As we mentioned in our E3 preview of the game, Rise of Nightmares has free roaming movement which, in our opinion, was quite a brave move (no pun intended). On paper, the controls are really quite simple, as you control Josh by way of putting one foot forward and turning him by tilting your shoulders left or right. However, this presents a couple of problems. Firstly, turning is often overly sensitive and we found ourselves veering into walls (or traps) quite a few times. Secondly, while stepping forward to move forward works well for the most part, the game sometimes wouldn’t respond to our motions. We concede that could be due to our Kinect set up, but it was still quite jarring to see this happen. Clearly this must have been a problem the developers were aware of, because firstly, Josh is supposedly drunk during the events of the game. No, really! Secondly, certain areas give you the option to pop your right hand up and let Josh move automatically towards his objective. It is a nice feature to have, but the fact that it was used during the several moments of frustration we experienced reflects poorly on the controls. We also had some trouble with the ‘interact’ function; trying to interact with something is as simple as holding an open palm out in front of you, but sometimes even that wouldn’t register. Doom and gloom aside, Rise of Nightmares often has you interacting with objects that need to be treated as they would in real life. Turning a wheel, for example, would require you to turn your hands, whereas swimming would require you to swing your arms like a maniac. We found these interactions to be cleverly implemented and entertaining to perform.
He got lost on a way to a Marilyn Manson concert.
Combat in Rise of Nightamares is decent, if somewhat repetitive. Engaging in fisticuffs is as simple as raising your hands and the camera locks on automatically to the nearest enemy. Depending on the weapon you have though, the kinds of movements you’ll make will be different; for example, if you’re equipped with brass knuckles you’ll throw some standard punches. Work with bladed weapons (including chainsaws!) and you’ll find that there’s a bit of strategy involved, as some of the enemies sport metal armour on various parts of their body. In these cases, it’s critical to aim for the soft, fleshy bits. This works on the Kinect, and it works well, although blindly hacking and slashing seems to work just as well sometimes. There’s a nice range of weapons, which break over time, but thankfully they are scattered throughout the levels in a way that doesn’t make you feel overly threatened, but also doesn’t reduce the challenge of the game. However, there’s no dual wielding here and for some reason the game throws your weapon away at the beginning of every new chapter.
Perhaps Rise of Nightmares’ greatest achievement is the atmosphere of the game. There is a lot of variety in the levels Josh visits throughout his quest, with some downright creepy rooms. Some are even filled with traps, and although the movement control scheme makes navigating some of these a complete pain, it’s nice to see how much thought has been put into the creation of each stage. Like most survival horror games, Rise of Nightmares also features some puzzles, most of which involve fetching a key for a door, and are very simple to solve. But don’t think we use the term ‘survival horror’ lightly. Despite the arsenal of weapons made available to you and your regenerating health, you really are just a meatbag – get ganged up by enemies and it’s more than likely that you’ll get treated to the game over screen. There’s one more reason for our usage of the term ‘survival horror’ and it comes in the form of the man who took your wife away. His name is Ernst and you’ll encounter him in later parts of the game in some very interesting Clock Tower-esque moments, which require you to stay completely still and quiet. Ernst aside, there are also a handful of bosses who require not only hack-n’-slash skills, but also quick reactions to beat.
I don't think physics work that way.
Despite the silly B-movie storyline, Rise of Nightmares is actually a well-crafted survival horror experience with a rather good combat system and some neat touches. It’s just a shame that movement had to be so darn clunky and important to the overall game, otherwise gamers would have a great example of a mature Kinect game on their hands. At least Rise of Nightmares can be considered a first – the first decent survival horror Kinect experience. Sega CS3 clearly have a good idea of what they’re doing, so if they do decide to make a sequel (which in all honesty, we wouldn’t mind), it will hopefully be much better.
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