Just because it's by the numbers doesn't mean it can be good!
Area 51 is a simple, by the numbers, fill-in-the-blanks, ad-lib type shooter. It doesn't bring much innovation to the table, but what it takes from other games it uses well. The story is well made (I've heard a lot of reviews complaining about it being "all over the place" but I can follow it) and the voice acting is good enough to not ruin anything...well the first line from Marilyn Manson's character was almost as bad as anything in House of the Dead 2, but he gets the hang of it eventually.
Let's examine the game itself. Like I said, it lacks much innovation. There isn't anything in this game that hasn't, in some way, been in any other shooter. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The game treats pre-existing shooter concepts like a buffet and picks and pokes around, eventually assembling a plate that the people at midway found palletable. This is not a bad thing. The amalgamation of shooter elements may hurt it in originality, but it works very well for the game by creating an atmosphere of familiarity. The control is a mostly solid though aiming with the sniper rifle's scope is dodgy at first. The "puzzles" in the game harken back unto the days of Wolfenstein 3D and the original Doom, namely the old "find this to open that" step by step progression. Eh, most games do something like that anyway. The surface is seems deeper but really all shooters still progress that way. Where this game truly excels is in its OTHER lean to the old school, the three simple principles of challenge that made Doom endure for so long: VOLUME VOLUME VOLUME. At first you start with a squad, and from time to time at first you find the remnants of other squads not yet destroyed. The use of sounds, VO's, and even lighting create some rather intense fire fights while you defend an objective from an attacking horde of enemies. Then you are left to fight on your own, and this is where it gets interesting. Certain firefights are incredibly difficult at times with enemies pouring in from all sides. It's just you and your trusty weapons against a multitude of foes. It's good, old fashioned shooter action.
Like I said, this game isn't for the thinkers. If you want an intellectual challenege, look elsewhere. Often times objectives are indicated by not just a pointer arrow which shows the exact location of the objective (even through walls), but an accompanying meter showing the metric distance to the objective. Yeah....spoon fed answers....this is a shooter, but seriously....I think I can find my way back to the elevator I just stepped out of. This would be helpful if these objectives where hidden or even slightly difficult to see, but they're not. They're in plain site and the only thing that would make them more obvious is a big, neon green flag......oh yeah, they gave you that too.
The story is deep and rather twisted, but I am not having any trouble following it. It's a conspiracy buff's wet dream come true. Everything from the Brotherhood of the Illuminati to Crop Circles and back again! They even toss a couple of litte things in like a member of the Illuminati wearing a Masonic symbol on his back and a few other Masonic symbols on things from the Brotherhood (There is a longstanding conspiracy theory that the Brotherhood of the Illuminati went underground and seemingly died out to protect their identities, all the while infilitrating the worlds most powerful organizations from governments to the Free Masons). This is all rather interesting, but I don't see anything being so twisted it's absurd. Quite frankly I'd rather play this game than watch 99.99% of the movies that were realeased this year (then again I'd rather lose a few toes than watch those movies). The good voice acting holds everything together. I'm not convinced that David Duchovney's voice truly fits his character's appearance but he does such a nice job that I don't care.
ONE SERIOUS FLAW I MUST POINT OUT! I HAVE TO WARN YOU:
The PC version needs a patch. Midway.com has the patch on their website but if the game crashes on you, you're going to need it! The game has a problem with the Intel 915G chipset family! Any of them. It creates a bug which will intermittently crash the game. The patch is a self extracting file and a perfect fix so I advise you to check your PC hardware and then DL this patch.
All in all if you're not burnt on PC shooters and have played all of the "Gotta Play" games so far (and already paid off your reserved copy of Quake 4) then seriously consider parting with the $20 for this well made (if not plain and common) shooter.