Descrutible playground
The three missions I played demonstrated the wide range of scenarios that we’ll be facing in Blacksite, with on-foot skirmishes against alien monsters with your squad mates in tow, a GRAW-like helicopter sequence across an alien-infested canyon, and a nice blend of the two styles, with your character on foot and your controllable team-mates fighting from the relative safety of your chopper.
The Iraq map was set in a fairly deserted Iraqi town, complete with mosque, where I had my first taste of the destructible environment that we've been promised. Aside from shooting and blowing up vehicles and barrels, smashing glass and crumbling stone columns and walls with the powerful sub-machine gun, there was a glimpse of just how far Midway are planning to go to create a destructible playground, which was demonstrated by a large statue (not of Saddam Hussein I hasten to add) that stood in the centre of a small square. I brandished my pistol, walked towards the statue and shot at its right arm, which then fragmented and came crashing to the ground, crumbling into dust. I was told that this statue alone has 12 different spots that crumble when you shoot at them and that Midway will be applying this technology to large parts of the environment.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageThe gameplay itself is very similar to the earlier Rainbow 6 games, where you have a standard array of human weapons, such as pistols, sub-machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket launchers and you follow a set path through the level and need to stop and take cover during bouts of fighting, which are extremely frequent, fast-paced and exciting. Midway however has taken a different approach to Ubisoft's shooter when it comes to squad based tactic. There are only two members in your elite squad and both can be ordered by executing a simple one-button command. There's nothing innovative about the squad based system employed in Blacksite, but Midway say that they didn't want to over-complicate matters and wanted to keep the game flowing and action-packed. Despite the simplicity of the system it does work really well and achieves the company's goal of making Blacksite an accessible and action based game, although fans of more in-depth shooters may not be so forgiving.