Area 51 (PS2) - Part 1

Is "Raiding Area 51" meme still on? Because i want in. I mean i play Midway's Area 51 (2005), not get there for real. I left my passport in my parent's home and i have fixed job, so breaching to the famous American Government's secret facility is certainly no go. 

That's kind of main menu, the same case also apply to title screen that appear before main menu. But there's various transparent objects around here such as chromosome, a vial contain alien embryo, alien scary face, and speedometer(?). After making some profile, then i'm allowed to go to Campaign game (which is certainly single-player mode) It's kind of redundant to me but it's considered necessary back in the day where some people want to play multiplayer online mode. Or is it?

The game starts with cgi of surveillance footage about what you can expect to happen in Area 51 like Alien autopsy and such. The research activity in this facility goes well...   

... until this shoddy-looking scientist in wheelchair with personal video camera, releases one of alien in the tubes. He narrated that this research is for the good of humanity and such while watching those surveillance video. "It's shame. That we need to take a bit of step back". Then he releases the seal. If you have regret, why you still do that?

Then the movie shifts to Hazmat Team of Delta. They are 6 special soldier with hazmat armor and they happen to carry a metal box. As they delve further to quarantine zone, i assume what's inside is the key to solve this crisis on Area 51. 

And you can probably guessed what happened to them: they got obliterated by single hulk monster despite how well armed or armored they are. Seriously, this is so cliché like in every game or movie. What a ugly face on the attacker, by the way.

One of the soldier get flung, twitch a bit, and open his alien eye. Meaning he got infected by the alien. Heavy_negativevocalization04.wav

Then the perspective change to Bravo Team being transported to Area 51. They're welcomed by this colonel and told to suit up. I'll be one of them, won't i?

AAAH! Disinfectant spray. *cough* *cough*

I have to go to this armory booth to get standard handgun. This somehow reminds me of Doom 3.

Next, i have to engage on practice shooting. 'R1' button to shoot, is the standard of modern console FPS but i can't get used to it simply because i don't play much of them.

Then my teammate codenamed 'Crispy' challenge me to shooting contest and promise some reward upon victory. I hate racing on anything and -to be honest- i hate this gun too. The blowback feels really strong therefore i have to shoot more carefully on each bullet. This better be "heavy" type of handgun such as Magnum, if not i'll be very mad. Despite so, i manage to take down 5 targets faster than Crispy thanks to fairly accurate aim down the sight (by pressing 'R2' button). But i don't get any reward and instead Crispy call me son of female dog. Freak you, man!

As the time is pressing enough (but not pressing enough to disallow us from practice apparently), we have to move on but first let me perform melee strike on this dummy by pressing 'R3' analog button. I'm not convinced with this melee method simply because slapping your enemy with gun, doesn't seem lethal compare to bayonet or knife stab.

As i'm specialist of the squad, i have to equip myself with scanner. As much as i concern about infected man groaning over there, i have to ignore him and use the scanner to scan arm's of body behind me as the tutorial instructs me. I wonder if i can scan people with this scanner.    

"Aaaaaah, yes! More to the right."

Lewd! 3:<

There's sabotage around here so we must help find the culprit before we can go down to lower level. Me and my other comrade Jack are on it!

Pile of tire broke on its own and i don't get any data from scanner regarding it. We may need to call Ghostbusters, guys! :I

We make fire contact with the culprit! I say this shoot-y part is tedious so far as i have this high-recoil handgun while the enemy has full auto rifle. After taking some damage, he run and we chase him. During the chase, there's tutorial on how to crouch, jump, and lean. Nice try masking another tutorial part here, Midway!

I accidently shoot explosive barrel near the enemy and he flies really high then plummet to the ground. He leaves green blood and his body disappear, indicating he's alien. He seems to target a truck that soon leaves this place. Plot thicken.

Now, we're allowed to take elevator to go down to the business but i scan this guy first and...WHAT THE HELL? Why do you carry condoms in Area 51? On second thought, keep it to yourself and i pretend i didn't scan your inventory! I'm in the middle of searching for healing item here. As you can see in left-bottom corner hud that my health is near 50% thanks to that horrid gunfight and it seems my health isn't regenerating like in modern FPS. At least, i can have that saboteur's rifle.

Next Stage...

Thing doesn't look good here or shall i say very bad. That doctor who's in the rush carrying someone on gurney, suddenly vomits yellow puke. He looks very ill.

On the other side, there's infected soldier who runs amok and kill the doctor who examines him. The healthy soldier over there shoot him in response but another infected ones in another bed jumps on the guard. This is horrid! 3X

Meanwhile, there's the traditional sterilization measure over there: burn the infected bodies with huge bonfire. This may seems cruel but this is proven method of disinfection in early history of mankind. Not throwing the bodies to ocean or some kind of dumping area like what they did in Dishonored. Do you see 4 men inside the lift at the background? That's us Bravo team. Our objective: investigate what happen to (deceased) Delta team and presumably continue what they're left off. I don't want to be pessimistic but we're just 4 men. What odd do we have to accomplish something that previous team that has more member (by 2 men)  fail to achieve, huh?    

We find 2 survivors and together we fight incoming infected soldiers. By the way, this is how 'aim down the sight' mode when using the rifle even though there's bloody scoop attached to it. How unintuitive! Moreover this rifle feels lack of power even though it has decent firing rate.

As we walk further from that point, we trigger a cutscene where this bloke turns into infected zombie. Medic_sf13_magic_reac02.wav

So far enemy encounter happen in front so i can chill a bit in the back line. But this time enemies appear from back line and front line! Isn't i'm bad at FPS that i don't want to deal with them directly, in fact i'm experienced FPS gamer. It's just aiming with analog stick isn't my forte. I don't want to sound like PC game master race, but keyboard + mouse is the only best way of control in any FPS. The only most pleasant aiming in console FPS that i experience, is in Quake 2 on Playstation 1. ID is really experienced in auto-aim, you see.

I notice while reloading my rifle that i don't wear any hand protection unlike my comrade. I'm afraid i'll be infected if i stay here too long. Someone gives me glove or anything, pretty please! Is that Area 51 arcade cabinet there? Scout_cheers04.wav

The original Area 51 is the lightgun shooter in arcade that also developed by Midway. You should know this especially if you're from America. I played the PS1 port of it though. I don't remember much about it even though i finish played it once or twice. If i remember correctly, the ending is i blow some flying saucer thus averting the crisis. To be honest i'm not into shooter with digitized sprite, so early Midway's lightgun shooter games like Area 51 and Maximum Force aren't into my liking although i prefer Konami's Crypt Killer over them. Maybe the lacks of death animation on them that bothers me so much. But don't get me wrong! I still fairly like them unlike Corpse Killer.

It seems i can't play the arcade here but i happen to pick another rifle near it so i can dual wield rifles! Unlike 'gun akimbo' power up in Blood, this dual-wielding isn't limited by duration. Instead, it's over when all bullets are depleted and i have to reload only single rifle then. During dual-wielding, i can't manual reload and aim down the sight. I can't say this is good feature but quite acceptable anyway. By the way, the infected one's skin is white unlike the one in arcade game where it's purple.

There's happen to be a Super Contagious Body on a desk. Interesting. Anyway, for some reason i have replenished my health. Double interesting.

After some walking, me and Jack have to split up with the team so we can re-activating generator. Ok, Jack buddy. Lead the way! 

SMP ammo is the ammo for my rifle here. Does SMP stand for 'Sub-Machine Pistol'? That means this isn't rifle, this is sub-machine gun! That's explaining why it's so weak for assault rifle. I know realize that those screwdrivers syringes are the health pickup. If only the notification text on left-top corner appeared more often when i pick one of these syringe, i would realize that sooner. 

Well, Jack stops there to operate whatever machinery there and leaves me all by myself to flip switch on platform yonder.

But the first corridor of turbine is filled with moving electric currents. This is acceptable if i play Crash Bandicoot but this is FPS for God sake! Puzzle platforming in FPS is kind of my bane so i check next corridor on the right.

This looks better. I though i can crouch through the electric current but apparently not. I manage to pass it with some health but i didn't realize that the ladder also electrified thus sapping my health to death. Back to checkpoint.  

Through some lucky jump and crouch, i manage to get pass those electric currents alive. Beyond that point, i find some secret document. In other FPS, i acquire it by pressing 'use' button or walking over it but not in this game. I have to use the scanner instead for i'm scanning specialist, you see.

Now this is awkward. As there's no 'activate' or 'use' button, i try to flip the lever by using the scanner and obviously it didn't work. Through semi-intense button mashing, i find out that i can flip this thing by pressing 'X' button which is also button for reloading. Reloading button act as operate button? That's reminds me of Medal of Honor on PS1.

Jack!!! Engineer_mvm_class_is_dead04.wav

If only, i'm not curious about that once-electrified ladder leads to (which is to the switch panel again). He could be saved. Duh! Of course, not. This is scripted dead, afterall.

Captain Anthony request permission to retreat to the colonel but denied. Crispy still sad and hysteric to see headless Jack but captain insists that we have to move forward. I really pessimistic here, guys. We're just 3 men now, can we really succeed on our mission? Are we really that special? Maybe? Crispy is easy-going medic with mouth full of swears. Captain is full of composure even though he's only armed with pistol. And i'm Ethan Cole the iseng scanner specialist who's voiced by David Duchovny the agent Mulder himself.

Here's the credit stating that David Duchovny voice the protagonist but i believe he's silent protagonist throughout the game. He only talks about the current condition in the intermission, prologue and possibly epilogue. Considering David is the right man for something related to Aliens like in X-Files or Evolution, Midway are really ambitious on making this game. They even asked Marilyn Manson to do the voice acting. But who's this Edgar? That evil scientist, maybe. Sadly, i forget what David's voice sounds like. If i remembered, i could fantasized that Cole is agent Mulder better.

Back to the game, we're ambushed by infected zombie again. Some of them try to claw us and some of them use gun. They're still not interesting especially if you compare them to those glitches where some corpses hanging in the thin air or stuck at platform.  

On next mission...

We find other 2 survivors. When i thought we can recruit them to replace Jack, one of them blow grenade at approaching zombies killing all of them. So sad. :<

What other kind of alien horror that i encounter in deeper part of Area 51? Find out at next part.