I Am Alive

With its darkly mature subject material and radical re-interpretations of standard play formulas, I Am Alive is both emotionally difficult and conceptually challenging-and those are wonderful things in my book. R

One of the finest details in the game is its graphics and the use of sound in the game.

Overall, I Am Alive is a fantastic achievement for a downloadable title. It manages to achieve a feeling of survival that not many have managed to achieve. It tells a story really well and the end of each chapter keeps you wanting more and makes you want to push on.

This is a surprisingly risky game, which deals with a lot of uncomfortable subject matter. It reminds me of a lot of the games that came out in the middle of the Dreamcast's lifespan, where you could go ahead and release whatever you liked and Sega would probably approve it, because why the hell not. It's exactly the kind of thing I like to see in the online marketplace, and I'm glad I finally got the chance to play it. It's dark, frightening, intense, and often very satisfying.

I Am Alive is a great game and it clearly has its similarities with Assassin's Creed. But don't worry, you'll definitely get that typical survival feeling. Unlike Altair and Ezio, you are not a superhero and have you'll have to take a stamina bar into account. The combination of the AC feeling and the survival theme makes I Am Alive a great game. It's a pity that the controls aren't always as smooth.

To put it simply, I Am Alive is one of the most important releases this generation. Ubisoft should be commended for producing a title that challenges many adult themes. The effort is an amazingly brave and thought-provoking one, resulting in a product that is memorable and undeniably unique. People will be talking about this for years to come, and with good reason.

If you like a challenging post-apocalyptic platforming adventure game, then line up your 1200 MS points because this game is worth every penny.

I Am Alive successfully introduces new mechanics to the survival genre, and it does it offering us an interesting story in a convincing environment. We'd love to see it evolved to a full-blown, high budget AAA game.

I Am Alive's desperate scenarios and inventive gameplay should not be missed by masochistic gamers interested in entering a world of unrelenting dread.

As a downloadable title, I Am Alive is a remarkable accomplishment. Not only does it create an atmospheric world that feels real enough to identify with, but it succeeds at delivering a unique experience geared towards an adult audience while simultaneously being a fun game to play. It's a roller coaster of emotions, sometimes not exactly the ones the game intended you to feel, but a hell of a ride nonetheless.

A top-notch, horror-free survival-horror well worth playing at least twice over. [May 2012, p.86]

In a time when most games want to baby us with giant "go here!" waypoints, regenerating health, and an overabundance of save and checkpoints, I Am Alive kicks us in the ass with heart-pounding, intense, and unforgiving gameplay. It takes a lot of chances, and as a result, it's one that will stick in my memory for a long time to come.

I am Alive is an amazingly atmospheric and innovative survival adventure. It's a shame that the story concludes in an disappointing ending that comes way too soon.

I Am Alive gives players a pure survival experience at a low price.

An odd mix between adventure, FPS and platform, with outstanding atmosphere. Graphics are not alway on par with the rest.

Given its turbulent development, I expected it to come in dead on arrival. Instead, I found it to be a solid survival game that, above anything else, kept my palms sweaty and my muscles tense.

Excellent thriller works perfectly as a survival simulation. The story is great, game mechanics are great, fight system is smart and locations are memorable – what else could you want? [Apr 2012]

What makes it special and unique is the fragility of the protagonist and his constant fight for survival in an area where resources are scarce.

Despite its shortcomings, I Am Alive manages to offer a true survival experience, with intense platforming, clever combat mechanics and an impressive enemy AI. This is definitely the "biggest" small game you'll get to play in 2012.

I Am Alive is one of the best survival games of this generation. Despite lots of graphical issues and a little bit repetitive gameplay, the game gives players almost ten hours of immersive atmosphere and tension.

Ubisoft Shanghai delivered on I Am Alive promise. It's a real take on the survival genre, one that may not have the top production values of AAA retail blockbusters for sure, but one that works nonetheless.

I Am Alive made my heart pound for six hours straight, which is quite a lengthy workout considering the very reasonable price.

The sheer sense of survival and dread at the world are unparalleled.

Even with annoying design decisions like sacrificing atmosphere and deeper morale questions for the sake of arcade feeling this is a very interesting take on survival action. It manages to entertain you for about five hours and also serves as an appetizer for everybody looking forward to Naughty Dog's The Last of Us.

Despite the bad graphics and the trite storyline, I Am Alive manages to surprise with rich gameplay and a pure survival experience. The player will find himself surrounded by a dusty doomsday scenario, forced to survive by using only his climbing gear, an almost empty gun and, last but not least, a sharp machete. At a quite low price, the game offers about five hours of good old entertainment and, unless you are detractors of the genre, you should give this latest little gem of digital delivery a chance.

If I Am Alive were to be described in a single word, that word would be bleak. It is unapologetic in its presentation and unafraid to cross lines that most games never dare to approach. Those crossed lines are certainly through its subject matter, but also in its gameplay through the possibility of causing permanent damage to your stamina bar. It all comes together to make I Am Alive an uncompromising game of survival, quite unlike anything else on the Xbox 360.

Constant tension and difficult emotional decisions make I Am Alive a powerful adventure.

A very entertaining and original game that has suffered the downgrade from triple A to digital download from the technical point of view. Even with its limitations, anyway, it's an experience we suggest you try.

We've had five amazing hours climbing the buildings and meeting the inhabitants of the post-apocalyptic Haventon, so we're glad that Ubisoft let the title live. However, we just wish they would have bothered to make it a full length game as this is like reading the first chapter of I Am Alive, not the entire book.

What I Am Alive lacks in originality, though, it makes up for in execution, because it really nails the tone.

It's a shame 'I Am Alive' didn't end up being a triple-A game, because there are some pretty cool and unique concepts here that actually work and are quite entertaining. Granted, the controls may need some tweaking and the AI isn't as smart as it could've been.

You may get into the survival aspect, or you may brush it off. But kudos to Ubisoft for going for the gusto, rather than letting this project fall into complete mayhem. You know, like Duke Nukem Forever.

For apocalypse buffs, much of I Am Alive is riveting stuff; we'd love to see a follow-up that improves on its framework.

When I Am Alive broke immersion with any number of the aforementioned flaws, which it did far too regularly, it was easy to chastise it. But when it was taking risks and throwing me into tense situations or decision moments, I couldn't drag myself away.

I Am Alive starts of great thanks to a combination of great ideas, interesting locations and a compelling story. Subsequently, the game rushes to an end with limited game mechanics and weird story related choices.

Many people first caught glimpse of I Am Alive four years ago and I can't say four years was worth the wait. It's not that this is a bad game-that's hardly the case, as it's worth buying simply if you like the post-apocalyptic genre. The survival and intimidation/combat tactics are both the best and worst elements of the game, a love/hate relationship that can sway either way depending on the type of player you are. Running gameplay is short, but as a downloadable content only, this game at 15 bucks doesn't hurt.

You are better off to tolerate the cracks in the façade of this game and use them to dig deeper into it. Then, I Am Alive will have the desired impact. We need more broken, bleak and bitter games like this.

Like its scant narrative backbone and starkly drawn world, I Am Alive is just evocative enough to keep you playing for the five or so hours it lasts. You'll come away with the feeling that what good ideas it has are mere specters of a more ambitious past. That said, few games are willing to go to so dark a place as Haventon.

I Am Alive has finally arrived, and although it isn't the game it was promised to be some years ago, this is still a good action and platforming game in a post-apocalyptic world with a well-told, yet a bit generic, story and good gameplay mechanics.

One of the most successfully depressing survival games ever made, and a fascinating portrayal of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances.

It's distinctly lo-fi in terms of visuals and environmental detail, and far from being either groundbreaking or epic, but the bold manner with which the aesthetic and set of mechanics support an overall theme of survival and hopelessness ensures I Am Alive is an experience worth undertaking.

The game occasionally drags, arguably due to representing the bleakness of its environment and the challenges of existing within it a little too keenly. Autosave points are few and far between, which means that on anything above normal difficulty your frequent restarts will result in much repetition. Likewise, I Am Alive's platforming is occasionally cumbersome and inexact. But nevertheless this game offers a journey worth charting, one of physics, social decline and welcome terror in a market overrun by zombies.

I Am Alive only really becomes a proper tale of human survival if you can look past the wonky mechanics and rough engine, if you can see past the rustic models and amateur dialogue, and if you can actually connect with the wailing cast of cardboard cut-outs. Ubisoft's vision is clear and ambitious, but it lacks the development talent and budget to be effectively realised.

I Am Alive is a brave experiment, and one that works more often than not. In terms of creating tension through a scarcity of resources, creating combat that relies on something other than twitch action, and creating an atmosphere so thick you can taste it, it's a total success. It's a shame that it doesn't do more with all of this, and that the mechanics in question are never really pushed, but if you're interested in spending a few hours with a very unique game possessing a very unique atmosphere then it's certainly worth your while. Even at its absolute worst, it remains... interesting.

It's a harrowing tale, but a frustrating one too. Odd arcade touches and cost-cutting measures poke through the skin like broken bones. Bluffing your way out of a fight sounds promising, but it's a clunky, repetitive business and bodycounts are high.

With so many great games on XBLA let alone on disc, it's hard to recommend I Am Alive. It feels like it never reached its full potential. Maybe with more time or a bigger team Ubisoft would have a classic like Assassin's Creed on their hands, but unfortunately it falls flat on too many levels.

The tension-inducing design present in I Am Alive's mechanics extends to its checkpoint system, which I would describe as torturous.

The combat is really interesting the first few times you encounter it, but the simple system behind it becomes too obvious after that. [May 2012, p.61]

A wonderful job creating the bleak and oppressive atmosphere of the post-apocalyptic world you find yourself in, the combat and character development leaves much to be desired.

Ruins of a post-apocalyptic city have great potential but not there yet. The game is bringing up many interesting ideas but those are halfway through it. It's obvious that earlier plans have been much more ambitious, however, their outcome is ruining experience, not to speak of game's difficulty creating an imbalance in it.

There are certainly worse games selling on the digital marketplace for both systems and I Am Alive is eons better than the somewhat similar Amy released early this year. Still, you'll need pretty strong rose-tinted shades not to be absolutely disappointed in what I Am Alive could have been.

It has a taste of an ambitious Easter European game – the budget was tight but the developer had some good ideas and managed to create an interesting, disturbing atmosphere. On the other hand I Am Alive is really ugly, unbalanced and repetitive. [April 2012, p.83]

I Am Alive has its strengths, and is certainly entertaining when you're climbing alone on the side of a toppled skyscraper, but the generic and repetitive combat drags down the overall experience.

Gamers who are looking for an experience thick with atmosphere and who don't mind this linear approach will probably enjoy I Am Alive, but the rest of us might want to wait and see if there's a more interesting survival experience provided by the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot.

Yes, you may tire of I Am Alive before you reach the credits, but the overall experience is still an intense and worthwhile one - the game not only forces you to take risks, it takes some great risks itself. If you've already tired of every other shooter's and climber's formulas, this hybrid will surprise you, test you, and remind you why experimentation in games is always a good thing, even when it doesn't fully work out.

It has very good ideas, but somehow the game derailed while on its cursed development.

I can't even begin to describe how much I tried to like this game...Unfortunately the execution was so unresponsive and flawed it destroyed any immersion or emotion the experience could have potentially delivered and that is a crying shame.

Core ideas that exist in I Am Alive show an exceptional amount of promise, but the title shows its hand far too quickly, running out of captivating tricks within the first few hours.

There are tons of great ideas here, and when your breathlessly pulling yourself up the side of a skyscraper or picking off a would-be rapist with an arrow to the skull you see those great ideas peeking through, but they never come together in any cohesive way. In the end, the game feels more like a proof of concept experience than an actual game.

I Am Alive has great ideas and poor execution. It ends up being a flat, frustrating game that isn't worth your time or money.

All in all, I Am Alive does most things well on paper – it's tight and succinct, priced as such, and it's a type of game we've yet to really explore (a gritty and realistic look at post-apocalyptic survival). Unfortunately, in spite of how cool it could have been, it ends up missing the mark by quite a big margin.

I Am Alive is a strong game premise that really fails to launch. Its great mood and solid combat system are overcome with poor design choices and story that just goes nowhere. I can't recommend it to anyone but the most ardent of supporters or diehard fans of The Road or other destroyed world apocalyptic fiction.

Ah well. One final tinge of guilt for an awful, disgusting, unsettling thing I never wanted to do. That sums up I Am Alive concisely.

It comes nowhere close to living up to its title's protestations. [Issue#121, p.112]

The fighting and climbing become exercises in frustration, and there isn't enough depth here. [Issue#83, p.100]

I Am Alive is extra disappointing because it has so much potential right up front, and then wastes no time squandering all of it. Its premise is exciting but its promise goes wholly unfulfilled, and at some point you've got to stop lauding a game's good ideas and think about how much you actually enjoyed playing it.