Child of Eden - Mini Review

Normally, I would wait and do a full review of a game but due to the difficulty of this game I'm going to post a work in progress review here and update as I get further.

The first thing I should point out is if you have Kinect you have to at least try this game. Although to gain full mastery of the game you'll end up resorting to a controller, I have yet to and have just been playing with Kinect controls and it feels amazing.

Much like its predecessor Rez, the plot is nonsensical pap about rescuing a AI version of the first human being born in space from an infected version of the interent, now called Eden. But its of little relevance to the whole game.

The gameplay itself is one of an on-rails shooter. You travel along pre set paths and take out enemies as they appear. You have two main guns, a lock on laser which can target up to 8 different shots and a rapid fire auto laser which is used primarily to destroy incoming bullets and purple enemies. With the Kinect the left hand controls the auto laser and the right hand controls the lock on laser. To fire you wave your hand over the enemy and when the target is locked on flick your wrist to fire, the left hand laser just require you to move your hand to where you want to shoot. You also get smart bombs called Euphoria which clears the screen, activated by raising both hands in the air.

The experience is superb though, all the music and SFX from your attacks seamlessly blend together to create an awesome electro dance beat. In fact when you fire in time to the beat you get extra points so rhythm is important. The visuals again are superb and watching them reminded me what HD visuals can really create when pushed, they really are that stunning. The enemies even react differently depending on what weapon you use. I found one set of enemies exploded after a few shots with the lock on laser but died instantly with the rapid fire and also left a bed of flowers in their wake.

There are a few downsides though. First it is tough, the game lets you in gently but soon racks the difficulty up until your waving your hands frantically trying to clear the screen of bullets while trying to get a few lock on shots to damage the enemies. I also found Kinect lost track of me occasionally, though that may be my setup rather than the game itself.

Overall though, its fun, addictive and a real eye-opener to what Kinect has to offer people. So if you have Kinect its worth checking out, its not anything ground breaking but its certainly an experience to play

Score (so far) 8/10

Cool, I've been waiting to hear what people have to say about this game, I've been hearing good things about it and was intrigued with the Kinect part although from your review that is now what is putting me off, waving and wrist flicking do not mix well with my dodgy wrists. Still might be worth go though especially if you can just use the controller.

Aye, in fact all the achievement guides I've seen say play through once with Kinect for the experience and then stick to the controller. Id you've got dodgy wrists prob not a wise move, I was flicking quite quickly at times when it got busy on screen

Dont forget to post a Youtube clip of you playing it with the Kinect for the review Tenlo

got a copy cheap just arrived

had a free t shirt too

double bargain

once my zoom arrives for teh kinect i shall be having a hooooj marathon kinect game session

I'm glad someone has reviewed this game I was considering it, now its definately on my Christmas list

Sounds great fun