Buy area 51 arcade game

Eventually all your mates are offed, and the game takes a much more survivalist stance as you battle your way j through on your tod -getting infected with the alien virus that you're battling against in the process. You get a contagion ability as part of your mutation, continues Zach.

It allows you to infect an enemy host and change their faction to fight for you for a short time. It's fun to infect an enemy from a distance and watch the fight that breaks out as your new mutated friend goes aggro on your enemies. Now ever since the days of Doom we've enjoyed turning our enemies against each other, and the Midway man's promise that you can even recruit bosses with your contagion conjures up happy memories of pitting Cyberdemons against Spider Masterminds back in the olden days.

We're not suggesting that Area 51 is going to be a life-changing experience, but it shows every sign of being an enjoyable blast through an intriguing environment - the domain of The X-Files' smoking man and various Independence Day aliens pickled in formaldehyde.

It was a big part of our pre-production phase to research as much of the lore surrounding the base as possible, explains Zach, clearly slightly weary from trawling through the paranoid frenzies of various shotgunstroking American isolationists.

So if you're a conspiracy theorist or an avid Area 51 lore junkie, you'll love the detail in the game. Makes you wonder what was going on in Area 52 doesn't it? I love finding jewels in the rough. They're precious, special, and should be nurtured and appreciated. What I like finding even more are those games that fall just short of this mark, being great in a few small ways, yet only held back only by a few nagging flaws.

These games indicate potential, and it means that maybe, just around the corner, a truly great developer, maybe even the next Bungie, is waiting to be born. Such a game is Area Great visuals, decent gameplay, and a strong eye towards the cinematic make this a relatively enjoyable game.

Simultaneously this game suffers from such problems as hectic, poorly planned out action and unresponsive controls. In addition, David Duchovny's trademark monotone acting marrs the overall experience, and occasionally makes you wonder why he was so successful on The X-Files. A plain vanilla FPS, there's a few endearing elements in this game that should make you smile. First, you can dual wield some of the most basic weapons, like the SMG and shotgun.

You'll also frequently have NPCs along to help you through the early parts of the game, and while they didn't seem to be amazingly good, they also won't get in your way. With only four players at most, multiplayer isn't this game's strong suit, but it'll do in a pinch since Area does have cooperative mode, which I'm always a fan of. Cinematically seamless, you'll only get thrown out of the gameplay by pre-rendered cutscenes, because everything else is handled in the game engine, and while the individual items in each environment waste paper on the floor, spilled supplies, rubble, etc.

All in all, it's this continuous sense of good design that keeps the game looking good even in spite of its other problems. Aurally, you have some good voice acting, some really boring voice acting, and a decent set of sound effects, so all around not a bad job here. Lastly, the game is just fun, and that speaks to me. It has problems, but it's probably worth at least a rental, if not a purchase.

As a member of the S. Special Tactical Advanced Alien Response Team, it is your duty to respond, with full force, in the event of an alien invasion. Well, guess what: there's been one -- only this one was our fault. Research at the notorious government base known as Area 51 has gone awry. The base has been taken over by alien creatures, self-spawned from alien DNA, using the human workers as incubators.

All communication has been lost. Along with the other members of your team, you must infiltrate the base, destroy anything that moves, including the human workers you never know which of them may be a "host" , and purge the area of alien contamination.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? I forgot to mention If you understand the term "rail shooter," then you'll know what kind of gameArea 51 is. If not, picture yourself playing Doom with your feet buckled tightly onto a small moving platform. This platform moves you around the level, and you shoot everything that moves and a lot that doesn't. I like to think of these as "shooting gallery" games: aliens pop up; you blast 'em.

The controls themselves couldn't be easier. You use the mouse to aim your target at and shoot the aliens. Among the other objects you will want to fire on are paintings, fire extinguishers, ammo crates all of which will usually yield ammo , windows some leading to secret rooms , and various explosive barrels, gas cans, etc.

Most of the aliens go down with one shot, with the exception of the dreaded purple Kronomorphs, which require a little more effort. You get into this nice rhythm-click, bang, move, click, bang, move. The only trouble comes every ten shots, when you have to reload by right-clicking the mouse. At first, I found the constant need to reload irksome, but after I realized that most foes will die with one click, it wasn't so bad. Actually, it demands an extra skill -- learning that sometimes it will be better to reload early if you know you won't have time during the next sequence.

This will also let you avoid hearing the little voice chanting "reload, reload" every time your clip empties. Area 51 is an arcade game ported to the PC platform. The PC version remains true to its arcade heritage, but this causes several problems. First of all, when you run out of health, you get a message continue? I guess this is so arcade players can put another quarter in the slot.

If the timer runs out, you start over at the beginning menu. You get up to 5 credits during the game, and you will use one each time you want to continue after dying. Since you cannot save your game, you need to have a very strong game to make it to the end and battle the alien ship -- especially on the highest of the three difficulty settings. If you make it, this means you can finish the whole game in one sitting, in around an hour. PC games should have more staying power to be worth the price -- especially in this case, where once you finish, playing over has little challenge, since to succeed, you had to memorize the patterns of kills.

I have also heard that many of the arcade players would enjoy the PC version much more with some sort of game gun. Many of them seem to find the game too hard to control with a mouse or keyboard, although I haven't personally had any trouble in that respect. Rather nice graphic work in this game, I must say. It has a definite arcade feel, with little variation in alien death sequences or explosions, but you sort of expect that in this genre.

I ran the game at a resolution of x and was generally pleased with its performance. The cinematic effects are exciting and well-planned for the most part. The aliens themselves are well-designed and easy to hate: The Kronomorphs have a big, central eye that you just want to close permanently, along with a huge mouth where their stomachs should be. The Zombies are grotesque transformations of human hosts, removed enough from human appearance that you don't feel bad wasting them on the contrary!

The repeating opening montage was a little too much, though. You get this shot of doors slamming and an Area 51 logo, then a little demo action, then the slamming scene again. Wash, rinse, repeat. This sequence, I am aware, is another bit of arcade legacy shining through But it is out of place on a home PC.

I was also a little disappointed with the "victory sequence. I was really hoping for a big explosion here Pretty standard audio features -- some of the shooting and explosion sound effects were particularly nice, as were some of the dying screams of the invaders. Still, nothing above and beyond the genre norm. Although the game only came with one CD-sized booklet, I found it to be more than adequate.

Area 51 is an arcade-style shooter, not Civilization III. By reading the booklet, you know how to install and what to shoot which turns out to be, oh, everything , and that's all you need to know. My guess is that you won't need to use this book as a reference. Hold up to 9 grenades at a time. Please ask about upgrading.

Atari also produced many upgrade kits for the game to convert other cabinets. Please call us about availability. Description Released in by Atari Games, Area 51 quickly became a best-seller and a cultural phenomenon. Please ask about upgrading — Area 51 is no longer produced, having been launched in Do you have more questions or are you ready to buy? Rentals might also be available for this unit.

Call our friendly sales staff for more information or email us here! Related Products.