Here it is: Reviews - I Am Alive

[Jinxvorheeze]

I wrote a review for the game a little while ago and thought since there are a few "is it worth it" threads I would toss my 2 cents in. The article was originally posted on my blog at: http://hereitisreviews.blogspot.com/2012/12/here-it-is-i-am-alive.html - If you like it, I hope you check out more of my reviews and articles! You can also add me on Steam for updates on my reviews, recommendations, or just to game/talk. Feedback is welcomed and I attempt to respond to every comment, so if you have something you disagree with or a question about the review, post it here and I would be more than happy to listen. Please keep the comments civil, I have no problem with disputes or debates as long as they are presented in a respectful manner! Hope you enjoy the read and thanks for taking the time to check out my review!

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I Am Alive is Ubisoft's entry into the post-apocalyptic survival genre. Originally created as a downloadable title for home consoles, I Am Alive was later ported to the PC after much deliberation over piracy by Ubisoft. While the game started out extremely weak on PC with bad controls and lack of controller support, and terrible frame rate issues; I wanted to wait until the patch to correct these game breaking bugs had been released to review the game. This was done to give the game itself a fair chance. It took Ubisoft over a month to release the patch, with no communication to the games owners about the patch whatsoever. The patch was then quietly rolled out one day, out of the blue. That in itself is a good enough reason to not purchase the game. When a game gets released and is nearly unplayable for a month, and the developer is silent to the community who are starving for information on when the game they purchased is actually going to be supported by the parent company.

Now the patch is live and I can honestly say, it was not worth the wait. I Am Alive is extremely boring. The gameplay is slow and based on a stamina meter which decreases as you perform actions such as climbing, and once the meter it depleted you begin taking damage. The damage you take is semi-permanent and cannot be recovered from food alone, and must be recovered using alternative means. This seems like an okay game mechanic if it were introduced into say, Assassins Creed. However, I Am Alive is an extremely deceptive game. While it appears to be open world, it is relatively linear. You are stopped from the one thing which would have made the game amazing, the freedom to explore the desolate and dangerous world that the game takes place in. With the stamina restrictions, you are left to go where the game wants you to go, and only explore very limited spaces within those areas.

The city, what you do get to see of it at least, is ravaged and dirty. It's maybe one of the most realistic feeling post-apocalyptic style worlds I have ever had the chance to play in. This is all shattered by barricades creating linear walls, walls which just seem out of place and strictly for you. They don't seem to have any purpose in the games world other than creating a pathway for you to travel on. So with map in hand and a solitary road to wander, it's pretty hard to get lost in the city, something I wish I could do for hours. The other huge complaint about the city is the fact that there are people damn near every ten feet, all of which want to kill you. Why is there an elderly woman standing on her stoop threatening to shoot the people who walk past? And that is after no less than 40 feet away I had to take out two psychotic ravagers. In fact, most of the people you meet are hostile towards you, leading you to wonder when you meet someone like the old woman why she would bother being outside in the first place.

Being a linear path and having puzzle like climbing sequences; since almost every time you climb anything it is part of the set path in the game, it's more like playing a puzzle game and using your equipment (which it happens to always give you just enough of) at the correct time so you do not fall and die. The best mechanic of the game is hindered by the worst mechanic. I am all for having free climbing and forcing you to make choices on taking damage or using certain equipment, but it should be a decision you get to make based on your own choice of travel pattern. It should not give you 3 climbing picks and then right away toss you at a climb which requires 3 climbing picks. I Am Alive becomes boring in that fact. You always know what's going to happen, and since you aren't exploring a world where you get to make a mistake like climbing a building and not having the amount of equipment to get down, it feels like the game is holding your hand the whole time. There is not anything unexpected coming up, and every adventure is able to be conquered, since it's programmed for you to conquer it. That is not to say you cannot explore at all, but most of your exploration is nothing more than what the game wants you to explore and anything else is typically met with death in some form.

I Am Alive also features some of the most boring graphics of the year. Being practically void of color is one thing, the game is solid gray, with varying tints of other colors barely showing through. Everything you look at is gray. Gray people, gray sky, gray buildings, gray ground, and a depth of field filter stopping you from seeing more than a half a block ahead. This is meant to give it the apocalyptic feel, but I feel it ruins the potential atmosphere of the game. It makes it seem like the developer was unable to create a creepy atmosphere without the use of parlor tricks to make you visually see it's a metaphoric ghost town. I know it's supposed to be ash and rubble from the catastrophe, but it's supposedly been over a year since the happening and it still looks like the dust hasn't settled. Now you can download 3rd party mods to remove the black and white filter and the depth of field effect, both of which I highly recommend; but seeing as neither effect can be controlled from the game as they are hard-coded on, it's fair to say that the game in it's current state is stake and uninteresting. On top of being boring looking, the overall graphics in the game are extremely dated, not surprising since the game was originally conceived back in 2003, with work being done by Darkworks S.A from 2005 to 2007, and then finished by Ubisoft just this year.

Ironically, after a 7 year development cycle, the game was thrown back into the re-engineering tank and left to simmer for two years until it was released this year. This should have been an early indication that the game was merely being finished because of the amount of time and resources previously spent on its development, and not because it was going to be a substantial release for Ubisoft.

The story is not something I am going to go into depth or ruin for people who don't take my advice and play I Am Alive anyways. I will say however that it is extremely fantastical, and overall simply too hard to believe any if not all of it. In a game where story is the driving force (since it is linear in gameplay) this one falls up short on every level it possibly could. The events the game itself puts you through are so outrageous and overwhelming in their aberrant misgivings that you pretty much have to play without paying attention to it, or just choke it down and consider it less than 'B' movie worthy.

I could go on and on about how conveniently you find items, and how conveniently important items are needed by someone they were 20 feet from for the past year, and in plain site, and nobody noticed them. How almost every time you find a first aid kit, there is a injured person who needs it just as bad as you do somewhere within a stones throw from it. It all happens too conveniently, and it happens too frequently to be believable. This is a ravaged city, where people kill each other over a single bullet, but there is a first aid kit just sitting in the road? A road that you just dispatched ravagers from not 30 feet away. Nobody in an entire year was able to get their hands on the first aid kit which is the most valuable of assets, but you can stroll into town and pick it up 5 minutes after you get here? I'm sorry. You build a world which begs t be explored and then you block it off and lay the spoils we should be spending hours looking for at our feet.

I Am Alive just had so much potential that it misses every chance it gets, it's almost sickening to see the game spiral into the mess of content that we are given. It's just not worth playing for any reason. If you want a post apocalyptic survival game, go play Fallout and play on Survival settings, maybe download a mod or two to make it harder, but at least you get a well polished, amazing game that doesn't restrict you every chance it gets. If you want an open world, exploration game, go for the Assassins Creed series. I understand the desire for the genre, it is fun to play a game which challenges you to be conservative and make rational decisions, so play that game in real life, and avoid I Am Alive.

[The doctor is in]

wow thanks saved me $5

[Jinxvorheeze]

Thanks for reading and commenting! With so many great deals going on, and going to be happening in the next couple days, $5 is like holding a golden ticket!

[neofit]

It's not a question of saving 5€, I've 50€ on unplayable crap like *cough*FarCry3*cough* numerous times. It's a question of not rewarding *re*tarded* game designers (and sorry for insulting those for whom it is a real medical condition) with even one cent, as a metter of principle. How do these people even get a job? It's like *every* paragraph in this review was yelling at me to stop reading already and move along :). Thanks for this post.

[everythingbutray]

It may not be about the money so much as paying for a game I plan investing time on. Thank you for the review. I'll pretty much take a pass on this game.

[Vilor]

Agree with the post above. Its not the 5 bucks, its the time and spending our money on quality games. Thanks for the very in-depth review.

[Jinxvorheeze]

@Neofit, I agree whole heartedly. Nobody should be rewarded for sub-par work. Thank you for your comments and I am glad you read the review and commented. Happy gaming!

[Jinxvorheeze]

@everythingbutray - Thank you for taking the time to read the article and comment. I agree that it is not about the money, if a game is worth $60 than the company deserves it. But if you can't get any enjoyment out of a game it doesn't matter that it was $5, it's not worth the time to even play. Cheers for the insight.

[Jinxvorheeze]

@speedrat - Thank you for taking the time to read it, and for joining the conversation/commenting! Glad you enjoyed it.

[trevychips]

Glad I read your review, during these Steam sales we all get a bit Click-happy. Thanks mate.

[jamz]

Thank's for your honest review, im sad as this post apocalyptic style of game greatly interests me and i was very tempted to buy at this sale price. You instantly made my mind up as what is the point of this game if your unable to explore the environment? When will we be treated to another game like Fallout 3 or Vegas?

[Jinxvorheeze]

@mentalpsyco - Yeah sometimes games can be a little too tempting. It's not to say there aren't a ton of other amazing deals though! Thanks for reading and commenting, Cheers!

[Jinxvorheeze]

@Jamz.uk - Same here, I bought the game Day 1 and was disappointed right away that it just didn't meat any expectations. We can only hope that another game like those will come along and fill the void. Hopefully one that the developers spend more effort on. Thanks for reading and commenting!

[FulcronZ]

Thx for the comprehensive Jinxvorheeze. I wish I find this post yesterday T_T.
I bought this game when it was at USD 10, and I got bored right away.

The game is very straight. Open-World map is blocked by those barricade, and it becomes Closed-World map. All people you met are hostiles. You have to kill all of them before moving to the next level. And of course, to kill enemies you need ammo, and it is very scarce. You need 100% accuracy in shooting. Bow is not that useful when you face a suprise attack.

Mouse control is pretty bad. When a character stands near a wall, the game will not allow you to move the camer a easily.

Lastly, there is no much option for graphics. It forces you to use every drop of your GPU out. The post effect processing is heavily used in the game.

Don't buy this game. Sincerely.

[Jinxvorheeze]

Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. Sorry it was too late though. You post some good quick points about the game and I appreciate your insight. Hopefully others will find this thread before it's too late. Thanks again, Cheers.

[Vivisector 9999]

I agree with too much of what the OP wrote. I say "too much" because I'm a sucker for the post-apocalypse genre - the grittier, the better - and thus this game looked really promising. I'm pretty disappointed now.

At first, the setting and mood was excellent, kinda like The Road (although thankfully not THAT harsh). I actually liked the stamina mechanism, too. In most games, your character is apparently a machine who can run/climb/fight/whine for hours without breaking a sweat, so such a nod to realism also got things started on the right foot. Graphics I didn't have much problem with, either. Hell, I grew up in the NES era, so I can forgive a lot on that score.

Unfortunately, I Am Alive went downhill pretty quick. It's funny that I mentioned the NES, because this game actually reminded me of the old NES games... in all the worst ways.

It LOOKS like a GTA/Fallout-style open world at first, but it's deceiving. It's actually a linear game with constant barriers to keep you moving more or less along the one path. Looking at the map for the first time, I wondered which streets I should take to the apartment. I actually thought "Okay, let's try those back streets, maybe less chance of being spotted by hostiles..." Only to soon learn that this game isn't big on exploration (or choices). That linear-ness extended to the encounters, too. All too often, it felt like there was only one method or sequence to resolve it, with any other approach being punished brutally.

It's bitter that such an open-looking 3D world would offer so little room for exploration or experimentation.

And that issue made exponentially worse by the SAVE POINT SYSTEM. Even better, with limited retries! This is what nailed the coffin shut for me, the realization that we're almost to 2013 and holy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crap, game designers are STILL resorting to this idiocy.

NO. This is no longer 1984 where you have to fit your entire game in 4 megabytes and I'm still a kid with enough free time to waste hours replaying the same fricking map over and over. If you want to encourage players to get through the game in less than X lives in one sitting, then hey, great. Make an achievement or a score bonus or a "hardcore mode" or whatever for it. But don't punish those of us who aren't masochists with nothing more interesting to do.

You might think I'm a little hypocritical here, because I actually love roguelikes, which usually have permadeath and make you start over with a new character if you die. But the better ones (DCSS, DoomRL, ADOM) have random dungeons and classes that are very different from each other, so at least you can try something new if you die, with tons of room for exploration or just going some other way. I Am Alive should have borrowed more from that playbook if it wanted to be harsh.

So yeah, pretty disappointed here.