Recent reviews by Nikbert

One of the most unique and enjoyable RPGs I've played. The story is funny and enjoyable, the gameplay is challenging, all the characters are terrific. Play this game

If your idea of a good time is watching someone else have a bad time, then man have I got the game for you.

I have to say after being dissappointed the first time trying this game over a year ago, I honestly didn't hold a lot of hope for it. It was a great concept but the controls were clunky and the AI was impossibly difficult to cooperate with. This last time I played was a complete 180 degree turn. The game is fun, unique and encapsulating. Imagine a cross between an RTS and Minecraft. The controls, while still taking some time to get the hang of, have become much more intuitive and easy to understand. The AI is suprisingly self sufficient and I've learned that almost any problems I have had to get them to do what I want was entirely my own error in assigning or creating tasks. I was really amazed at how automated I could make things. I only have two real complaints. My first would be that the combat can begin to get somewhat samey. I'd like to see enemy structures being built, or even just prebuilt enemy structures in conquest. My other problem has to be the system drain. I'm not horribly suprised that the game is that taxing. Voxel based game mechanics being what they are, there isn't really a way around it. However, this really takes a toll in late game. I was heartbroken when I saw the 15 unit cap but after playing I honestly don't know if the game could possibly handle more units. I have a fairly decent machine and I haven't had to upgrade for a single High End AAA title game, and yet by the time I had 15 units, this game had brought my computer to its knees. As exciting as the concept is, simulating that many physical objects in space at any given time, not to mention the complex Pathfinding in an everchanging landscape really makes me think that our computers might not be ready for this game yet.

TLDR: Games really fun, might melt your computer

Honestly I thought this game would grab me more, but after playing the first level I don't think I'll be continuing. While the concept is quite grabbing and has alot of potential, it is easy to see the limit of what the game has to offer. The AI is exceptionally awful with no way to prioritize tasks (if you read one or two reviews you'll understand how big of a problem this ends up being) , huge limitations with base placement and organizations to fit in the surrounding terrain, and little to no reward for your effort. It's interesting in the way an ant farm is interesting but like an ant farm there really isn't a game here. I hope they continue to improve the game mechanics but like many indie games today it seems to have reached the market far sooner than it should have.

Let me begin by saying when first seeing the original announcement trailer for I Am Alive, I was extremely excited. The concept was very interesting and while it seemed to be an action game there were large psycological aspects to the play style that could make for a dynamic and unique game. After a long while I had forgotten about the game and assumed it to be vaporware only to suddenly find it alive on steam, no pun intended. I immediately seized it and excitedly dove right in. Disappointment set in quickly and I now wish it had stayed lost, maintaining my fantasy of what it might have been.

I Am Alive is a post-apocalyptic survival game. Food, resources, and ammunition are scarce and people have devolved into animalistic cliques who follow a kill or be killed morality. You come in one year in the aftermath of a great earthquake which has destroyed your home town of Haverton. Looking for your wife and daughter you meet with Mei, a young girl who you connect with and decide to protect. My first qualm with this game comes with its flimsy plot line. The game immediately begins with a clear set goal in mind and then immediately falls off track and begins following a long series of tangents to a quite unfinished ending. Along this way you meet various crooks and characters of whom you only learn of three names leaving the rest as expendables with whom you make no connections. Rewards for helping these people are generally bland and unsatisfying despite considerable effort and padding in order to help them. Worse, while many could easily have something interesting to say or do, they rather instead go straight to a generic need item, recieve item, thank you formula. Enemies are just as bad, consisting of roughly 4 or five different character models and all resulting in the same action to solve the problem, kill the one with the gun first, kill the rest second. The game gives the appearance of giving options without presenting the other choices. There isn't really a diplomatic way to deal with enemies (ordering to surrender, bribing them to leave, tying them up), and if you're lucky after killing half of them, one may offer to let you knock him unconcious. My initial interest in this game came from the idea of having alot of ways to handle enemies and being given the choice between the easy way, murder, and the hard way diplomacy and mercy.

Items are scarce in the game, but not very scarce apparently. There are some 20 different items in the game all performing some combination of the same three functions, restoring stamina, restoring strength, and restoring health. While a particular item may be scarce there seems to be no end the items to fill any one of these purposes. If you only have a single soda can you most likely have come across 6 or 7 water bottles, for example. Each of these items at some point can be used to help a victim solve a problem but it is frustrating when you do not have an item on your one chance meeting with a particular victim. In many cases its even more frustrating when an item serves no other real purpose but to help this victim, despite the item being readily available (cigarettes and wine). Along with this many of the victims seem to need this item only for the purpose of giving an item something to do (again cigarettes and wine). It again adds to the unfinished feeling the game gives.

The environment in the game is . . . well, gray. Exteremly gray in fact. I understand the idea of soot and ash covering the town making it this way but there is a serious lack of any color in this game indoors or out. I mean orange fire, yellow dust, red brick, and blue water bottles should not be outside the realm of possibility. I originally thought that my character was severly injured and this was some sort of indicator of his deteriorated state, similar to other survival games, however that is the entire game. While the intent was clearly to give the player the feeling of depression washing over the city, it goes from sad to boring quickly. Action scenes feel drab and uninteresting when not only repetetive but also made up of a single constant color throughout the short five hour playthrough. Did I mention short? Cause five hours was the entire game, padding and all. The core gameplay of I Am Alive could be broken down to one hour of actual play time and 4 hours of walking through dust cloud and climbing. While climbing mechanics in certain games such as Uncharted or Tomb Raider have been made exciting by quick time events, and active gameplay through the process, I Am Alive has made the sequence tedious. Adding the stamina bar would be an interesting twist on the game if it did not add to the padding between actual gameplay.

Overall probably the biggest let down in game history, and that includes Duke Nukem. I hope the developers can sleep alright at night.