Area 51 review

Many people will be hard pressed to remember 1995's light gun game of the same name (unsurprising, since the outdated visuals and drab gameplay meant it was never that popular to begin with). Midway may have been aware of this and ditched the original premise, giving it a conceptual overhaul as a First Person Shooter. In fact, the only thing that it has to do with its forerunner is the name. Surprisingly though, it's not the disaster Gamestyle were expecting. Sure, it'll hardly revolutionise the genre, but there are far worse shooters out there.For a straightforward shooter, the plot does get awfully complex later on. Obviously taking its cue from the many conspiracies about Area 51 (fake moon landings, UFOs) it provides a good setting for a very claustrophobic experience. As the campaign mode unravels, you first find yourself fighting alongside your soldier allies. The problem, though, is the fact that the majority of these allies can only die during cut scenes, meaning during some of the opening sections of the game you can just hide and take out the odd mutant while the rest of your 'immortal' team does the work for you. This is later corrected when you find yourself on your own against the hordes of alien/mutant hybrids that infest the halls of Area 51.Rather than constantly shooting and running, you soon find yourself completing various objectives, ranging from the old gaming classic "restore power to the generator" to the guilty pleasure of "manning a turret and protecting your fellow soldiers by killing anything that moves". It at least shows that Midway put some thought into the game; it could have ended up becoming very dull with nothing to do but kill creatures, reload, and move to the next corridor, ad infinitum.To deal with the alien threat you get a rather limited assortment of weapons to use, and at times ammo can also become quite scarce. Much like the rest of the game the weapons don't necessarily reek of originality, neither are they overpoweringly brilliant as some you can find in Doom 3. Equipped from the start you have a scanner (an idea Midway 'borrowed' from Metroid Prime) which allows you to retrieve information from various sources hidden throughout Area 51, unlocking an archive of information that isn't integral to the plot, but a good side quest for those vying for 100% completion.Graphically, Midway have managed to unlock quite a bit of power from the Xbox. FMV sequences look nice and in-game character models and environments are impressive. A shame, then, that some sequences are ruined by the drab vocals of David Duchovny. Yes, the X-Files star supplies his voice to the game, and much like his work in XIII, his voice never changes from scene to scene. Even when his comrades die there is absolutely no emotion in his voice at all. Marilyn Manson and especially Powers Boothe both save the voice acting situation, but most of the best stuff comes from the extras, who you won't have heard of.The main campaign won't last long; the most hardened FPS addict will have it completed within three days and there's not much worth returning for. Xbox Live users have the added option of playing online Deathmatches amongst a few other modes, and although it won't compete with the likes of Halo 2, it certainly ranks up there with the more action-oriented online FPSs (Quake, Unreal). The most unique feature is the ability to start a 'vote'; by doing this you can ask the other players if they'd prefer to play another map or match type. Then you simply vote by using the D-pad, and an on-screen bar shows whether the vote is swaying in the direction of "No" or "Yes".If you buy Area 51 expecting a unique gaming experience then you will be sorely disappointed. It's terribly unoriginal with various moments taken from other games (sometimes done better). However, that's not to say Area 51 is a bad game - far from it. Fans of the genre will find plenty to enjoy, from the spooky setting to the non-stop action. Live users can also enjoy the excellent lag-free games that it offers, which certainly makes Area 51 a game to consider.