The player's squadmates fight well enough on their own, taking cover and really pulling some weight in combat with the large monsters and seemingly alien soldiers the player will encounter in the demo. The AI soldiers will try to follow the player's commands as best they can, but if ordered directly into harm's way without some cover, they will waver and fall back. If one soldier falls, the other's fighting ability will be seriously impaired, and they seem to be genuinely afraid when getting attacked at close range, fleeing for their lives if in immediate danger. The full game promises a "living, breathing" squad that will react to the player's performance as a fighter and commander. If the player is keeping his squadmates safe and issuing sane orders, the performance of his or her charges will become better and better.

Aside from the squad mechanics, BlackSite plays a lot like any other first-person shooter. The controls seem a little unwieldy at first, since Midway decided to change a few buttons from the tried-and-true Halo control scheme, but they are easily grasped. It remains awkward to click the right thumbstick for a melee attack and hit the left bumper to throw a grenade. It seems as if the controls were changed simply to make them different.

The game looks sharp and plays smoothly. The demo contains no slowdown during the pitched action, with nice graphical details such as the raindrops touching down on the player character's arm and gun. Up close, the faces of the human characters look sharp, but animate slightly awkwardly. Not much can be gleaned about how the rest of the game will look, but if the short demo is any indication, expect some alien-ravaged American cities, some desert, and (perhaps?) a jaunt into Area 51 itself.

Look for BlackSite: Area 51 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this September.