While not a classic, Midway's previous Area 51 offered the type of "popcorn" action game destined to be played over a weekend and discarded. The latest adventure, however, appears to be much deeper and far more engaging. <BlackSite: Area 51 (available this summer for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC) steps out of America's secret military base and plunges gamers into the outdoors, where terrifying creatures stalk townsfolk and blow up shops (the liquor store being one of the worst casualties). Aliens may delight in anal probing humans and whisking them off to far away galaxies, but when they mess with the booze ... there's hell to pay.

Although Midway refuses to discuss the story at length, the narrative centers on an alien invasion that (guessing at this point) spread from the Area 51 base and into the small town of Rachel. Gamers step into the combat boots of a roughneck Special Forces army dude that, thankfully, brings along a few of his buddies to assist him in eradicating the extraterrestrials.

Like most first person shooters, players blast monsters with an assortment of pistols, machine guns and other nasty toys, but they also ride around in hummers, ATVs and civilian vehicles. Furthermore, most dangerous situations may be tackled in several ways. For example, early on players come upon a biomechanical creature shaking a mini van and scaring its driver. Seeing the carnage from behind glass (inside a gas station shop), players have a few options. If they prefer the commando route, they immediately open fire, shattering windows and hopefully hitting the beast before exiting the front door where the battle continues, often times with the monster returning fire and giving chase. Or, they sneak up on the alien, get its attention and take cover, either inside the gas station or behind a hummer, pausing to reload. If those methods don't work, they seek out destructible objects. In this case, the alien has the unfortunate luck of standing next to small tank that, upon being shot, quickly spins around and explodes. Of course, being that this take places at a gas station, the pumps will erupt after a few, well-placed bullets.

If timed correctly, an explosion kills the alien and nothing freaky happens, but if players fail to down the target, the hulking mass drops to its knees and the occupant, a scary bald thing, scurries from its head and quickly crawls across the floor. It only takes a few rounds to kill it, but gamers should remain a safe distance away, as the creature explodes before dying.

After this unnerving experience, monsters approach from all sides and a firefight ensues. Midway hasn't released the full bestiary, but it seems some of the early creatures have humanoid features and use guns, suggesting human/alien experiments gone awry. Although hair-raising, players should make it through this battle thanks to the wealth of decisions at their disposal and the outdoor environments. Instead of fighting adversaries in tight spaces, they have room to maneuver; falling back behind the gas station (to trick the monsters into walking near propane tanks), retreating into the building, jumping into a hummer or just running around, all the while multiple things explode in a destructive ballet of fire, sparks and smoke. The game doesn't feature as much destruction as Midway's other shooter, Stranglehold, but players will delight in busting up soda machines, sending the entire gas station to oblivion and blowing out windows.