Midway. Midway? Midway. That could be the name for this whole series, a tribute to a world of games that companies such as Midway moulded by pushing the medium forward in so many odd ways. Because I can assure you, nobody is really going to obtain this much artistic value from something like Red Dead 2 in ten years’ time.
From what I can remember, I treated myself to a fresh new copy of Area 51 as it was released near my birthday. Instead of visiting my local indie games shop, I opted to buy it from the DVD/game rental store next to the Morrison’s with the help of my aunt. It’s now a tanning salon.
I mention all of this mundanity as a set-up, because the game itself was sort of mind-blowing at the time. When I’m not listening to David Duchovny in XIII, I’m listening to him in Area 51. And Powers Boothe. And Marilyn Manson!
The premise of the game is basically this: you’re David Duchovny and despite your kinda-bored tone, you’re sent to Area 51 with your buddies to do some alien virus cleanup. You know, normal stuff. Except that this universe does indeed have conspiracies that turn out to be true (Aliens! Fake moon landings! JFK’s assassination!) and have been hidden from the public.
The plot has twists featuring the Illuminati, and quickly becomes silly and convoluted, but as a teenager admiring the reflection in the scope as you move around this game? This was frigging awesome! And it’s fascinating to see these foreign, alien abilities transforming you, without the sophistication you’d see in later games like Bioshock. We have to remember two things when stepping back to this period: PC and PC-like games, such as Morrowind and Halo, were only recently-proven entities as viable console games.