I Am Alive made me think back about two very complex games.

Im talking here about

Alan Wake and Spec Ops: The Line. I Am Alive seems to have that awkward Alan Wa
ke atmosphere, attitude and a bit of that fight for survival. On the other hand,
Ubisoft Shanghais game has retained some of those hard call decisions that made
a difference in Spec Ops: The Line. These two connections made me understand fr
om the very beginning of the game that I Am Alive isnt a pure linear game but rat
her a gamers directed adventure where the producers only sketched the map and som
e targets, the rest of it being left on the player.
The Event
A city in ruins, cars and trucks smashed and abandoned in the utmost disorder al
l over the cityits all a very graphic and realistic image of an inexplicable trage
dy that came all of a sudden over a flourishing, unsuspecting town. But the prod
ucers didnt limit the effects of the tragedy only in the city limits of Haventown
. No, this tragedy seems to have hit the whole America and even the entire world
. Its a blurred up side of the script, left like that both because it would have
no relevance what so ever to the action and because this way the Event gets to f
eel even more mysterious than it really is.
The city scenery is quite impressive and the dust fog that stays on the city flo
or makes everything look even more dangerous and full of mystery. In fact this f
og was a stroke of genius from the Chinese based developer as this preserves a g
reat deal of unknown over the map while the games entire adventures take place on
a rather limited area.
Huge buildings were torn from the half up and others were just leveled to the gr
ound, nothing is safe and the whole situation is enhanced even more by the prese
nce of a huge ship in the middle of the city, thrown there by who knows what kin
d of earthquake generated tsunami.
But while this looks like a completely deserted place, Haventown is still there
with lots of people trying to survive another day in this horrible place. But m
ost of them denounced any kind of social order, some of them becoming even canni
bals. Still some are still there because they had no chance to escape the city b
efore or after the event so they just stayed there hiding in the mall, trying to
find something to eat and hoping for the best.

With all this stuff going on, I must say that remarkable about this game is not
the apocalypse now concept. This stuff gets more and more used every year. No, t
his is something better: its getting to survive the apocalypse and learning how t
o deal with it, the whole story is going on at some time after The Event, at lea
st a year, as the main character says a couple of times that it took him only 4
hours to reach the East Coast and a whole year to go back.
The thing is that I, as a player, got to forget that this was just a game. In fa
ct I must admit that the term immersive adventure is a way better description for
I Am Alive than anything else. The whole world is justso real, so close to what y
ou might find in your day to day life if this kind of Event would really take pl
ace. And keeping this idea in mind, the simple climbing on an almost shattered b
uilding, each race thru the ground dust or even the interaction with other NPCs
in the game is just fantastic.
Still, one thing that didnt make me all that happy was one particular event, a me
eting with a female NPC in need for some food. You know, in I Am Alive, for ever
y man or woman that you help, you get a bonus retry, something that can prove to
be very useful in some situations. Anyway, I met this lady, that seemed to be i
n her 40s, and I gave her a can of fruits. She was sad but what the hell, most o
f the people that you meet in the game are like this so I just continued my miss
ion. Yet, later I got to come back the same road (actually a sewer) and I saw he
r again, hanged from a rope, a completely senseless self inflicted death. This i
s something that had no place in a game, even in this depressing environment.
However this episode was singular and except for that, the whole combination of
elements, starting with the post apocalyptic city and ending with the help the o
nes in need tasks was more than successful.
Surviving in a harsh environment
To be a survivor means to fight, to think and to act without hesitation but at t
he same time, surviving means to show compassion to those that are in need, to p
rotect and to save. It might sound weird but there are people who believe in sce
narios like the one depicted by Ubisoft Shanghai in I Am Alive, and now I unders
tand why.

In fact, speaking of the above, the main character of this game is exactly that
: a survivor, gone all the way to the other coast of America, wounded in the Eve
nt and still powerful enough to come back on foot and try to find his lost famil
y.
Speaking of this I must say that for me, I Am Alive tends to look more like an R
PG even if the producers speak of it as a true blood action game. Why is that? W
ell, the main reason is that personal component depicted in the game thru the le
nses of the video camera that records all the key moments in the game as a visua
l diary.
Actually, speaking of retries and video recordings, each retry in I Am Alive is
symbolized by a small video camera, both the ones earned from the NPCs and those
found scarcely over the whole map.
Just the first one
I must admit that since the first words of this review Ive put a powerful accent
on the fact that I Am Alive gets its best features from the brilliant combinatio
n of action, suspense and terrible decisions that the gamer must take.

But Ive also seen another interesting element, found most of the times in the Ame
rican TV series: that set of loose ends left there on purpose in order to create
a sequel, of course if the first game sells well enough. My arguments are the r
elative small coverage of the map, that dust that prevents the player from seein
g more of the town and the grand finale that doesnt get to tie up all the plot. I
n fact, looking behind, the whole game is centered on a single campaign of mission
s and in the end none of them arent quite related to the main characters quest to
find his family.
Dropping the ball
Sadly, most of the good vibe of the game is often torn to pieces by some of the
choices the developer made. If the life or mana lines (both of them installed in
the worst place possible if I may say so) drop under 30% youll get to see a lot
of red in front of your eyes as the whole view becomes surrounded by a red cloud
that will refuse to disappear until youll get some pain killers or other kind of
health restoration items.

Now back to my case, after losing lots and lots of hours in front of my PC, devo
uring American made TV series, I can sense that future sequel intention. So many
paths that remain out of reach, so many places to explore. I rest my case.
Just to end this review
I Am Alive developed in an intricate story line with a mysterious background tha
t failed to be completely unveiled. Its a good story and a great adventure, that
you shouldnt lose, especially if youre into role playing game adventures.
This is not a top game but in many ways I must admit that I Am Alive is one of t
he best titles Ive got to play this year. So, Ill give it a 9.