Rise of Nightmares (Xbox 360) > Reviews (1)

After buying Kinect for Xbox360, I have been waiting for something a little more serious than the adventure/sport/animals games it had already released. I was unsure about buying Rise of Nightmares so decided to rent it for a while to see if it was what I hoped it would be - a truely interactive horror style game.

You play as Josh, who is travelling on a train with his wife when the train is derailed and his wife kidnapped, leaving him/you stranded in a forest with a few other survivors. You then all head towards a spooky looking castle (surely not the best idea).

The graphics are average - not bad, but nothing to write home about. The plot is quite predictive, but I don't really think the attraction to the game is in the plot, more the idea of being able to smash zombies around the head with a variety of weapons. This leads to the controls.......

It took me about 30 minutes to actually get the hand of moving around. To walk you simply put one foot infront of you, the further infront of you it is, the faster you move - sounds simple but never really seemed to work as well as you would want it to. To turn you simply move your shoulders slightly in the direction you wish to turn. This does work in the game, but lags a little. To attack an enemy, you simply go into 'attack mode' by raising both hands in fists infront of your chest, then continue to hit/kick the enemy or use weapons (have to say this was pretty fun), the only problem being you have to remember to drop your hands to your sides if you need to move in between attacking enemies (going back into 'walk' mode).

The most annoying control had to be interacting with objects. Its not as seemless as you may hope. You cannot just approach a door and open it, or go near an item and pick it up, you must first hold your hand directly over it for a few seconds until the 'interact bar' is full (similar to when you are selecting an item in the Xbox Kinect menu with your hand), and then continue with your action. This doesnt sounds too bad, but can get a little tiresome after a while, especially when you need to quickly pick up an item, and hit a zombie!

This game would appeal more teens/young adults. Its a little too gory for chidren, and I feel some adults would find it a little tedious. It is fun for night in drinking with friends- just something a little different, however I would not particularly want to spend money on it. I feel this game showed the potential for what kinect is really able to do, but I will continue to wait until a game that is a lot more refined comes out.