I Am Alive Review [XBLA]
An interesting, cleverly concieved subversion of a saturated genre that manages to stay one step ahead of its flaws throughout.
rating:3.5
Conceptually, I Am Alive is a winner. Its set in a dystopian present in which Earths infrastructure lies decimated by a cataclysmic event one year prior to the games opening, leaving the land at ground level blanketed by a thick layer of hazardous dust. In this holocaustic environment, bullets are scarce, and arrows for your bow are practically non-existent. Youll have to keep your wits about you if youre going to survive this lawless, post-apocalyptic nightmare. You play an un-named protagonist who, during the event, was four hours away from his home city by plane. We join this mysterious traveller at the end of his one year exodus across a ruined America, as he returns home to locate his wife and daughter. Its a solid enough concept, but unfortunately, its resolved (or rather left, unresolved) rather quickly and the plot segways into something wholly unrelated. Upon saving a little girl who reminds the protagonist of his daughter, youre then charged with a series of missions, with the ultimate goal of aiding an escape from the city. I Am Alive has two main gameplay mechanics: climbing the wrecked husks of the citys skyscrapers and fighting off deranged survivors. Both gameplay aspects, while being somewhat expected in a third person action game, have been given interesting twists which serve to set I Am Alive apart from others of its ilk. Climbing in action games is old hat by now. Games like Tomb Raider and its spiritual successor Uncharted have refined this age-old gameplay mechanic to the point where theres really no excuse for getting it wrong anymore. I Am Alive doesnt exactly beat the aforementioned titles in its climbing system but it does give it a unique subversion: the influence of the stamina bar. Our protagonist is fully human, and unlike Lara, Drake or Ezio, he cant climb forever and should his stamina deplete to zero, hell fall, forcing you to manage the stamina bar by resting on ledges, employing climbing gear or consuming resources. This ticking clock is exacerbated by a throbbing, ever loudening piece of tension music that creeps slowly into the sound mix as your stamina bar empties to around that half way mark, creating a constant sense of is he gonna make it?!
Combat in I Am Alive, while again not panging of innovation in and of itself, houses a clever subversion that enhances the mechanic ten-fold. For starters, finding one bullet is a blessing; the combat isnt about head-shotting, or spraying and praying, its about strategy. Upon entering a room full of aggressors, youll have to decide in an instant who youre putting down with your one bullet, who youre going to kill with your machete and who youre going to intimidate with your empty gun. Those without guns themselves will submit at the sight of a levelled firearm - even if it isnt loaded - leaving themselves open to a melee attack. You can even order them to step back to a ledge and then brutally kick them over (although said ledge will often be a long walk away, and ordering them back this far feels quite unrealistic). Eventually, youre awarded a hunting bow with one re-collectable arrow, signifying a welcome change of pace to the combat mechanics. Be careful though, as the bow wont intimidate attackers, and with it equipped theyll come at you just as fast as you can string your arrow. This is one aspect of the combat system I found a little frustrating enemies will halt at the sight of your pistol, but dont seem to care that theres a loaded bow aimed point blank up their nostril. The same applies if you drop your gun; the enemy is scared enough when its pointed at them, but seems to forget about its existence should you lower it. That said, its not a huge issue, and once you get your head around the strategic nature of the combat mechanics, its satisfying enough to warrant beating the game. 
As you traverse the citys husk, youll come across glowing video cameras. These are retries, and you'll want to stock up on as many of these as possible. If you die at any point during combat or climbing, youll need these retries to be able to load recent checkpoints. Should you die without any retries, youll be forced to load the games last autosave, which is to say, the start of the current level. This can often wipe up to 30 to 40 minutes of progress which, for obvious reasons, can be more than a little frustrating. Die too many times, and this retry system will undoubtedly be the bane of your experience with I Am Alive, but manage to survive enough and it serves to add another layer of consequences. I Am Alive makes you feel like death is snapping at your heels. If you make a wrong decision in combat, or in traversing a building then you WILL die and if you die enough, there are consequences. This is how the game maintains a basis in reality; these things that we take for granted in the usual third person action game (climbing, fighting even re-spawning upon death) all take some form of toll on I Am Alives protagonist. Its worth mentioning that the games normal mode negates this retry system, but you really should play it in its high difficulty mode, for the full intended effect. Graphically, I Am Alive isnt a slouch, but it isnt the most gorgeous game Ive ever seen either. The protagonist looks a little blocky when you really scrutinize him and lip synching seems to always be just that little bit off. That said, the fictional city of Haventon often looks superb, dizzying even when seen from the side of a fallen skyscraper. The setting is satisfyingly immersive, largely down to the attention to detail in the level design, and when you descend into the city streets and into the dust cloud, its all very cloying, reminiscent of the genre-defining survival horror, Silent Hill. I Am Alive is not a perfect game, and in fact, despite great level design (I never felt lost, but never felt restricted to a linear path either, even though essentially, I was), there are a few flaws. Given the fact that this game was in development for six years, I would have expectedI dont know, justmore. Traversing vertical terrain can get a little clunky at times, especially when your stamina is running low and youre in a rush; youll often find yourself sidling sideways instead instead of up, wasting precious seconds that might mean your life, or at the very least a retry. Theres also a lot of back tracking to locations, and although the game does a decent job of getting you back there via a slightly different route, I couldnt help feel that at times I was just traipsing back and forth across a relatively small map, on nothing more interesting than standard find and gather missions. That said, its certainly not a bad game either. It wont take long to finish (around four to five hours in total) but there is a decent amount to explore on the side and also twenty survivors in need of aid dotted around the city for the completionists amongst you. And the gameplay is satisfying enough, with the graphical and control issues as well as fairly standard mission types largely outweighed by the uniqueness of the combat and climbing systems and the immersive detail of the setting. At 1200 Microsoft points (around the £15 mark), you could do much worse for your money. I Am Alive is fun enough, and fresh enough to fully justify the investment. 
I Am Alive is released via XBLA on the 7th March 2012, and is coming soon to PSN.