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Area 51 any good?

I've been on an emotional rollercoaster with this one. Impressed with the early build, then the not oo favorable treviews trickled, now I hear it's getting solid 8's.

Anyone have the definitive word on this game?

EDIT: It's out this week.
 
the reviews really haven't told me much, I still don't know anything about the offline multi and have pretty sparse detais altogether

I'll find this thread once I've gotten the game tomorrow and give my impression then
 
yeah, i'm looking for some impressions too. I was going to rent it but opted for Mercenaries instead. oh well.
 
I boguht it for Xbox and my bro bought it for PS2, games play exactly the same just easier to play with the Xbox controller and it also looks better. As for story the game plays a lot lot like Half-life very linear story telling, my kind of game :D If you're looking for a nice FPS till something like F.E.A.R. comes out this is pretty good, only problem I have is the AI but other then some stupid AI moments it's pretty good.
 
Area 51 > Doom 3! Midway did a more than decent job with this title. The atmosphre is no where as creepy as Doom but the enviroments and cinematic nature of the game makes it a nice surprise.
 
KAOS said:
Area 51 > Doom 3! Midway did a more than decent job with this title. The atmosphre is no where as creepy as Doom but the enviroments and cinematic nature of the game makes it a nice surprise.

Yeah I'm playing both but for some reason Area 51 has grabbed me a bit more. Maybe it's the environment as you say.

I liked in one of the opening levels how you break the glass up on the catwalk and lob grenades, sending those mutants flying.
 
demi said:
Manabyte says it plays sorta like Half Life.

That's all I need.

No, I said the story is a Half-Life rip off.

The game is a very console FPS with some interesting new things thrown in. It's kind of fun.
 
It's a good game, but it's relatively short (not sure about the exact time since I juggled it between 3 other games) and there is no real reason to play through it more than once since there are no unlockables that I know of.

The controls on the Xbox version takes a little while to get used to. It uses the default Halo config with a few tweaks:
L trigger zooms in.
Digital pad left/right leans your character. (remember than Bungie?)
Digital pad down for flashlight.
Digital pad up for (plot spoiler heh).
Right analog click melee. Hold button for combos (that too Bungie)
Y and Black cycle through weapons. Yeah, I know... wtf? indeed.

The gameplay and story both rock, the ragdoll physics engine makes for some hilarious kills, especially via explosives/melee attacks. That said the enemy AI is pretty eh, but that's made up for by the fact that they usually attack in swarms.

The story is the usual sci-fi stuff. Government alien experiments, secret third party with their own agendas. Something goes wrong and the shit hits the fan! You and your team are sent into Area 51 to rescue a haz-mat team who went missing. While at first it's a seemingly normal recovery mission fan meets shit and people start going crazy/mutating killing each other etc. But I won't spoil the plot. :)

There are also little things that are pretty cool. Your character is voiced by David Duchovny (Mulder woot!), so you definitely get that whole X-Files vibe throughout the game. Also there are some newspapers scattered around in the chaos with headlines like. "President Re-elected" and "Red Sox Win The Curse is Over!" etc very cool.

You'll definitely have fun with it. But as I said, it severly lacks in the replay department. Unless you're like me and just like to shoot the hell outa things!
 
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