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Area 51 for PlayStation 2
Area 51 for PlayStation 2 sends you into a sealed research base as HAZMAT specialist Ethan Cole. A viral outbreak has placed the complex under quarantine, and your team must discover what happened. Early battles amid military equipment and infected personnel gradually give way to strange laboratories and alien threats. You see everything through Cole's eyes and use the two analogue sticks to move through corridors and aim at enemies.
Alongside human firearms, you encounter alien technology and the consequences of infection. Cole's mutation changes his capabilities: he can use claws and biological attacks, altering how you approach battles compared with relying on a rifle alone. A scanner lets you examine objects and gather background information in the databank. That gives you a reason to look beyond the direct route. Between firefights, collected clues reveal more and more about the experiments within the base.
You play the campaign alone; the soldiers accompanying you are computer-controlled teammates. In addition, two players can fight each other locally on a split screen. Each needs an ordinary DualShock 2 controller, without a Multitap or light gun. This is the freely controlled shooter from 2005, not the older arcade game of the same name. The original online features are historical components of this release; their current operation is not promised.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Area 51 for PlayStation 2 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Area 51
Midway released Area 51 for PlayStation 2 in 2005. Its developer was Midway Studios Austin, the team previously known as Inevitable Entertainment. Midway acquired the studio in October 2004 while the game was still in development. That background explains why both studio names can appear in older reports. The project used a familiar name from Midway's catalogue, but chose a different kind of gameplay from the original light-gun arcade machine.
Rather than shooting along a fixed route, this version let you walk through the research base yourself. The campaign linked military action with viral infection, mutation and stories about secret experiments. Midway also brought in familiar voices: David Duchovny played Ethan Cole, Powers Boothe voiced Major Bridges, and Marilyn Manson gave the alien Edgar his voice. That cast complemented the emphasis on spoken scenes and gradually unravelling a conspiracy.
The distinction between platforms remains important for this game. The original PS2 manual describes local matches between two players, not the four-way split screen of the Xbox version. The campaign was not a cooperative adventure for two people either. Online matches were part of the original offering, but do not support a promise of current usability. Above all, the PS2 release shows how Midway turned a recognisable arcade name into a story-driven first-person shooter for home consoles, with mutation as a recurring part of combat.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Half-Life shares the sealed research environment, failed experiments and single protagonist's perspective. Both shooters have you find a path past soldiers and alien threats. Half-Life places more emphasis on environmental puzzles and Gordon Freeman's continuous escape. Area 51 uses Cole's infection, mutation powers and scanner to investigate the base. The local two-player battles here are also separate from a cooperative story campaign such as Half-Life: Decay.
Cold Winter likewise offers first-person shooting on PlayStation 2 with a strongly framed story. It mainly deals with espionage, human opponents and combining objects. Area 51 places comparable firefights in laboratories with mutants and alien technology. Cole's changing body gives combat a different twist from Andrew Sterling's spy work, while found documents and conversations in both games add context to your next assignment.
Red Faction, like Area 51, combines science fiction, firearms and a campaign centred on an opaque power structure. Its mining colony on Mars provides the setting for an uprising and breaking through parts of the environment. Area 51 concentrates on a secret base on Earth and a virus's effects. Here you examine objects with a scanner and alternate human weapons with mutation attacks, rather than making terrain destruction a defining principle.
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect shares the fast firefights and the option of playing with someone beside you. Its campaign jumps between time periods and uses plenty of humour, whereas Area 51 stays inside an increasingly strange research base. The local structure also differs: Future Perfect includes cooperative story missions and larger groups of players. In Area 51 you complete the campaign alone, and the split screen serves a duel between two players.
The Thing, like Area 51, uses infection and uncertainty about alien life to create tension. There you look over your character's shoulder and must account for teammates' trust and fear. Area 51 chooses a first-person perspective and does not give you comparable control over the group. Infection here mainly changes Cole's own combat capabilities, while you gather more information about the complex with the scanner.
