WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW IS ON A GAME THAT FETURES DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE, BAD LANGAUGE AND NUDITY.
Mini note from the writer: I’ll be avoiding talking about certain things shown in the game, due to the fact that it is tagged as ‘mature’.
Ever wanted to get a job in Area 51 as a security guard; looking at passes to see if the info matches, scanning the people looking for furnaces inside their body- Wait, what? Actually, it’s better not to question that, that’s also part of your job!
‘Security 51’ by Alawar is a simulation game where you work as a security guard at Area 51, you decide who gets let in and who doesn’t. It sounds quite simple, right? Well, you’re wrong! Each day the rules of who gets let in and who doesn’t gets changed, and new features get added every so often and ramp up the stakes. And the worst part is; if you fail at any stage, like you let in someone that breaks the rules you were given, your pay gets decreased! Now that is terrifying!
How about we jump right into what I thought of this routine based game!
The game starts with you at your desk, your supervisor gets you up to speed with things, general stuff like what your job is and that you also shouldn’t question things that go on. Completely normal stuff to say to a new hire. After that you are left to your own devices people start to come in, asking for entry into the facility. Your job at this stage is easy is to just simply read the names and numbers and make sure they match up on both the pass and the passport. If these don’t match with each other, you punch holes into the X side of the entry card, kicking the person out.
After the first day, more things get added for you to check. The first thing that changed was a scanner feature was added, you could scan beneath their clothes to find abnormalities, and these could actually be something on your list of instructions to look out for. Each day other things get added to make it easier for you to slip up. And when I say that, I mean it.
GAMEPLAY
When I was playing the game, I got into the rhythm of forgetting the instructions from the game before and replacing them with the new ones for the day; that part was simple, until one of the days decided to have every type of thing you were meant to look for active. I had to use every scanner and remember what to look out for in each specific one, once I spotted something wrong they would give me a medical slip describing what was wrong, so I had to keep an eye out for the slip being forged or having certain information, on top of that the camera was also in play where I had to look for general anomalies, and of course the standard checking of passes and passports for any information that was wrong. And by this point if you don’t think this is a lot, remember that there’s a general time limit to the day where if you go over it your pay gets decreased, and there’s also the lift to deal with, sending it down and also checking in the cameras to see who is coming up and also use the five types of views (like night vision) to spot different anomalies carried by the people. When all of this combined it can make it very easy to mess up and forget what to do or just straight up forget to use any one of the features, even though the instructions are still there and stay thee the full day, it’s so easy to forget they’re there and try to remember the instructions yourself. Trust me, read those instructions if your stuck, I’ve lost a lot of pay just from trying to be smart and do it myself!
I easily spent over two hours playing through this game in my minimal free time, stretching my breaks a little beyond the time I usually spend away from work. Being able to use my need for a routine inside a game was something I found difficult to do in the past, but with this game, it’s easy to get into a flow of going between tasks and completing them within a reasonable time limit. And if I got anything wrong and lost my perfect streak of doing everything correctly, I could just restart the day without any consequence, like what I had just done was erased and didn’t get added to my imaginary record. This addition wasn’t necessary to add, but they done it anyway and in my opinion I love that fact!
Also, aside from the seriousness of this game, there was some silly moments that have stuck with me. One of them was when I was part way through the day where everything was going smoothly, until this guy showed up, I was doing the normal checks, when I went to use the scanner suddenly they just melted, like full on disintegrated and fell to the floor out of sight. I kind of just sat there for a moment, taking in what was going on, fully expecting one of the cleaners just to come by with a mop or something, but no, another person just walked up and asked to be let in. I honestly think that the melted guy is now part of the walls, why else would no one have a reaction?! Oh, and that’s not even the weirdest thing that can happen! Another time I was doing the regular stuff to let this person in, and then they suddenly ripped off their clothes and became Superman before flying away. This one actually got me laughing!
Another thing I noticed when I was playing was that there are unique animations at the start of everyday, during the cutscene before you start the sequence you can see the player character doing mundane things. At one point he’s brushing his mustache, another he’s almost breaking the computer, and my most favorite is when he’s knitting. Actually having something in the cutscene that isn’t the same every time makes it more likely for the players to want to watch them, even though they don’t affect the actual game play.
Now let’s get into the graphics, my most favorite part about any game (other than the game itself I mean)! This game has a detailed pixel art style, no detail is missed and everything is pixel perfect making it quite a unique style. You can clearly see that a lot of care and attention was put into this, with every asset being perfect and no detail is missed. This game truly understand what it means to be dedicated to a project.
Personally I ended up failing just 15 days in, but this game has so much more to offer! You can go on to different floors where new functions get introduced and way more endings become available! I know for sure I’ll be going back to this game several times in the future to explore every possible outcome!
This game is perfect for anyone who enjoys puzzles, player-driven gameplay and the ability to re-play the game over and over and get different outcomes each time. I’d recommend this game to anyone, since it’s gameplay style is diverse and would keep anyone’s attention for a long period of time while being extremely enjoyable!
AND FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY FOR THE GAME’S RELEASE THERE WILL BE A 10% OFF DEAL FOR 2 WEEKS!
Other Information (from Steam page):
Cost: £9.99/$9.99
Play length: 2 hours+
Tags: Simulation, Point and Click, Horror, Puzzle, Choices Matter.
Release Date: 12th August 2026
Platform Availability:
- PC (STEAM, EPIC GAMES, AND GOG)
| Criteria | Scores | Our Scores |
| Artistic Achievement | 1-5 | 5 |
| Gameplay | 1-5 | 5 |
| Value/Cost | 1-5 | 5 |
| Controls | 1-5 | 5 |
| Length | 1-5 | 5 |
Written By: LouArtStuff
About: Hiya! I’m Lou! I love to play different types of games, read any genre of book, and delve a little too deep into the meaning of anything I see!
Donate: https://ko-fi.com/louartstuff
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