untitled
|
|
|
Title: Area 51
Platform(s): PS2, XBOX, PC (reviewed on PS2)
Publisher: Midway
Difficulty: Varied
I CANNOT PLAY ONLINE, SO THIS REVIEW IS A REVIEW OF THE OFFLINE MODES ONLY!
Area 51 is a very fast paced FPS. The tons on enemies in each room and the non-stop action make this game super intense. You know that old arcade game where you have the light gun and you shoot aliens and get your health deprived of you when you shoot women and black guys? Well this Area 51 is nothing like that except for the name.
The story for this game is pretty complex and can be hard to understand by just playing the game. The mysterious Grays (Aliens) have been studying humanity for many, many years and have began research on Earth that is too dangerous to to perform on any of thier homeworlds. The Grays were in a interstellar war with an unknown enemy and they desperatly created a weapon to ensure thier survival. In 1947, a research ship crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. The US Government quickly investigated the crash and found a Gray named "Edgar". One scientist by the name of Dr. Winston Cray began working with "Edgar" on perfecting a viral weapon. But now Dr. Cray stuggles with to prevent the Grays from completing their super-weapon and destorying Earth. So he releases the virus to the subterrainean sections of the base with the intention of causing a distration for the enemies. You play as Ethan Cole, and your main job on Hazmat team Bravo is to scan objects that will be the primary means of gaining information on the virus. But as Cole gets the call from Major Douglas Bridges, he goes into this job not believing in "little green men". The duty for your team is to find another team that went missing inside the base and find the source of the deadly virus. But that job soon turns sour and your on your own.
The sound is really great. The gun sounds are realistic and the exlposions are loud. The voice-overs are really well done. A couple of the voice actors for the game might sound familiar to you. Like David Duchovny and Marilyn Manson. The soundtrack for this game only contains of one song, but the song fits the the mood of this game very well. The music intensifies every encounter with an enemy.
The graphics are SUPERB! One of the best, if not the best I've seen on the PS2. The detail in the characters, enemies, and suroundings are very pleasing. The cutscenes make this game look that much better. These cutscenes are the best I've ever seen! TAKE THAT FINAL FANTASY! Bring your friend in the room while your watching one of these beautiful cut-scenes and see if he asks you what movie you watching. No, Im not lying. These cutscenes look that game and are super detailed. Without a doubt, this is one beatiful game. The only thing that I found not top-notch in the grapics department, was the blood. The blood wasn't bad, it just looks a bit wierd. Look something like the blood from Mortal Kombat Deception.
I was also pleased with the gameplay. Now, gameplay for shooters isn't really too complex, and everyone who has played a FPs should know that. But this game is all shooting. As you get a little ways into the game, you get infected by a mutant. But you go to a mechine of some sort that retracts the virus, but the machine malfunctions and doesn't fully retract the virus. So that means you can mutate and use some of your alienish-mutant powers you've obtained. As a mutant, you gain strength, but you've also lost some humanity and can't use guns...so you smack enemies...really hard. Mutating can most definetly help you in tough levels. You can let out parasites to regain health from other enemies, but you'll lose some of your mutagen and wont be able to mutate. So you kill people as a mutant to gain the powers back. And you will also find mutagen lying around the base.
More with the gameplay...the weapons for this game are pretty basic for any other FPS. You start out with a pistol and soon pick up a shot-gun, assult rifle, sniper rifle, and grenades. But remember...you are at Area 51. You pick up some sweet weapons aliens designed. You get a sweet rifle like thing that clings to organic surfaces and rebounds off all other matrials. You also get sweet alien grenades that they call "jumping beans". These bad boys travel in the direct line-of-sight path for the selected enemy or area. They explode like any other grenade, but then come back together for one last big explosion for any enemies that came into the area. Your going to encounter few types of enemies in Area 51, but you'll soon come to hate these enemies. You will come across mutant scientist that arent very harmful, and you will encounter a mutant security enforcer who carries an assult rifle. But the last stage of the mutants is the mutant leaper. These guys use all four limbs to clinb, crawl, and jump. The have talons that pierc pody armor so you'll want to get rid of these guys fast. Now, for me, the most hated enemies were the black-ops and the black-ops leaders. They are cloned humans that were an expierement of alien/human DNA. The grays call them to do their dirty work. These guys have annoying alien weapons and assult rifles. The Black-ops leaders also have invisible camo. They can inflict serious damage and should taken out as soon as possible. The only thing that lacked in the gameplay was the multiplayer. It's no Halo, thats for sure. It isn't horribly bad. You pick your level, your time limit, and the death count. It's pretty basic, but I expected more.
Area 51 is undoubtedly my favorite FPS I've played. Yeah, thats right...better than Halo, Golden Eye, and Medal of Honor. I would reccomend this game to any fans of Halo or any related games. I really enjoyed playing this super intense FPS and it's worth all $50 I payed for it.
I LOVED this game. My score for this game is - 9.5... out of 10.
Good:
+Superb graphics
+Excellent story
+Intense gameplay.
Bad:
Wish it had co-op Campaign
-More in-depth multiplayer mode
-When there are lots of enemies on in the area and your getting shot, you get blurred to death and can't see who or where your shooting.
-The Multiplayer is the main reason I scored the game a 9.5.
This and all other reviews have been written for this site and this site only. You may not use our reviews unless we give you permission.
Copyright© by Poor Gamers Friend.
bravenet.com