Area 51 - Review

Area 51 Review (Xbox and PS2)

Lowdown411- 3 anal probes out of 5

I was psyched when I played early demos of this game for Xbox. I really was looking forward to it coming out. This review covers the Xbox version I purchased as well as a PS2 rental for comparison.

Visually, the two versions of Area 51 are close. The frame rate on XB is slightly smoother. Audio is pretty good – loud echo weapons blasts.

Game play starts out very promising. Intriguing story with crazy scientist in a wheelchair, you have a team of decent AI companions, Moulder is narrating the cut scenes and there is somewhat interesting level design.

Very quickly your whole team is killed off and you become infected with the alien-DNA virus. This allows you to change between man and alien. Kind of cool, but you rarely have any compelling reason to change into the alien version of yourself. You can maul the creature-like aliens easily, but most of the time you are put in firefights with hybrid man/alien guards.

Everything is crusing along nicely then slam – the game hits a wall. The last two-thirds of Area 51 seem rushed, almost like a different development team took over the project. The story becomes so uninteresting and lame that even agent Moulder’s monotonous dialogue isn’t enough to keep your interest. Boring switch puzzles abound. FPS gimmick of the year – traveling by crane/moving platform is used constantly.

Area 51 started so good that I really just wanted to make it to the end. I was about to throw my controller out the window after spending 20 minutes trying to exit a steel staircase maze with an objective indicator pointing to a locked door. Dodging sniper shots because the game programmers want me to walk over an obscure dead body to trigger a lame cut scene in order exit the level is not my idea of fun.

It’s not all bad. Like I said before, the first third of the game is very good. It’s a shame because good ideas like a moon landing sound stage level are wasted by the rest of the game’s sloppy delivery.

Area 51 is worth a rental. When it’s good - it’s very good, and that should keep you busy for a few hours.