Kinect is making some attempts to try to shake its child-centric reputation with some slightly more grown-up games. None are more adult-focussed than Sega’s Rise of Nightmares, a survival horror game with an interesting control scheme and some gory action sequences.
Survival Horror is a genre which depends entirely upon the player’s immersion in the atmosphere of the game. You have to be immovably ensconced in the narrative for the jump scares and psychological terror to have any meaningful effect. Unfortunately, for Rise of Nightmares, that kind of immersion is impossible to achieve when you’re constantly being reminded to step back into the camera’s view.
[drop]Not only is it difficult to maintain the believability of the setting when you’re trying to be a good Kinect user, the admittedly imaginative control scheme doesn’t quite get it right either. This leads to many instances of the shuffling zombie undead appearing to be a tad more coordinated than Josh, the heroic protagonist.You put one foot forward to walk and then twist your shoulders left or right to turn in that direction. When it works, it’s actually quite intuitive but it often ends in embarrassingly bouncing off walls, hastily contorting your body to readjust for over-enthusiastic spinning and much pausing to assess your predicament and get your bearings. It’s a shame that this most basic element of the controls is so awkward because the combat controls often feel brilliantly natural and hugely satisfying. Swinging arms to slice enemy’s limbs asunder, sidestepping attacks and throwing forward a foot to kick in a door is oddly entertaining. Unfortunately, there’s another corridor on the other side of that door and you’re going to look like a right idiot shuffling along it, bouncing from wall to wall. It’s the walking that defeats you, more often than the zombies.
The lack of immersion would be a real issue if it wasn’t for the fact that this game world isn’t really one you’d care to be immersed in. It’s generic in a way that almost calls for a redefinition of the term. Every character feels like you’ve seen them a thousand times before and they never do anything other than conform perfectly to the one dimensional stereotypes that you expect. Whether it’s the selfish businessman or the raver youth, you’ve seen these characters before, ten years ago and in every poorly written game (or movie) since. It’s a slovenly approach to writing that makes it feel like they thought the gimmick of motion control would be enough.
[drop2]The game has ten acts to play through but each of them feels roughly similar to the last. By the time you’re halfway through, you’ll likely be bored and exhausted from all that arm-swinging.You might feel the desire to push on, slaying the endless minions of the mad scientist who has kidnapped your spouse. There are certainly a lot to wade through. I think it’s far more likely that you will come to a point in the game where you decide you’re too tired to keep swinging. You’ll likely switch it off with every intention of returning to wring out your money’s worth from it later but you’ll never find the motivation to return.
Rise of Nightmares is a game which tries so hard to be for adults but, in reality, it feels juvenile. The control scheme is so basic and simplified, perhaps through necessity, that it feels like it was made to be so simple a small child could play it. There are very few penalties for the numerous wall collisions, for example. The writing and characterisation is so poor and underdeveloped that it feels like a bad children’s television show. But it is markedly not for children. With a mature rating (18 in the UK) and all that gore, you’d be a bad parent to let your kids play this. Possibly more so because if they’re going to be exposed to this mature content, there are a hundred better options.
Pros:
- It feels good during combat.
- It shows that there is potential for freedom of movement in Kinect games.
Cons:
- It makes the protagonist walk like a drunk.
- Terrible writing kills all empathy.
- Too much of the same thing becomes boring and tiring.
Rise of Nightmares really tries hard to be something new and mature and interesting. It almost gets it right and has moments of real pleasure in the combat system. Unfortunately, the player is defeated by their inability to walk in a straight line more often than by the hordes of generic, lookalike zombies. It’s possibly worth twenty minutes to see what the future of Kinect could be, if you’ve got a good imagination. Not worth the price of admission though, unless you’re a huge zombie fan that doesn’t like walking like a fully functioning adult human.
djhsecondnature
Oh I feel sorry for you having to review this. Dave hated it for our review.
Forrest_01
Yeah, i saw this at eurogamer & was not particularly impressed by the flailing of body parts required to play, or anything else about the game for that matter.
I moved on quickly & did not return.
Lymmusic
Generous score i reckon. Walking and kinect will never work… Kinect needs to accept that core gamers wont buy this shit… Stick to casual games, but execute them well and the core audience will buy, just under cover of night
colossalblue
If it hadn’t been for several moments of really satisfying combat, this would have gotten a lower score. It has got potential but probably should have been a kind of on-rails zombie-themed Fruit Ninja.
R4U Eldave0
Further proof that, as great as Dance Central and Kinect Sports are, the Kinect has less potential than the Wii. At least when I fire up the Wii I can play Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil and Metroid Prime. The Kinect is just too limited to cater for anything other than minigames.
nofi
Kinect isn’t a console though, as you know. ;)
That’s like comparing Kinect with the MotionPlus add-on for Wii, which, last time I checked, isn’t nearly as well supported as we might have hoped.
That said, yeah, this game is terrible.
R4U Eldave0
This is true, I’d completely forgotten about Motionplus (kinda tells you something…) Was it actually implemented into any games other than Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort???
Klart
Potential. That’s the only thing Kinect will ever have.
colossalblue
Fruit Ninja is brilliant. I get your point though, it hasn’t quite been used in a totally successful way yet. Let’s not lose hope though!
nofi
Dance Central is brilliant too. Properly brilliant.
jikomanzoku
Child of Eden is a genuinely stunning experience on Kinect and more than precise enough to allow 100 percent completions on each level.
As Nofi points out further down too, Dance Central is awesome fun :D
Foxhound_Solid
Lol. Ace lol.
Grabacr
Wow. An xbox exclusive getting a fair score on this website? Unheard of! I guess Kinect games must be the exception to the rule.
colossalblue
Nice. It’s a wonder you’re such an avid visitor, really.
nofi
Wait for the Move version. 2/10.
chrome31533
Way to attack 1 of your readers(you know, the people that keep your site open for business?) They probably comes here for the same reasons I do, good articles and fast, reliable gaming news. Don’t start going all IGN on us. If you think the person is wrong in their assessment, how about handling it in a professional manner instead of being a sarcastic douche?
djhsecondnature
@chrome31533 – There’s ‘attacking a reader’ then there’s responding to a stupid comment with a suitable answer. This was the latter.
chrome31533
That was not a suitable reply. Completely unprofessional. Wether what the guy said was stupid or not is not the point.
A Mature response would have been suitable, or better yet no response at all. Be professional is all i’m saying, Stooping to their level is not the way to go.
colossalblue
I (and all my writers) have a right to respond when someone libels us. I always try, and I always urge my staff to try, to keep it civil and not resort to personal attacks.
I could have written a lot worse in response to such an ignorant comment that attempts to undermine my career but I chose to make light of it with some sideswiping humour. I thought that was the better course of action.
I could have just ignored it, of course (as I usually do) but if we abandon the comment sections to spiteful bile like this then we’ll end up losing the intelligent, funny and enviable commenters we’ve got and replacing them all with profoundly stupid fanboys. That’s not what we want from our website.
jikomanzoku
I don’t see any problem with your initial response colossal and think your subsequent explanation was more than reasonable. Well in.
I actually value the fact that the staff writers here are unafraid of defending the sight and their opinions against ill judged comments.
The Lone Steven
Hmm, i seem to remeber Peter giving GOW a high score and he did back it up. Don’t worry though, i’m sure Peter will give Forza 4 a 0/10. Oh wait, he’s not biased. It’s almost like TSA is non biased.
Please don’t come on here and troll.
Crocadillian
Another bad, SEGA published game. Games like this will bury Kinect by making people think it’s a gimmick, when it has the potential not to be.
On a lighter note, i wonder how much more physically fit SEGA’s QA team are from all the arm flailing and standing.
Pritchie101
I’m a bit gutted to be honsest, because I really wanted this to be amazing. Back to dance and animal games for Kinect. . .
The Lone Steven
That is disappointing. It showed a lot of promise and may have even got some hardcore gamers interested in Kinect. Poor Peter having to review this. You should have dumped it on Dan or Tuffcub. :p
It doesn’t help Sega’s record either as most of the stuff they release nowadays tend to be poor except the odd game now and then. :-/