Blacksite dev explains the game’s low ratings
Blacksite: Area 51 shipped earlier this month to less than stellar reviews. Blacksite developer Harvey Smith, who also developed Deus Ex, spoke on the subject at the Montreal International Games Summit 2007 and explained why the low scores weren’t surprising.
Smith was rather candid with his remarks
This project was so fucked up…Everyone was forced to share tech. It took eight months to get one thing working…With a year to go, the game was disastrously off rails…it went straight from alpha to final.
Smith noted how little time his team had to work on the game, for example, they only had four days to fix and polish a level once it had been completed, something Smith called “completely reprehensible”. Smith doesn’t point any fingers, and stated that he was being open and honest about the game because he believes in “personal accountability”. Unlike the critics however, Smith felt that the game deserved an 80, noting his high opinion of the satirical elements of the game’s story. Perhaps the critics couldn’t appreciate the satire because they were blinded by how strikingly mediocre the game is.
Via: Wired
damn, that’s too bad. i was looking forward to trying this game out when the tide of goodness (assassins, cod4, mass effect, etc.) rolls back out. i will probably still give it a rental, but it is sad to hear about such abysmal time restraints.
i actually liked the orignol demo it had a sort of half life 2/ gears/ rainbow six style which worked nice
but i didn’t like the latest demo felt like it had gotten worse i was looking forward to this game too i just wish they had have spent an extra year on it and brought it out nov 2008
the loss of online coop changed my mind about it
if u can’t do a game right don’t do it at all but this dosn’t look terrible but if what hes saying is true then the low scores prob could have been holstered up with just a little more work
I like his honesty. I work in software development and know exactly what he’s banging on about. Project Managers should take the flack.
Ditto. At least they tried. Maybe their next project will be better.
Well if you look at Metacritic there’s plenty of green reviews too. There’s just too many FPS games on the 360 you need to be at the top of your game to compete.
I liked both demos… I’m still to play Halo 3 but I enjoyed to demos more than Halo 2. Somehow this setting worked better for me.
I played and beat the game in about 5 hours. It was alright. It did have a couple slow points in the game where I was bored. Like on one level where you drive a Hummer for most of the level. You would run in to a couple of enemies kill them and then drive for about 10 min. then repeat.
It’s worth a rental but that’s about it.
Just out of curiosity, are you one of those guys who rush through games?
For comparison, I have been playing Pray for about a month now and i still haven’t finished it… I play about an hour every couple of days and when all ennemies are dead I stroll around and look at all the details… any game takes me at least double the times that I read online.
If the game is good I’ll take my time. I don’t wander around looking at detail though unless there’s something cool to look at. There wasn’t really much to look at in Blacksite, plus the game was pretty easy. There is also only 5 or 6 levels
I really thought this was going to be a sleeper title much like Far Cry was on the PC. I loved the original demo, too bad the game didn’t finish out that way.
I have to say that I enjoyed the original demo more than the full retail game. I never played the 2nd demo so I can’t comment on it. This game isn’t all bad though.
I’ll start with the positive. This game looks great. The motion blur is awesome and the graphics look great. On the other hand, the TEAM AI is… I just don’t like it. Your team doesn’t really listen to your orders during combat. When they do listen, they never actually stay at the location where you ordered them to. Also, it’s rare when they actually do use cover. I think the whole Morale thing kinda blows, because you take damage all the time and it’s almost instant, and your damn team mates are bullet magnets so ofcourse their damn morale is going to be low. I’ve encountered some minor glitches with team mates getting stuck in random places. I just think the AI needs some tweaking. I’d say rent the game if you can, or play it at a friend’s house. As far as buying the game goes, if you liked the demo(s) then go for it.
the time of release was doomed from the day it was dated with the other lineup of huge games, it might of sold better if they put a few extra months into it and release it in a quiet time of the year…..but then again all the big company cares about it getting it out by the financial year ends
I agree. This game has potential. A few updates may be able to save this game. I still have not touched MP yet, but SP seems bad enough already.