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    I Am Alive

    Game » consists of 6 releases. Released Mar 07, 2012

    I Am Alive is a survival game. The story revolves around a man trying to find his family in the ruined Midwestern city of Haventon after a devastating, apocalyptic event.

    vigorousjammer's I Am Alive (PC) review

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    An interesting game that feels like it could have been more.

    I Am Alive was a game that I wasn't sure what to expect when going in. I remember being excited by the trailer shown way back at E3 2008. At the time, the visuals looked spectacular, and the seriousness of the whole thing seemed to have a lot of weight to it.

    I think a lot of what I saw in that trailer remains true in the final game, but it just doesn't feel quite as polished as I hoped it would be. The graphics look more dated than impressive, the animations are sometimes a little stiff, and the AI isn't always incredibly bright, but they all get the job done. Aside from that, I think the game does an excellent job of introducing it's gameplay mechanics and capitalizing on them.

    There's a few main gameplay systems that you go through. First there's just exploring the environment, finding items to put in your inventory. These parts feel most like a survival horror game. They're good for soaking in the tone of the world, and it does that very effectively. While exploring the environment, there's also a climbing mechanic, which you will have to use to get past certain obstacles. This works similar to something like Assassin's Creed, except it feels a bit more appropriately paced for your character. There's also a stamina mechanic that you have to keep an eye on while climbing, otherwise you'll fall to your death. You can get stamina back by finding ledges to perch on and rest for a second, or by using items mid-climb. I found the system interesting, but I could see why someone could find it annoying or frustrating.

    The third major system in the game is the combat. Sometimes you'll find friendly strangers in the wasteland, but you'll also sometimes find groups of enemies. These enemies will either tell you to back up, or they'll push you around and eventually try to kill you. With the first type, you're able to back away and avoid an encounter, but with the second type, you're forced to fight. Having limited ammunition and just a knife, these sections can be a bit difficult at first, but eventually I got the hang of them. The game does a good job of telling you how to handle these situations, who to attack first, when to pull your gun and threaten unarmed enemies, and so-on. By the end of the game, I felt like the system was starting to wear out it's welcome, and if the game had gone on for any longer, I may have been annoyed by it, but as it is, it seems perfectly fine.

    Ironically, however... I wish the game was longer. The upgrade path you take throughout the game seems like it's happening at a steady pace, but by the time you get all the upgrades, the game just kind of ends around the 5 hour mark. A 5 hour single-player campaign would be fine, but the whole thing feels like it was cut short. Between the way the map is laid out, the way the game gives you upgrades, and the way the story ends... It just feels like half of a game. Maybe this is actually just how they wanted to make it, but something tells me it has to do with it being switched from a full retail game to something released on Xbox Live Arcade.

    As for the story, it seems very interesting from the start, but by the end, nothing really happens and it's a disappointing resolution to something that could have been so much more. That's really what the whole game feels like to be honest, it could have been so much more. Between the slight lack of polish, the disappointing story, and the short-lived upgrade path, by the end of the game, I'm just wondering how much of the game got cut because of time or financial restraints, and what the initial design doc looked like. I wouldn't play it again, but that being said I still had fun with it, and would recommend it to some people who are into this kind of survival horror game. Just know going in that you may end up being slightly disappointed.

    Other reviews for I Am Alive (PC)

      Great atmosphere, great potential, IAA leaves players in the dust 0

      I was torn between giving this a half star and just one star or a star and a half. Let me be honest with you - this game was enjoyable for the most part. But the storyline leaves you so high and dry and is for lack of a better word, abysmal. Worst ending of pretty much any story I've ever bothered to reach the end of, to be honest with you. The game was also limited in a lot of areas that just seemed like it would have so much potential.Let me get down to the points of what was GOOD about this g...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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