Publisher: Ignition
Developer: Zombie Studios
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Looking for a good, engaging, story-based game? Then keep looking, because Blacklight: Tango Down isn’t one of them. From the first moment I delved into the game, I got the immediate impression that its developers put all the big bucks into the action and a few dollars into the story. It didn’t take me long to see that the game lacks an engaging plot and gives me no real sense of identity in the big scheme of the gameplay. I’m just a person with a gun who needs to shoot enemies – who they are and who I am seem irrelevant. Yet I find this to be the case with nearly all FPS games, so we shouldn’t judge the developers so harshly in this respect. For some of you this will be a bonus; you certainly don’t have to sit through hours of cut scenes, you just plough on straight ahead, guns blazing. Blacklight does have its merits, enough to keep the FPS lover happy.

From a visual perspective, for an XBLA title and for the price (1200 MS points), the game is amazing. Great detail has been carefully put into not only the characters and enemies, but also the whole gaming environment. The maps on which you fight represent a gritty and atmospheric take on future, close-combat, city-street fighting. Dumpsters and burning vehicle wrecks are strewn all over the place, and the buildings are sinister enough to make even the smuggest FPS gamer twitchy. These objects provide critical cover from deadly enemy fire and, combined with expansive levels, represent a high degree of realism. The game can be played from both a single (called “Black Ops”) or a multiplayer perspective, and the wide variety of maps, along with 8 vs. 8 multiplayer support, mean that Blacklight: Tango Down should provide hours upon hours of fun.

Adversarial multiplayer is the main focus of the game, and is its strength. The multiplayer modes are traditional variants of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Last Man Standing, Last Team Standing, Domination, and the usual variations on Capture the Flag (here called Retrieval) and Search and Destroy (aka Detonation). What does make the game stand out from others in the genre is that you get an initial whopping 12 deathmatch maps in the package. That’s not to say you cannot elect to play the game in single-player Black Ops mode (and with up to three cooperative players) if you so wish.

One other nice feature of the game is that gaining experience unlocks new weapons and improvements (of which there are too many to list). Nothing new in that, I hear you cry. Yes, but there aren’t many games that let you gain overall experience in either single or multiplayer mode; usually you have to play in both modes to unlock things in each. Having a single experience currency that straddles single and multiplayer modes is a refreshing change for the genre. Experience is earned in terms of Weapon Tags. These appear as Trinkets, small items that hang off of a hook on your gun that are essentially charms. They can add additional boost to your character, but they can also detract from other areas, such as by adding protection at the expense of firepower. These upgrades let you tailor your loadouts to how you want to play, and they work both cosmetically and functionally.

If you like tweaking stuff in games, then Blacklight caters to your artistic juices too. Along with the Weapon Tags are the weapons themselves. Each is customizable with various scopes, clips, barrels and more, which means that the game brings you hundreds and hundreds of ways to fully customize your characters.

So, is Blacklight: Tango Down worth the $15 investment? If you like FPS games, then I would say definitely yes. If you’re not a fan of such games, then move along, there isn’t much to see here. For 1200 MS points you get a solid visual game with great multiplayer emphasis, well thought-out maps and an upgrade system that can keep the most tinker-fingered among you happy. As a package it offers one of the best FPS games on XBLA. It could do with a few tweaks and small bug fixes, but these aren’t big enough to detract from your enjoyment of the game – certainly not for the price. There are games out there for $45 or more that offer less value than this one.

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