Video review: “Blacksite: Area 51” – echoes of “Deus Ex”

Someone’s choice for a review may seem somewhat strange. However, do not worry. This time we will not systematically derive the pedigree project from the first games of the Area 51 series for arcade machines and home consoles with a light gun. And there are two reasons at once. Firstly, they received the rights to the “Midway” frachens, who managed to release in 2005 for PlayStation 2 a good rethinking of the original game of a ten-year ago, taking up the continuation, decided to move away from the concept of classical theories of the conspiracy, a rather grotesque style of history and action on the screen. I will replace the A-LA set “Secret Materials”;Voice actors, among which one could notice David Dudyni himself and even Merlin Manson;and a classic arcade gameplay came several more serious topics and a different style of narrative. Secondly, the notorious Harvi Smith, who eventually took the post of creative director of the project, turned to the Austin unit of the company and completely turned the new part of the Area 51 into something completely different from all previous games in the series. Therefore, something greater than the spiritual heir to the original game to call “Blacksite” and the language will not turn.

“Area 51” sample of 2005.
In general, it is precisely the desire to get acquainted with the project created under the patronage of Harvey in the interval between his departure from Ion Storm after developing the invisible war and joining the ranks of Arkane in the future who gave us the Dishonored series and explains increased attention to Blacksite. Initially, Smith was hired in Midway Austin to work at once on two at an early stage of development and was not assigned to the new “Area 51”. However, problems with this game forced the company’s management to persistently ask Harvey to take on it seriously. And he approached the question quite radically. He quite significantly reorganized the team, set her a new course of activity and, together with the screenwriter of GEARS of War and Bioshock, Susan O’Connor took up the fundamental rethinking of the plot of the game, intending to embody their general ideas in it. In the process of these changes, they have gone so far that at some point the concept of “Blacksite” proposed by Harvey almost completely replaced the original “zone 51”. In some places, even from the title of the game itself, because, for example, in Europe it was sold simply as “Blacksite”. However, the publisher, who owned the brand, still insisted on his own, and the nominal connection with the series remained untouched. Nevertheless, much more topical topics came to the place of horror stories from X-Files, which bother and even frightened the population of the United States in the middle of the zero, and the action of the game was supposed to splash outside the secret laboratories on the streets of ordinary American cities.

Not completely departing from work on the first two Deus Ex, inspired by the gloomy paintings of the not too distant future and government secrets of the present, Harvey intended to some extent to demonstrate his view of the political situation that was happening in the country and abroad. Because recent events in the United States raised a lot of questions and fears in him. State secrets, shadow transactions and decisions made on the sidelines of power. Private military companies and events in the Middle East. Gray zones of laws and secret prisons with torture prisoners. Opaque elections and corrupt authority. At that time, even America President George Bush allowed himself to call the US Constitution only a pile of paper, and the scandal reigning around his appointments, including the CIA, thundered rather loudly. And as an answer, “Blacksite” was supposed to offer a political satire and criticism of the authorities. A sharp protest against the infuriated military-industrial complex of the United States. Harvey had to defend this acute sentence before the Midway leadership, assuring them that he would not go through reasonable faces and provide several points of view on the problem. In addition, the game will give Gamer freedom. Run it like just a good shooter, not really delving into the semantic message and get your portion of pleasure. Or dig deeper and find a mass of food for thought. Smith managed to convince the company and “Blacksite” saw the light as planned.

Flashbacks from Vietnam Iraq.
Even the beginning of the game in the form of a mission of Fleshbek in Iraq, added to the new “Area 51” according to Harvey’s idea, is nothing more than one big satire and a parody of typical games and films of such a genre about brave American soldiers who bring light of democracy around the world. The “Echo” detachment of the Delta special forces under the command of Captain Eran Pierce completes the search assignment, as a practice showed not found chemical weapons in one of the secret bins in Iraq. Having met with the head of the scientific group, Dr. Noia Wais and breaking through the battle through the defending object of the unit of the local army, they do not find any traces of the presence of weapons allegedly bought by the Iraqi on the site. Instead, medical and research experimental laboratories appear before their gaze, and as a result, the detachment shakes up on the fierce resistance of those who like in the dungeons of the frightening creatures most likely similar to mutated people and animals. The source of this mutilated life form is the crystal, as it will become clear later, clearly of extraterrestrial origin, resting in the bowels of the base. Upon contact with him, the commander of the Pierce division is subjected to a mental attack and the detachment manages to save only at the cost of life to the last one who has fed and remaining on the other side of the hermetic door of Lieutenant Somers. Bravely fighting the monsters on all sides and sacrificed for the survival of the rest.

In fact, it is here that https://casinopalm.net/ the standard patriotic pathos bravado of the games of a similar sense ends, and the story of the main events “Blacksite” is not so unambiguous, the history of the main events, turned inside out. True, and as the mission passes in Iraq, there are already interesting moments that pass through the entire plot of the game with a through thread. Some of the opponents hastily surrendered, referring to the Geneva Convention and really do not want to continue the battle. For some of them, this does not end in the best way, when the conversations of his colleagues who decided to eliminate unnecessary witnesses of the operation come from the premises abandoned by the pier. The relentless partners of the protagonist are constantly transferred by jokes about the fact that their native states could sell the weapons to the local workers of the oil refining plant, and the government practically without hiding tests experimental drugs on the fighters of the American army. Dr. Nois Ways herself reasonably wonders whether it is necessary to behave so defiantly and indicatively knocked out the doors from his feet, as if in cheap militants, when you can simply open them calmly. A degree of ridicule and quite justified issues only increases when actions are currently transferred (t.e. in 2006). And they are not taking place somewhere there in the backyards of another hemisphere, but in the United States themselves.

Another interview for the media commander of the operation.
Against the backdrop of the ratings of the government and the president, protests against the decisions of the Congress expressed through the media and the talk show of discontent of the population and anti-war sentiments, angry with the endless army call of citizens in Nevada, near the mothballed secret base, an emergency regime is introduced. The Ministry of Defense carefully hides the details and corders a solid piece of state. In fact, it turns out that some armed to the teeth either terrorists or violators threatening state security of another pushing managed to capture the base left several years ago and wielded in the district, mercilessly destroying both military units and civilians. By order of the command, the special detachment of the same captain of the Pierce is sent to the small town of Rachel to clarify the details of the current situation before hitting the main forces of the army. Naturally, according to the whole law of the genre, the alarming hints of the similarity of what is happening with what the detachment stumbled during the events in Iraq and the noisy loyal to the fighters of Noah Ways, who was informing the captain, who was not aware of what it was faced with his eye, is already quite soon turned into a frightening unpleasant truth that the government would never have preferredadvertise.

Familiar “aliens” from the Middle East.
After all, the Pierce unit and other soldiers will have to be faced not at all with the external enemy who encroached on the freedom and independence of America, but with the generation of unclean politicians and their own country’s scientists. The first meetings with alien disputes samples of the earth’s fauna, which can be easily mistaken for aliens, will soon be replaced by fierce battles with well -trained and equipped experimental weapons in American uniform. Receiving clear orders having their command and are not at all like amateur terrorists. Understanding that they have to fight against their former colleagues will come to the detachment far from right away and they will only be able to believe in it only closer to the final of history. The sudden return of Lieutenant Somers and his story about government experiments on the innocent stolen civilian people and soldiers of the army only pour oil into the fire of the internal conflict of the unit. It is not considered to be the losses in the ranks of the experimental and not based on moral principles that the program to create a new type of soldiers who got out of control became the cause of the chaos that is happening around the chaos. With the help of the artifacts of extraterrestrial origin taken from the Middle East, scientists of the Renaissance project tried to turn yesterday’s homeless and missing fighters of the units of the American army into perfect warriors. Modifies and ugly with implants, modifying with the help of surgery and drugs.

-The army of the United States, the first, negative-some kind of nonsense.
But the victims of the experiments managed to break out and now they are eager to take revenge on everyone who treated them in this way. Innocent for soldiers of the “Renaissance” simply does not exist. Dear-abiding citizens and patriots of the US Army, exhausted by experiments, turned weapons against the entire population of the country, and alien technologies became only a tool of retaliation. Horror spilled on the streets of a small American town, where civilians cannot believe that the war is already going on. And it occurs in their backyard, in a trailer park or refueling nearby. The special cynicism and sad sarcas of this situation are added by shootouts in the court building and on the square in front. Where, under the stretching in honor of the “Veterans Day”, the current and former patriots of America fight each other to death. Have become a lively reminder of the sins of society and power to innocent people. And this kind of disappointed satire and near social problems, raised as history develops in Blacksite. It turns out that the theme of immigrants, so much tormenting the inhabitants of the States in the blink of an eye can retreat into the background. The miracle of American thought is the rifle with which the pier’s partner passed all Iraq, is assembled and produced in China. But they have much more dangerous and criminal experiments right under their nose. As Harvi Smith himself said: such injections to sore spots and ridicule of what everyone is usually afraid of is the best that can be opposed to such fears. And the game is saturated with them entirely. Even the names of the complexity levels in it are an allusion to the color scale of the potential terrorist threat introduced in the United States after the events of September 11. And the headlines of some missions refer to the quotes of the reign of the Bush administration and the military campaign in Iraq. In general, Harvey managed to fully embody this idea in Blacksite, as for everything else … In general, everything is far from so rosy.

Tactical green marker for partners.
One of the main distinguishing features of the new “zone 51” that became part of the promotion advertising company was the main character’s partners. With which two interesting concepts were connected at once. Firstly, the pier’s colleagues could easily and intuitively control the pressing of just one button. Without any extra menu and various orders characteristic of more traditional team games. Just bring a sight to the region, an enemy or an object with which it is possible to interact and give a command. Thus, forcing them to attack a specific enemy, move forward and take a shelter, open the door, sit at a stationary machine gun and so on. A kind of tactical element, somewhat reminiscent of “Opposing Force”, in which in fairness it was not possible to manage the actions of partners. Something similar, though in the cut-out version later appeared in Mass Effect and Bodr Cyberpank Shuther “Binary Domain. The second feature that the developers pressed was a moral system. One of the main principles of Harvey was always an approach – fewer heroes, but more details and opportunities associated with them. Therefore, each of the time of replacing members of the Pierce detachment was provided with their own backstory, character and manner of behavior. Giving them life, diversifying the movement by locations and shootings of their constant chatter. Often the disputes of partners, skirmishes and they expressed aloud the thoughts play no less a role in the narrative of history, rather than others familiar to games in the genre Shuther Methods. In addition, they are not shy about commenting on the actions of their commander. Accidentally running up in search of an enemy to a women’s toilet or shot an information panel with gas prices, which they also do not like at all.

Pierce actions and, as a result, the moral of the detachment at the height.
However, the key factor in all this interactive-social component is the moral of fighters during shootings. According to the idea, directly affecting their combat effectiveness. From the success of the player, his well -aimed shots and general conditions of the battle, its indicator from low to high. It holds at the peak of one or the other side of the scale for some time and is discarded to the standard. Although the player does not see any numbers or its specific indicators. Only short notifications of a change in mood in the detachment. The main indicator is successful or not very actions of the pier can be called the phrases of approval or indignation of his partners, their gestures and even the expression of persons who speak for themselves. The lower the moral of the fighters fall, the more often they begin to hide and shoot less often. In the case of the heroic deeds of the commander, colleagues also try to keep up, begin to act aggressively and put everyone on the spot. And it seems that all this sounds very interesting, especially in combination with the tactical moment and liveliness of the heroes, but … even at the maximum level of complexity, at which, in theory, a lot depends on the morality of the detachment, in fact it does not have any effect on the process of passing the game. And you simply forget about it. As well as about the possibility of giving orders to partners. The developers spent a lot of time on these game mechanics, but their real use is more of an optional nature. And having played up in the sensitive commander of the detachment for the couple of the first missions, most gamers will simply forget about their existence. Unlike the gorgeous destruction of the environment for which Midway also pushed during the promotion of the project, this system did not work as it should and did not bring anything really original to the gameplay.

Brown on brown.
And from a visual point of view in Blacksite, everything is also very ambiguous. On the one hand, the already mentioned destruction, the overall level of graphics, effects and the rest of the tinsel is quite at the level. Despite the fact that this was the first test of the studio pen when working with Unreal Engine 3 at the capacities of the seventh generation consoles. But unfortunately, the project went out in that strange era, as I call it “brown games”, when many of them, and completely different genres, in terms of visual and stylistic design often rolled into dull gray-brown shades of pseudo-realism. And it did not go to the new “Area 51” to the benefit. Despite the rare interspersed of interesting design solutions and bright decorations, in general, the picture in the game is not particularly pleased and certainly does not delight. Especially against the backdrop of competitors of the same year. Things are a little better with the gameplay “Blacksite”. Not too low the plank of complexity. Very good firing mechanics of several types of weapons, including experimental in the second half of the game. The views of opponents really differing from each other, sometimes trying to annoy even on the verge of death, crawling closer and exploding like terrorists from the last forces. Huge underground worms, for the destruction of which you need a gun more powerful. Cocoons generating smaller monsters. And even the gigantic sizes of beetles shooting the rays of death, apparently inspired by the “star landing”. Reflection of waves of enemies, shootings in narrow corridors, trips on Hammer on roads and off -road with rare landings and analysis. Helicopter missions for a machine gun and other fun. Well, collecting dossier on secluded levels of levels. By the way, quite useful and revealing a lot of information about the plot of the game, chronology of events, partners of the pier and its enemy.

Classic missions on a helicopter.
As a result, “Blacksite” turned out to be a good, not without interesting ideas, rather neat, but still very average game. A kind of greetings from the past that could not withstand any comparisons with blocks like “Crysis”, “Bioshock”, “Call of Duty 4” and “S.T.A.L.TO.E.R »Seeing the light in the same 2007 and gaining fashion for shooters-sandwichs. As it turned out later, there were largely the reason for this with the final polishing of the game. Due to the burning deadlines, the lack of normal testing and the inability to bring the components to mind, far from everything was fully realized. Stupid behavior of partners doing anything except what the player ordered them. The unnecessary moral system itself is an unbalanced and remaining useless appendage. Pretty crumpled and slurred ending of the game. In November, the same seventh year, Harvey publicly stated that the schedule of work on the project was simply crazy, and the lack of tests only aggravated the situation. Literally after that he was left from Midway, which fortunately played only in plus the career of this game designer in the future. Nevertheless, “Blacksite” cannot be called an openly failed or non -grade project. Its portion of fun from gameplay, the atmosphere of games of those years and still a successful general idea laid down in it by a creative director, you can easily get. Nowadays, such “just good games”, especially in the FPS genre, oh how not enough. And let the experiments with the Area 51 franchise in the end not that they did not result in a loud success, but essentially buried the series, this game was the best indicator that the heritage of Ion Storm and Looking Glass living in the former employees of these studios will still make themselves felt. Gameplay and even katsen exclusively from the first person, non -standard methods of interaction with the environment and other elements of the “immersion of Sim”, which were slipping into “Blacksite”, were only a rehearsal before a large representation, which will take place after five years later.