I Am Alive
Reviewed By Tristan Tancredi
It's the end of the world.. As we know it.
A post apocolyptic world full of constant earthquakes, unbreathable dust and decaying cities. Cities inhabited by survivors surviving by any means neccessary.
I Am Alive takes place one year after "an event" destroyed most parts of America. It focuses on a main character (who is never named) as he ventures into the ruins of society on a search and rescue mission for his wife Julie and his daughter Mary. Upon entering the town he encounters a young girl Mei, wheelchair bound Henry and Mei's mother Linda whom the gamer must ultimately save from the dust.
To successfully save these people from a raft of problems (it's not the nicest place in the world), the gamer must complete several objectives throughout the game. These range from recovering medicine for Mei, saving Julie from a "Rapehouse", acquiring a radio, setting off fireworks on a nearby rooftop and leading these survivors to freedom.
Upon the journey, the gamer encounters a range of people; Cannibals, gangs, thugs, no-hopers, the sick and the dead are all littered throughout the dust clouded landscape (See, I told you it wasn't a nice place).
Sure, it is only a downloadable game, but it feels like I Am Alive ends just when it should be getting started. Is this due to Ubisoft taking the reigns on the project with limited funding? Maybe so. Nonetheless it is a very sudden, rushed ending that leaves a few objectives incomplete and a few questions unanswered.
What Ubisoft have managed to squeeze into this brief foray into post-apocolyptic survival, is alot of climbing, a little bit of combat and heaps of dust-dodging.
The developers have tweaked the gameplay to create a uniquely fun, yet mildly frustrating, controlling system. Here is a brief rundown on the gameplay, what's unique and whether it works.
Climbing: Differing from "climbing" techniques that you find in the Assassins Creed franchise (where you can climb willy-nilly for as long as you want), I Am Alive utilises a stamina bar that quickly decreases over time when you are climbing. Climbing without rest, food or drink will result in a giant splatter on the pavement below. Ultimately this works well and adds more challenge to the gaming experience. And hey, climbing is neccessary to get above the dust clouds.
Combat: Forget all that you know about gaming combat systems for I Am Alive offers a fresh alternative. Loaded with a machete, a pistol and a bow, the best method for combat is knowing when to pick your battles, and knowing which weapon to use when you do.
With limited ammo and only one arrow (for most of the game), strategy is important. For example, aiming your empty pistol at enemies will cause them to surrender, then feel free to kick them off a building or into a fire. Hey, only the strong survive.
The combat is unique, challenging and fun, with a hint of frustation. At times the controls are jumpy between weapons and the camera gets a little disorientated. Disposing of multiple enemies at once with your machete is also a no no, feel free to try, just make sure you have a few retrys up your sleeve.
Retrys are accumulated throughout the game by helping survivors scattered throughout the town. Providing these people with a first aid kit, an asthma puffer, painkillers, hell even a bottle of wine or a pack of cigarettes will provide information on the town, survivor camps and the characters missions.
It seems the artistic creators were so happy with their design of the "bad guys" that they created three prototypes and did the old copy and paste throughout the entire game. Either that, or there is more twins in this game than Candido Godoi (look it up).
The graphics are far from finely detailed. The background details are faded and blurry and the people encountered are rough-edged and quite messy. But hey, its a downloadable game after all, so the expectation for it to be perfect is a bit of a stretch.
Despite the sudden ending and being cut dramatically short, the storyline is quite enthralling. The voice acting is quite good, especially for child character Mei, which is charming and adorable.
For a cheap, downloadable game, there really isn't too much to complain about with I Am Alive. It is an enjoyable 5+ hours of a game with a unique twist. Don't buy this game with the expectation that it will be amazing, it isn't, but there is definite fun to be had.
Rating: 70%
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Game: I Am Alive
System: Playstation 3
Developer/Co-Developer: Ubisoft Shanghai
Publisher: Ubisoft
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