Area 51 is perhaps the most famous open secret of all time. So much that everyone is heard of it, though nobody is quite sure what goes on there. The US government says it?s a facility for testing experimental aircraft. The National Enquirer and a bunch of freaky conspiracy nuts who call into the art bell show say it?s somehow connected to aliens and UFOs, and more often then not, black helicopters, secret societies such as the Illuminati(when the Freemasons have too much on their plate), men in black and world domination by the UN or SEELE or some such BS. Since neither of these sources is terribly trustworthy(and apparently ?Secret Weapons of the USAF? isn?t interesting enough a topic), pop culture has tended to side with the latter interpretation.
Among these depictions was the popular 1995 Arcade Game, AREA 51, which involved your utterly non-helpful anti-alien special forces team responding to a call for help from the most famous military base that ?doesn?t exist? and the player?s attempt to contain the alien outbreak. It was a fun rails shooter with little pretension for being anything more. So, as eventually must happen, somebody got the idea to port it to the PC(and some consoles), under the Auspicious name AREA 51.
The great irony of AREA 51 is that what used to be a good, fun rails shooter has become little more then a mediocre FPS, mostly because Midway didn?t seem to realize that FPS gaming has come some way since 1995, and directly porting a 10 year old game with little in the way of content changes, gameplay improvements or graphical updates is just being really fucking lazy with the license. The plot is mostly the same, except instead of going in with a group of useless no-name special forces guys, you go in with a group of useless special forces guys who have names and thin back stories, who quickly die but you really don?t notice or care because you didn?t bother to get attached to them in the first place. There is an albino illuminati guy named Mr. White and a ?Friendly? scientist named Dr. Cray who really don?t do much other then fill you in on back-story and drive the plot by giving you missions(mostly along the lines of ?Defuse bomb?, ?flip switch? and ?go here?).
There is also an attempt at character development by giving your character a voice(provided by David Duchonvy) and just enough character to make the average Keanu reeves character seem deep and thought provoking by comparison, who will occasionally narrate in an extremely uninteresting way in such that between the bad writing and his lack of vocal inflection, nothing he says can be remembered 5 minutes after you hear it, but it doesn?t really matter anyway. This is because the plot is pretty thin, being cultivated heavily from the X-files and various other pulp sources, concerning Grays(the traditional bigheaded aliens) and the Illuminati using area 51 to develop an Alien Human Hybrid supersoldier/bio-weapon for some reason that I can?t remember and doesn?t matter. Oh, and the alien human hybrids are contagious, so being attacked by one means infection and eventual mutation into one of the monsters. As you can guess, most of the enemies you fight in the game will be mutated remnants of the base staff, mixed in with alien-human hybrid clone soldiers working for the Illuminati(they use guns and wear futuristic looking combat suits). Neither have any sort of real AI and only exist to give you some variety to fight.
The game actually has more plot, but it?s entirely optional. Occasionally you?ll run across consoles or top secret documents scattered through the facility. Scanning these(though use of an arm scanner) will reveal a mish-mash of every conspiracy theory and mystery from the past 50 years {the Bermuda Triangle, the Kennedy assassination, peanut allergies, cattle mutilations). When you do this, what you have found is placed in a menu where you can view the finds at your own leisure, along with the occasional video from either Dr. Cray or Mr. White on some subject or another. And this is the best part of the game, because some of the articles are pretty amusing(My favorite being that the Easter Island Moai are ancient alien stasis chambers that the natives carved rock faces on, with an x-ray of the sleeping cthulu-like aliens within). There?s even a fake moon landing set you fight through late in the game, which ties in perfectly.
Unfortunately, it?s not enough to save it from the gameplay, which leaves a bit to be desired. It?s simple run and gun through the facility, use guns of every type from every FPS ever made, including the obligatory Alien Energy weapon and grenades. Puzzles never get more complex then ?Push button to open door?(except for maybe "Push X Buttons while racing a timer"). The game tries to mix things up by having you mutate into a monster after being infected by the alien virus, and later gain the ability to change between human and mutant forms at will. However, this mechanic, with so much potential, is fairly wasted because the mutant attacks aren?t that interesting and for some reason(which I?m sure they explained and now I can?t remember), the main character retains his human mind as a monster, taking away any interesting ethical/moral qualms from becoming something other then human. Oh, sure, the narration goes on at length with him lamenting his condition but it never comes across as anything more then hollow words because the game doesn?t have enough depth or emotional core to pull it off. Even the occasional dead guy rising into the air and admonishing you to continue on doesn?t leave any real impression. In contrast, I was more intrigued by the fact that the main character could duel wield shotguns and assault rifles, but not handguns, as a gameplay mechanic. In fact, it's the most original idea in the game(which says a lot, really).
The levels are decent, but nothing special. Partially because the graphics are almost exactly those from 1995 no apparent attempt to make the game prettier. The game is a bit longer then the arcade version, though some of this is due to an autosave system with no manual saving available, so some sections may have to be replayed numerous times to complete. This is frustrated by the fact there is no auto-heal like in many recent games with an auto-save system, relying on glowing needles you inject into yourself to heal, so reaching a checkpoint with little health and/or ammo can leave you in a bad situation.
As to my verdict, I?m somewhat torn. On one hand, the game obviously knew it was never going to be a great game, and went for run and gun with a serviceable plot(nothing more) and a number of amusing top secret files that jam so many conspiracies into the game that pretty much screams ?Don?t bother trying to take the plot seriously. Just play the game?. It knows what it wants to be and achieves it, a bad run and gun shooter with a cheesy plot. Kind of like how the movie ?Planet Terror? knew it wanted to be cheesy, bad horror movie and succeeded very well in a ?so bad it?s good way?. However, on that note, it?s a lackluster run and gun shooter, with nothing terribly interesting as far as gameplay goes and nothing to compensate in other areas. It doesn?t even get as far as ?so bad it?s good? but merely ?bad enough to be mediocre?. So I guess that sums up the game ?Mediocre?. If I had actually paid for it instead of receiving it for a gift, I might feel differently. I guess if you got it for free and have nothing better to play, then give it a shot.
Among these depictions was the popular 1995 Arcade Game, AREA 51, which involved your utterly non-helpful anti-alien special forces team responding to a call for help from the most famous military base that ?doesn?t exist? and the player?s attempt to contain the alien outbreak. It was a fun rails shooter with little pretension for being anything more. So, as eventually must happen, somebody got the idea to port it to the PC(and some consoles), under the Auspicious name AREA 51.
The great irony of AREA 51 is that what used to be a good, fun rails shooter has become little more then a mediocre FPS, mostly because Midway didn?t seem to realize that FPS gaming has come some way since 1995, and directly porting a 10 year old game with little in the way of content changes, gameplay improvements or graphical updates is just being really fucking lazy with the license. The plot is mostly the same, except instead of going in with a group of useless no-name special forces guys, you go in with a group of useless special forces guys who have names and thin back stories, who quickly die but you really don?t notice or care because you didn?t bother to get attached to them in the first place. There is an albino illuminati guy named Mr. White and a ?Friendly? scientist named Dr. Cray who really don?t do much other then fill you in on back-story and drive the plot by giving you missions(mostly along the lines of ?Defuse bomb?, ?flip switch? and ?go here?).
There is also an attempt at character development by giving your character a voice(provided by David Duchonvy) and just enough character to make the average Keanu reeves character seem deep and thought provoking by comparison, who will occasionally narrate in an extremely uninteresting way in such that between the bad writing and his lack of vocal inflection, nothing he says can be remembered 5 minutes after you hear it, but it doesn?t really matter anyway. This is because the plot is pretty thin, being cultivated heavily from the X-files and various other pulp sources, concerning Grays(the traditional bigheaded aliens) and the Illuminati using area 51 to develop an Alien Human Hybrid supersoldier/bio-weapon for some reason that I can?t remember and doesn?t matter. Oh, and the alien human hybrids are contagious, so being attacked by one means infection and eventual mutation into one of the monsters. As you can guess, most of the enemies you fight in the game will be mutated remnants of the base staff, mixed in with alien-human hybrid clone soldiers working for the Illuminati(they use guns and wear futuristic looking combat suits). Neither have any sort of real AI and only exist to give you some variety to fight.
The game actually has more plot, but it?s entirely optional. Occasionally you?ll run across consoles or top secret documents scattered through the facility. Scanning these(though use of an arm scanner) will reveal a mish-mash of every conspiracy theory and mystery from the past 50 years {the Bermuda Triangle, the Kennedy assassination, peanut allergies, cattle mutilations). When you do this, what you have found is placed in a menu where you can view the finds at your own leisure, along with the occasional video from either Dr. Cray or Mr. White on some subject or another. And this is the best part of the game, because some of the articles are pretty amusing(My favorite being that the Easter Island Moai are ancient alien stasis chambers that the natives carved rock faces on, with an x-ray of the sleeping cthulu-like aliens within). There?s even a fake moon landing set you fight through late in the game, which ties in perfectly.
Unfortunately, it?s not enough to save it from the gameplay, which leaves a bit to be desired. It?s simple run and gun through the facility, use guns of every type from every FPS ever made, including the obligatory Alien Energy weapon and grenades. Puzzles never get more complex then ?Push button to open door?(except for maybe "Push X Buttons while racing a timer"). The game tries to mix things up by having you mutate into a monster after being infected by the alien virus, and later gain the ability to change between human and mutant forms at will. However, this mechanic, with so much potential, is fairly wasted because the mutant attacks aren?t that interesting and for some reason(which I?m sure they explained and now I can?t remember), the main character retains his human mind as a monster, taking away any interesting ethical/moral qualms from becoming something other then human. Oh, sure, the narration goes on at length with him lamenting his condition but it never comes across as anything more then hollow words because the game doesn?t have enough depth or emotional core to pull it off. Even the occasional dead guy rising into the air and admonishing you to continue on doesn?t leave any real impression. In contrast, I was more intrigued by the fact that the main character could duel wield shotguns and assault rifles, but not handguns, as a gameplay mechanic. In fact, it's the most original idea in the game(which says a lot, really).
The levels are decent, but nothing special. Partially because the graphics are almost exactly those from 1995 no apparent attempt to make the game prettier. The game is a bit longer then the arcade version, though some of this is due to an autosave system with no manual saving available, so some sections may have to be replayed numerous times to complete. This is frustrated by the fact there is no auto-heal like in many recent games with an auto-save system, relying on glowing needles you inject into yourself to heal, so reaching a checkpoint with little health and/or ammo can leave you in a bad situation.
As to my verdict, I?m somewhat torn. On one hand, the game obviously knew it was never going to be a great game, and went for run and gun with a serviceable plot(nothing more) and a number of amusing top secret files that jam so many conspiracies into the game that pretty much screams ?Don?t bother trying to take the plot seriously. Just play the game?. It knows what it wants to be and achieves it, a bad run and gun shooter with a cheesy plot. Kind of like how the movie ?Planet Terror? knew it wanted to be cheesy, bad horror movie and succeeded very well in a ?so bad it?s good way?. However, on that note, it?s a lackluster run and gun shooter, with nothing terribly interesting as far as gameplay goes and nothing to compensate in other areas. It doesn?t even get as far as ?so bad it?s good? but merely ?bad enough to be mediocre?. So I guess that sums up the game ?Mediocre?. If I had actually paid for it instead of receiving it for a gift, I might feel differently. I guess if you got it for free and have nothing better to play, then give it a shot.
