First Encounter
By Danny Chihdo
Ten years after the classic light-gun original blasted into arcades and devoured a great deal of quarters, Midway Games and developer Inevitable Entertainment are unleashing a new Area 51 on Xbox®. But this new title leaves the rails and the light-guns in nostalgia-ville.
The new Area 51 is a tightly constructed and frenetically paced first-person shooter (FPS) with killer multiplayer on Xbox Live®, big name Hollywood actors, and hours of mutant-and-alien blasting in the single-player mode alone.
Hiya, handsome.
Fans of the original Area 51 needn't worry that the flavor or style of the original has been lost in the transition to FPS. The new game pays homage to the original with its creepy conspiracy story line (complete with Illuminati and a nifty plot twist that offers some unique gameplay options, to say the least) and individual battles that pit you against hordes of tough, aggressive enemies.
The production value is on a par with Halo® 2, including freaky and slick environments that come apart under enemy fire; solid, rumble-tastic weapons; loving attention to graphical details from smeared blood to UFOs; and the star power of David Duchovny (The X-Files), Powers Boothe (Deadwood), and Marilyn Manson. For more on the voice actors, be sure to check out the bonus documentary (from which we pulled these screens).
Starring David Duchovny as Cole …
And Powers Boothe as Major Bridges.
In the deep and challenging single-player mode, you play as Ethan Cole (voiced by Duchovny, who also narrates all the cut scenes as Cole). He's the science-minded mission specialist of HazMat Team Bravo, an elite team of soldiers sent to the troubled Area 51 facility to see what happened to the first team that went down into the base.
It's not spoiler to reveal that, as often happens in these situations, a nasty mutating virus is turning scientists, soldiers, and even bugs into half-alien and half-human mutant hybrids. Itis a spoiler to reveal this next bit, though, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to know the secret about the game (though it's already in the ads) … Before too long, you become infected, too. That means you'll have the ability to shapeshift from a human who can wield (and often double-wield) guns, throw grenades, and use the ol' wrist scanner to uncover a key piece of the puzzle into a physically strong and super-powered alien mutant at will (press up on the D-pad). You only have a limited amount of time in this form, but you can extend it by picking up "mutagen" from hypos, diseased corpses, or use of your melee attacks while in alien form. As the game progresses, you'll uncover even more powers, like a parasitic ranged attack that boosts your health. Cole's quest to find a cure for his condition soon has him up to his mutating ears in big-time conspiracies and wave after wave of dangerous enemies.
How did the virus get out and why do these "Illuminati" characters seem to want to wipe you off the face of the Earth? What are the Grays doing mixed up in this? Can Cole's mutation be cured? What's up with Marilyn Manson's character, who seems able to reanimate dead bodies at will and helps Cole at key points along the way, while still seeming utterly evil? Will Powers Boothe get a chance to use any of those colorful words they use on Deadwood? That, we won't spoil.
Dr. Cray reveals all in his secret video journals.
What makes Area 51 work so well (in addition to the aforementioned production value and the story, which manages to mine the seemingly dry well of "alien-Roswell-UFO" conspiracies to great effect) are the individual single-player battles that really test your mettle.
By making effective use of well-designed maps, tricky A.I., and an engine that not only lets you kick the environment around, but also puts upward of a dozen foes on the screen at once without a drop in frame rate, the developers have really captured that panic-driven pace of the original.
One might expect such battles to get redundant, but each one is a unique experience, especially if your main goal isn't even shooting the bad guys. Even after your first team gets beat down, you'll end up with A.I. allies that can help you fight off the enemy—and they might end up covering you when you're the only one that can open a door, hit a switch, or scan a particular item.
Destroy All Mutants!
Multiplayer Area 51 on Xbox Live adds the cool shapeshifting option to some traditional FPS match types, and it's anything but traditional, once you get a handle on using your different forms in multiplayer games. You can adjust the shapeshifting before the match starts, too, allowing players to either shift at will or stay in one of the two forms for the whole match. Game types include Death Match, Team Death Match, Capture the Flag, Capture and Hold, and Infection, where one side is always humans and the other is always aliens. All of the game types are available on the nearly 20 separate maps.
No mystery about Area 51 here—play it.
Comments about this article?
