Kinect

Rise of Nightmares – Kinect Demo Impressions

Rise of Nightmares developed mild hype early for being the first mature game for Kinect. At the time there weren’t any mature rating games which piqued some gamer’s interest. After playing through the fifteen minute demo for the horror action game Rise of Nightmares some things are clearly apparent. The most notable is how bad the controls are via Kinect. Rise of Night mares was developed and published by SEGA and released September 6, 2011 for the Xbox 360 vis Kinect.

The demo starts off with a scene that looked like it was ripped from Hostel except the guy doing the killing was speaking German. You’re tied up in a chair awaiting to be dissected until a man breaks in the room and frees you. Much of the demo has to do with you escaping whatever crazed building your in. The man that helped you escaped was killed while trying to escape along side you. The demo doesn’t tell a story but does give you atmosphere and some presentation. The atmosphere reminded me of SAW, Hostel and Silent Hill. However the quality is much lower with this first-person melee horror game.

The controls via Kinect: Move Forward-put right leg in front of you, Kick Enemy-kick right leg up, Auto Movement-hold right hand up, Turn Left/Right-turn your shoulders, Walk Backwards-move right foot behind your body, Block-hold both arms/hands up, Push-push arms forward. The main reason why Rise of Nightmares isn’t a good game is because of the controls. First off it has a steep learning curve just learning how to walk and turn. Many times i was walking into walls. Picking up objects to use for combat wasn’t so bad. Actual combat was surprisingly responsive and fun actually.

The gameplay in Rise of Nightmares is a mash-up of melee combat and light puzzle solving and light exploration. You can find weapons like the chainsaw, pipe, brass knuckles, ice saw and gold test tube (still never found out what that was for). Using weapons to knock off locks on locked gates was present in the demo. The light puzzle and exploration came in the form of me having to search a toilet with blood in it for a key. The key was needed to unlock a locked door with. The building was dark and had many hallways and doors. Enemies lurked about who looked like they were ripped straight out of Silent Hill and House of the Dead.

Combat is the best thing about Rise of Nightmares. The only problem was that defeating the grotesque mutated people/monsters was that it was to easy. I had no fear as i would swing my arms punching them duel wield style on Kinect. You can take out up to four or five evil enemies at a time and not take much damage. The chainsaw just causes a mess and fills the screen up with blood as you slice your way through the evil monsters. The combat regarding most weapons was swift and reactive with Kinect. I was doing a swing/kick combo on enemies and Kinect pick it up nicely. The demo was overall horrible but the combat was fun.

The visuals in Rise of Nightmares are below average but features beautiful blood effects. The enemies looked like they are ripped from Silent Hill and House of the Dead (another SEGA game). The setting which was a building and looked dark featuring gates, dissecting rooms with equipment. The setting was a copy and paste of the last few years horror movies and had little imagination. The music ramps up when your engaged in combat. The sound design was decent and tried to make the game feel creepy.  The voice acting and dialog was a little below average and often times NPC’s repeating the same lines over and over.

It was clear that Rise of Nightmare’s intentions regarding bringing a horror action game to Kinect. It wanted to be the first Kinect mature game which is apparent with the gore and cussing this game has. But judging from the demo this game will be a pain to play due to the controls. Thanks for reading.

Kinect Adventures – Early Impressions

Kinect Adventures is a adventure game that comes bundled with the Kinect motion sensor for free. Its a compilation of games such as 20,000 Leaks, River Rush, Rally Ball Reflex Ridge and Space Pop. Kinect Adventures was developed by Good Science Studio and published by Microsoft for Kinect exclusively for the Xbox 360. Kinect Adventures released November 4, 2010.

Kinect Adventures puts you through an initial but lengthly configuration process where you have to move chairs and other furniture around to make space. You also have to stand correctly in front of the Kinect sensor for sometime. The process was much longer compared to other Kinect games i played recently such as The Gunstringer and Forza 4. Maybe that has to do with those games being much newer? One thing is for certain if you want the best experience with Kinect Adventures make sure you have ten square feet available for two people. For one person you need less space.

Kinect Adventures’s main menu screen is broken down as follows: Adventures, Free Play (which i played), Play Online and Time Play. If you choose Online Play you can play agaisnt a stranger online (two people). I played Free Play just to get my feet wet since Kinect still is pretty fresh from my gamer perspective. I first choose Rally Ball and played some Sure Shot and Treasure Chest. Under each game there are various sub-versions of each game to choose from with different rules etc. For Rally Ball you basically use your arms and legs to whack and kick balls that bounce towards you hitting targets as if you’re in a hallway.

Let me tell you after a few games i was winded. I consider myself in decent shape but found myself breathing heavy as i moved from side to side kicking and swinging my arms. I knew i looked foolish but didn’t know how much till the photo was shown of my performance. Thats right, Kinect Adventures automatically takes your photo as you play and shows a brief slideshow after you finished the game. It was pretty funny if nothing less. From that alone i saw the draw of Kinect as a casual and fun device for the family. Some other quick things of note. You can change to your Xbox Live avatar instead of the defaults. Kinect Adventures automatically keeps tracks of different players statistics and their profiles.

I also played 20,000 Leaks which puts you in a leaking glass cage. You have to plug leaks as they pop up. You will have to use your feet even for this. I was bending down, moving left and right using my feet to plug leaks as they spranged up. You have to keep all leaks plugged for your score to increase and new leaks to emerge. Just about every game i played on Kinect Adventures had bad lag. For games such as Reflex Ridge its clearly apparent lag was an issue with limb movements, ducking and jumping. I would say that Kinect Adventures has the worst lag out of the all the Kinect games i played to date. Your rewarded either a Bronze, Silver and Gold star depending on your performance.

This article details my early impressions with Kinect Adventures. What i get as of now is a game that has lag but is fun to play and was a workout at times. Thanks for reading.