Ever want to take someone’s head off? Sega’s Rise of Nightmares for Xbox 360 Kinect ($49.99) will allow you to live your fantasy. You start with the choice of two difficulty levels: Humane and No Mercy. Once the game begins, you are completely immersed in the fight of your life.
At the beginning of the game, you find yourself playing Aaron who is in a locked cell with Katja. To get out of the cell, you must pick up a pipe and swing at the door to break out. Before you can leave the area, you must fight zombies and unlock another door. This is where you learn how to move around, fight, and interact with your environment.
Once you complete the beginning section, you find yourself playing Alex who is traveling with his wife, Kate, on a train in Eastern Europe. After Kate gets upset with you, you head to the washroom to splash some water on your face. Upon looking in the mirror you see a “monster” looking back at you. When you get back to your cabin, you find a note Kate has left, telling you to meet her in the dining car.
As you make your way to the dining car, you must get around several passengers on the train including two Russian ballet dancers, people dancing, the train conductor, and a fortune teller. The Conductor asks to see your ticket before you can pass. Your ticket blows into the fortune teller’s cabin and you go to retrieve it. The fortune teller gives you a tarot card reading that is very ominous. Once you leave, you continue to make your way to the dining car.
Once there, you see Kate being kidnapped by the same monster you saw in the mirror. The fortune teller comes running in, screaming at the monster. It is here that the game really begins. As you run to rescue Kate, you see a man pull the pin that holds the train cars together. The train derails and you must escape by crossing over other cars.
To cross, you must balance yourself as the train tips, and then run to safety on an island. Here you find that many consider the island haunted and do not want to venture out in the darkness, taking refuge in a cave. When another passenger goes outside the cave, he is killed. The other passengers, scared, want to explore the back of the cave to find another way out. Upon finding a tunnel and following it to the end, everyone ends up in water. You must swim yourself to safety and knock the leaches off once you reach dry land. As you follow your fellow passengers, you notice something on the side of the trail. It’s a tape and you listen to it as you walk along. This tape, which is one of many, explains the events of a traveler who was on the island previously.
As you play “Rise of Nightmares” pay attention to your surroundings. Otherwise you may miss something that you will need to move onto the next area. You will encounter many people that you have seen from the train; some of them will help you, while others will want to harm you.
When it comes to the combat in Rise of Nightmares, you must kill the zombies that are attacking you with bare fists, pipes, knifes, machetes, saws, and brass knuckles among many others. While you are fighting with the various zombies, you can also use your feet to kick them and cause damage as well. You will also encounter many obstacles that will block your path and you must find ways around them. Watch out for obstacles in your environment; these can range from guillotines to electrified door knobs, amongst others.
The mechanics of the game are simple. When you want to walk forward, put a foot forward; to walk backwards, step back. To turn, turn your upper body in the direction that you want to turn. To fight, raise your arms in front of your body and then swing your arms. As for kicking, kick just as you would in real life.
The weapons in Rise of Nightmares are all melee based. They range from a standard knife to electrical saws just to name a few. Your weapons will start to show degradation the more you use them and you will have to replace them. You can find various weapons lying around and even scavenge them from your kills, so weapons are plentiful.
Interactions with Rise of Nightmares was at times frustrating. I would make movements and they wouldn’t register in the game. To open doors, wave your hands left to right or right to left. When you see the interact icon (which is a hand), put your hand over the icon and you will automatically walk up to it. Mission objectives will appear in your upper left hand corner. As you complete each objective, a new one will appear.
There are many in-game cinemas that explain the story. These are very graphic that include someone tied on a bed and having a spiked board dropped on them, someone getting their hand cut off and then a hatchet being driven into their head, someone who gets electrocuted, and other gruesome acts.
I found combat with the zombies quite fun and somewhat instinctive. Bare fists do the least amount of damage, but combined with kicking it was somewhat effective. Using weapons caused more damage and killed the zombies faster. Rise of Nightmares would cue you when to push a zombie away so you could fight them, so while the event was scripted, it was still fun.
When you get hit, the screen will show a red outline on its edges. The more damage you take in a fight, the more this red will cover the play area. Your health regenerates very fast once you stop fighting and even if you die, you will come back at the beginning of the objective that you are trying to complete.
Rise of Nightmares is a no brainer for anyone who loves horror games. It may have some issues with registering some moves, but the game is still entertaining.
DaniP
Platform: Xbox 360 Kinect
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
ESRB: M (Mature)
Price: $49.99
Rise of Nightmares’ Official Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| Incredibly realistic from the guts, gore, and cinemas. The attention to detail is incredible. I felt like I was really was fighting for my life. | |
| Sound | |
| The sound fits the game very well and added to the overall atmosphere. | |
| Gameplay |  |
| Gameplay was frustrating at times when the sensor was not registering my movements or when it was moving Alex when I was not. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Very good game, puts you right into the action. I felt like I had to keep looking around to make sure that there was no one going to kill me. The only thing that disappointed me was the glitches in the movement. This is a perfect game for anyone who is looking for that Kinect game that is different from anything else. | |
