Area 51

The secretive and mysterious Area 51 has been the core of numerous games and movies to date, including several past games developed by Midway themselves. It doesn’t come as to much of a surprise that they are deciding to create another title based around this, rightfully titled “Area 51.” The U.S. Army has received a distress signal from Area 51 where a viral outbreak has just shut down the research facility and the automated quarantine procedures have locked all scientific and military personnel inside. A small Special Forces unit led by specialist Ethan Cole of the HAZMAT (hazardous materials) division is sent to investigate. The player will take control of Cole going through the memorable corridors of Area 51 attempting to discover the secrets of the extraterrestrial menace before it’s too late.

Players will be armed with more than 10 types of human and alien weapons as they explore the dark and menacing confines of Area 51. These weapons range from the standard issued shotgun, sub-machine gun, and sniper rifle, to various alien weaponry such as the BBG, a gun that uses alien technology. This weapon has an optional laser sight that can be used for banking shots off walls and objects. It’s great for taking cover. It’s an energy weapon that recharges over time and releases short bursts of glowing death. Another alien weapon is the Meson Cannon. This alien-engineered weapon fires a projectile that causes some serious damage. The projectile fires in a straight line and attaches to a world object. Once grounded, the projectile births alien tendrils that attach to up to four enemies, causing a very painful death. It’s very enjoyable to fire, duck, and watch.

Another addition that seems to be growing rapidly in popularity is dual-wielding. The player will be able to dual-wield various guns such as the already powerful shotgun to a human assault rifle. The most unique and interesting part of Area 51 is the ability to gain and use alien abilities. An example of this is parasites, a mutation ability that allows you to shoot organic parasites from your flesh. These parasites are homing and suck health from your enemies, returning it directly back to you. This is perfect for large battles where health packs might be hard to come upon.

The Contagion Mutation Ability is an ability that becomes available to Cole about three-quarters through the game. It’s an advanced level of the parasite attack that lets you fire a projectile out of your flesh. It then infects a single enemy in a room and, in doing so, causes it to switch its faction to fight for you. This can be an amazingly useful ability, especially when fighting large groups of enemies. You have to use this cautiously however, considering it uses around 75% of your mutation ability, which could leave you defenseless in the near future if you run out of ammo.


Area 51 is filled with dozens of impressive, unique, and freaky looking aliens. In fact, the creatures are created by Stan Winston Studios, the minds behind the monsters on films such as Alien, Predator, and Jurassic Park. On-top of this, as I’ve seen in multiple demos and videos the game has some truly fantastic atmosphere, and an incredible environment. The enemies were creative and fun to kill while the controls also feel spot-on, controlling like many other first person shooters before it. Area 51 also sports some impressive rag-doll effects with some beautiful, sharp, and well-done graphics. I can say this, if the versions of the game I played are an indication of what the final game will be like, then I can say it’s going to be absolutely fantastic.

Its almost become a sin now-a-days for a console first person shooter not to have some sort of multiplayer in it, and since sinning is bad, Midway has added a what should be a great online experience. Area 51 supports up to 4-player split screen a long with up to 16 players over Live. Players will be able to host and play matches as they feel, and the game will feature some robust online scoreboards. Not much has been said about the game modes Area 51 will support, but you can expect the traditional deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and whatever else Midway has under their sleeves.

The game will also feature upcoming downloadable content. Whether this will be additional maps, weapons, etc has yet to be seen. Area 51 will be releasing on April 25th, and I can tell you now, for single and multiplayer gamers a like, this is definitely a game to look out for.