Area 51 – XB – Review

As a gamer that
practically grew up in the arcades, it’s great to see arcade classics
resurfacing on our favorite consoles with better graphics and different gameplay
mechanics. Area 51 has come to the Xbox and while the arcade original
required you to pick up an attached gun, this is no Xbox light gun game. That’s
right, the classic has been reworked into a first-person shooter that takes us
deep into the mystery that is the secret military installation where the only
close encounter you’ll experience is of the dangerous kind. Grab a gun because
these “little green men” mean business.

Despite its
origins as an arcade shooter, this Area 51 has a story behind it. A
distress signal is answered by a HAZMAT crew flown into the famed secretive
installation (you know, the one with the alien autopsies and the supposed ship
that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in the 1950s) to investigate. As Ethan Cole
you follow your fellow HAZMAT teammates into a chaotic scene. It seems that a
virus is spreading throughout the facility and thus killing and mutating every
human working in the installation. The mission to save lives suddenly turns into
a desperate fight for survival as Cole discovers secret conspiracies and what
exactly goes on in Area 51.

Yet this game
isn’t about discovery and complex plot asides, its survival that has Cole
picking up an assortment of weapons like shotguns, assault rifles, frag grenades
and sniper rifles. You start the game by following your team into the worst
areas and without a moment’s notice you’ll be going up against mutated Area 51
scientists and security team members. How mutated you may ask? Well enough to
look grotesque, have increased strength and able to leap right into its prey to
rip them apart. To make matters worse you’ll even have to put up with actual
aliens (like the cuddly, bigheaded and recognizable Grays) and heavily armed
Black Ops clones sent by the mysterious Illuminati group.

There are also a
large number of mission objectives to complete and as you get farther into the
game you’ll find yourself without your team and fighting alone. There are times
when you’ll encounter other HAZMAT teams fighting for their lives and you’ll
often help them push back wave after wave of aliens. The game could have
followed the same run-and-gun path but early in the game an event occurs that
adds new depth to the story and adds more variety to the gameplay. Cole becomes
infected by a strain of the virus killing every human and is able to harvest the
mutated powers when he needs it the most. Using the D-pad you can choose to
transform into a mutant with more physical strength, better sight and the
ability to shoot worm-like parasites at the enemy. In your mutated state you
won’t have any guns available but you can bring down enemies with a powerful
punch.

As far as
first-person shooters go, Area 51 is pretty basic control-wise. You can
jump, crouch, peek around corners and aim or activate the flashlight on your
weapon. Scrolling through your inventory is also pretty quick and painless, a
plus when you need to whip out a powerful weapon in a hurry. Even better yet is
the fact that you can wield two weapons at a time. You also get a scanner, used
to collect info the same way you collect hidden items in other games. These
collectable files or matter can be accessed later but trust me when I say you’ll
want to look through the findings if you want to make sense of the main story. A
few of the collected files reveal great background on characters like Doctor
Cray.

The game is also
not without its problems. Aside from the fact that oftentimes, especially when
you work alongside a team of survivors, the enemy seems to want to brush past
the others to get to you. Oftentimes they much rather shoot at you than a HAZMAT
guy much closer to them. It really doesn’t disrupt the flow of the action or
become annoying but it is unrealistic even if these are mutants and aliens.
There’s also a multiplayer mode with Xbox Live support. It’s great to see more
Xbox Live support but there isn’t much in terms of game mode variety in the
multiplayer front.

Visually,
Area 51 is nowhere near as detailed as, say, Doom 3 but it still
looks good enough to make the locale a pretty convincing one. Apart from the
corridors that lead to interesting research rooms there are secret underground
testing facilities and all the things we can imagine Area 51 to hold (like the
alien autopsy room and the hanger). The game’s characters move decently enough
and the mutants and aliens running amok in the installation look great. There
are also some flashy effects, especially when it comes to your mutated
transformation and alien abilities.

I genuinely like
actor David Duchovny and I certainly loved him as Agent Mulder on The X-Files
but as the voice of Ethan Cole his emotionless vocal delivery is just
unbearable. Even when Cole is talking about the more exciting moments that just
occurred to him he sounds as though somebody woke him up from a long nap. His
co-stars, Powers Booth and musician Marilyn Manson, do a much better job in
bringing their characters to life. The game’s soundtrack is pretty good as well
but the sound effects (especially when it comes to the aliens) are excellent.

All things
considered, Area 51 won’t amaze you with something different but it will
certainly offer enough bullet-fueled fun to make this an enjoyable ride. It
certainly has its share of problems but they are greatly overshadowed by its
simple yet energetic action. If it’s something new and unique you’re looking for
you best check out Doom 3 or Halo 2, but if you’re a fan of the
genre you can’t go wrong with this one. Either way, you shouldn’t miss this one.

Reviewer Scoring Details for Area 51

Gameplay: 8.0
It’s your
standard first-person shooter fare … up until the point that the main
character becomes infected with an alien virus that allows him to shoot lethal
parasites at your enemies and bring them down with a single punch. The levels
are well designed and there’s enough action here to do the genre justice.

Graphics: 8.2
Area 51
is not a
bad-looking game at all but, compared to some of the more recent games of this
genre, it isn’t spectacular either. Still, there are some great cutscenes and
the alien animations make for some delightfully creepy moments. There are also
some good visual effects.

Sound: 7.5
If it wasn’t
for David Duchovny’s sleepy delivery the voice acting in the game would have
been top-notch. There’s also a decent soundtrack but it’s the sound effects that
give the game its I’m-watching-an-action-movie appeal.

Difficulty:
Medium
The enemy AI
seems to want to forget everyone else and go directly for you so expect all the
aggression to be centered on you. The enemy does put up a good fight and there
are moments in the game when you’ll be overwhelmed by a seemingly non-stop
parade of bad guys.

Concept: 7.0
The secretive
installation is filled with secrets and collectible items that open up
interesting video clips or documents complete with photographs to help
understand the story a bit better in the Database and Secrets menu. As far as
extras are concerned the game only offers interviews and character profiles.
There’s also online multiplayer.

Multiplayer:
7.5
It’s your
basic Deathmatch multiplayer action but with Xbox Live support you can go up
against 16 players through various maps perfect for a good old-fashioned frag
fest. Online the game flows excellently and without any problems whatsoever. I
just wish there were more to the multiplayer mode or System Link support.

Overall: 8.2
It might not
revolutionize the genre but Area 51 is a solid first-person shooter
that’s still fun enough to warrant a place in your collection. While other
recent shooters have unique distinguishing features that put them ahead of the
game, this one still has enough bang for your buck.