I Am Alive

Couldn't get into this... Not even sure why. It just... grated, and I hated the characters a little bit.

Sadly a underrated gem, The atmosphere is perfect, being able to trick the enemy with an empty gun is genius, that we don't see very often if at all.
People reviewed bombed for slightly jankey controls, and graphics. It deserved a second game, one which completes the cliffhanger this game ends on. But no, Ubisoft is to preoccupied with destroying themselves.

To the people that keep getting crashes and everything...Look up fixes. The internet exist and ubisoft will never patch/fix this game. I have a crap pc, like bottom of the barrel, and the first fix i found online fixed every issue you all complain about.

A FORGOTTEN AND HIDDEN GEM,EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY THROUGH IT AT LEAST ONCE. 100% RECOMMENDED

Out of all the post apocalyptic games I played. This one has to be the most realistic and not because of graphics or attention to detail but by its world generally like there's no zombies, there's no mutated creatures, there's no robots who have British accents and there's no mad max like raiders it's just normal looking people trying to survive a harsh world. 7/10 I wouldn't say its a hidden gem, but its definitely worth a play

a realy good game who can make you feel like you are there.good graphics ,sound,play

I had I Am Alive on my Xbox 360, but I never got a chance to play it. I seem to have a never-ending backlog. Anyway, I decided to play through it on my Steam Deck. This game was Ok. If you get it cheap, and on sale, it may be worth a playthrough. When it first came out, i'm sure it was much more impressive. The game's whole gimmick is a stamina system that kinda reminded me of Breath of the Wild. This is not an action filled game. It is more of a trial and error survival game. You are a guy who is trying to find his family, post some dramatic end of the world type event. You have to climb buildings and survive encounters with hostile survivors. You hardly ever have enough ammo, forcing you to get creative with the ways in which hostiles are dealt with. I think the game took me about 7 hours to finish. Performance wise, the game runs well on Steam Deck. ***The only issue I had was that the default controller config didn't work with the game. I had to download a community created controller configuration. After doing that I had no issues.***

the last of us but good

Hello i don't know if someone will help me here or someone is still playing this game I really need some help about the sound of this game, its not working i tried many things just to fix it but yeah It still doesn't work, This game actually good but for me i can't enjoy it because there is no sound.

Despite all the bad reviews, i really liked this game, the parkour was in depth and fun to do, the combat intimidation was way ahead of its time and made the game more fun, and the story despite being mediocre was enough to make me want to see what happens next

I highly recommend this game it's short but not too short I beat in just over 4 hours with 98% completion but mainly bought it because I originally played it when i was younger on my ps3 (didn't get too far because I sucked at stamina management lol) if you have time I recommend giving this gem a try. Anyways thank you for reading this you're a legend! P.S I Am (still) Alive

Worth the 4 dollars while on sale. Only one ending to the game and it doesnt explain much. But its a fun 6 hours

Really enjoyed this. It's subversive take on the survival horror genre is excellent and the threat mechanic is one of those game mechanics similar to the Nemesis System from Shadow of Mordor that I wish more games could/ would use.

It's only natural in an apocalyptic hell hole the large majority of people would feel threatened by your sudden appearance but the fact that you can de-escalate the situation not with arbitrary dialogue trees but your in game behaviors is really ingenious and adds a ton to the genre that will feel missing from other games I play in the future.

Aside from this ingenious mechanic, the world was well designed and fun to explore and the platforming was surprisingly great and responsive, almost more so than AAA games with the same mechanic.

Survivor mode felt difficult enough to have tension but not really enough to be challenging. I could see the game being highly replayable but without that additional challenge I personally will not be compelled to do so.

I really don't understand why the game is so critically and universally panned. This is a real gem. It has some bad story tropes (though it never really claims to be anything deeper than B Horror adjacent videogame which let's be honest, those B Horror movies are going to have the same tropes) and the lighting and post processing is aggressively in your face (though it is utilized in a way extremely reminiscent of the original Silent Hill, and I almost have a fondness for it) but neither of these are near impactful enough to the overall experience for me to understand why this game gets hated when games like The Last of Us, and State of Decay get universal praise.

Try it out if you like the survival horror genre you might be pleasantly surprised. This is a hidden gem in my books, not because of how obscure it may or may not be but just because of how poorly I think the popular opinion reflects the true quality of the game.

The program is easy to crash during play and needs to be restarted.It's a little regrettable,the experience is not good.
There's no denying that I really like the genre of the game, so I'll accept that it looks like a previous era image quality and play it. Nowadays, there are more and more new games, and occasionally playing a game from 10 years ago is a kind of enjoyment, isn't it?

i have a pretty good pc and this game still runs poorly , had trouble loading it up and then when i eventually got it running the game freezes every 3 seconds or so. It runs really badly

This is a very interesting survival game with unique mechanics, but I recommend it only if you enjoy survival games or immersive sims. The game is quite janky the climbing controls aren’t great, and the player’s movements often feel unresponsive. Graphically, it’s rather poor, but artistically, the outdoor environments have a certain visual charm.
I’m giving this game a positive review because I want to see more games experiment with new mechanics, and this is one of the few Ubisoft titles I actually liked.

I had never heard of this game until now and having played it - I really enjoyed it. The combat has a cool twist - even if you don't have any bullets, you can point your gun at people and intimidate them, although some of them will try and call your bluff. You can also intimidate them to step back near a hole or a fire and then you can push them in it. I'd like to see similar things in more games.

The climbing with decreasing stamina will be a turnoff for some people, but I didn't have any issues with it, I enjoyed those parts. I very much enjoyed the dreary world, too.

What I didn't enjoy - the save system is balls. The graphics are too overprocessed, although it does give it this bleak and unique vibe. And the ending is very abrupt and not very satisfying. But overall - I'd definitely recommend this game.

i do hope they will provide full controller support for this is good game.Does not work well with keyboarding type

Avoid this game on PC like a bubonic plague. Just read the other reviews and you know what I mean.

Game is full of jank and it bugs out some of your items and retries on pick up or when you load into a new level. The checkpoint system and gameplay overall is also lackluster. Story is barely captivating and the stamina system was left wanting. Another ubisoft flop as usual, nothing to see here.

ubisoft... nuff said

I feel like I only have a really basic memory of this. It has been years since I played it last. But, I do frankly recall that it wasn't a terrible experience. It was interesting, and had some fun spots. But ultimately I guess it was a pretty forgettable experience, because I can't actually remember much.

I used to play the demo of this game over and over when I was a kid and decided to pick up the full game after being reminded of it. The game is really short, I beat it in about 4 n a half hours.

List of cons that bugged me:

The film grain is turned up to 200% so u wont see anything unless its 5ft away from u[/*]

Even with all the dust and film grain you can still see NPC's spawn in the distance right before you encounter them at times [/*]

The combat is a really cool concept at first until you realize every scenario goes the exact same way[/*]

The game has a habit of making you walk through the dust storm in the later half and it's so time consuming and unfun to do. You lose stamina as you go through the storm and you can hardly see anything so 9 times out of 10 you'll be scrambling and eating all your resources to stay alive. Have fun trying to reach a higher point in order to curb dust when you can't see jack shit[/*]

[*]Ending seemed really abrupt and random, a million different ways they could've tackled that[/*]

Even though I have all these complaints, I still really enjoyed it. This game is a good bad game

know its a mixed view game due to thinking the developers left a lot out of thier game and its a little bland but its still a cool journey to experience for a post apocalyptic situation

A short game, with flaws present. Yet one of the most unique gaming experiences ever. For such an old game, it's just got this spark of brilliance, thematically, gameplay-wise, music, and the environmental storytelling like no other. I just wish it was longer, but I am very happy with this game and the fact that it exists. What an experience.

Saw a friend play it on PS3 back in the day, and thought it looked amazing. It's really not that great, it has some okay parkour, but the Last of Us has more to offer as a game.

If you do get it, get it on a deep sale.

short and sweet

I'm not alive

Nice

TL:DR
If it's on sale and you think it looks interesting, buy it. Otherwise, this game is not worth your money.

Actual Review:
I first played this game when the demo came out on the PS3 and just recently found out it was on Steam, it was only $4 so I decided to get it. One of the most mediocre games I've ever played. The story is generic with the interesting ideas being ignored, the combat is repetitive and gets boring quick, but the climbing mechanics are decent. There are a lot of good ideas here but all of them are poorly executed. I did have fun with this game but that did not come from the quality of it but rather my friends and I commenting on it. I am glad I finally got to experience this game but it was a bit of a disappointment.

My game controller which works with every other game I have on Steam Deck, won't work with this one except the Dpad and I cant figure out why. Even when I tried editing the controller layout

dark, cool story. unique and interesting combat. I'd like to see more games like this

I was young, i was still looking at life was, played it as a demo when it came out thanks to 2010's toonami and then life changed. suddenly i feel like this game predicted life but hey, its got a gun threatening mechanic!

A lot of bad game design like dwindling Stamina that you keep using very scarce item to keep it up and most egregious is the limited retry to checkpoint and if run out you have to restart from that level.
No wonder almost no one knew this game, its like its trying to be as unfriendly to players as much as it can.

Ubisoft The last of Us.

i like it.

good old game with unique gameplay, using a gun to threaten enemies is kinda fun

Interesting game with some cool unique ideas. I especially like that climbing isn't just mindless looking at character animations while holding a button like in every modern 3rd person adventure game, you have to actively plan and manage your stamina bar here. The other strong point is atmosphere, with limited vision and horror vibes in certain scenarios it actually reminded me of Silent Hill.
The game was clearly tight on budget because it is quite unpolished but at the same time it's ambitious and has a strong vision. I'd say it's a more grounded, interesting take on post apocalyptic world than Last of Us which is just cinematic technical showcase without deeper substance underneath, just some simple emotional manipulation. This game feels more genuine than TLoU.

Certainly not a good game, but it was at least an interesting experiment and if you are not too picky, you might find yourself enjoying this game.

How to survive in a world devastated physically, mentally, and morally.

The game is too short, just 5 hrs for main story.

Game isn't great but it is uniqe, ypu are a normal guy searching his family after a year of apocalypse.

Climbing is stamina based and since you are a normal person you can't climb forever, you need to be carefull about your stamina management because there isn't much supplies around. But this is not a survival game so even on hardest difficulty if you are carefull you won't have to worry.

Combat is the second uniqe mechanic because I haven't seen this in a game. Character doesn't know how to fight so if you are sorruended (nearly everytime) by bandits you are dead. So you need a gun to even the numbers but ammo is rare.

Things I don't like about the game is lack of story about our character, I don't even knows his name and other things is black and white filter.

If you play this, look into the history surrounding it & the development cycle. It's fucking weird & really interesting, and it enhanced my enjoyment of the game a lot. It's neat, get it on sale.

An underrated and regretfully unfinished post-earthquake survival work

7.5/10

Opening

Today, when most players mention post-apocalyptic survival games, they usually think of two categories: the nuclear wasteland created by the Fallout and Metro series, or the zombie waves rendered in games like The Last of Us and Days Gone. It is rare to find a survival game like I Am Alive, set against the backdrop of earthquakes, a natural disaster that is both common and has a huge impact in our real world. As a game released in 2012, I Am Alive attracted countless players back then with its unique gloomy gray art style, critical thinking on human morality, and extremely hardcore gameplay mechanism. It is still worth a try even today and definitely could be considered a greatly underrated survival action game. However, due to the extremely difficult development process, the final release was only equivalent to the prologue of other games. The unsatisfactory sales directly sentenced this promising IP to death, making it ultimately a regrettable unfinished work.

Strength

Players must explore Haventon, a fictional American city after a massive earthquake. The heavy and depressing atmosphere vividly reflects the fragility and helplessness of human beings in the face of natural disasters. Instead of taking the role of an omnipotent superhero in traditional video games, players control an ordinary person. Every action consumes stamina, supplies are extremely limited, and every move must be considered twice. The city is crisscrossed with broken walls and abandoned buildings, climbing is the only way out. The player's limited stamina and the extreme stamina consumption rate when climbing requires precise route planning and resting points identification. If you move forward blindly at all costs, at best you will burn up the stamina limit that can only be restored by limited resources, having an irreversible impact on the entire exploration; at worst, you will directly fall to death from exhaustion. The tension and challenges are consistently high throughout the game. Players will also encounter a variety of survivors in the game, some of whom will treat you warmly, while others will show their weapons and warn you to leave. The vast majority of the remaining ones are gang members with ulterior motives. They come in groups and press forward step by step, just wanting to plunder you. As your stamina is depleted and enemies close in, the game's music will gradually intensify, with increasingly tight drum beats creating an eerie and terrifying feeling, giving the player an excellent sense of tension and fear.

The overall process of the game is primarily linear, and the downtown area of Haventon is designed to be semi-open, with many victims and supplies for players to explore. The combat mechanism is also quite unique. Players often have to face multiple enemies, in addition to pretending to surrender and catching them off guard, you can also raise your guns to intimidate knife-wielding enemies, forcing them toward cliffs or fire for environmental executions. Some cowardly enemies are most likely to surrender after witnessing the death of their comrades, some others are more likely to struggle and wail in their final moments. While the hardcore mechanisms and designs do add a lot of difficulty, the sense of accomplishment you get from overcoming it on your own is unparalleled. The map design is equally ingenious too. Not only are there plenty of collectibles placed in various corners, bringing endless surprises to players who love exploration, but most of the climbing and combat scenes can also be cleared with proper operations and clever strategies.

Weakness

Throughout the entire game of I Am Alive, there is an extremely depressing atmosphere and ubiquitous tension. In the downtown area, sandstorms will continue to deplete the player's stamina, high difficulty levels also require players to be more careful with their planning. A single mistake in climbing or combating may lead to total failure. Since the game's S/L mechanism is unique, except for the lowest difficulty, the number of retries for each chapter is limited. Once exhausted, you must start from the chapter's beginning. This makes the player's exploration and trial-and-error costs very high. S/L is often very frequent or even necessary for many players. Some chapters are quite long, which puts considerable pressure on the players. Also, as a game released in 2012, its compatibility today is quite poor. In addition to freezes and out-of-sync game audio and subtitles, the game is more likely to have errors when loading. When it occurs, the player will lose all progress except the starting point of the chapter, and the game might be forced to stop responding when exiting the game, which will have a significant impact on the gaming experience.

To create a gloomy and depressing gaming atmosphere, the developer intentionally added a gray filter and massive image noise to all scenes. Visibility is extremely low in the downtown area during sandstorms, at night, and in dark locations. The lighting effects are hazy and dazzling, with significantly high saturation. Although it highlights the authenticity of the game, it brings a very poor viewing experience to players. The combat system is also a point of criticism for many. Due to the unique design, limited resources, numerous enemies, and the fact that players are not invincible when judging melee attacks, the game's combat strategies and operations are very unique. Only by cleverly using sneak attacks and deterrence can you achieve victory, which takes some time to adapt to and learn. In the early stages, when ammunition is scarce and recyclable bows are unavailable, players may even need to exploit mechanisms and weak enemy AI to find shortcuts. In this survival game featuring realistic hardcore, this seems a bit out of place. The game has very few enemy types, and the rewards for delivering supplies to the intricately distributed victims are underwhelming. The effort rarely matches the rewards, and the overall playability is relatively limited. The extremely short process is the biggest problem of this work. Aside from the thought-provoking on the player's morality, the plot of the game lacks proper foreshadowing and development, the main characters are not well shaped, and the ending is extremely abrupt, with too much blank space. Even on the lowest difficulty, the relatively hardcore game design, ubiquitous sense of oppression, and tension are quite unfavorable to players who just want to easily experience the game's story and atmosphere.

Conclusion

From my personal perspective, I like this work very much, but compared to the concept trailer first presented to players at E3 in 2008, the original version of I Am Alive undoubtedly had more potential. If it can be more finely polished, it will definitely be a game that can make history. In comparison, the official release of I Am Alive is just a decent game, its limited gameplay and playthrough make it difficult to attract players to play it multiple times. Considering the twists and turns and the arduous development process that lasted nearly seven years, perhaps it is already a miracle that the game was released at all. Due to its highly experimental nature and niche audience, reviews of I Am Alive have been quite polarized too. If you enjoy hardcore, extremely challenging post-apocalyptic survival games with climbing features, and quite relish the immersive sense of oppression and tension throughout the game, then this is definitely one you should not miss-it certainly won‘t disappoint you.

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Therese a reason why this game got 66 metacritic.

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TLDR: Clunky combat, very short story with eye straining graphics. If you can get past that, the game does offer an interesting balance with its approach to combat and few resources to keep you progressing. The consumables and bullets are so rare that it makes every impulsive decision feel like it was the wrong one.

Story: You're trying to get back home, on foot. End of the world scenario is making the trip rather difficult what with the intense dust cloud and all. There isn't much to tell as you won't really have time to get attached to anyone as the game is short isn't very deep.

Gameplay: It isn't for everyone.
There are limited ''retries'', which is basically your option to continue from the latest checkpoint. If you're out of them, you have to start from the beginning of the chapter. Helping NPCs will grant you extra retries.
Consumables and bullets (especially ammo) are rare. So understanding which enemy is worth a bullet is a must.
When entering combat, the game heavily relies on you quickly prioritising which target you want to take out and how. Making one wrong decision can pretty much insta kill you and if you're quick to retry, you may end up using all of them and be stuck doing chapters all over again.
There are small but interesting mechanics, such as threatening enemies to back off when aiming at them, kicking enemies into pits and fires, retrieving your arrows from downed enemies. I know nowadays these are the norm, but at the time it was rather interesting.
As I mentioned before, the combat is extremely clunky. Swapping between weapons is slow, melee feels extremely off and I'm unsure how to feel about how sometimes enemies will rush you and sometimes they just don't (at the start of fights).
You have a stamina bar which depletes as your run, climb, shimmy, w/e. When attempting to climb something high, you'd best make sure you can make it.

Graphics: They were average then and are now only bearable. What really hurts it today is the filter that makes everything whitish. I get that it's for the story but many will find it unpleasant.

Audio: Acceptable. No great track or dialogue, it only gets the job done.

All in all, I'm just glad I played it as some areas got me thinking: ''I'm not gonna make it, I'm not gonna make it!'', and I suppose I'm kind of a sucker for that. However, one should consider that the game is old, and these ideas are the only redeeming thing about this game.

Game just sucks! It’s boring, it’s slow, it’s muddy. I tried it a few times and I keep dying as soon as you get out in the city. No idea how to survive.