I Am Alive Review

I Am Alive was never alive.

A titanic amount of potential wasted, others may see new ideas, I see failed dreams.

For a start this game had been in development for over 4 years, any half decent designer/developer knows that it shouldnt take that long, the finished product should be a gleaming masterpiece, not a shell of a game that’s been half-finished.

We all know the ideas are there, even the gameplay has some sense of realistic survival value to it but it’s not enough, having been released as an arcade edition to Xbox live which is a disappointment, at least its cheap around 9 pounds I think, I waited 3 years for something that took 3 hours to finish, I paid, I saw, I want a refund.

Dont get me muddled with a hater because I don’t hate it im just expressing my anger, similar to when you read about a movie and it sounds really cool but in actual fact they got it all wrong.

I did play and I did complete it which means it kept me playing till the end, so why the bad vibes well sometimes you hold out for something that’s not there, hoping for the unexpected, when you realise it’s not coming, it makes you even more mad at the game for luring you into false pretences.

There is a new enemy lurking behind every corner… DUST in this game it seems to do more damage than the people who are trying to kill you, you cannot be in heavy dust for longer than around 30 seconds this makes it impossible to enjoy anything, I like to search and scavenge in my apocalyptic worlds with this one you just don’t have the time unless it’s scampering from roof to roof.

The story was ok it was of some importance, you are journeying to find your wife and child, which seems apparent straight away that you are not going to complete that task, I say task to high degree as most missions feel like a task for collecting items instead of actual important stuff, you will find yourself climbing alot, by the way its a nightmare, just like the dust it forces you into rushing and going the wrong way, it seems like faults keeping piling up for the game and that’s because they do.

In any game we want to feel something for the plot and characters, like the chilling scene from spec-ops the line as they walk through a trail of their own destruction, I Am Alive doesn’t jump any hurdles or through any circles, it makes you feel the opposite in those supposedly heartbreaking moments, like you could just look away unnerved, in the past I played games that drew me in, froze me in shock, and me spat out like chewing gum with no flavour because the games creators made some effort or you see what they wanted you to and you know it, I liked this game for around 30-60 minutes, after that I felt like Bill Murray in groundhog day, I liked the protagonist he was an average family man who felt like a strong piece of glass you know its going to break, it just takes a bit more damage than normal.

The mechanics of how the AI fought and acted were inventive but also unfinished, it left you repeating some situations, also some of it didn’t make any sense, as if someone sees you take 3 guys down and still wants to come and try his luck, the quick kill up close was very cool it gave you the option to look awesome, it has lots of realistic violence, held back by limitations in combat there was very little to do other than push someone off a ledge, stab them or shoot them and the only one that wasnt done in a cinematic style was the shooting, if you ever got chance as there was never enough ammo to feel safe about firing.

Other reviewers will say the help a civilian parts included were good, I think the opposite, it didn’t give you a back story that would make you actually want to go and find them some paracetamol, even finding a little girl and seeing her near death doesn’t move me in any way (is there something wrong with me) the actors who do the voices do a good job but there’s something missing I think there’s a little extra power or emotion needed, also the animation doesn’t help as it seems very grainy.

I enjoyed the switch from 3rd person to 1st person when you raise you gun, although I would have gone for a resi 4 look where it’s almost 1st person but you can still see your head.

I’m very blunt I will say if something stinks and no matter how embarrassing I will admit if I like something, such as one part of the game, this was one of the most amazing settings I have ever seen in a game, I am talking of course about the leveled skyscraper it was a joy to climb, search and just see the place because all that stuff I was saying earlier about feelings, power and emotion have been rammed into this tower it felt; real exciting and raw, you do not witness surroundings like this in most games, this was where the effort was, just a shame the rest of the game is not like this, as then my review would have been completely different.

Overall I would say there was more bad than good, but at least it had some good, was an ok game not great, thanks for reading but what I think is not important it’s what you think of my thoughts.