I have no idea where I first heard about I Am Alive. I think it might have been E3 2009, or 2010. It was a game whose prospect intrigued me - you are a man in Chicago after a massive earthquake has ruined most of the city, and turned the majority of the people who survived feral. You have to then survive in this, and I think I first read that so long ago that there wasn't even an end purpose for this. Either way, I was still looking forward to it. Many years and developers passed since then, and they produced a game with an un-named protagonist who attempts to navigate the city he lived in after an un-named "Event" that destroyed life as he knew it, and left a cloud of toxic dust over everything that was below 20 feet above the ground. He has to find his wife and daughter in this mess. Alright, fair enough. But could a game four years, two developers and a distribution medium down the line still fulfill the promise that it seemed to appear with all those years ago?
Well, I Am Alive is by no means a perfect game. There are many areas where you would expect a game that's been in development for 4 years to do a lot better. But there are many things that it does right. The story, while a bit vague and told through a spectacularly moribund main character, does what you want it to - it makes you care. You do genuinely feel fear when going through different places, either trying to survive encounters with very violent people who always pull machetes or guns on you or trying to survive climbing up buildings. It draws you in, with the knowledge that your survival and progress is directly controlled by what you do. very few games ever manage to do this sucessfully and it's a testament to how good I Am Alive is that despite its flaws and relatively small scale it can still immerse you so well.
So, on those flaws... it's kind of hard to ignore the biggest one, which is presented with no hyperbole or exaggeration for effect: I Am Alive is the ugliest game I've ever played. The graphics are bad on a level which is indescribable through words, it makes the much-maligned standard cars in Gran Turismo 5 look like they're from a console released in 2200. They range from bad because they're basic (the cars around the city, and the exteriors of buildings) to bad because they're just ugly, which is just about everything else. People look utterly horrific, with the hair in particular reminding me of playing my old PS1 discs on the PS3. Something went badly wrong somewhere. Thankfully you only ever notice these things when you're in buildings, as the Event led to "The Dust" being absolutely everywhere, this dust serving to obscure everything. It covers everything with a layer of obscuring stuff that's the same colour as static on old tellys. You'd think that it makes a handy escape for the general shoddiness of the graphics but even this looks too... bad. Still, it only really obscures your progress when travelling to locations, which is kinda the point.
One thing that I Am Alive is built on is resources. You have a health bar and a stamina bar, the latter being depleted by exerting yourself physically. Or, by walking through the dust. Which I found off, since surely you could cover your mouth to at least delay the effects. But, no. You do find a gas mask during the game which slows the pace down, but I can't help but think I would have done a better job in the dust at times. In terms of resources to find, there are varying types of food, liquids and medicine. You do also get the option of giving resources to people who need them in exchange for information, and (from my first playthrough at least) you can do this as much as you like, because it's easy enough to stay alive enought o play through the game without needing to constantly heal yourself. Admittedly I was playing it on the easier difficulty where resources are more common, but it was still a bit less perlious than it could have been. Weapons was where this differed though.
Bullets are a precious commodity, and given the reactions of people you find, this is a bit of a bastard. Everyone who isn't a victim you can help is someone who'll try and kill you. There are no options for interacting with hostile people aside from killing them or holding a gun at them, which is really annoying. You have to be quick at this point too, because you generally face groups of three or more people and if more than one has a gun, you need to be really quick to stay alive. The lack of an interaction option is something that really distracts you at this point, as you don't want to fight. Killing people doesn't really serve a purpose aside from getting you past people, and in a game that "explores the darkest parts of humanity," the apparent need to kill seems really misplaced, which is a shame.
One area that really lets the game down is the actual gameplay itself. The third person camera can get really annoying, though it at least has the decency to switch to first person when you're aiming a weapon. Camera control is pretty tricky when you're climbing, which is really annoying as the movement when you climb is so vague that it has to be experienced to be believed. And given that your stamina decreases as you climb, the lack of complete control when you're climbing (or the percieved feeling of it at least) really hampers your ability get into the game. I still found it noticeable even at the end, when I was almost used to it. This and the graphics don't necessarily make the game unenjoyable, but they do remind you that the game seems to be the bastard child that nobody wants, and still manages to feel rushed in parts despite its development history.
I Am Alive is by no means a bad game. Given everything it's went through, it's better than I expected. Despite its failings - bad graphics, short length, price, odd ending and gameplay issues - it does still manage to keep you gripped, and make you care. There are moments where the game is truly horrifying, and the exploration into human nature is done in a manner which is truly chilling. While I feel as if the amount of time I've waited for this game and how much hope I've had that it would be good is clouding my judgement slightly, I do still feel as if there are many things which I Am Alive has managed to do well, which should make it worthy of your attention. Maybe wait until it's in a sale first though, if you're not desperate.
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