Game Review: "BlackSite: Area 51"
Doug Elfman - Richmond Times - Dispatch
Nov 13, 2007
New Video Games Taking Anti-War Shots
Our American government is taking flak not just in film, TV and music. Now it's getting satirized to great effect in "BlackSite: Area 51." This fun shooting-adventure mocks the unpopularity of the president and the Iraq war. It hints a draft lurks around the corner.
"BlackSite" (a Nov. 13 release) is so subversive in a lighthearted way; the storyline suggests government doctors are fusing space alien DNA with that of U.S. Soldiers to turn them into super disgusting killers, who accidentally go on the loose.
It's up to you, the player, to portray an elite American Soldier, trying to save our great land from us. You shoot machine guns, rocket launchers and plasma rifles to take down DNA-corrupted U.S. Soldiers and big, ugly aliens running amuck around Area 51, in a real Nevada town called Rachel.
But first, we begin with a back story in Iraq, where you shoot at people, who are shooting at you, on a makeshift battlefield at an oil refinery.
"Is everyone in this place armed?" asks a soldier buddy of yours. "Who gives assault weapons to refinery workers?"
"Um," a fellow U.S. soldier responds. "I think they bought this (weaponry) from us," meaning the United States. "I hope they got some good money."
On and on, the statements roll. There's even a nod to the political tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, an allusion to how people in New Orleans only thought the government would help them.
If you're familiar with video games, it's not terribly surprising to find one so anti-establishment. Game makers are a paranoid bunch. Two years ago, developers with a good sense of humor parodied the supposedly glorious 1950s by creating really repressed idiot Americans in "Destroy All Humans!" Also in 2005, the unrelated and awesome "Area 51" played on fears that the moon landing wasn't real.
Before the 2004 election, three Vietnam games reminded us of the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, just when Vietnam War veteran John Kerry was failing to bid for the White House.
Even "Call of Duty" World War II games flash forbidding quotes on the screen, such as one by 15th century humanist Desiderius Erasmus in "Call of Duty 2": "War is delightful for those who have not experienced it."
Many war games are, by definition, implicitly pro-killing if not pro-establishment. Explicitly pro-establishment games are harder to come by. The big exceptions are "Tom Clancy" games, where villains are the liberal media and terrorists. "Clancy" titles are, by the way, quite fun.
Politics aside, Midway has delivered an entertaining escapade. It's long and beautifully drawn, sending you scurrying to search and destroy through detailed trailer parks, Nevada neighborhoods and canals.
Online, you can tap into death matches, team death matches, capture the flag and human vs. alien levels, where you try to slay alien-morphing humans before they corrupt you.
In offline solo missions, you save some civilians who refuse to leave their government-destroyed, alien-infested towns.
"Yeah, they told me to evacuate, but I'm up to my eyeballs in a mortgage for this place," a Nevada resident says.
A few seconds later, a two-story alien bursts from the ground and eats Mr. Mortgage. Regardless of politics, this is cool.
"BlackSite: Area 51"
Plays fun. Looks great. Challenging.
* * * * (Four stars)
Price: $60 for Xbox 360.
Rated: T for blood, language, violence.
Doug Elfman is a columnist who is also the TV critic at the Chicago Sun-Times. He blogs at DougElfman.com.
Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion
Copyright 2008 by Richmond Times - Dispatch
