Area 51

"A brutal, bloody tale in Area 51."

Graphics: Not bad at all. Weapons, characters and environments are polished to perfection for the systems standards. Character animations are top notch, dynamic lighting is some of the systems best. Weapons look very nice and act as real ones should with small puffs of smoke, recoil, shaking and the flashes of the bullets being fired reflecting off the metal. Particle effects are great and make the explosions look even better. This game has some of the systems best visuals. The only bad point probably is the cheesy looking fire.

Physics are wonderful in this game! Glass shatters, bullets tear through cubicles in office buildings, things fly through the air, enemies react differently depending on where you shoot them. Midway really pushed the limits of the system with this game. 9/10

Sound: The best I've heard on the system. The quality of the sound is so high it shouldn't be from this system. Voice overs are probably the only downfall of the sound in this game. They're cheesy and there's horrible writing at times. But I was to captured by the insane level of detail in the machine gun blasts, grenade explosion, alien roars and all the sounds of battle with movie like quality in one epic fight. Monster effects sound great, and all other little things you can think of are easily some of the best on the system. 9/10

Story: The story is a basic Science fiction horror story. Strange reports are coming from Area 51 and a squad of troops are sent to investigate. The plot un-ravels with narrations from your main character (Agent Molder from X-files...) and is pretty good, but all the twists and turns are expected. The story is pretty good in the mid-section of the game, but swiftly goes down hill with cheese ball writing and dialogue near the end. Its pretty good, but doesn't live up to the high qualities in the rest of the game. 6/10

Game play: If you've played Halo 2 or Doom 3, you'll know how this game plays. You fight through hordes of beasts and aliens with rifles, machine guns pistols and some more weapons. The game is fast paced so you'll have to flip on your flash light, pick up your gun and run like all heck through the levels getting ambushed by hissing screaming man-things. There are those levels, and a few pretty creepy dark, slow levels where you have to navigate through a labyrinth of cubicles and dark halls with the bodies and destroyed areas illuminated by the fire and your flash light, then you hear the hissing of an alien in the distance...

In the beginning part of the game you have allies, but later on you don't have any. Thats when the game starts getting cheesy. Its all a one man army fest against stupid, different not cool enemies with guns and stuff. The game's final section is very badly made.

Anyway, there's a cool scanner thing you have that you can use to well... scan secret items like a special corpse, a hand, documents and a load more to read about the real Area 51 and what that item has to do with the game and real place. Its a nice little tool to have. Moving on, the combat is frantic like I mentioned. Holing out with your soldiers behind a wall holding off a literally never ending wave of enemies is great fun, and its on line too. But I haven't played it sadly. Overall the game is a great experience, and is worth playing if you like shooters. 7/10

Replay: In terms of cool extras they don't get much better then this. From videos of characters in the game, documentaries and cool things about Area 51, Roswell, and recent alien sightings they'll last you days to find and enjoy. The single player game is a good day of fun, and on line might add to the experience. 8/10

Final: This is a great rental, but not worth its current price tag. Since the game does have a horrible ending section, and very poor game play near the end you might not want to buy it. I'd say rent it, see how you like it and test it out for yourself. Then if you want to buy it go ahead. Well, hope you enjoyed my review!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/16/05