BlackSite Area 51 (Xbox 360) Teaser Demo Impressions

With my Xbox 360's DVD drive being broke and all, I decided to browse the Marketplace yesterday to see what Demos and such there might be to download, and I came across a short teaser demo for an upcoming FPS entitled BlackSite Area 51.

BlackSite Area 51 is developed by Midway, though I'm not sure if its a sequal to their previous titles or not. Since I had never even heard of this game before, I went in with a completely open mind, and though the teaser demo is only about 6 minutes long and obviously a work in progress, it was a good taste of FPS fun.

Your take control of Aeran Pierce, a former special forces assassin now in command of a small special forces team sent to the town of Rachel, Nevada to investigate the disappearance of another military unit there. What you discover is that the entire town has been overrun by aliens and what appear to be modified/mutilated humans. From what I've seen, the plot itself isn't going to be the game's strong point, very generic, but the rest of the demo was very nice.

BlackSite Area 51 uses the Unreal Engine 3, the same graphics engine that powers Gears of War, and it looks superb. It keeps the same dull grey colour tones that Gears of War is famous for, and the demo takes place at night in the pouring rain. Not only does BlackSite Area 51 show off the wet surfaces and concrete that looked so nice in Gears of War, but it also has rain bouncing off your weapon and squad mates, something I've never seen in a video game before. That alone was a nice visual treat.

The demo takes places in a realistic, modern town and takes you through a convenience store, gas station, and towards a strip mall before it ends, all nicely detailed with a solid "lived in" look. The environments themselves are also very destructible adding to that level of realism, and they're some of the nicest I've seen since Half-Life 2. And yes, shoot those gas pumps and they certainly go "boom."

The only drag I noticed visually is that there are V-Sync issues and I also had several frame rate jumps, but again, it is a teaser demo for a work in progress so its very easy to forgive the development team as they still have months to optimize the title.

In the demo, you have 2 squad mates whom you control easily with the Right Bumper. Use the RB on the ground and they'll move there. Use it on a door and they'll open it or if it's locked, blow it open. Using your squad is very simple and they'll engage enemies on their own and fight well. BlackSite Area 51 also introduces a new concept to FPS squad mates, and that's morale. If you're doing well they'll be more aggressive and fight better, if you're getting your ass kicked or a squad mate goes down they'll perform more poorly and be more defensive. The morale system is handled on a battle-to-battle basis and is never permanent, and this will be an interesting feature to watch.

The enemies are standard fair for the most part. You first encounter a Reborn Scout in a nice scripted sequence, and then go on to fight several Scouts and Reborn Soldiers. Nothing too fancy but a solid FPS battle. You also end up fighting some Drudge Grunts who remind me very much of pure-land based Ant Lions from Half-Life 2. The final sequence of the demo is a great special effect that literally blew me away, you'll know it when you see it and I fully expect your jaw to drop like mine did. Very nice, very impressive.

Weapon wise, you have an M4 Assault Rifle and a Mark 23 Handgun at your disposal, and also some classic Frags which work very well in that first battle. You're able to refill on ammo a few minutes in, so go nuts and enjoy killing the enemies and tinkering with the destructible environments.

The controls are very traditional, with the Left Thumbstick moving you around, click for Crouch, and the Right Thumbstick adjusting where you look. "A" is jump, "B" is Melee, "Y" is switch Weapon, and "X" is Reload. The Left Bumper throws a Frag, Left Trigger zooms in, and of course, the Right Trigger fires your weapon. As previously mentioned, the Right Bumper issues your squad commands, and apparently "Up" on the D-Pad will use a FlashLight, but that wasn't working in the demo. Anyone who's handled a console FPS before will be instantly at home with the game's control scheme.

Based on this teaser demo, I would certainly say that BlackSite Area 51 is on the right track. It's got my attention to say the least, and while I wouldn't run out and buy it based on this demo alone, I'm opening we'll see a longer demo prior to the September release date. At a size of roughly 250 MB though, the BlackSite Area 51 Teaser Demo is one you should download and check out immediately.