August 1, 2011
Battling the Dinosaurs of Project Blackout
Dinosaurs are handy video game monsters. They’re famous, they’re fearsome, and—especially in the case of Tyrannosaurus—nearly unstoppable. That’s why it’s not altogether surprising that the free online shooter Project Blackout has just added a “dinosaur mode” to the game.
I’ll say right off the bat that I’m not a huge fan of online-only, multiplayer shooters. I have better ways to waste my time than being blown up by virtual strangers who are far more skilled than I am. Still, I figured I would give Project Blackout a shot. After all, it has dinosaurs in it!
The gameplay is pretty simple. After you select which room you’re going to battle in, you start off on the side of either the dinosaurs or the humans. The humans, obviously, come armed with all sorts of hi-tech weaponry, and the dinosaurs are left to bite and slash at the fleeing humans. The ensuing free-for-all lasts for a few minutes, and then the sides switch so every player gets to try out the soldier and dinosaur modes in each round.
Playing involved running and shooting or running and slashing, depending on which side you wind up on. The game uses the classic first-person shooter controls that have been in place since the days of the classic, blood-spattered game DOOM. Unfortunately, though, the game starts to feel stale very quickly. Sure, you can upgrade your character with new weapons and other kit, but you’re still wildly attacking other players in a small arena over and over again. After a few rounds, I had pretty much had enough. Even dinosaurs can’t help you if your game is hopelessly repetitive.
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Dinosaurs are not well represented in video games, for some odd reason. Yes, you’ll find them here or there, but when they show up, they’re usually bit players in game worlds populated by many other, non-dinosaur monsters. (Turok: Dinosaur Hunter didn’t have much dinosaur hunting or dinosaurs in either its N64 or next generation versions.) The thing is: the technology is there to do a good dinosaur game. I picked up Far Cry 2 for the Xbox 360 and it does an amazing job creating an open-world outdoor environment of jungles and open plains. Unfortunately, the gameplay itself doesn’t deviate from other first-person shooters. As I played it, I kept thinking, “Man, wouldn’t this be better if there were dinosaurs?” (I’m not the only one, judging by a quick internet search.)
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