Review: I Am Alive

I was excited about I Am Alive since the first time I heard of it. Years ago. Originally announced as a retail disc, the survival game was reclassified and (finally) released as a downloadable title, with the Xbox Live Arcade version a part of this year’s “House Party” campaign. Everything about the title just screams “original” – as Adam, a husband separated from his wife and daughter to due to a worldwide apocalyptic event, you scramble through the ravaged streets of Haventon in an attempt to reunite. As far as how the game plays, think survival horror without the horror; this game is more like “desperation survival.”

As far as mechanics go, I Am Alive is relatively simple. Adam can run and climb to get around the wasteland that used to be Haventon, and has a stamina and health bar that dictate how fast and hard he can go. Adam also picks up a gun, a machete and a bow and arrow for defence, and also stumbles upon a grappling hook to aid in climbing up, over and through the terrain.

Running depletes Adam’s stamina bar; walking will regenerate the entire thing. Climbing causes a continual reduction of the stamina bar as well, but again, it will replenish if he can stand up on a ledge of platform. If Adam uses all of his stamina, he starts to lose his health bar…and if Adam loses his health, he’ll eventually fall over and die, or worse yet, let go of whatever ledge he’s holding onto and plummet to his death.  Whilst climbing, you can mash the right-trigger after losing your stamina to keep your grip, but you’ll lose health and also lose a permanent bit of your stamina bar in the process. Both bars can be replenished with food and drink, and some items also can regain the bits of stamina bar you may lose.

Combat might be a big part of the game, but I didn’t call I Am Alive a desperation survival title for nothing. Like in the survival horror genre, you’re going to be constantly worried resources; in this case, your stamina and health bars. You’ll definitely be struggling to maintain them with the limited resources that remain in Haventon. You’re scrambling around your environment far more often than you’ll be fighting enemies, so it’s that meter management that really forms the core of the game. Unfortunately, the game’s controls whilst climbing aren’t spectacular; with such emphasis on stamina management and having just enough at times to get from point A to point B, the wonky controls mean you’ll frequently start heading in a wrong direction and will soon end up dying cause you’ve ran out of oomph.

Fighting is delightful fun and terribly frustrating all at the same time. When pitted against one enemy, you can let them saunter up to you to perform a sneak machete kill, or you can pull out your gun – with bullets or without – and either shoot them or completely bluff your way through the situation. My favourite tactic was to bluff with the gun and position an enemy in front of a crevasse or firepit…and then push them into it. When dealing with multiple enemies, strategy is key – you’ll have to try to quick-kill the guy with a gun, and then usually get in position to shoot the other gun holder. After that, you’ll have to then manage to hold up the other two knife-wielders so they don’t try to go for the gun of one of the guys you’ve just killed.

Oh, by the way — that entire combat sequence Ijust described? It happens in a matter of seconds. It’s easy to formulate an effective strategy to deal with enemies, but it’s a lot harder to pull off with the controls. “X” activates the quick-kill skill, but if you’ve caught an enemy in the wrong animation, you’ll instead go machete-to-machete…which means the goon’s friends will just come in and decimate you. As frustrating as it is to die from a lack of stamina due to wonky controls while climbing, it’s worse to die repeatedly at the same combat sequence because you’re not pulling off the moves absolutely perfectly. Getting the bow and arrow helps, but I found my single, solitary arrow sometimes disappeared in combat, meaning I had to retry from a past checkpoint.

If you’re not worried about achievements, play the game in “Normal” mode and take full advantage of extra retry attempts – you’ve going to need them. In the more difficult “Survival” mode, you’ve very limited retries, which means you’ll make a stupid (or control-based) mistake, and will have to restart at a checkpoint some twenty minutes back from where you ended off. Experimentation is a big part of any video game, and I Am Alive basically shuns it in the more difficult mode. You have to know what you’re doing from the get-go, and that takes a big chunk of fun out of the game.

Overall, the game is immensely enjoyable, as long as you’re able to be patient. The story of I Am Alive is definitely one to experience…the character of Mei tore at my heartstrings at every chance. A full-fledged retail title would have proved to be a bit too repetitious and ultimately tedious, but as a downloadable title, I Am Alive is definitely worth a purchase and playthrough on either XBLA or the PlayStation Network next month.