A.A.U. Black Site (early access).

The illegal installation was the one way to play A.A.U. Black Site, but it was the very first version. Otherwise, as I watched videos, there was no a defining subject to change in the game that still in early access.

I was convoluted with understanding in which period the storyline occurs: the nineties or modern times. The surrounding and items in TV sets and cars suggest the period of Yugoslav Wars, but rectangular TV sets, contemporary computers, and Kriss Vector contradict. The other perplexing were Muscovian swears and other writing in that language in an elevator that typically can meet in respective lands, but not in Serbia. The depiction written by developers takes the set in a “forgotten Yugoslav town of Uzovnica” from which arises the insinuation that it could be the present days and it happens in an abandoned place, but you have the location which is populated and it’s a warring or separatist zone that in nowadays Serbia isn’t real. The developers call the game a “VHS bodycam horror game”–that leads to assume about alternative reality. It is not correct to make guesses if everything with the script is confusing and impossible to untangle. Nothing helped me after reading everywhere on channels of developer Raspberry Studio. The clear is that the lead hero is a member of a four-man squad of the organization A.A.U. that was sent on a covert mission to the fiction town Uzovnica, but the crew was trapped under fire, which will be revealed was from a sniper with Muscovian origin, and he resides on that territory for thirty years. Losing trace was which side the protagonist–who never speaks– represents, and the same with all hostiles that he kills. You can’t understand, especially nothing has a connection. Once the voice from HQ considers foes “russkies”, but all the characters (except the sniper) speak Serbian or English with a respective accent. The lead hero was perceived as American by his potential assassin who tries to kill him again until many corpses that the protagonist made changes his mind on that the hero suited an American uniform to cover himself (though it doesn’t conceal him from being attacked by men in the same garment).

The screenplay doesn’t come to sense in acts of characters and occurring. The lead hero meets different creatures who look and behave supernatural. The protagonist doesn’t care on witnessing monsters or being under influence of supernatural. Later the voice from HQ says there were experiments by which it makes a confusion because these monsters couldn’t be people before that.

You hear at the same frequency people from different sides. No one cares about the rest. The screenplay is amateur in its unexplainable mystic. The game wasn’t beautiful from posters. They have shadows in wrong and unrealistic places and postures of characters were put in wrong places. One image has an unbalanced mixture of red and black while the light on the other shines, but the face isn’t seen but you a shown pistol that he holds was shown in details.

The gamemakers blended action and horror into their narrative. Sometimes they did convincing with frightening or could be banal, as it was senseless falling of a tree or a shelf, and once it was a car that literally was from the air. A.A.U. Black Site doesn’t intrigue by that the lowering of leverage creates automatic coming of hostiles.

In the horror atmosphere, the developers liked to make a sudden turning on the light many times–and do it with a transport in which no soul inside–and plethora of times was demonstrating of a mysterious monster figure–which wasn’t present in one beast–that gazes at you but you come on distance that allow to talk in a regular timbre. Anything that deprived the ambience of mystery and unknown, and corroborated the gamemakers aren’t in professional league despite on their aspirations. Running in the field by orienting on the lighted tractors because you can meet a scarecrow that screams and does nothing to kill you. Arcade and illogical. It could be excellent potential because even Serbian language for a person that doesn’t know it could add to ambience. But the biggest horror was listening Serbian folk dance music when you driving a car. I wanted to leave the transport as fast as it could be possible.

You can’t perceive the dark atmosphere in earnest ways by listening dialogs, which text and pronouncing them create unintended comedy. You experienced the meeting with supernatural and survived the explosion that almost could kill, but from the other end you get usual acceptance of the situation through saying “Move your sorry ass.” A ghastly voiceover with Serbian accents makes to assume many time that a person reads a text at first time because he makes pauses and English isn’t his first language–that alongside with Muscovian sniper–whose pronunciation can become a porridge–add to this hilarious part. You hear the reading of text about the assumption that you were attacked by “experiments”. The saying that was sudden when you didn’t see supernatural for long and involved in shooting with people while the protagonist just walked at that time. The dialogs were written without understanding: “You spat out more bullets than these trains brought in”, or the sniper who covers you utters, “I can’t see shit from here. Switching position”, and one enemy soldier pronounces majestically and funny, “I doubt more and more that he is a man”. Later, I met two soldiers from the same army with superhuman endurance to bullets and their look emphasized by the shining of violet light. Their screaming seemed they were monsters.

Shooting from the weapons is close to be authentic. Their imperfection is that developers likely didn’t test the real guns because I know that Kriss Vector doesn’t shoot in that slowness and game’s MP5 is too easily reaches the target while the actual one is more effective in striking. I haven’t hold FN P90, but I’m sure–after learning theoretically–it doesn’t release slugs with calmness as this does the game’s variant.

AI is chaotic and trembling in movement and you usually can’t kill foes in accordance with reality. But the gameplay seemed hyping in the first minutes. It was fast when I realized on all four levels of difficulties you can walk as Robocop and shoot from a big distance from which you even don’t need to aim eventually. Choosing the level harder makes to lose more health – that’s one done correct by the developer, but it doesn’t matter. The mind of enemies doesn’t think about retreating. They aren’t fans to use cover–right, tough guys don’t do that. Killing them ends up uninspiring. The walkthrough becomes to just walking and listening a dynamic music under which you can dance if you like. The game becomes the War of Robocops. The hostile showed his body from the cover – I shoot him and he didn’t react. They can froze at front of you in a far distance. Tangos still shoot when you under cover (once I’ve got a hurt there), and they don’t do that as a suppressing fire, which hostile soldiers do in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. In A.A.U. Black Site, they can open fire before you come out from a hidden position. Sometimes the shooting from a long distance isn’t precise because it can miss a target that you should have hit. An enemy can miss at you if stays in several yards at you. A hostile reloads by staying on a place in his full height, and these Robocops go into a straight attack if you’re close to each, as it was in one big garage where you can’t escape from sudden dozens after you pulled the leverage. They come to you without thinking and taking an attention that you pressed the trigger. It was reasonable to change on the easiest level at that place. There I exploded barrel and watched twice at a tango under fire without having any.

The game didn’t show indicators to where to go. It seemed belonged to matured one in that you must find the way to where move next. Also checkpoints were the one variant for saving the progress. But everything that was the one side. The different is that you must click the button for doing the act while it had no necessity. The developer could be inventive and insert rolling instead of tapping when you use a winch. It is only in location you’re searching the way whereas a long movement to the next place is indicated by lying green flashes. Enemies in the suits with red lights. It wouldn’t be a clever tactics in a war. These persons should have also put on t-shirts with titles “Shoot me. I am an enemy.”

Raspberry Studio did a diligent work by creating the interaction with subjects when you want to press a button or move the leverage. However, they ignored to give legs to the protagonist and no reflection in mirrors. They devoted on showing action while physics interaction with subjects through shooting from guns is minimum. No contact with a ladder, which was seen a single time. You don’t climb. It is pressing “F” and found yourself on the top. You can’t shoot the light. Just monitor and system unit are available, which are too jumpy after few bullets.

Falling of bad men through the stairway violates the physics laws and entertains. In that electronic composition, the headshot from a pistol explodes the head every time. Once I took off a leg from MP5 because a hostile didn’t cover it. An embedded stealth reveals no existence–you’re running behind the back of an adversary who took that position because it is his fate to be slayed from there. The level in which your guns were taken from you and the only variant to pick up from eliminated foes always have miserliness in magazine. An available leg kick works only in special places and supernatural itself. After pressure this button, you fly with a rush and kill instantly. That is more effective than hammer or any melee weapon. But it doesn’t always activate.

There were creative ideas, which one of them was in that you’re under sniper’s fire and you must to press the buttons and press the leverages to open the entrance, but later sections required touching of many leverages to open a metal gates, which is against logic but true to arcade. I lowered to the easiest level because it wasn’t realistic. The action was enhanced by listening many times “Gotcha you, now” when the sniper actually missed. The pushing leverages repeats accurately on the next stage. You come inside of a warehouse and must do it when you’re under the unknown fire and it can reach you even behind column on which installed one of panels.

Embedding of riddles added wonderful to the game, as lovable was relocation of a car through a magnet. Alas, they are no laconic as akin to Half-Life 2. After the engine ignition, a bus moves straight through forest and collides with all trees that only changes direction. Or it was technical that you need to move a truck, but you can make it before you can open the door.

Do crossing to the other side and climbing anything only through fast running by pressing “shift” two times and holding it. Then you should activate the jump, which doesn’t always work. You need a luck in these situations. A lot of things required repairing. The meeting with a male with a chainsaw who screamed in a woman’s voice when he attacked me didn’t activate bullets after I touched the mouse’s button. The using of curing vial can’t ignore your command. You can miss directly into an enemy. I made a shot into a truck’s window despite the vehicle was on the side. It is unreasonable that you can only crotch in the movement through hanging corpses in one corridor, not walk in full height. But there are obvious mistakes as your crawling after experiencing the explosion included movement through an ammo box, a shining of fake reflection of a strip dancer stage disappears when you come up, and developers reused the same house and surrounding once. Background music was fine for working in combat. One time it was louder than voiceover text–it shouldn’t be in games.

Driving a car was crazy. A light turn and you’re on the other side. It already became not easy to move outside from a warehouse. It was difficult to do on a straight road. I tried to avoid making left and right turns. The car begins to move when you sit again and ignite the engine. It slides down if don’t move after you stopped and want to leave. That makes unintentional riddle–leave the car where you must do two actions: open the door and move out. The door closes after the vehicle begins to slide a little bit. You must find a place and be lucky that an image that allows you to make the second action appears.

Graphics was a diligent quality, but watching videos you see how it advanced to the excellent blend of cold and blur tones. Too bad that developer doesn’t fix needful shortcomings. They added more gore, but there was too much for be not realistic. Raspberry claimed on making better the voiceovers–nothing happened because they still sound hilarious. Change the quality of switches and improving graphics – no significant changes. A.A.U. Black List stayed deplorable.

I could complete, but I decided not to do if nothing worthy. I think I am not excited to play in the upcoming two episodes.