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WOW!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: June 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game borrows heavily upon the finest elements of some of the best shooters out there. The textures and coloring borrow from Halo. The vocal synch/mouth animation is borrowed from Half-Life. The teamwork and the way Sarge would constantly bellow commands is reminiscent of Medal Of Honor. The storyline is compelling. Ther acting is, well, GOOD! David Duchuvney AND Marilyn Manson both star in this game! Very well written and sometimes quite frightening. The skeletal animation is outstanding! A very challenging FPS that we can only hope gets the attention It deserves!!!!

Weak, and embarassing. Not up to par

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: November 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The story is decent, the premise and setting is ok. But this game borders on unusable sometimes. There is NO save system. Pathetic on a 2005 title. You can play 20 minutes, looking for some bizarre thing that they hid in the game, and get killed at the last minute. Another 20 minutes playing the same thing again. Argh.. I thought we were past that years ago. F5 guys, F5.

Then there's the controls. The book tells you very little about what to do in the game. I wandered around for 6 or 7 sections of the game not knowing what to do with the darn scanner. Also, there seems to be a total lack of health when you need it most, and an abundance when you don't need it. Didn't the developers play this thing before they shipped it? Totally wierd. And there are so many cut scenes and cinematics, its hard to get into the rythm.

And then the most troubling thing. I love these FPS games, Far Cry, Doom 3, Half Life 2, etc. Play them all. But Area 51, I find it very hard to see where I am. The action is pretty wierd, which is ok (it is a fictional game after all), but because of how murky the controls are, and how wide the field of vision of the character is, I end up with a headache trying to see where I am half the time. Its hard to know where the shots are coming from, and where the enemy is. Its hard to describe, but the field of vision is just lousy. And for a First Person game, thats indeed bad.

All in all, very disappointing. I can see why it didn't to that well. Its klunky, has poor playability, and its hard to see whats going on. Too bad actually, as the story is not that bad, David Duchovny, while bland as heck in this, at least is a real actor, and Area 51 is steeped in fantasy lore as a subject in general. All in all, a bargain bin special

Very Surprized!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: July 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was very pestamistic when it came to this game. After Half Life 2, Doom 3, The Thing what could compare to that greatness that those games portrade?

Then I downloaded the demo for this game and I was very impressed to say the least. First of all it reminds me of a cross between HL2 and The Thing which came out three years ago. But what makes a great game to me might not to someone else, hey this is why we live in America, freedom.

Graphics: I thought the graphics were good enough with some surprizes like the lighting and that errie neon glow effect you'll see throughout the game. The spaceship is the best I hear.
Reminds me of the movie aliens!

Physics: are great with windows breaking, granades exploding in more ways than one and body's flying. Great! Nothing new though except that crazy energy granade? Where did that come from?

Gameplay: This is where it's at and should be with all games: A cool mystery of a story I tell you. Kind of scary in some places especially when your going down some dingy, dark cooridor and hear a sound behind you of someone creeping up on you and you think "what's that???" "Is it an alien???" "Or something else???" This aspect of the game is a lot like Doom's gameplay and I love that scare effect!!!

Sound: This is a neccesity. Get a good sound card like 3D Doby and a good surround-sound system and your good to go. If you have already played Doom 3 or Half Life 2 then your ready and good to go.

Conclusion: I think this is game is a winner.It's not the best nor worst nor is it as graphically intense as HL2 or Doom3 but what game is right now??? Give it a few year's and we'll see something top them all just like always. What this game is lies in the gameplay which is down right fun, fun, fun! Who cares about whether the game is as good as this or that I don't play to compare to other game's, I play to have fun! And you??? Get a life FPS die-hards! This game is fun not perfect and that is all that should matter! I admit there are some bugs here and there but a patch like always will fix most if not all of them, problem solved!

Area 51 for PC, fun for a while

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a big fan of first person shooters with the likes of Half Life 1/2, Far Cry, Doom 3, etc under my belt. Area 51 is likely to frustrate and dissapoint those looking for quality game action like the afor mentioned titles. The graphics are good and the shooting is nearly endless. My gripe is the software itself is buggy and prone to crash your system. Midway Games does not have any real tech support or forums for help (only email) and the game itself does not allow you to save at any point you choose (only at defined "stages"). That last point is frustrating when you have run the "gauntlet" and survived, just to have an error pop up and loose all your progress. My Pc is a Amd k7 2800, 1 Gb ddr, 128 Mb-6200 nvidia Vid card.
This could have been a great game, but its only mediocre at best.

Worth it

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After playing Half-Life 2, I would have to say that I am relatively spoiled as far as the FPS genre is concerned, but thats not to say that any other FPS compared to HL2 is going to be bad. I liked this game because it moves very quickly and is more of a Run-&-Gun. There are no intricate puzzles or tricky obstacles to navigate like in HL2 and nor is it "Scary" like Doom 3 was supposed to be. It was just a fun, fast paced shoot em up.
The context of the game is intrigueing and after you find files and data discs in game, its fun to read them in the main menu. But beyond that it consists of dodge bullets, shoot zombies, run away, reload, shoot some more.
So if your looking for a game of substance, this is probably not high on your list, but if you want a fun shoot em up, this game will satisfy.

Great FSP except for several frustrating items...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This FSP is fun to play. The graphics are pretty good and the controls are easy except for the full magnification using the sniper rifle. The visual is too shaky. There are certain difficulties during play as far as fighting the "enemies" but I think that makes the game more challenging. The most critical and FRUSTRATING issue is you can play for a long time, then get killed and have to start all the way back to the beginning of the section your playing. There is no F5 save!! Still, it's a fun game but it's no F.E.A.R. or HALO.

Almost perfect.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Overall Area 51 was one of the best FPS games I've ever played. Graphics were top knotch. Voice acting was supurb with the exception of Marilyn Manson. He may be popular with the black lipstick crowd but, as a voice acter, he sounded amaturish.

The other bad thing about the game was the ending. It made absolutely no sense and it didn't resolve anything.

That being said, the game provided many hours of enjoyable, challenging gameplay.

It also has a free online multiplayer option.

I didn't expect too much from the multiplayer option because I am using a dial up modem.

I tried it and I was pleasantly surprised. My slow ping times didn't seem to matter that much. I was able to totally reak havok !!! Ahhh... It felt sooo goood....

I've tried playing the multiplayer options of other games and I usually end up being a sitting duck for the cable modem guys.

Not this time.

It's time for some payback....

Get ready to eat lead punks!!!!

---

I give the multiplayer otpion 5 stars. Because it is totally adictive.

This game does require a better than average game card. Be sure you check out the video requirements before you buy this game.

Why not us?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This nothing more than an average game. To the one who said that the rectical shake was crappy, if someone shoots you, you will become disoriented. It has a awesome weapons, from powerful pistols, to recharging plasma rifles. Oh yeah, and the grenades that implode then explode, those are real neat. Not to mention the option to dual wield SMGs and shotguns.

No game is complete without a multiplayer. I'm used to playing games like Counter-Strike: Source. So the multiplayer was very basic. About 4 different modes, and up to 16 instead of 64. Still I keep playing it for some reason. Despite its short comings like its lack of servers and players. (Only 3-4 Servers up at once. Maybe 30 players in every server at a time also.) Still it has many maps, which are based of off single player areas. Also the community is good. No team killers, and most servers allow you to vote! So its democratic. Just to mention, I've tried playing the multiplayer on dial-up and theres not to much lag! So if you have dial-up and have always wished to play multiplayer games, this will fit your book!

Overall if you need a new game to play. This is the way to go. Not only for the single player but for the multiplayer.

A new mediocre title from Midway

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was really looking forward to Area 51, but I was rudely dissapointed by it's bland mediocre singleplayer campiagn with absolutely no replayability. It's fun to play through one time, but not twice. I couldn't even get the multiplayer to work. Trust me, go back and replay Half Life 2 a few more times unless your really aching for something a little different.

Not fun

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: February 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Note that I only played the demo of this game. 3 things made me quit almost 20 minutes into the game.

1- I only played the first part and quit inmediately after the 5th time I got killed by zombies/aliens whatever (There are no subtitles in the cutscenes so I had no idea what was going on or what I was supposed to do) because it was downright impossible to be unable to aim right. In any other shooter (Half-Life, Halo, etc) you choose where to aim. But not in this one. Here, if you are running, recieving a shot, or anything else, the reticle (And the whole view) will move by itself away from your objective, and fade with grey in the process.

When you're dealing with a single zombie/alien/whatever, it's not difficult to get behind a box/corner and peek for a moment to shoot them. But dealing with multiple enemies at the same time (Which happens constantly and in every level- I'll explain this later) the crosshairs will seem to dance in front of you, and hitting anything at long range (The enemies are all excellent snipers using shotguns, apparently) is just impossible. That's why I quit.

2-Now the frequency of the enemies, as I promised: Well, in any other shooter, you go forward CLEARING an area of enemies. That means, if you shoot everything in sight, you should be able to backtrack and much as you want without finding any enemies. Well, not here. The levels follow a Doom style (Going forward trough a narrow tunnel/hallway) and you will be attacked from any direction at a random time. Which means that you can clear a room, advance to the next, and get shot in the back by zombies/aliens whatever that just came from the room that you just cleared.

3-The game uses a checkpoint save system.

Combine those 3 things with gloomy, dark and sometimes pitch black rooms, throw in enemies that can use stealth camouflage, and you get the most frustrating experience in First Person Shooters.

The only thing that I liked about this game was that it worked as as smooth as silk even tough I have a Intel Video Chip instead of a graphics card. However, I didn't get a chance to examine the rich details of the environement because zombies/aliens whatever pop out of the blue every 5-6 seconds anywhere in the room you're in. Maybe if you were able to lock doors, I would have given this game a chance, as it would be much easier (And fair) to be attacked from a SINGLE direction. But as expected interaction with your environement is null.

Avoid this one. Or look for a hack that gets rid of the reticle shake.

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