Though every X-Files fan and their dog named Mulder has been looking forward to Area 51 for PS2 and Xbox since it was announced two years ago, the final product, now that it's out here, is a bit of a let down.

On the upside, it does offer an interactive mother of all conspiracy theories--you get to wander around that famously furtive military base in balmy New Mexico, complete with resident alien, extraterrestrialized mutants formerly know as disposable soldiers and support staff, plus play with a whole whack of spaced out hardware--but it fails to deliver anything beyond polished replication; it's a Halo/Half-Life 2/Doom 3 wannabe at best, right down to the dual-wielding, Master Chief-in-a-HAZMAT-suit knock-off.

Truth be told, there is, at least, a distinctive ambience to it all as David "The Truth is Typecast" Duchovny does and a fine job of yawning his way through his main character dialogue on his way to cash his hey-it's-a-paycheck, and the freshly dilapidated environments do look faithfully creepy and distinctively intimidating. But again, aside from some invigorating rampaging and yeehaw fire fights, you're mostly just skulking down corridors searching for keys and baubles, mindful of the mutant-in-a-box that's sure to pop out of the next nook/cranny/closet.

Been here. Done this. Got the T-shirt. Washing my car with it.

[TIP: Though rummaging through every cubby and locker in Area-51 can get pretty tedious, doing so does have some merit. At the start of the Life or Death stage, for example, there's a small key on the dead soldier in the damaged lift. Use it to open the small locker in the first power conduit pit (or all the small lockers, for that matter), which contains a databank upgrade for you alien grenades, which will then home in on enemies.]