Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

Verisimilitude in videogames definitely has a place. Knowing that a single bullet could kill you, or something as simple as needing to eat and drink, can create an intensity that you just don't find in many videogames. I Am Alive attempts to create a realistic world, but in a fictional setting; a disaster has struck and the world, or at least America, is in utter turmoil. However, there are certain gameplay mechanics that only serve to get in the way of your enjoyment, and only remind you that you're playing a videogame.

You play an unnamed protagonist who has trekked across a devastated America to find his daughter and wife. This is as interesting as the story gets, unfortunately, and you don't even get to see any of this unfold. Soon after arriving in your hometown you get quickly distracted from finding your family for no real reason, and become an errand boy for other characters. It's pretty nonsensical, especially considering the ardours that you've presumably suffered travelling the entirety of America, on foot. The majority of your time is then spent finding items for the other few friendly characters.
I Am Alive's most successful attempts at realism are those involving your stamina and health meters. Though there could have been a more elegant solution of showing this information. Moreover, when either becomes low there is an infuriating orchestral score, that blocks out most in-game noise. This becomes maddening after thirty minutes, after three hours it's intolerable. The stamina bar comes into effect during the frequent climbing sequences that take up the majority of the game. These control in a similar way to the Uncharted series, but where you need to climb to is often poorly signposted, especially as the game has a mostly grey aesthetic so ledges don't stand out well. My main complaint with the climbing sequences in the Uncharted games is they're just too easy. The stamina bar here adds an interesting degree of tension as you can only climb for the duration of the bar. There is an overly video-gamey aspect to this, though, as when your bar is depleted for an amount of time it permanently removes a chunk of your stamina bar. This can be replenished with items, but this whole situation is unnecessary and takes away from the realistic world otherwise created.

Along the way you'll come across abundant villainous guys who just want to murder you to further their own survival. Oddly, the first guy you come across is alone, and surrenders to you, but the game still orders you to murder him. I guess even your character has been changed by the events taking place, and really if I'd travelled for a year I'd probably not want to take any chances on some scumbag killing me. Combat mostly involves crowd management with you outnumbered at almost all occasions. The methods of dealing with these guys at first appear numerous, but quickly you see how limited you are. Everything you can do is shown every early in the game; you can shoot guys, stab guys, or kick guys into pits. It's infuriating then that at times these actions don't happen as intended. A guy may be in position to be kicked into a pit, yet the prompt is to stab them, which leads into a quick time event allowing other enemies to attack you. Having to waste one of the few items you have, not to any fault of your own, is unacceptable.

There are numerous other small issues throughout I Am Alive. Items can become trapped in the level geometry and so are unreachable. Not having access to an important stamina or health replenishing item, again to no fault of your own, is just bad game design. In the latter sections you get a bow with a single arrow, which you're meant to retrieve. The arrow frequently vanished for seemingly no reason forcing me to retry. Bafflingly retries are also finite making this incredibly aggravating. I don't know why they decided to keep such an archaic feature. It really adds nothing to the game at all, and in fact takes away from the experience, as they break the illusion of immersion that is created to a relatively successful degree.

If the initial promise of the story would have played out it might be worth it to put up with the stumbling blocks the game frequently puts in your path. It doesn't, and progressively gets worse. The ending is completely rushed, and barely resolves anything at all. I Am Alive provides some great gameplay mechanics, and is most successful when trying to create as great a sense of verisimilitude as possible. It's unfortunate then that numerous issues arise, and are continually damaging the goodwill that is established early on.