphics are not the best on the PS3, it's no Call of Duty both in graphics or gameplay, the controls work well for shooting but the squad command is a joke. Above all that the frame rate is awful, every minor load will slow or stop the game for 1-3 seconds, the audio from time to time will feel off, sometimes you'll hear an explosion from your grenade well after it already blew up. Overall this game had serious potential, i wanted to love this game, i waited since june for this release and was very disappointed.

Pros: Current story with elements of the war on terrorism,
The Shooting controls work well.

Cons: Framerate holds you back from enjoying the game,
the squad commands are not well utilized, Short campaign (6-7 hrs)

This isn't a bad game, but it is a very average FPS. I thought that the story, graphics, and voice acting was above average. The different types of aliens that you get to shoot are cool, too. The thing that keeps this game from getting a higher score is the forgettable gameplay. Aiming is awkward, the environments aren't as destructible as advertised, the weapons are bland, your teammates are pretty dull... there are many other little problems that make this game barely average. If you want a great sci-fi FPS for the ps3, buy Resistance.

Blacksite: Area 51 has the kind of "I wonder what's going to pop out at me around the next corner" suspense that was so sorely lacking in RE5. In fact, I found this game to be so much MORE "engaging" than popular titles like RE5 and MGS4. Oddly enough, I believe some of the "flaws" like framerate drops and frequent 2-3 sec gameplay pauses for in-game loads actually CONTRIBUTED to this "Fear Factor", albeit unintentionally. It may not be the popular opinion here, but this was a DECENT SHOOTER as far as I'm concerned...

So much of a game like this hinges on controls for me...Are they spot-on or do they suck? This game has really TIGHT controls and that definitely gets on my good side. I actually got used to the video problems rather quickly because I was drawn into the gameplay. But I can also see how it could be a problem for some who can't avoid focusing on the flaws while playing. I was simply too busy bustin' alien arse to get caught up on those things. I imagine one's experience with this game will be positive or negative based primarily on how much the video problems are allowed to distract one from gameplay.

I played this game in 2 days on Hard difficulty, which equals maybe 8 or 9 hours...So it's a pretty quick one. However, I also found myself trying to squeeze in every free minute to jump back into the fray! There are some parts that are sufficiently challenging and you'll find your character repeatedly dying until you improve your skills enough to get to the next level. I like that in a game, and this one really seems to have it in just the right dosage. The game also quickly progresses through a surprising number of environments for such a short game. It's too varied to ever feel repetitive.

The voice talent was excellent, another pleasant surprise. Sound was also very well done...And when combined with the vibration feedback of the DualShock 3, grabbing one of the fixed machine gun turrets and mowing down approaching aliens was just a flat out 10 out of 10 experience in this game! The weapons are excellent with the trusty old carbine being the most used, the sniper rifle the most fun (especially when taking down the chopper), the pulse rifle the most devastating and the "scatter gun" the most disappointing. It only took me a couple of times to figure out the scatter gun is a good and quick way to get your character killed. MOST ammo is plentiful, meaning carbine ammo...But I wish there were more grenades placed throughout because they were fun and effective. Once you run out of them you may not find any more for quite some time. Also, each time you get the anti-tank weapon, there's only ONE rocket with it when you actually need more...Or at least it would be more fun to repeatedly fire off more rounds and blow stuff up.

Blacksite: Area 51 has a good variety of enemies, and LOTS OF THEM! At times it felt like a Call of Duty title because the aliens seemed like they'd never stop coming. It also has the Squad Command feature of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 allowing you to send your buddies into the unknown so you can safely see what's what before you get your head blown off. Another thing I liked was how an enemy's weapon would "levitate" above the ground after you waste them so you could easily see where more ammo was in the heat of battle...A nice touch!

There are some things I would change. For example, driving a vehicle is insanely difficult simply because the rt stick not only steers the vehicle but it also changes camera perspective at the same time...WTH?!? Imagine trying to drive an arcade racer without a fixed view behind the vehicle. Instead, every time you turn left or right your view also swings to the left or right behind the vehicle WHILE THE VEHICLE IS TURNING! How on Earth could a developer let something like this slip by?!? Just TERRIBLE! But that is my biggest gripe. There were a good many things that were done RIGHT in this game...

It comes across as one of those games that ran out of development time and was rushed to market without needed polish...The kind of polish that could've made Blacksite: Area 51 a true 5-star title. And that's a real shame because it makes it so easy for someone to give this game a 1, 2 or 3-star review with sufficient justification. But if you can train yourself to more or less IGNORE the periodic freeze frames and just focus on alien-busting, then it's the kind of game that has enough going for it to produce 4 or 5-star gaming reviews, again with justification. I have no problem rating this game a SOLID 4-STARS myself, but I can't give it that extra nudge specifically because of the video problems, horrible vehicle physics and overall lack of polish that makes a 5-star game what it is...A seamless and continuously enjoyable gaming experience.

I also HAVE to recommend any game that has me so hooked that I'm looking for every free minute I can find to pick up the controller and play more and more and more...

great fun! not a big gammer, but like the 1st person shooter, you go to Rachel NV (I have been there), and kill aliens! Beat the game in a few days!

Dispite some negative reviews on this game, I found it to be a very exciting shooter. I did however get this game used and not sure if it had anything to do with it but seemed at times I was playing it on a computer that wasn't capible of handling it but playing it on PS3 and some parts stuttered hesitatated. The graphics were awesome and was just an all out fun shooter game.

I enjoyed this game a lot.Play was simple graphics rocked and I liked the story line.The grunts talked and acted like grunts do.I did think the AI could have been better.I re-play this game all the time check it out.

This game is awful. From the bad voice acting to the horrible load pauses. Honestly I didn't even make it past the second level. It was that bad.

Lets sart with the load pauses. Your driving (or walking) along and all the sudden the whole screen has a momentary pause while it loads the next area. Not usaully that big a deal, but it happens all the time. To the point of being a total annoyance.

And the driving controls for the jeep in the second level, forget about it. It's stupid. You can barely control the thing. It's all over the road and slamming into everything. And gettting in and out of tight spaces in a hurry, not really.

Not to mention having to walk around with the most brain dead moronic sqaud mates ever. Delivering some cheesy dialouge.

Don't waste you money. Im sorry I did. I live in a small town with no place to rent games, and my girlfriend won't let me have re occuring monthly credit card bills, so gamefly is out. So I buy games, alot of games. And sometimes you get burned. I tried to take this game to one of those places that buys used games (a 45 minute drive by the way) and I thought they were going to laugh at me for buying this hunk of crap.

I bought this game for the PS3 and let me preface that by saying that many magazines and websites said that the PS3 version was the best release.

That said this game is horrible. It's virtually unplayable even on the PS3 because the frame rate is terrible. Any little sort of action and the screen slows down and becomes choppy.

Not only that but I played it for about 3 hours and I'm halfway done. Let me see, I played GTA4 for 40 hours and I'm only 50% finished. Probably played 1/2 Life 2 for 20 hours to complete that.

So my point is that to begin with this game is only average but factor in the frame rate problems and the length and you have a 1 or 2 star game at best.

One thing that really upset me was that Blacksite wasn't even as good are the original Area 51 for the PS2 in length, story quality, and graphics.

Oh boy, I was looking forward to this game. I love this type of game. Sadly, BA51 has some serious problems that indicate they either didn't listen to their QA testers or rushed to meet some arbitrary deadline. With a little more honing this could have been fantastic. Instead it's just OK.

What's good? The graphics, for one. There's great detail in your environment, enemies, weapons, etc. Everything you could expect from a PS3 game is there, although it doesn't look as stunning as Call Of Duty 4, which I've seen a friend play on his XBox 360. Explosions, weapons effects, and sound are all very good.

Although I'm still playing, so far the weapons are hit-or-miss. There's a shotgun-like weapon that's basically useless. When I first found it I thought it would be perfect for close combat, but it's not. A regular combat shotgun might not look as future-cool in your hands, but would work better. The ordinary assault rifle is very good, though, and sniper rifles can come in handy. You can also man turrets here and there.

Early in the game there's an extended helicopter ride where you're manning a mounted machine gun that's very fun and wonderfully detailed. You can actually hear the helicopter's hydraulics fading and recovering when you take hits. You battle a gigantic alien thing on a bridge, and again, everything looks fantastic.

I've heard complaints about driving vehicles (so far only Hummers for me), but it's no better or worse than driving in any other game. Forward or back on the left stick to go or stop, steer with the right stick. I generally don't like driving in games, but it's no big deal. Plus you can order teammates to man the Hummer's turret or get on it yourself (although the game usually makes you drive).

They've thrown in some squad command play, but it's not really that useful. Also, your partners' morale rises and falls depending on how well you're doing, which is a nice twist. You can target specific enemies and have your squad concentrate on them, which is nice, especially at one particular spot where your buddy is hovering overhead in a helicopter and you can have him take out the enemies on the ground for you. Some complain about the squad dialogue, but these are grunts, not James Bond.

But it takes no time at all for the lack of QA to seriously damage the fun, though. BA51 uses real-time mini loads ala Halo, but they're very jerky when they happen and sometimes freeze the screen for a couple of seconds. Also, when there's a lot going on, the framerate suffers HORRIBLY. Example: Outside is a huge creature the size of a mansion stomping around, I'm in a basement collecting ammo. Occasionally, little spider-like enemies attack, two to four at a time. Even though most of what's happening is off-screen and your immediate environment is fairly calm, shooting the spiders turned into a jerk-fest of epic proportions. There was so much skipping that it was nearly impossible to do anything but keep spraying bullets and hope that when the graphics caught up you'd hit something. Yet, at other times when there's a lot of action, explosions, etc. going on things are fine.

Bottom line - I'm going to finish it but won't keep it. BA51 is a sad, sad case of underdevelopment. If the game so far is any indication, the frame-rate and loading problems are probably only going to get worse. Movement throughout levels is littered with stutters. I'm trying hard not to let it bother me, but there's really no excuse for it and most people I know would be driven insane and throw the game disk into the nearest busy intersection. The story is getting interesting, the combat situations and enemy AI are pretty good, and so far the ever-changing environments keep things interesting. But this game is badly broken.

I bought this game four years after it's release and figured it would seem pretty dated. But... It was cheap and I was interested in some of it's features. Besides... I'm new to the PS3 and have had some problems getting used to the controller. I figured if nothing else this would be a nice training exercise.

Well... The game is a blast. I've had a great time playing it. I like that it's not so serious. You know? You just play through it and have fun doing so. I love that! I also like the wide path. The path you follow through the game is broad with many extraneous places to explore. Sometimes it doesn't seem like a path at all. The graphics seem fine to me... The weapons are cool... The Bot guys on your team seem to do the right thing in general... It's great. Love it. Fun, Fun, Fun!

I have some small complaints. First, I think the turrets should be easier to use. Secondly, the "Morale" feature is kind of a drag. There are times when you make decisions based on strategy and Morale goes down. That is a bummer. Finally, The driving can be a little arduous at times.

All in all I say this game is a winner. It can be had for less that $10 in most cases. So... If you like Shooters and you want to relax a little bit and play a less serious game, give it a try.