I had the chance to try this exciting new Kinect game at a Sega Arcade event with no real idea what I was getting into. I knew it was a Kinect game based around a horror game premise, but that was about it. I certainly didn’t imagine it would be such a horror to actual play.
With little instruction I was thrust into a dungeon type setting, or perhaps an abandoned caste and I was to escape through plenty of undead. All movements are done by you, there is no on-rails action here, which you might expect from a motion-controlled horror game. You walk by placing one foot in front of the other and you turn by tilting your body to either the left or the right. This idea probably seemed great on paper but it was implemented in an almost unplayable fashion.
I found turning to be very sluggish and at times over-responsive, maybe I just didn’t want to over exert my body in twisting in an awkward fashion to move around the many corridors laden throughout. The hardest part had to be trying to turn and attack an enemy at the same time.
Maybe I lack coordination but it shouldn’t have been as hard as was to kill a skeleton, I was punching the best way I knew how, though I have never been in a real fight so maybe I had that against me, but the game didn’t seem to recognize my movements at all sometimes and it was even worse when attempting to block. This was done of course by pulling your arms up toward your body, but the game seemed to think I stopped doing that as it would stop blocking randomly, even with my arms will in front of my face.
I couldn’t navigate for more than 15 minutes without feeling nauseous trying to incorporate all these movements of my body that I have never had the opportunity for using in any game, ever. The Sega rep told me that they were aware of some issues and the final build will be far more responsive, and I really hope that is true.
Now I mostly talked about the actual control in the game, as that is likely what most people care about in newer Kinect titles, and I feel this is a really fresh and ‘hardcore’ title that many have been asking for, for their Kinects. If you haven’t been asking for it then you likely don’t own a Kinect or are very content with the quality casual content already out. I would certainly like to see more genres use Kinect features, but when it comes to a dungeon crawling horror, I would much rather an on-rails experience, or at least a more guided movements that is not quite as demanding on my spine.
Perhaps the idea of a Kinect game with blood is enough to get you on board with this title and there the promise of better response times and recognition, so we shall see how Rise of the Nightmares fairs when it is released This September 6th.
Rian Quenlin
I think all kinect games should have a calibration to them, such as “Throw a punch with your left hand a few times.” and things like that. I personally hate motion controls because I’m simply not that kind of person, that and it’s hard to adjust the sensitivity to exactly how you want it.