Quite a nice fps,one of the best around,has its goods and its bads to be fair.Read on for a more detailed take if u wish
THE GOOD:The graphics and lighting are very nice,similar to what you would see in Gears Of War if memory serves,the sound is good but it would be nice if it covered more of the game.Gameplay fun and easy,few controls that cover all the needs you may have.In regards to thier statement about the game beeing innovative for the genre,they are partially right.For example i am the kind of guy that hates to play squad based games,however this one i loved,forget about hundreds of commands for your squad,and decideing to witch member to give them to,squad members getting stuck or just simply refusing to follow your orders..etc.This game feautures a very nice and simple 1 button squad control,and depenging on the enviroment and what u point to,the appropiate squad member will do a certain action.Olso didnt have any problems with them geting stuck,and usually they will follow u quite nice,without running 20 meters and then having to stop to wait for them to chatch up.They dont die to often to become ennoing(at least not on the casual difficulty level) and even when they do die(actually they dont die,just get knocked down and stay like that for a bit),its no problem u dont need a squad to play this game.As i said the gameplay is very fun,u will get to do lots of stuff,like driving a car,or handleing its turret,beeing on the turret of a chooper and so on.The AI is quite good too,and(i tested a bit) challenging and the harder difficulty levels.The story is entertaining but nothing innovative,depending on what type of person u are,u might find it interesting or funny.
THE BAD:The game is indeed pretty short(what i write in () is not a bad point,but i put it here cause i talked about the game beeing kinda short;the game olso has a multiplayer part witch from what i heard is pretty good,but i didnt test it myself),the sounds and shadows could have used more polishing.
OTHER:Here i would like to answer some concerns i have seen ppl having on different forums.First bugs,the game really doenst have that many,and most of them can be fixed by patching,i honestly didnt have much problems,i do recommend u use the update patches and update the game to version 1.2.From what i understand the latest game boxes contain both the game and the 2 patches.The only real problem i had was that the shadows of a few characters got screwed up in 2 or 3 instances,but that can be fixed quite easy,eighter by restarting the game,or in one case walking a few more steps:P.Second ppl complaining about the game lagging,or not starting up,etc..i am sorry guys but u cant have everything,u cant ask for good games with awsome graphics and stuff,and in the same time demand that they run on poor PC's too.The game worked great for me,just some small frame lags when i got to checkpoints,and they went away after a few seconds.Now i have seen lots of ppl asking about the system requirements for this game,since for some reason they cant seem to find them anywhere.So i will first post the official system req's,then my own to back up what i said above.
Official:Minimum System Requirements
• OS: XP or Vista
• CPU: 3.0ghz cpu Intel or AMD equivalent
• Memory: 1 gig physical memory
• HDD Space: 15GB
• Pixel Shader 3.0 capable video card with at least 256MB of RAM and DirectX9
My specs:windows xp sp2;processor amd athlon dual core 6000+;2 gig's of ram;video asus eah 2600 pro with 256 mb and shader 4.0,directX9
Conclusion:Its a nice game with good ideas that keeps with the times and can stand up there with the best of them Crysis,Gears Of War,Chronicles Of Riddick..etc.So my recommandation is buy the game,update it to 1.2,get a no cd crack for the 1.2 version and start having some fun.
P.S.Sorry if this was kinda long,and one more thing,for some of u ppl,including the gamespot reviewers("BlackSite: Area 51 is an ordinary first-person shooter...") the fact that a game doesnt bring lots of new stuff,or doesnt take games to a new level CAN'T be listed as a bad thing!Learn that already.