W
e began to suspect that Area 51 might not be the end-all, be-all of
shooters when we saw that the ad campaign for the game closed with,
“Coming soon to a bargain bin near you.” OK, we made that up, but it’s gonna
happen—you just know it.
Unlike the fun light-gun version of the game in arcades and pizza parlors
everywhere, the PC version of Area 51 is a spectacularly bland first-person
shooter with a cliché-ridden storyline that goes like this: There’s this top-secret
base, a disturbance takes place, and you and your hazmat team are sent in to
find out what happened. You get there and—oh my god—aliens begin killing
everyone. Run away. Oh no.
That’s when the shooting starts. And this ain’t no Doom 3, one-monster-
at-a-time snoozefest; it’s wave after wave after wave of baddies, Serious
Sam style. Normally, mass slaughter makes us happy, but in Area 51 it’s just
repetitive and formulaic. The same enemies spawn in the same locations and
come after you in the same way, over and over and over, for 10 or 15 minutes at
a time. We would’ve killed for a little variety in the monsters or how they attack,
but alas there was none.
The missions are totally linear. You have to go to point A to pick
up an item, which you then carry to point B, and so forth. The game does
a good job of letting you know where you need to go—an onscreen arrow
points you in the right direction—but the “find the key” gameplay is as boring
as ever.If nonstop action and violence are your thing, you may get a kick out of Area
51. Anyone looking for originality,
innovation, or even a little fun,
however, will be totally disappointed.
—JOSH NOREMArea
As mUch fUn as an Alien proBe
5
AREA 51
$30, http://www.area51-game.com,
ESRB: ML
ast year’s RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 arrived as an enjoyable addition to the
franchise, but it was incredibly buggy at launch. Half a year (and a good
patching) later, the roller coaster-building/theme-park management sim is a
smooth ride that practically demands an equally slick expansion pack. And,
boy, did it get one.
RCT3: Soaked! compliments the original game by adding everything
and anything you could possibly find at your local water park and then some.
Aquaman couldn’t think of more uses for the wet stuff—you can build splashy
pools complete with whirlpools, lifeguards, springboards, and wave machines;
create refreshing new rides like lazy rivers for rafting, and winding paddleboat
and windsurfing courses; and you can even litter your park with water jets so
visitors (aka “peeps”) can soak each other silly.
Soaked! has a new nine-mission career mode, but all of the expansion’s
features—including its two new themes (Atlantis and Paradise Island) and more
than 50 new rides—are available in RCT3’s free-form play mode. The expansion
improves on the original’s park-building utility by allowing you to tunnel through
hills and underwater so roller coasters and flume rides can pass through, and it
also incorporates a very easy-to-use waterfall designer to enhance your park’s
peep-pleasing ability.
One of the coolest features in the original RCT3 is the fireworks
Mixmaster utility for conducting elaborate nighttime displays. Soaked! makes
an even bigger splash by adding laser light shows and water fountains to the
“Mix,” and allowing you to synch the choreography with your own music tracks.
And just because it’s got water, don’t assume that Soaked! has tradedall of RCT3’s coasters for killer whales. You get several new coasters, most
notably a water-powered roller coaster called The Roller Soaker, and 16
new car types. In addition, existing coasters can be customized with water
splashes and jet streams.
The expansion’s downsides are those that afflict the game in general.
Path-making, in particular, can be a headache, especially when dealing with
ground of varying elevations, and frame rates suffer when parks get
too large. That said, Soaked!
is as wet and wild as the rides
themselves!
–CHUCK OSBORN2ollerCoaster TYcoon
SoakeD
So gooD YoUll wet YoUrself
86 MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2005
reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
As far as generic shooters go, Area 51 isn’t bad. As far as great
shooters go, it’s not even in the ballpark.Soaked! lets you create everything from exotic water rides to
simple splash pools for wee tots (aka pee pools).SOAKED!
$30, http://www.atari.com,
ESRB: E