Playstation Two Reviews- Area 51

Area 51. I’ll admit, I am new to this game; I have not beaten it yet, but let me share my first impressions.

Area 51 is a sci-fi first-person shooter that came out in 2005. You play as a Hazmat inspector/investigator sent to Area 51 to investigate some kind of biological contamination. You start the game with only a handgun which is “standard procedure”. (A tip: don’t waste ammo. There is no friendly fire so don’t bother trying. You’ll need all the bullets you have until you get an assault rifle)

You find out quickly that some kind of virus has been released inside the base, and that it mutates anything it infects into a zombie-like creature.

The first few “levels” (the game is continuous, so again, don’t waste ammo) are really quite creepy; it’s dark, you’re not really sure what’s going on, and freaky-looking mutants could jump out at you at any time. The flashlight helps, but it gets shifted away while you reload.

Relatively early on, you become infected. Though this initially seems like a bad thing, the mutation (you can change between human and mutant on command) gives you many advantages in close quarters combat. You’re faster than your opponents, a melee bash will kill them with a single hit, and you can leech health from them using the parasites. You can also release contagion, but to be honest, I haven’t had a chance to figure out what it does yet. (Tip: if you’re having trouble with a particular part, try mutating)

You fight your way through the game, eventually encountering the Grays (the stereotypical little gray aliens with bulbous heads and large black eyes). That’s about as far as I’ve gotten, but I’m pretty sure I’m getting close to the end.

I do have some criticisms for the game; there are sections which seem ridiculously hard, granted now that I’ve figured out the advantages of mutating, they may not have been as hard as I made them. There are also parts where it is difficult to figure out where to go. Sometimes you have to crawl down under things, or jump onto small ledges where if you mis-time it and fall, you will die. But my biggest complaint, is the part where you have to kill the first Gray. A) There’s a relatively long cut scene right before it, and if you die, you have to watch it again, and again, and again. B) It tells you you need to destroy the shield and kill the Gray. Well throughout the game, objectives are generally control panels, or things of that nature, so naturally, you’d sweep the room looking for a button to shut down the shield. But that’s a huge challenge, because the Gray keeps tossing orbs that spawn more guys to kill. No, there is no button. You need to shoot the shield somewhere in the ballpark of a hundred times to bring down the shield. Once the shield is down, the Gray dies, no problem, but you have to know what you’re doing. I recommend wiping out the guys as a mutant, then unloading on the shield (preferably with dual assault rifles) then when more guys spawn, go back to mutant mode, and kill them, and back and forth and so on until the Gray is dead, then finish off the rest of the guys, and proceed.

I know it may seem like my complaint paragraph may seem really long, but this game really is quite good. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, and I hope someone gives it a shot as a result of this review. If you do decide to rent or buy this game, I hope my tips come in handy, and I hope you have as much fun with it as I have been.

11/7/09