Area 51 Blasts Into New Dimension For Shooting Games
“Area 51”
Formats: Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation.
Estimated selling price, manufacturer: $55-$65, Midway Home Entertainment Inc.
Category: Search and destroy, shooting/ driving game.
Players: One-two.
Recommended ages: 17 and up.
Release date: Available now.
How the game works: “Area 51” (a Virtua Cop-like game) is a heart-stopping, cinematic shooter, set on a U.S. air base in Nevada where an alien autopsy was supposedly performed; it’s the home video-game version of the smash-hit arcade game of the same name.
The plot goes like this: Over the course of 48 hours, a top-secret alien experiment goes awry and the base becomes overrun with mutating alien creatures. Soon, all contact with the base is lost. The president calls in a rogue task force, known as the STAAR (Strategic Tactical Advanced Alien Response) Team, for a desperate mission to contain and eliminate the alien infestation at the base. If the mission is a failure, you and your STAAR Team comrades must set off a nuclear self-destruct device and vaporize the base and its contents from the face of the planet.
Part of the intrigue surrounding the game is the notoriety of Area 51 - which the government says doesn’t exist, but is famous among alien-conspiracy theorists as an off-limits, no-fly zone in Nevada. Conspiracy buffs suggest the base harbors secret biological testing, including experiments on bodies taken from the alien spacecraft, and that’s the premise for this game - which leaves the fate of the entire human race in your hands.
Good points, bad points: Area 51 takes shooting games to the next level, exploding in full three-dimensional, ultra-realistic action. The unique cinematic look and feel of the game is created through an amazing combination of state-of-the-art, high-tech wizardry including 3-D rendered graphics, live action and stop-motion animation. Unique camera angles are used to move your game character around the base as you try to exterminate alien foes and avoid capture by the mutating enemies via rides on elevators, jeeps, forklifts and helicopters. Live digitized actors were used to create the STARR Team members, while stop-motion animation was used to produce the mutating aliens and zombies.
Though you can play with standard game system controllers, I recommend using the Cobra Light Gun, Sega’s Virtua Gun or Konami’s Hyperblaster; you can target the aliens with pinpoint accuracy. All three feature auto bullet reload and variable-speed rapid fire. (Warning: Use them for playing with Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation only - they’re game controllers, not to be pointed at people.)
Tips: Shoot out any blue lights and you will get special power-ups. And fire quickly; if you think too long, you’re dead.
The verdict: A good game to keep us entertained until ID4: The Video Game from Fox Interactive is released.