Area 51 (first-person shooter)
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Area 51 is a first-person shooter developed in tandem for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC, and is loosely based on the 1996 light gun video game Area 51. Players control Ethan Cole, a HazMat operative voiced by David Duchovny sent to the infamous base to investigate some manner of viral outbreak.
Taking cues from contemporaries like Halo 2, Area 51 sees the player partnered with a squad of artificially intelligent team members for the earlier portions of the game. However, certain twists happen in the story, and the player is granted the ability to use alien powers. This shares parallels with another recent Midway first-person shooter, namely The Suffering. Also notable among the voice actors are Marilyn Manson (as an ancient and powerful grey), Powers Boothe (as Major Bridges), and Ian Abercrombie (Dr. Cray).
Characters
The main character Ethan Cole (voiced by David Duchovny) is the specialist for the HazMat team. Supporting characters include:
- Mitch "CRISPY" Chrisman - The sarcastic, comic relief of the HazMat team but is also a reliable soldier and one of Cole's closest friends. He eventually turns into a mutant screaming for Cole to help him until he is forced to kill him.
- Jack McCan - The more quiet and intelligent of the HazMat team. A bookworm. He is rather mature and hard to shock; a notable occasion is when he and Cole were in a strip club, where McCan was reading a book. Cole took it and told a stripper to put it in a "special place". Leaving, McCan actually asked the stripper for the book. When Cole asked him whether the book was damaged, he said "chapter 4 will never be the same". He is the first in HazMat to die in Area 51, his head torn off by a mutant.
- Anthony Ramirez (leader of HazMat Team Bravo) - The headstrong and cunning leader of HazMat. He cares a lot for his team, even though he doesn't show it frequently. He dies second to last, attacked by a giant mutant.
- Lieutenant Peter Chew - Chew is the leader of HazMat Team Delta. He and his crew are friends of Team Bravo, and Chew is a true friend to Cole. He will be the last member of Delta after they are killed by the Theta.
- Marco - Marco is another member of HazMat Team Delta. He's not that different from Crispy; when Cole meets up with Team Delta, he remarks that he's "happy to see a familiar face... I'd be happy to see a lot more than one." He is the first member of Delta to be killed by the Theta.
- HazMat Team Delta - HazMat Team Delta was sent to Area 51 to investigate a disturbance in the base's sublevels. They are ambushed by a creature called a Theta and several of them are turned into mutants. The remaining five members of Team Delta are last seen fleeing into the darkness.
- Base Security - The Quick Response Forces of Area 51 are present in many levels of the base, and will help Bravo toward their goal of finding Delta. They are often killed during firefights with mutants or in grenade explosions.
- Major Douglas Bridges (military commander) - The blunt and direct commander of the situation in Area 51. He is voiced by Powers Boothe.
- Dr. Winston Cray - The scientist involved with most of the testing and research in the alien mutagen. His son was assassinated on Thursday, April 23rd, 1967 in order to keep him quiet about his project. (Note: April 23rd, 1967 is the date of one of the letters involved in the Lunar Space program, as the message in-game is entitled, "URGENT: Impeding Diversionary Lunar Event") His assistant is Victor5.
- Victor5 - A step down from Victor6, and modeled after Victor Weisbrod, his former assistant, this clone suffers from an extreme "child-like dependency" on Dr. Cray.
- Edgar The Grey - Edgar is an ancient and powerful Grey alien. He is one of the aliens that crashed on Earth in Roswell, which started Area 51's secrecy. Because of his accident, he is severely deformed and bloated, and is kept alive in a tank. His blood is a mixture of other infected aliens' blood, and is the source of the deadly virus and its cure, which he gives to Cole. Edgar possesses telekinetic abilities, being able to communicate with Cole via dead bodies Cole comes across. He is voiced by Marilyn Manson.
Enemies
The enemies in the game include:
- Mr. White - Mr. White is the leader of the Illuminati. He has made clones of himself to work as scientists in Area 51. His clones possess no weapons; however, usually in their presence are many armed enemies.
- Illuminati - The Illuminati are a group of elitists who help the Grays for eventual world domination.
- Black Ops - An advanced security force created by mixing alien genes with human ones. They are the greatest advance in warfare by Area 51, and are controlled by the Illuminati, their commander-in-chief being Mr. White himself. They are excellent marksmen and are proficient with all weapons, alien and human, and are very strong, agile and attack in teams, rarely appearing alone. They wear armor that covers their entire body, which hides their green, luminous skin. Their armor varies in color according to rank, red soldiers being special ops that can become invisible and the more common black ones.
- Red Ops - Considered the leader of a Black Ops squad, they are also given the ability to wield stronger weapons, the ability to become invisible.
- Gray - A "military slang-term" for the mysterious alien race, they came to Earth to conduct studies and create weapons that would help them win a civil war back on their home planet between the "Light" and "Dark" grays. They attack by sitting inside of a forcefield, and spawning Black Ops to attack the player.
- Mutant Scientist - Scientists who were working with the virus. They were exposed to more of the virus than anyone else on the base, and have therefore developed to a higher mutagenic stage. They wear torn lab coats.
- Mutant Guard - The security force of Area 51, was also infected with the virus, and have transformed into mutants as well. They appear more frequently than scientists, and identify themselves from the mutant scientists by the black armor they wear. Some of their intelligence remains, however, and they are able to operate firearms as long as they have a clip ready to fire.
- Mutant Leaper - An example of the final stage of the mutagenic virus, these beings have lost all of their humanity, and maintain an animalistic state.
- Theta - The Theta is one of the largest and most powerful enemies. It is very hard to kill and can kill ordinary humans in one swing of its fist. It also possesses a plasma launcher.
- Supertheta - The Supertheta is an improved version of the Theta. It is an improvement in every way.
- Alien Parasite - Alien parasites look like purple-colored bubbles and are sometimes hard to kill, because they split into several more bubbles once hit with normal weapons.
- Mites - They are small mite-like creatures, created by exposing mites to the mutagen. They were originally created by Dr. Cray, and are easy to kill with a single shotgun blast.
Weapons
Different weapons will be used through out the game, in order to survive. This weapon takes place from a Pistol to alien tech weapons. Each army weapon (except the sniper rifle) is attached with a Flashlight while Alien weapons aren't. It should also be noted that this game allows a human, and mutant form.Human Weapons
- M11 "SCORPION" PISTOL - The Scorpion is your basic pistol. It has an eight round clip which fires 10mm jacketed hollow points. The scope is a holographic red dot. Although it has a flashlight, it is rarely used in dark areas, since the gun tends to recoil back, leaving the player temporarly blind.
- XM-32 "VIPER" ASSAULT RIFLE - The Viper is a fully automatic assault rifle that can be dual wielded. The thirty round clip holds 6.8mm full metal jacket penetrators. The scope is capable of 1.5x zoom, so it has a greater range than the pistol. The flashlight on this gun is more effective, since it doesn't recoil as much as the Scorpion.
- M-170 "HAMMER" COMBAT SHOTGUN - The Hammer is an extremely powerful weapon at close range. Its magazine holds 10 shells, the projectile type is a 12-gauge XXX buckshot fitted with secondary micro pellets, and can be dual wielded. The primary means to fire is through one barrel at a time, but the secondary ability is firing one shell from both barrels simutaneously. It is advised to not use the secondary fire in the dark. The reason is that the player must bring back his shotgun to pump it after doing so. You will be blind in the absence of the flashlight. In multiplayer mode, most players attempt to dual wield shotguns, since the ability to fire four buckshot shells at once will kill instantly.
- SR-125 "WRAITH" SPECIAL PURPOSE RIFLE - The Wraith is the sniper rifle of the game. It has a six round clip, which holds 7.62mm SLAP (Sabot Light Armor Penetrator) rounds. The scope is capable of 2x or 10x zoom. This is the only army weapon without a flashlight. It is generally one of the most used weapons in multiplayer maps, mainly because unlike other games like Socom, you can walk with in scoped mode, and not have to worry about the scope wobbling.
- M-25 FRAG GRENADE - The frag grenades are useful for driving back opposition, but not much else. Since the explosion is stabilized, it only does limited damage. You can lob it around corners, but this is relatively pointless since most enemies rush you when you get within ten feet.
- JB GRENADE - The "Jumpin' Bean" grenade, instead of exploding, implodes on contact, sucking in everything until a violent plasma explosion, causing very high damage. The JB grenade also flies in a straight line, instead of being thrown in a parabola. This allows Cole to take out a group of enemies quickly at long range. In multipayer, the JB grenade is lobbed, not thrown in a straight line.
- BBG - The BBG is an alien engineered weapon. Although the magazine capacity is 50 clips, it actually has infinite ammo, charging over time when not being fired. The rate of fire is a three shot burst, firing highly charged meson particles. It is one of the more useful weapons in the game. The BBG can be used at close and long range, and the shots rebound off of most surfaces, but clings to flesh. This means Cole can engage the enemy without exposing himself. The BBG features an "intelligent" laser that predicts the path of the meson particles. The laser is usually green, but turns red if it hits an organic surface.
- MESON CANNON - Also dubbed the "Noob Cannon" in multiplayer, the Meson Cannon is arguably the most powerful weapon in the game. Another alien engineered weapon, it fires a single unstable meson particle. The meson travels in a straight line until it hits an object. Once it does, the meson anchors itself and unleashes tendrils, which causes anyone within fifteen feet a very painful death. The magazine capacity is one particle impulse. There is usually one Meson Cannon per multiplayer map, since the weapon is so powerful.
Mutant Weapons
- MELEE SLASH - An attack with the claws of the mutant form, which is extremely damaging. In multiplayer, this is especially devestating as it can be a one-hit, or generally two-hit kill.
- PARASITES - One of the two ranged attacks the mutant can use, this sends parasites hurtling towards the nearest player, by seeking the enemy's body heat. Once an enemy is hit with this, their health is drained and replinished to the attacker.
- CONTAGION - The second of the two ranged mutant attacks, this shoots out contagion which seeks other players in a similar fashion as the parasites. However, this attack leeches onto the enemy, and drains their life continually, and draining the health of any other nearby enemies.
- MUTANT VISION - Although this is not a weapon, it is a distinct advantage of mutants. Mutants can see at a "higher range" of vision, and to that extent, the body heat of other players or non-player characters. It should also be noted that the outer regions of vision become blurred.
Story
The story begins with Ethan Cole flying to a base in Nevada, specifically Area 51. After firefights in the top level of the base, due to what is conceived to be a Mr. White clone in Security Personnel uniform. The clone is seemingly trying to destroy trucks, carrying some mysterious object.
As the team later descends into the base, seeing secret spy planes, and other secrets on the way down, they meet two soldiers holding off a horde of mutants rushing towards their position. After the coast is clear, Cole's team encounters a scientist screaming for help, which a few seconds later turns into a mutant. Proceeding further down, the team must reroute power in order to proceed to their primary objective. After the generators are successfully turned on by McCan and Cole, McCan is the first casualty of Cole's team, as a mutant rips his head from his body. Crispy can not believe this, and attempts to stop and proceed back to the enterance. However, over the radio, the Major affirms that their "insertion point" is overrun, which means there is no going back.
Further into the story, the setting changes to a room with a large engine, which after a tedious firefight, explodes, killing most of the mutants and all of the soldiers in the room, except Crispy and Ramirez, who make it behind the fire doors. (What is presumed to be) a Theta then kills Ramirez and infects Crispy. As Cole makes his way through ventilation shafts, Crispy remarks that his suit is getting tighter, and he can't breathe. Once Cole makes it to Crispy, he is already mutated, and Cole must kill him. After the fight and once Cole makes it to the elevators, over the radio with the Major, again, he remarks that everyone else is dead.
Cole then meets up with the remaints of HazMat Delta. They fend off mutants in a hallway, at first with their Assault rifles, and then with explosive Gauss Guns. After Cole repairs a communication link, they proceed to a weapons storage room to obtain explosives. After successfully blowing a hole in the wall, they encounter the Theta once more. Cole is knocked unconscious, and Chew is injured, while the rest of Team Delta lie dead.
Cole and Chew make it to an elevator, but their efforts to escape are halted by Black Ops, who previously planted explosives under the elevator, and cause it to crash down. As Cole awakens, Chew is being eaten by Leapers, then Cole is bitten by one, infecting him. When he comes to again, Edgar speaks to him through Chew's corpse.
Cole, now infected, must reach a disinfecting station in order to gain control of his human form once again. Now on a mission to reach Dr. Cray before losing his humanity, he must stop the Black Ops from sabotaging the entire facility, and hindering Cray's efforts for his final masterpiece, Cole.
Once Cole has managed to stop the Black Ops, and reach Cray's laboratory, which is under assault by more Black Ops forces, is elevated to another state of "Infection" by Cray's machine. Before Cole is effectiely cured, Mr. White and the Black Ops kill Dr. Cray. Before leaving Cray's lab, Edgar speaks to him through one of the dead scientists. He promises him an antidote.
Further into the story, Cole encounters a group of three Mr. White clones, dissecting a leaper.
Another event, a Mr. White clone is working on the BBG.
Cole then encounters a Theta, which he manages to kill. Once he descends into the deepest bowels of the base, where the Grays actively worked with the human scientists, he finally comes face to face with Edgar. Edgar explains how many of his people, the pressumed "Light Grays" were sacrificed by the "Dark" Grays in order to create and manufacture the virus. The "Cure" for Ethan Cole is within Edgar himself, and in order to keep Cole in line, Edgar threatens that Cole is "now bound to him".
Cole then proceeds to kill Grays, and the Supertheta.
Afterwards, he causes the core of an Alien Spaceship to explode, destroying the base. Before it explodes, however, he manages to escape through a portal, in which the image of a gray was standing in front of beforehand.
The words Cole leaves is a quote by Jean-Paul Sartre, "Hell is other people", but then he adds, "He was only half right." The cargo being carried on the truck which a Mr. White clone tried to destroy earlier is then seen being driven down the road.
Additional Secrets
- In a Databank file called "Galaxy Portal", there are references to the coardinates 37°35.641'N 115°53.924W, which is Northwest of the Groom Lake Facility in Nevada. ([Google Maps Link])
- The Alien's Mothership core is powered by Francium-223, which is made by "bombarding Thorium with protons"
- Another file dated Thursday, July 18, 1995, references to "Operation DesertRat", a reference to the [DesertRat] online newspaper.
- A reference to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island can be found in one of the files.
- Another file points to the Tunguska Comet Impact as being an Alien craft crashing into the soil.
- A reference to Sneakernet can be found, also in a chat between two individuals over a woman who woke up during an alien autopsy.
- A canister containing a large creature similar to one from the Patterson-Gimlin film can be seen at a point in the game. The creature is labeled as a failed Theta experiment.
- In one version of the game trailer, several aliens are seen that resemble the alien from the Alien autopsy film.
- The Illuminati referenced in the game did exist but not as a shadowy conspiratorial organization that controls world affairs behind the scenes.
- The infamous B-movie director Roger Corman is referenced as the director of the moon landing footage.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer has been compared to as "Halo for the PS2", and supports up to 16 players in a single game at any given time. Modes supported at CTF (Capture the Flag), Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Infection (A type of "survivor" game), and Capture and Hold.Multiplayer glitches
To note, there have been several multiplayer glitches. A list of the more popular ones follow.- Wall Peeking - This is where a player can "peek" their head around a corner, and effectively shoot the opposition without the other side seeing the player's head. This is deemed cheating in most games.
- Sniper Scope Glitching - This is where the player zooms to a normal view with the sniper rifle, however still retains the 2x, or 10x potency of a sniper rifle shot. (Effectively meaning a one-hit kill in normal view.)
- Grenade Glitching - This involves the player throwing grenades at an accelerated rate through the use of an unintentional glitch.
- "Turbo" Controllers - The latest glitch, this involves players running faster due to how the game handles movement input from the PS2 controller. There has been controversy in the online community of whether or not this is an actual method of "cheating", and so far it has been dismissed as legal.
- Jump/Crouch - It is also possible in several levels to get to unexpected areas by jumping and crouching, which typically leads to Wall Peeking Glitches.
External links
- [Official website]
- [Area-51] at MobyGames
- [GameRankings PC reviews]
- [GameRankings PlayStation 2 reviews]
- [GameRankings Xbox reviews]
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