Though the initial idea of this game is due to a lack of ammo and trying to survive with your guts, which I can agree with, the problem is every combat becomes a simple puzzle of "Oh, shoot the guy with a gun then kill the melee characters" however the real pain is that you can't fight very well in the game.

The only melee attacks you have is to either sneak up, finish someone off or a long "struggle" whilst other people are trying to kill you at the same time. It feels like a poor version of The Last of Us, only not being good.

The climbing was a pain with the stamina meter and at one point, just pointless if you're like me and search every area for every little item. You can be climbing up a building, low on stamina and then drink soda or something else to refill your stamina making the pitons useless later in game.

The story itself is quite bland, we've all heard this story before of a man who is trying to find his wife and daughter, having no trouble slicing through and shooting anyone who gets in his way from cannibals to some innocent people protecting their stuff (if you choose to attack them) without batting an eyelid. I'd suggest save your money for something better like "This War Of Mine".

A totally okay proof-of-concept, but a poor standalone work.

I Am Alive has just enough going on artistically to maybe warrant a playthrough, but you'll see everything it has to offer by the halfway point, which is unfortunate when the game is only about 4 hours long. Everything it tries to accomplish, from gameplay to narrative, feels half-baked and by the numbers; taking what it can from other works without the depth that made those memorable or confronting in the first place. The Road, this is not, even if it desperately wishes it was.

More people probably remember I Am Alive better for what it wasn't than what it was. Early concept trailers for the game suggested something truly exciting, but the game entered development hell for several years before finally emerging as a half-baked shadow of what we all had in mind. But despite its faults I still sort of liked my time with it.

Your unnamed protagonist has traversed the entire country and has returned to his home city a while after some unexplained disaster has struck the world, leaving a ruined and crumbling urban landscape. There are few survivors and society has completely broken down. The story is pretty simple and sparse as your character meets a few survivors in need and decides to help them, while running into some truly despicable gangs of murderous foes.

Gameplay is comprised mainly of traversal with the occasional combat scenario to break things up. While your character is an apt climber, the man does not have a lot of stamina and you have to deal with a constantly depleting bar as you try to make your way through the environment. Scaling a tall building can become a major challenge as you attempt to find ledges you can rest on while you make your way up. It's a little annoying to constantly have to worry about a draining stamina bar but it does add some tension when you are barely going to make it (or not).

The game has a limited retry system for chapters which means you don't want to get too fancy with your exploration, which probably works to the game's favor because even the game's more open areas seem pretty limited in scope. You'll pick up resources that might be climbing picks to create a rest point mid-climb, health and stamina boosters, and the occasional weaponry.

Combat encounters are interesting at first but all play out the same quickly. You'll want to quickly dispatch of any foes with your pistol by shooting them via the auto-lock on system, and then take out the rest with a combination of button mashing QTE melee or getting them to back up to a cliff or fire that you can push them to their demise with. I thought the bow mechanics were pretty fun when you get that weapon, but it comes pretty late in the experience.

I Am Alive is short which works in the game's favor because the gameplay is pretty shallow and lacking many ideas. Ultimately, the whole project feels unfinished, dumping you into an abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion that suggests a sequel that never came right after contending with a pretty fun combat arena to finish the game.

I Am Alive wasn't given the budget or attention it deserved, but I suppose the final game is better than nothing despite being a somewhat medicore experience.

I Am Alive is a survival game with a twist: There is no "exciting" reason for the apocalypse and there is no horror element. No aliens, no zombies, no mutations. Just people trying to survive in a city of poisonous dust. There are some interesting mechanics like the ability to threaten and bluff NPCs that you encounter to get them to do what you want and of course there is the common "very limited weapons, ammo, and health items" thing. I enjoyed it while I played it but ended up putting it down and forgetting about it.

Survival games without the horror are hard to come by, and I Am Alive has a lot of potentials. Being stranded after a natural disaster that pretty much wipes out the planet you are trying to find your wife and daughter after getting injured and trekking across the country back to your apartment. You stumble upon a little girl that you end up helping along with her current caretaker. The story has some interesting points but ultimately isn’t all that interesting. The plot doesn’t thicken very much and right when it should the game ends. What we are left with is a disappointing cliffhanger.


There are two main elements in the game: Exploration and combat. Each has a huge flaw that makes the game a tad frustrating, but not so bad to where you can’t look past it. The exploration is based on a stamina meter that slowly depletes while you climb, combat, run, jump, and pretty much anything you do. This is fine and all except when you are down on the ground in the ash. The meter slowly depletes until you are dead or climb up high out of the ash. This is the most frustrating thing in the game and makes you not want to explore around and help people. Climbing is just fine using this because it makes you think quickly and decide whether or not risking your stamina capacity is worth getting a bullet or healing item. If you start to deplete too much while climbing you can use pistons to recharge or items that give you stamina and stamina capacity. If you run out of stamina you will go into an effort mode where you quickly tap a button and your capacity starts depleting. If you deplete this you’re dead. Not once did I ever completely deplete my capacity so don’t worry about that being hard.

Secondly, comes the combat. Bullets are extremely rare, but you have to intimidate enemies by pointing your gun at them. They will put their hands up but enemies with guns will not. You need to use strategy and decide who to kill first. Sometimes an enemy will get cocky and speak up. If you kill him first the others may surrender. If not you can order them to back up and knock them into fire or off high ledges. If you put your gun down they will start charging. If you are out of bullets you need to be careful and not pull the trigger or they will know you’re empty. This isn’t as clever as it sounds because in execution there are problems. If you are completely out of bullets you are pretty much screwed if there is more than one enemy with a gun. You can walk up to him and surprise kill him, take his bullet, shoot another gun wielder, but then you’re out of bullets again. You may have two more guys to kill with knives so what do you do? That’s the flaw. Each scenario is set up with really only one outcome. Later on, the combat gets really frustrating despite having a bow with retrievable arrows. These arrows are so rare that I only found three in the whole game. The combat is great on paper but slightly flawed in execution.


When you help people you will get extra retries, but there are items you need to find to help them. Some want rarer items than others, but in the end, the ash issue kept me from exploring everywhere and helping anyone. They abused this stamina meter and should have held back a bit. That’s pretty much all there is to the game. You rotate around exploration and combat, but in the end, the game could have been a lot more. I love the idea of the combat, but it really needs work in the next game.

Despite those two major flaws I Am Alive is entertaining and when you aren’t freely exploring the game is quite fun. The atmosphere is foreboding but the story isn’t as interesting as it could have been. At least the PC gets some enhanced visuals with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering so the game doesn’t look as ugly. For the small price, I Am Alive is worth this purchase, but most people may want to download a demo first before buying.