XBOX 360 Review Kinect Edition: Rise of Nightmares

RISE OF NIGHTMARES

SEGA GAMES

MY GRADE:

B-

I bought my XBOX Kinect about a month ago, and I absolutely love it! There's nothing cooler than being the controller for your games and navigating the XBOX dashboard. It makes you more active, which is awesome. You can use your hands to swipe over to the next screen. You can use your voice to tell it what to do. But more importantly, when playing games, your constantly moving so your building up a sweat. I have a workout game that I play and it kicks my ass, and I love it! Anyway, onto the game in question, "Rise of Nightmares".

Rise of Nightmares is a first person action horror game from SEGA Games. You play as Josh, a man who is traveling with his wife Kate in Romania. When their train is suddenly boarded by what appears to be a monster who kidnaps Kate, Josh finds himself on the search for his wife through the forests of Romania and ultimately a foreboding castle that houses a mad man. Viktor is a mad scientist who kidnaps transforms the dead into freakish zombie like mutants who attack our main hero at all corners. He kidnaps Kate and brings him to his castle for very disturbing reasons...but not to spoil the whole thing for you.

With regards to the storyline of the game, it is a bit on the hokey side and it's pretty silly. However, it is very graphic, it is in fact the first rated M game for Kinect. So this is not exactly a game for children if you care about that sort of thing. It is a very bloody and violent game. The storyline has some very dark elements to it. I don't know though, as I was playing the game, I kept thinking "is the story what I'm really here playing this game for?" I mean, it goes from silly to out of this world absurd by the end, but that's not why you play Rise of Nightmares. The weird story is a mere backdrop for the device as to which you play the game.

As far as I know, Rise of Nightmares is the first of it's kind. It's the first action/survival game for the Kinect. Up to that point, it was kid friendly games like "Kinect Adventures" or "Wipeout". The Kinect requires you to movie your body and flail your arms around to keep your character moving. It's a blast for those kiddie games, but for a game like this it's a whole new level. You lift your hands in boxing form and swing your right arm which usually holds a weapon, to attack the bad guys. You swing violently slashing them to pieces as blood sprays everywhere. And you have an array of weapons you can pick up. Machetes, knives, fireplace pokers, chemicals, brass knuckles, just to name a few. You kick your leg, the character kicks his towards your enemy or to even kick down a door. To walk, you put your right foot forward. To move from side to side you twist your body. Or you can auto move by raising your right arm. 

I absolutely loved this idea, it was a blast. Up until now, if you wanted to kill a character in a game, you can sit in the comfort of a chair or your bed controller in hand. You press a few buttons while munching on food and gaining weight. Now though, you have to stand up and physically move your body without the comfort of grasping that controller. I think this puts you in the game, it kind of makes you the actual character which was super cool. You walk around this creepy castle fighting off these nasty creatures and you get a workout. I never thought slashing a monster with a machete would cause me to build up a sweat. There are moments in the game where you have to fight off a hoard of them, and it seems endless. So you are waving your arms around like a mad man, and kicking your feet all over and you burn 30 or 40 calories. Now that's how you play a video game.

That being said, the controls weren't always fluid. It may have been my Kinect, but the game got glitchy. I would put my hands up but it would not register right away and I would get slashed by a zombie thing. Or I put my foot forward to walk, but the guy would walk backwards. That happened about 7 or 8 times. Or even if I wasn't twisting my shoulders the guy would still spin around. Again, it could have been my Kinect and the lighting.  But I have read that other people had the same issues. But it was such a minor issue overall, that it never really frustrated me that much.

If you like games where there are collectibles, that you will probably like a certain aspect of this game. Throughout your exploration there are audio tapes and tarot cards to be picked up. For no reason, other than to collect them. I'm sure you get an XBOX achievement for getting all of them, but I didn't get them all so I don't know. The main issue I had with this part is that they didn't make it that hard to find them. When your walking, you see a big audio tape or tarot card image flashing (even if they are a long distance away) so that you know where they are. I like games where you have to actually look for them. But again, this game has a linear path, it's not open world, so they probably had to make them stand out.

So overall, I loved the game. I loved the concept more though, than the actual story. I think Rise of Nightmares is a breakthrough in the gaming world. It shows it's possible for us to get out of our chairs and fight those bad guys ourselves instead of relying on a pesky controller. I like to think this game is a trial, to see what they can do in the future. Perhaps a first person shooter is next? Maybe then they can expand to an elaborate sandbox game with this device. All I can say is that Rise of Nightmares makes the future of gaming looking very bright...even if the game itself was silly.