No one should mistake Midway’s new Area 51 game for the Wisconsin cheese festival of an arcade game that was released by Atari Games (which Midway acquired) in 1995. Back then Area 51 was a lightgun game that was at least enough of a hit to rate a sequel called Area 51: Site 4 in 1998. The new Area 51 does take place in the urban-legend-enhanced location of the Air Force’s Area 51 site, where popular UFO mythology has the government experimenting with alien technology recovered from the 1947 Roswell crash and other sources. And it has the player killing a bunch of aliens. But that is about where the similarities end – fortunately. In 2005 Area 51 is a first-person shooter with smart aliens, some pretty good play mechanics and nice visuals and audio. It is not quite up to the level of true greatness but, while it lasts, it is entertaining.

The gamer plays as Ethan Cole, an experienced member of HazMat (Hazardous Material) Team Bravo, who has been sent with his team into the bowels of Area 51 after HazMat Team Delta disappeared in the facility. Seems a deadly virus has gotten loose in the base and it is changing the staff into violent mutants. If this virus gets out, it could be the end for mankind on Earth. Cole, voiced by David Duchovny in his best deadpan Muldar, must discover the mysteries of Area 51 and survive. Along the way he’ll learn many secrets behind the various conspiracies that have now become part of our popular culture – from the Roswell crash to the faked moon landing and even cattle mutilations – and ultimately prevent the successful completion of the biggest and most deadly conspiracy yet.

Gameplay is a pretty straight-forward first-person-shooter style. This is not really a bad thing since the game executes this style of play almost flawlessly and controls like a dream. I especially liked the melee command on the right thumbstick button. Unlike many of the more modern FPS games out there, Area 51 allows you to pick up every weapon you find along the way. The up side of this is that the player has lots of selections for every possible situation and lots of backup firepower if the weapon he is using runs out of ammo. The downside is that you have to look through several weapons to find the one you want. There is no command to drop a weapon that you no longer desire to hang onto and thus streamline the selection process. By the time you collect all six weapons, add in grenades and a scanner, I’m surprised your avatar doesn’t look like a bag lady with a beat-up grocery cart full of weapons running around the levels. Being able to possess every weapon also cuts down on the strategy needed to play the game. As mentioned though, there are only six weapons: four human and two of alien origin. Not really a big selection. It would have been fun to see a few more less-generic implements of destruction.

In addition to the weapons that Cole may wield, there is also the matter of the mutagen virus that is loose in the base. It is not far into the game that Cole himself is infected. But unlike the other victims, Cole’s body reacts differently to the virus and he is able to go between human and mutant form at will. While in mutant form, Cole is a faster and much more deadly melee fighter. This makes the mutant form the ideal form to play as in those situations where the battle has devolved into a close-quarters fur ball of a fight. Cole cannot stay in mutant form indefinitely. A second bar above Cole’s health meter shows how much alien mutagen he has. Mutagen can be replenished from infected bodies or in the form of collected injections.

Rounding out Cole’s equipment is his scanner. An analysis/recording device, the scanner lets Cole find out more about the things he comes across in his fight. Sometimes the information is a file about a conspiracy, such as water fluoridation. Other times it may be information on one of the enemies he’ll battle. A bit like the PDA in Doom 3, I have to say that while the files collected are often entertaining, they do not move the game along like the Doom 3 PDA downloads did. They also are not even accessible from within the game. To see the files, the player must actually leave the game and view them from the main menu. Not a very good execution method.

Level design in the game is excellent. The environments vary from claustrophobic halls and passages to expansive open bays. One of my favorites was the sound stage on which the moon landings were supposedly faked – if the game mythos is to be believed. There is never enough room for vehicular combat, but it is not really missed. The levels all look really good with many destructible elements.

The overall graphical treatment of the game is outstanding. The characters are well detailed with fluid, believable movement. The screen’s tremor as a weapon is fired and the muzzle flash nicely convey the feel of being behind a powerful weapon in a firefight. The sound that accompanies the visuals is in every way terrific. The bark of weapons fire, ambient sounds and soundtrack are all excellent. Special note should also be given to the voice acting. Midway rounded up a stellar cast that includes the aforementioned David Duchovny, Powers Booth and an especially creepy performance by Marilyn Manson. It is a little uneven at times, but overall very good.

One aspect that deserves special mention in the execution of the game is how well AI performed. I never saw some enemy just stand there and wait for me to come up and shoot him. If I got in the line of sight of enemy units they reacted immediately, often with deadly consequences. Both enemy and non-player friendly personnel used cover fairly well. Sneaky little elite enemy SOBs even had a nasty habit of holding you by the nose (engaging you from the front) and then kicking you in the ass (coming around behind you and attacking while you are engaging the frontal assault.) The game also often had enemy personnel in not-readily-ascertainable firing positions who would pop up, take some shots and then retreat under cover. This necessitated a cautious strategy of movement and systematic ferreting out of dug-in enemies in many areas. The bad guys may also have used grenades better than any game I’ve played. It’s definitely one of the best AIs running in a game today.

Rounding out the package is a solid multiplayer element that works both split-screen on a single console for up to four players or on Live for up to 16. The multiplayer plays very smoothly either way and the levels are actually a lot of fun to fight in. Sadly there is no System Link play, so this is definitely not going to supplement Halo play at LAN parties. It is also regrettable that there is no cooperative play for the campaign. What is here is okay, but many other games do it as well and add a more fully-developed experience.

As well as its gameplay is executed, and with first-class presentation, ultimately Area 51 cannot quite rise above the pack of other good first-person shooters on the Xbox. The system just has too many FPS games that are better to recommend. Though I have not seen the PS2 version, if Midway has executed that version of Area 51 as well as this Xbox version, I’d have to call it one of the best FPS games to be released on the PS2. But on the Xbox, Area 51 has to settle for just a fat four out of five sharks.