Blacksite: Area 51 is a solid game, but small tweaks could have made this far better.
The positives of the game include the vibrant environments. At one stage your in Iraq, then into desert in the USA, and also night-time in the rain. Its the minute details that bring this game alive, and make you feel part of it.
The story begins in Iraq, in search of chemical weapons. Simple story-line, but it evolves into something far worse, with the discovery of alien/mutant creatures, it leads to an attack on US soil. This story-line makes the game interesting, and certainly kept the game alive.
The gameplay itself is nice, but it is far too similiar to other FPS games. Such games as Resistance: Fall of Man feature similiar controls and weaponry as Blacksite, and yes, we've seen it all before. There is no real advance in gameplay, with slight team-tactics by commanding 2-3 comrades who open doors for you, it has a feel of Gears of War. So you could theoretically call this game a hybrid of Resistance: Fall of Man and Gears of War. A little bit of each created Blacksite.
The graphics are superb. You can tell that there was a lot of time focused on them, and in this review the game was seen in HD format. Stunning with great looking AI and scenery, however a minor complaint is that when driving on the road (one of the early missions), the road lines fade in as they get closer, which became highly annoying.
This example brings along a failure of Blacksite, the bugs. There were a few bugs in the game, the most notorious being the lines (but now that I've considered it, it might be Midway trying to be TOO graphically impressive), and a glitch I encountered where a squad member sat in the car, but appeared outside of it sitting down. The AI itself does not feel complete, as sometimes they won't move when ordered somewhere, and come running to you after a long pause. Aside from these, the sound is good, with decent commentary, voice acting and sound effects as the game progressed. The only problem with the sound was that maybe there was too much chatter during the action. Such as squad members repeating the sam phrase when they see an enemy, or when reloading.
Blacksite has the feeling of being rushed, and certainly feels like it could do with a thorough clean to make this game acceptable. The gameplay feels natural, but its been seen before. Everything about the game points to a hollywood blockbuster, but the bugs and glitches, and the AI problems mean that this game does not deliver the whole package. It is an enjoyable game, and certainly has its moments - but I would suggest renting this first, as opinion on this game is very divided.