Blacksite Area 51

Modern day fears come to life in a familiar, yet extraordinary setting in BlackSite™: Area 51®. A small American town is swarming with alien life. The government is desperate, struggling to contain secrets so terrible, they can no longer be kept. Everything hinges on the actions of Aeran Pierce, a former Special Forces assassin thrown into the most explosive moment in American history.

In BlackSite, you're cast as Aeran Pierce, a silent badass who leads a team of military grunts into battle on a daily basis. On a mission to Iraq, you come across a fragment of alien origin, lose one of your guys to it and blackout. The story picks up three years later as the crazy crap you saw in the Middle East -- grotesque men with tentacles hanging out of their mouths, gigantic exploding bugs and a bunch of creepy-crawlies -- has sprung up in Nevada and it's up to you and crew to snuff it out.

The graphics are one of the high points in BlackSite. When I first started my mission, I got pinned down by some hostiles behind a concrete divide. I sat waiting for the foes to run out of ammo and begin reloading when suddenly the barricade began breaking apart under their fire. Not every environment is destructible but lots of the cover you take will be. The alien shotguns look good as they glow, a massive worm beast wrapped around a bridge and swinging at your helicopter is an intimidating sight, and enemies aren't afraid to spring out from corners and come at you.

Those jump-out-at-you moments are just one example of BlackSite's attempt to fuse its arcade roots with a free-wheeling FPS. Yeah, you'll be able to wander around battlefields and come at anchored enemies from whatever direction you like, but there are going to be those moments when a single-file line of exploding bugs pours out from around a corner or you walk into an area to find enemies popping up from behind boxes just like you'd expect in your typical arcade shooter.

GAME SUMMARY

BlackSite: Area 51, developed by Midway Studios Austin, is a next-generation game that will redefine the first person shooter (FPS) genre. While other FPS titles claim to feature "action-packed, highly realistic gameplay," BlackSite: Area 51 takes next-gen gaming to an all-new level integrating cutting edge technology, game design and story writing to create the ultimate entertainment experience. The player's modern-day emotions and fears are driven into a world charged with grave responsibility affecting lives hanging in the balance and eventually finding himself torn between his professional orders and his own ethical standards. In the end, only the actions of the player and his squad can shape the outcome of BlackSite: Area 51 during this potentially pivotal moment in history.

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