Mutate, it's the only way forward really
Despite Area 51’s faux squad system, the gameplay is actually quite enjoyable. You squad mates give you regular audio cues as to what you should be doing next… such as grabbing a key-card to open a door whilst they hold off an alien onslaught or give them covering fire whilst they hack a computer and so on. That said, there’s nothing actually new here, it’s just what there is has been handled competently… it’s not going to set the world on fire but it’s not a dead dog either.
Weapons in the game feel and sound satisfyingly meaty and for a nice change most of them can be doubled up…Why take one shotgun into the fray when you can have one in each hand? Of course, once the ammo has gone in your second weapon you chuck it away automatically, but its fun none the less.
You start off with a bit of a training level as the standard for FPS games these days which then leads smoothly into the game itself. The cut scenes nicely set the scene, as they should do, and then you gradually pick up more weapons as you progress through the game. All standard fare, really, and very familiar to any regular shooter fan.
The first weapon you get is the pistol, your FPS standard issue small weapon, guaranteed useless against anything bigger than a large spider, but you soon pick up grenades, machine guns, shotguns and various other exotic weapons as you work your way deeper into the game.
The weapons feel nice and meaty and the sound effects are really very good with the shotgun in particular giving a satisfying boom in alternate fire mode as you let rip with both barrels at once. All the weapons have two fire modes, though most of these are of the ‘gunsight aiming’ variety… but it has to be said that unlike most other FPS games, the earlier weapons are still useful later on in the game proving useful even against the tougher enemies you meet later. Going into a room armed with two shotguns and loosing off all four barrels at once is a sure way to take pretty much anything down.
Where Area 51 does stand out is tied into the storyline, which is a bizarre mish-mash of alien and Illuminati conspiracy which really does little more than give you a bit of direction for your actions… Without giving too much away (just in case you’re actually bothered as to why you’re killing loads of bad guys), Ethan ends up becoming infected with the mutating virus. Luckily for him, and it’d be a short game otherwise, he manages to control it’s effects and from then on you can switch between a normal Ethan, able to use weapons etc, or a mutated Ethan with no weapons but a powerful melee attack and a ranged viral parasite attack for the hard to reach bad guy.
Switching between mutated and non-mutated modes is easy and each offers an advantage over the other. As a human, Ethan can use ranged weapons against enemies but takes damage more readily. Up close, it’s better to be mutated as one swipe kills most baddies and you take less damage. How often and how long you stay mutated depends on the mutagen levels in your blood, so killing other mutants while mutated tops this up, otherwise you’ll switch back to being a human, which is not handy in the middle of an alien infested room…
