Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Darkworks & Ubisoft Shanghai
Release Date: March 7, 2012 (USA)
Premise:
I Am Alive was released in March of 2012 and gave Gamers another Post-Apocalypse adventure to enjoy through the eyes of a lonely man in search of his wife and child through the streets of Haventon.
Gameplay:
The gameplay in I Am Alive is a mixture of mostly Third-Person exploration with First-Person shooting, though the shooting is very limited in scope and doesn't involve a lot of gun-play. The majority of the game revolves around exploring the ruined city in search of your family, going from place to place, scavenging items to aid you in your adventure, such as health items, very scarce ammunition and unique food items.
The player can use these items to satisfy the needs of several other survivors throughout the game, such as finding a fresh tomato to give to a desperate person in need. Helping out survivors awards the player with "retries" - where the player is able to continue from a checkpoint after they die/fail. While the premise of the game has the player searching for his family, the majority of gameplay revolves around solving problems for other people unrelated to his family journey.
A vast part of the game's exploration is climbing around buildings, managing your stamina to make sure you don't plummet to your death below if you become too weak.
A vast part of the game's exploration is climbing around buildings, managing your stamina to make sure you don't plummet to your death below if you become too weak.
Graphics:
The graphics are pretty intense, especially for an arcade game. The textures of the buildings are pretty decent and the depth of field that was used in conjunction with the fog really makes you feel like you're in the struggle with the protagonist. Some character models are less-than-stellar, though, and the effects could be better, but all in all, they're at least up to par with current-gen games.
Sound:
There's a lot of good music in the game, even some somber tones during the speaking points. The eerie ambient sounds of the environment really help to bring home the experience of struggling in a life devoid of anything humanly.
Length:
I was surprised at the length of the game, as I spent a little bit over 6 hours on my first playthrough. There are two difficulty settings to help the replay-value, though replaying right away wasn't of much interest to me as I viewed the story as a good piece of art and didn't want to ruin that by seeing the story again so soon.
Value:
The game itself is great, and anybody looking for a good experience in a Post-Apocalyptic world will no doubt find enjoyment from it. But, and this is the big part, the game is made and published by Ubisoft, which is a company I do not support. While I felt compelled to purchase the title and I felt it was worth the $15 price-tag, I felt regret for supporting Ubisoft so I cannot justly recommend or not-recommend this title in an unbiased way.
Purchase: Microsoft Xbox LIVE 1600 Marketplace Points
Purchase: Microsoft Xbox LIVE 1600 Marketplace Points
Thank you for this review. I am in agreement with your thoughts on Ubisoft. For me, and I think for many, this is an example of the dilemma we face. Good games by goods developers being published by less respectable publishers.
ReplyDeleteFor Example EA. I dislike their practices and attitudes, yet they publish some very good games, like Mass Effect etc. Ubisoft has Assassins Creed. Since one of the main ways of fighting back is through their pocket books, good games make this difficult to do for the community as a whole. Do you punish a good developer because of a bad publisher? Even on a personal level, I can boycott poor publishers, usually, but at times it is a very tough choice.
It would be nice to see some kind of grass roots movement to stop buying from them.
Your thoughts?
It can be an awkward moral slope to be on when you want to support the people who directly made the game but in doing so you also indirectly support the people you don't want to have your money because they're the ones responsible for getting the game to market.
DeleteThe way I see it is if the game is an ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVE for me than I will buy it because I want to enjoy it. I will try and make sure I don't buy any other games from a publisher I dislike/hate new I will only buy them used. Doing that does hurt the developer but it's really a no-win situation for an active consumer.
Somebody is going to get the raw end of the deal no matter what, but I try my best to show my support for good developers and I weigh the consequences of supporting the developer vs. the publisher and try and come up with a solution.
Unfortunately, though, there is no ONE solution for every time and it's a very grey area that will simply depend on personal preference and individual feelings on per-game-basis.