Fans of the survival horror genre of games haven’t had it easy over the past few years. The classics like Silent Hill and Resident Evil live on in their memories, but as the years have moved on, the follow-ups to those games have gone from good to simply degrading to their legacies. Add onto that years of poorly-received Resident Evil films and the survival horror genre has officially fallen upon rough times. Alas, poor fans, as there has been a resurgence of game developers trying to put their own, unique spin on the genre.
What better of an example than I Am Alive by Ubisoft? I Am Alive features post-apocalyptic gameplay taking some serious cues from such recent pop culture like Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road and also the hit series The Walking Dead. It harkened back to the glory days of Resident Evil, where your ammunition was in short supply and you had to make tough decisions to move forward. I Am Alive allows for players to be creative, as I’ve heard stories of players using an unloaded gun to scare survivors and continue on their way. If you are on the PC and are looking for some post-apocalyptic gameplay outside of the Arma 2 mod, DayZ, you are in luck.
I Am Alive was, up until it was announced today, only available through Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. It was originally announced for the PC, but cancelled. Now it looks like Ubisoft has changed their stance on it, and on September 13th, PC gamers can look forward to experiencing I Am Alive for themselves and forming their own opinions. A lot of the criticism for the console version revolved around the controls not feeling “natural enough” — which is funny considering how unnatural the old Resident Evil games were — or that the gameplay felt too dated to them. The game has been praised for its own, breath of fresh air take on the genre, though.
