I Am Alive

Many bad things have already been said about “I am alive” but this game really surprised me in a good way when it comes to atmosphere and presentation.

In "I am alive" the world that we know is no more. After a cataclysmic event and a series of ground shattering earthquakes the cities lie in ruins and the streets are covered in thick dust making the outside world a hazardous place. Society has collapsed and everyone fights for survival and tries to cover even the most basic needs like water, food and shelter. In this world you are put in the place of a lone wanderer who got separated from his wife and daughter and is now searching for them. The game tells its story mostly through the playback of a camcorder that depicts conversations of the protagonist with other survivors and documents his journey. This may seem a bit gimmicky at first but adds a nice touch to the overall tone of the game. Tone and atmosphere are basically the strong points of "I am alive". The gameplay on the other hand is by no means bad but really methodical and I guess this is where the game will probably fall apart for most of the casual gamers out there.

The gameplay can be divided in exploration, combat and resource management. And all three aspects are focused around the very strong “survivalist”-tone of the game.

The exploration part is mostly handled by climbing around the wrecked buildings of the city and feels alright. The game limits your actions while climbing via a stamina bar, which slowly refills itself when climbing up somewhere and resting for a second. If the stamina bar is emptied during climbing you still can continue with your actions on wall XYZ but will burn the maximum capacity of the bar. The capacity can then be regained via items found around the city.

This is where the resource management comes into play. The idea is for you to have limited resources (stamina and health regains, as well as ammunition etc.) that you can find around the world and either use for yourself or use to help other survivors in need. Doing so will grant you an additional continue and some information regarding the cataclysmic “event”, the world or other stuff. You’ll start each chapter with 3 continues and if you screw up and die, will be reset to the last checkpoint you’ve passed as long as you have any continues left. Otherwise you’ll have to restart the entire chapter. This should make resources feel valuable and scarce to the player and reward risks (helping others) with the ability to make mistakes (die and restart at a checkpoint).

The combat may be the point where things start to fall apart for you. It is very methodical and centered around a small set of moves with a strong focus on dealing with groups of people. Basically you’ll encounter the following scenario a lot: four to five guys approach you most of them have melee weapons but one has a gun. You also have a melee weapon and a gun with (most of the time) 1-2 shots in it. You will let one guy come close to you, surprise kill him, quickly shoot the guy with the gun and then start to intimidate the remaining guys with you pistol. You’ll then have to either force them to back off and then kick then into (or off) things, or kill the remaining “tough” guy so that the other guys will surrender due to low morale. I liked it because of the realistic and methodical approach of the situation and the fact that if you make a mistake you will die.

While writing this I realize that in fact this game may not be a lot of fun for most people and that my 4 star score only reflects how much fun I had with the game. It is a game for masochists when it comes to the core mechanics but I really enjoyed my time with it.

After all I’ve never seen a downloadable title before with such a great feel to it.

Thanks for reading.