History VideoGame / Area51FPS

''Area 51'' is a FirstPersonShooter video game on Entropy, an in-house game engine built by Inevitable Entertainment (Midway Studios Austin at the time), and was released on UsefulNotes/Playstation2 and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} on April 25th, 2005, with the [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] version following 6 weeks later on June 8th. Based loosely on [[VideoGame/{{Area51}} the 1995 arcade rail shooter of the same name]], the game takes place inside the famous {{Area 51}} research facility in Groom Lake, Nevada, where the release of an alien virus has transformed the majority of the scientists and security staff into insane raging mutants. The player takes the role of Ethan Cole (Creator/DavidDuchovny), a member of a four-man biohazard cleanup team sent into the facility to contain the situation. As the game progresses Ethan is eventually separated from his team and ends up uncovering a massive conspiracy between the world-controlling Illuminati and the alien Grays who crash landed in the New Mexican desert fifty years ago.

A NonLinearSequel, named ''Blacksite: Area 51'', was released in 2007. This time, PC and UsefulNotes/Xbox360 versions launched simultaneously, while the UsefulNotes/Playstation3 version was delayed for a month. Built on the Unreal Engine 3 (aka the ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' engine), ''Blacksite'' featured similar themes and gameplay elements to the original game, but took place in a different continuity. This time the player is Aaron Pierce, the SilentProtagonist leader of a 4-man team of Delta Force operators who encounter alien phenomenon during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Three years later, Pierce and his team are called in to suppress an armed insurrection in the area around Rachel, Nevada, only to discover the town and surrounding environs are crawling with alien lifeforms as well as a small, well-organized army of hostile cyborg soldiers known as the Reborn. ''Blacksite'' is infamous for being an unfinished game that was rushed out into publication before being properly finished. Which contributed to the game's mediocre reception, which combined with Midway crashing and burning a year later, makes further entries into the series rather unlikely for the near future.

The [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] version of the 2005 game is available as a freeware download thanks to a partnership Midway made with the US Air Force, and, thanks to a patch that came later, it is now DRM-free.

A NonLinearSequel, named ''Blacksite: Area 51'', was released in 2007. This time, PC and UsefulNotes/Xbox360 versions launched simultaneously, while the UsefulNotes/Playstation3 version was delayed for a month. Built on the Unreal Engine 3 (aka the ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' engine), ''Blacksite'' featured similar themes and gameplay elements to the original game, but took place in a different continuity. This time the player is Aaron Pierce, the SilentProtagonist leader of a 4-man team of Delta Force operators who encounter alien phenomenon during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Three years later, Pierce and his team are called in to suppress an armed insurrection in the area around Rachel, Nevada, only to discover the town and surrounding environs are crawling with alien lifeforms as well as a small, well-organized army of hostile cyborg soldiers known as the Reborn. ''Blacksite'' is infamous for being an ObviousBeta that was rushed out into publication before being properly finished. Which contributed to the game's mediocre reception, which combined with Midway crashing and burning a year later, makes further entries into the series rather unlikely for the near future.

* ObviousBeta: ''Blacksite'' suffers heavily from this, more so than probably any other mainstream shooter released in the last several years. The game can be completed, but just from playing a couple hours it's painfully obvious that it shipped in an unfinished state.

''Area 51'' is a FirstPersonShooter video game on Entropy, an in-house game engine built by Inevitable Entertainment (Midway Studios Austin at the time), and was released on UsefulNotes/Playstation2 and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} on April 25th, 2005, with the [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] version following 6 weeks later on June 8th. Based loosely on [[VideoGame/{{Area51}} the 1995 arcade rail shooter of the same name]], the game takes place inside the famous {{Area 51}} research facility in Groom Lake, Nevada, where the release of an alien virus has transformed the majority of the scientists and security staff into insane raging mutants. The player takes the role of Ethan Cole (Creator/DavidDuchovny), a member of a four-man biohazard cleanup team sent into the facility to contain the situation. As the game progresses Ethan is eventually separated from his team and ends up uncovering a massive conspiracy between the world-controlling Illuminati and the alien Greys who crash landed in the New Mexican desert fifty years ago.

* AncientAstronauts: Some of the datalogs indicate that Atlantis other civilisations were in contact with an advanced civilisation before they met a mysterious end. What's more is these visitors happen to come from the same place as the Greys leading to a possible connection. Then on top of that it turns out in Russia there was an alien craft placed beneath the surface over a thousand years ago before being fired upon and the datalog hypothesizes there may have in fact been multiple alien species that have visited Earth.

* BigGood: Major Bridges, Dr. Cray, and Edgar all form an ensemble of this. Bridges plays this straight as he's the commander of the QRF deployed into Area 51. Dr. Cray appears to step forward after Cole is infected, but after his death at the hands of the Illuminati, it turns out to be Edgar. The term "good" is rather magnanimous with the latter two, since both of them are clearly just pissed at the Illuminati and the Greys. Initially, Edgar views humans with contempt and insists his time is precious. As the story progresses his tone only slightly changes and although he doesn't think highly of humans, he comes to think that Ethan's death would be a waste of his time and a tragedy for mankind. He even cures Ethan of the disease as promised.
* BioweaponBeast: The Theta and Super Theta have been purposely designed to be relentless killing machines armed with meson weapons and capable of infecting others with the virus. Once the Greys have stockpiled enough of the Super Thetas they plan to deploy them, starting with Earth.
* BittersweetEnding: Cole is cured of his alien disease and succeeds in destroying the alien ship beneath Area 51, subverting the Greys' and Illuminati's plans, saving the world. Thankfully he is teleported out to safety in the Nevada desert before it detonates. Sadly in the process Cole lost his team, Bravo Team, Delta Team, and destroying the alien ship also destroys Area 51, likely killing everyone on the base including Major Bridges in the process, with Cole as the SoleSurvivor of the entire game. And then there's the matter of whatever was on the transport truck that escapes the base at the end being unaccounted for, passing by Cole on the road.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: You know that gigantic bio-weapon responsible for spreading the virus and killing your teammates? You manage to kill it a good 3/4th through the game, only to find out that the Greys have created "super" versions of the creature.

* FlayingAlive: In one of his videos, Mr. White recounts a compelling reason for why one should never, ''ever'' physically touch one of the Greys.

* MookMaker: The Greys don't fight you directly, but rather constantly summon Illuminati soldiers to kill you as they stand inside a powerful energy shield.
* MoonLandingHoax: At one point, you pass through a soundstage holding a lunar landscape, an Apollo capsule, and some recording equipment and props, all of which has been preserved since the 60s so that it can be reused for staging the future Mars landing. And yes, you can, and do, TrashTheSet. In a subversion, though, Dr. Cray's third diary entry reveals that we actually ''have'' been to the Moon, but the Apollo footage was faked to hide what we ''really'' found there. The datalogs indicate the Greys have an outpost there.

* MyBrainIsBig: A key physical trait seen within all of the hyper-intelligent Greys is an enlarged cranium.

* PunyHumans: The Greys complain their human subjects keep dying too soon. Then there's Edgar who openly shows a disdain for humanity. Clearly Edgar doesn't give a damn about humanity but his motives for opposing the pact may just be simple {{Revenge}} for being imprisoned and continually experimented on.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Dr. Cray, feeling that his work was not properly credited (and possibly also not liking the idea of destroying the world), releases a Theta into Area 51 to cause chaos and draw the military's attention, interfering with the Illuminati and Grey's plan to launch the UFO, which would have resulted in Earth [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outliving its usefulness]].

* TheChessmaster: Befitting an advanced alien lifeform Edgar manages to set up the plot to counter both the Illuminati and the greys. He manipulates both the genius scientist Dr. Cray and the GeniusBruiser Ethan Cole into resisting the pact and gives Ethan hints to lead him on the desired path that suits his ends.
* VillainPedigree: Basic mutants completely disappear from the game 1/3rd of the way through, as soon as you become mutated yourself and all your teammates are dead, and you start fighting Illuminati soldiers instead. The fully mutated leapers also stop showing up 2/3rds of the way through after you kill Theta, with the remainder of the game spent fighting the Illuminati and Greys.

* PunyHumans: The Greys complain they're human subjects keep dying too soon. Then there's Edgar who openly shows a disdain for humanity. Clearly Edgar doesn't give a damn about humanity but his motives for opposing the pact may just be simple {{Revenge}} for being imprisoned and continually experimented on.

* BittersweetEnding: Cole is cured of his alien disease and succeeds in destroying the alien ship beneath Area 51, subverting the Greys' and Illuminati's plans, saving the world. Thankfully he is teleported out to safety in the Nevada desert before it detonates. Sadly in the process Cole lost his team, Bravo Team, and destroying the alien ship also destroys Area 51, likely killing everyone on the base including Major Bridges in the process, with Cole as the SoleSurvivor of the entire game. And then there's the matter of whatever was on the transport truck that escapes the base at the end being unaccounted for, passing by Cole on the road.

* BittersweetEnding: Cole is cured of his alien disease and succeeds in destroying the alien ship beneath Area 51, subverting the Grey's plans, saving the world. Thankfully he is teleported out to safety in the Nevada desert before it detonates. Sadly in the process Cole lost his team, and destroying the alien ship also destroys Area 51, likely killing everyone on the base in the process, with Cole as the SoleSurvivor of the entire game. And then there's whatever was on the transport truck that escapes at the end, passing by Cole on the road.

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Both Dr Cray and Edgar try to stop the pact but only because of their own indignation. For Dr. Cray it's because the illuminati plan to co-opt his work without properly crediting him (although he is completely unaware that they arranged the assassination of his son). With Edgar it's because they constantly experimented on him and stuck him in a big container surrounded by the corpses of other failed experiments.

* SecondHourSuperpower: About 1/4th of the way through the game you gain the ability to transform into a mutant on command. As a mutant you have powerful melee attacks, shoot parasites that drain enemy health, can see cloaked enemies, and increased speed, and time also slows down slightly (although not nearly as much as in games like ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' or ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'').

* ShoutOut: On the studio site of where they filmed a fake moon landing, there's a lot of radio chatter in the background. One of the things you may overhear is "[[Film/{{Airplane}} What's your vector, Victor?]]"

* TheChessmaster: Befitting an advanced alien lifeform Edgar manages to set up the plot to counter both the illuminati and the greys. He manipulates both the genius scientist Dr. Cray and the GeniusBruiser Ethan Cole into resisting the pact and gives Ethan hints to lead him on the desired path that suits his ends.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Somers hands several to out Pierce and Weis. A particularly memorable one is during the final boss fight.

* TheVirus: Xeno-spores, a biohazard which turns Iraqi and later Rachel civilians into mutants very similar to the ones from the first game.

* AncientAstronauts: Some of the datalogs indicate that Atlantis other civilisations were in contact with an advanced civilisation before they met a mysterious end. What's more is these visitors happen to come from the same place as the Greys leading to a possible connection. Then on top of that it turns out in Russia there was an alien craft placed beneath the surface over a thousand years ago before being fires upon and the datalog hypothesises there may have in fact been multiple alien species that have visited Earth.
* AntiEscapeMechanism: The Theta and Super Theta bosses have an attack in which they jump into the air and land on your head, killing you instantly. There's no tell before they use it and it is ''extremely'' difficult to avoid, but they only do it if you get too far away from them instead of staying at close-to-medium range.

* GeniusBruiser: Ethan Cole the playable character has a background in biomedicine and is member of the Hazmat team which are effectively the marines in airtight body armour. He also is very well read on philosophy if the last narration is any indication. The fact he is the sole survivor of his team and can transform at will into a deadly mutant only solidifies his bruiser status.

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Both Dr Cray and Edgar try to stop the pact but only because of their own indignation. For Dr Cray it's because the illuminati plan to co-opt his work without properly crediting him (although he is completely unaware that they arranged the assassination of his son). With Edgar it's because they constantly experimented on him and stuck him in a big container surrounded by the corpses of other failed experiments.

* BigGood: Dr. Cray appears to step forward after Cole is infected, but after his death at the hands of the Illuminati, it turns out to be Edgar. The term "good" is rather magnanimous since both of them are clearly just pissed at the Illuminati and the Greys. Initially Edgar views humans with contempt and insists his time is precious. As the story progresses his tone only slightly changes and although he doesn't think highly at all of humans he comes to think that Ethan's death would be a waste of his time and a tragedy for mankind. He even cures Ethan of the disease as promised.

* TheChessmaster: Befitting an advanced alien lifeform Edgar manages to set up the plot to counter both the illuminati and the greys. He manipulates both the genius scientist Dr Cray and the GeniusBruiser Ethan Cole into resisting the pact and gives Ethan hints to lead him on the desired path that suits his ends.
* VillainPedigree: Basic mutants completely disappear from the game 1/3rd of the way through, as soon as you become mutated yourself and all your teammates are dead, and you start fighting Illuminati soldiers instead. The fully mutated leapers also stop showing up 2/3rds of the way through after you kill Zeta, with the remainder of the game spent fighting the Illuminati and Greys.