Midway's Area 51 in the arcades would take players into the deepest recesses of an alien conspiracy as they shot their way through to the truth. Rekindling their Hollywood-flavored take on the urban legend, it was redone for the PC and consoles as a first person shooter a few years later, now wrapped around an adrenaline filled sci-fi story filled with forbidden technology and X-Files fantasy complete with David Duchovny as the hero's voice. Midway's shooter has plenty of atmosphere with enough archived background to embarrass the Library of Congress, but the gameplay leaves just as much to be desired.

Area 51's secrets were exposed on the PC. This also saw a multiplatform release.

Fight the Future

Area 51 introduces the player to a detailed world caught between conspiratorial powers shooting from the shadows. Most of the action takes place beneath Area 51 as Ethan Cole and his fellow Hazmat specialists are sent in to investigate an outbreak that has sealed the base off from the outside world. As player views the world through Ethan's eyes, they will see alien mutants, burning offices, laboratories filled with specimens, and strange technology filling every nook and cranny within the base as Ethan sees what the public has speculated.

As the story unfolds, it seems that a Dr. Cray has inadvertently allowed one of these experiments to run loose, an act that has brought in the military to try and control the outbreak that has mutated those trapped within the facility. But as with every conspiracy, there is an method to his madness as the player will soon discover, especially when Ethan becomes infected with the very virus he was to fight.

Midway's update to their arcade actioner is chock full of atmosphere. As bonuses, there are files hidden and scattered everywhere that, when found, open up extras in the main menu detailing more of the background provided for the world of Area 51 including videos of Dr. Cray and the leader of the Illuminati, Mr. White, as they rationalize their unique approaches to what is unfolding.

Under the Base and Through the Labs, To Grandmother's House We Go

With as much effort as Midway has spent on getting the kind of sci-fi atmosphere within Area 51 just right, not much has been spent in order to make the gameplay stand out from its FPS peers on the PC. The meat and potatoes of an FPS like this one is in its weapons, and here is where Area 51 has secreted away most of its frustrating moments. Many of the guns handle well enough to put down the genetic mishaps that come charging into your line of leaden fire, but trying to perform some precision aiming is a chore thanks to the tendency of these weapons to be oversensitive, jumping a few pixels like an infected java bean when trying to eyeball a shot. Adjusting the mouse sensitivity doesn't help. This is especially true with the sniper rifle before the 1.2 patch as gazing through its scope also exaggerated its aim as much as it focused in on the enemy. Unfortunately, the patch still fails to address the jerky feel of the cursor with every other weapon.

Much of the action will have you slogging through hidden labs, weapons testing facilities, power centers, and deep below the earth in pursuit of the alien infestation's source. There's plenty to see and do with several light puzzles thrown in of the fetch variety as you guide Cole in finding batteries, key cards, and activating some of the fantastic technology hidden away in Area 51 in order to continue on. At one point, Cole will become infected himself, although the player will discover that they control when he should 'hulk out' and become that which he has been trying to kill. Feeding on mutagenic energy for Cole's new abilities, the player will have access to a powerful melee attack in addition to eventually being able to irradiate his enemies. But once the player has depleted their mutagenic power, they'll go back to being a normal, and more vulnerable, hazmat specialist again until they find more to absorb. It adds an additional twist to the story and provides a valuable weapon, although most of the encounters in the game including the bosses will still have to be dealt with in the usual fashion with plenty of firepower.

The enemies in the game range from the mutants that will rush headlong into death to cloaked soldiers in league with the Illuminati that will do the same thing with better weapons. They'll drop ammo to keep your guns fed and there are plenty of healing needles scattered throughout Area 51 to keep you from becoming another lab rat. There's also a large variety of weapons, all of which eat up plenty of ammunition and a few of which can be dual wielded like the assault rifles until one of them runs out of ammo. Weird weapons are also a part of your arsenal since an alien conspiracy just has to have a few of these. You'll eventually get a hold of an energy rifle along with a powerful Meson cannon that is the title's version of a BFG as it creates a sphere of energy that obliterates everything within range with tentacles of atomic death.

Along with the special effects, Midway's artists have filled Area 51 with plenty of eye candy ranging from laboratories filled with strange equipment to conspiracy ridden levels such as a hidden studio for faking the moon landing. There are also small scenes worked into the backdrop, from soldiers in a trailer talking about what is going on to aliens performing their own 'alien autopsy'. All of this adds an incredible amount of atmosphere to the title, especially as you head deeper beneath the base to the inevitable secrets that it has sealed away there. Key characters are voiced by famous names such as Marilyn Manson as one of the grey aliens, Powers Boothe as your commander, and David Duchovny narrating what is going on during the extremely well made cutscenes. Unfortunately, some of the acting can sound phoned in and while it was cool to hear Duchovny's deadpan, it can occasionally sound as if he is sleeptalking. As for the music, it manages to top off the title with tracks fitting in with much of the action that occurred onscreen.

Classified Entry

Area 51 buries the player with the sci-fi vibe of conspiratorial secrets surrounding its source material as they blast, claw, and run through the bowels of the infamous urban legend. Even when the conspiracy has been unraveled, multiplayer is also available for taking the debate online although it sticks to the basics much like what its single player has done.

But as good a job as it does in setting the stage, the gameplay sticks to its FPS basics with only a minor twist to the mechanics with its mutation angle. Much of the really interesting background material is also found as extras which may be glossed over during play, leaving quite a bit of it left to waste by simply focusing on the action. Simply having the atmosphere to tell a great story may not be enough to overshadow the more glaring issues concerning its most basic controls, but while it may feel lost in the wake of Half Life 2 and Doom 3, it has enough unique strangeness in its setting to entice curious onlookers to take another look at Midway's own urban legend concerning Area 51.