Reviews January 3, 2012
Blackwater
Reviewed by: Calvin Percy
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Shooter
Rated: T
Players: 1
Cost: $49.99
Release Date: 11/01/2011
Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Zombie Studios
Blackwater is the first conventional war shooter for the Kinect. This is dubbed a first person experience. Does it eliminate the opposition with a full clip or just shoot blanks??? Let us find out now…
Blackwater was developed using the Unreal Engine which before booting up had me overly excited, but I was quickly let down once the game began. Blackwater can be played with either your normal controller or using your body with the Kinect. Now this built like your standard light gun shooter, but with the lack of the light gun option. You move around on rails where you eliminate enemies at every stop. There is also a scoring system that rewards you for executing head shots, killing groups of enemies and hitting moving targets. After every stage you have a live scoreboard so you can compare/compete against your friends. Each level features alternate routes that are selected by shooting orange markers within the flow of the stage. And…that’s about it. The highlight (a term I’m using very lightly) is the ability to play using the Kinect.
Using the Kinect with Blackwater allows you to lean, duck and kick your way through the game. You have contextual moments that make you kick open doors and jump over walls. There are gesture movements for everything in the game; you reload and throw grenades by doing movements that actually feel very natural. The issue with the Kinect controls comes mainly in the aiming and shooting. You have to keep steady on an enemy, allowing the target to lock in before shooting. This kills (no pun intended) the ability to quick shoot multiple enemies; making it easy for the game to take cheap shots at me. Although you can determine the person that is going to shoot next by the fact that they are highlighted in red, it didn’t really matter in the end. The aiming mechanics left me open to getting shot constantly by untargeted enemies. The only time it worked well was with the sniper portions of the game. Because you have to be precise with each shot, using this mechanic with the Kinect worked.
I’m typically not one to tell someone how to make their game, but I think finding a way to implement the light gun from Cabela’s into this would have made this my favorite light gun title of all time. Doing all the leaning and ducking while actually holding a rifle. My mind is melting just thinking of it. In a perfect world, being able to pop out of cover while letting off a quick three shot burst to drop an enemy would have been awesome!
Back to the Blackwater’s use of the Unreal Engine, while it has been used to make some very memorable titles in the past it didn’t help this title one bit. Graphically, the Xbox 360 launch titles looked better to me than this. Visuals aren’t usably a major focus when it comes to me liking rail gun shooters, but this was just disappointing to see. The audio however, was decent. You had your standard gun replications; assault rifles sounded as they should and the sniper rifles were spot on.
I have yet to mention the story because there wasn’t much of a story. You are your standard specialized infantry squad inserted behind enemy lines and shooting your way out; nothing out of the ordinary here. I feel the same about the rest of the game; there isn’t much to talk about. The only thing bringing players back would be to challenge your friends in getting the best high scores. Then again, the controls will make that difficult for everyone involved. Blackwater does a lot of the standard things; unfortunately it does them all badly.
Gameplay: 3
The lock on mechanism leaves you vulnerable; you’ll be wishing for a light gun peripheral.
Graphics: 3
A step back in next-gen visuals.
Sound: 4
Somewhat decent.
What’s New: 1
Being the first war shooter for Kinect is the only “new” thing it added to this genre.
Replay Value: 3
Getting a higher score would be the only reason to come back.
Final Score:
2.8