Area 51 Xbox Review

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May 19th, 2005 Jason Rybka Leave a comment Go to comments

In 1995 Area 51 was released in the arcades, it was a light gun shooter and a quarter gobbler, aside from that, not much can be said about the first release of the game. This is much like the rumors, or sighting, of Area 51 in the United States, the government will not say much about that either, in fact, they deny that it even exists.. but Area 51 for the Xbox certainly does exist, and it has taken about 100 steps forward since it’s initial release.

Mutants, aliens, and all around weirdness is what you’ll see when you place this disc in your Xbox, one of my first experiences with the game was looking for a severed arm to use on a hand scanner, if that gives you any sense of the mayhem which is portrayed in this title. You are called in because a virus has leaked, being part of a Special Forces Hazmat Team it makes perfect sense for you to go clean up the mess, or does it? Welcome to Area 51, a first person shooter with a lot of enemies, intense ‘gunplay’, great graphics, great audio, and an interesting storyline. So come with me and lets delve into the many levels of Area 51.

Gameplay

The story begins with you as a Special Forces Hazmat Agent, Ethan Cole (voice overs done by David Duchovny) and your squad being called in to Area 51. As stated above, a virus that has mutated the humans was leaked into the area, you and your team are briefed and you go in to begin killing these mutants and clearing the area. Aside from Ethan, there are two other Hazmat operatives like you, your Commander Anthony Ramirez, and Major Douglas Bridges who calls the shots.

As you and your team fight your way through level after level of strange mutants, you will notice a fairly well done storyline unfold. There are allot of cut scenes where David Duchovny (you, aka Ethan Cole) speaks about how the story is progressing, more on Duchovny’s performance later. Throughout the story there are many twists and turns, and no shortage of shooting to be seen, in fact, this is one of the most intense shooters on the market, problem is, the Xbox market is filled with great shooters. As with many FPS titles you begin with a pistol, but will soon obtain an assault rifle, the powerful shotgun, a special purpose rifle, and two different types of grenades; a frag grenade and a ‘JB’ grenade (or Jumping Bean grenade). During certain areas you can dual wield weapons, such as the assault rifle, but you still use just the right trigger to perform the firing, so technically I’m not certain this is what we consider dual wielding, since it really does not support dual, or independent firing. For the most part however, you’ll be using a single weapon during any given point, with your grenades set as a secondary.

Ethan also sports a very cool device on his left arm that looks somewhat like a satellite uplink / video camera / digital camera, this is used during gameplay to scan, analyze, and upload photos and data to headquarters. In the game you don’t really get a chance to appreciate what the scans are doing, but by exiting to the main menus you can reveal some information you have uncovered. As you fight your way through Area 51 you will run into Mutant Scientists and Mutant Special Forces. Both of these enemies have human characteristics, albeit very little. You also have the Mutant Leaper, who is also completely mutated to the point of having talons on his hands and uses both his arms and legs to get around, he can also climb up walls, so be sure to look up! You also have cloned human/alien hybrid soldiers and the leaders, whom I might add are very hard to kill.

The Grays are the Aliens who like to dwell deep under Area 51 and experiment on their human subjects. Mr. White is a scientist who has created the cloned soldiers as well as a few clones of himself. On the good side of the fight is Dr. Cray, who is trying to stop the Illuminati from eliminating Earth. Throughout the game Dr. Cray and an alien Edgar (Marilyn Manson) will try to help you. The action in Area 51 is fast and intense, with battles breaking out in an instant, so you always have to be on your guard. You really get a sense that the enemies want you dead, which is a good thing, as long as they don’t get what they want. The cut scenes help to break up the action and deliver the storyline which works well for the game.

Control / Playability

The controls found in Area 51, while close to what you might find in most first person shooters, do have some significant changes that any veteran FPS player will notice very quickly. One thing that really stands out is the vertical and horizontal sensitivity (especially the horizontal). If you start the game out with the default settings the turning speed for Ethan will just be too slow to react to the fast paced environment found in the game. The game has enemies jumping up at you from lower levels, jumping down at you from higher ones, and you’ll need to react quickly to survive. Starting a game out with the default settings and then ramping up the speed once you are used to the game is fairly normal, but you’ll probably notice the need to increase the horizontal sensitivity right away, as I did. As I have said, the controls are similar in many ways to most FPS titles, you’ll use A to jump, X to reload, right trigger to fire, left trigger for your secondary weapon, etc. But some things are different, like the use of clicking the right thumbstick to perform a melee attack; in most games this is done with the B button, it’s not a huge deal but at first you will think the controls are a bit ‘wiggy.’ until you get used to them.

Xbox Live

Xbox Live gameplay with Area 51 is a satisfying experience, giving you all the standard gameplay types you would expect in a first person shooter online, such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, etc. But there are a couple of interesting and different multiplayer modes available as well which make Area 51 a unique title to play on the Xbox Live service. One such mode is called Infected, now there are various settings for this game type, but the basic idea is that one random player starts out as an infected, or mutated character, and the goal for that person is to infect the others. The human players’ goal is to not become infected for as long as possible, but once they have become infected the goal changes to infecting others. Points are accumulated for the amount of time you are not infected, and the the more infected players there are, the more points you will gain for remaining ‘normal.’ It’s definitely an interesting game type, and adds to the Xbox Live experience. As for the lobbies, they are fairly basic but get the job done, and we did not notice any drops or lag issues during our online testing.

Graphics / Presentation

The graphics in Area 51 are very well done, the levels are massive and yet they managed to keep a high level of detail throughout the entire game. Most of the environments are interactive, so you’ll find yourself using the environmental objects to your advantage throughout your missions. Many of the areas are on fire, and thus blocked, and there are also smaller fires on many of the levels that when touched will deplete your health, all the way down to death if you are not careful. The lighting and shadow effects are great, and the main characters are rendered very nicely with a good amount of detail, and each one of them has a unique look to them. Even the enemy clones, which for the most part look very similar within the same class of alien/clone/etc., are detailed well, and between the different classes of enemies they do look unique so you never really get that repetitive feeling as you sometimes do in a first person shooter. If you have HDTV, 480p is supported during gameplay.

Area 51 Xbox Screenshot

View all Area 51 Screenshots in the XBS Gallery

Audio

The audio overall is outstanding, from the subtle details like the sounds of walking on metal stairs versus a concrete floor, scraping noises, and firepower are all very convincing. The voice acting also adds a lot to the game. David Duchovny played the part of Ethan Cole, and while his voice seems a bit monotone at first, you soon realize this was done purposely to give the feeling that he was shell-shocked at what was going on and what he had witnessed. However, as you progress through the game you will notice that David doesn’t seem to change his tone, and it appears as if he’s just going through the script to get it done, in his par for the course monotone style.

Powers Booth voices the role of Major Douglas Bridges, and the alien Edgar is voiced by Marilyn Manson. The main voice-overs give you a solid sense that they were into their roles when they did the recordings, with the incredibly obvious exception of David Duchovny. Other voiceovers are done well also, but they don’t have the same impact as Powers Booth or Marilyn Manson. The game makes good use of ambient noises and a decent soundtrack, or more accurately, audio clips played at just the right time, that change in tempo depending on the situation in-game.

Replay Value

Depending on how good you are at shooter type games, the core single player game will take you approximately 15-20 hours to complete, mainly due to the expansive sizes of the levels and the sheer number of enemies you’ll encounter along the way. Once you have completed the single player mission there really isn’t any reason to go back, but the multiplayer modes, offline and via the Xbox Live service are sure to keep you entertained for a long time. As with any first person shooter, this is where the real replay value comes into play, and the place you’ll be spending the majority of your time with the game.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 8.4/10 [not an average]

Additional Comments

While Area 51 makes it’s best effort to provide a great storyline, it only makes the mark about half way due to some of David’s lackluster performances. Putting that aside however, the gameplay is fantastic, it’s a solid, fast paced shooter that will give you your fix for shooting the hell out of some aliens. This is a first person shooter that is worth the time and money, and certainly worth a rental at a minimum for shooter fans.

XBox Solution