I Am Alive

I Am Alive (2012) is an action adventure in a post apocalyptic future where an event has reduced cities to rubble. You traverse the country to find your wife and child. It draws on end of humanity fiction like The Road, and stands out for its commitment to creating this atmosphere of a world in pieces. It's an unflinching look an a world undone, pressed home not with flashy visuals but by the pain of characters in need and the frustration of losing substantial progress if you die.

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Play is often slow, as you explore the collapsed city with sparse encounters with friends and not-so-friendly survivors. There is a lot of shimmying along girders and hanging from bridges to get around. But unlike other games, you are limited in how far you can climb and how long you can hang on for. Like the world around you, you are a man in pieces.

As you progress you can find various resources. However, these prized items need to be used with utmost care if you are going to survive. Not only are food, water (and bullets) scarce, you can only explore street level for a limit time because of a damaging dust storm. The result is a game you limp through, safeguarding your resources and only using if absolutely necessary.

Encounters are equally edgy. To preserve your bullets it's often better to act submissive, or trick assailants into trusting you before kicking them off ledges. Some of these enemies are random encounters, but others are set pieces that painfully illustrate how low humanity can fall. Friendly encounters present other conundrums, as you are asked for precious first aid kits in return for Retry tokens that reduce how much progress you lose if you die.

The result is a game that stands out for its commitment to its theme. Not once does it break cover from creating a space where humanity has lost not only civilisation but hope. There are moments of connection and light, but these only serve to illustrate what was lost.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked I Am Alive 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 22 months ago.