Ever wanted to be thrown into a real life horror film or game? Well Sega has made the first ever horror game for the Kinect on Xbox 360 with Rise of Nightmares, and to raise your interests this is from the same team that brought us the classic game House of the Dead. With a first ever hands free control system and the suspenseful elements that everyone expects from a horror game this could prove to be an all new take on a familiar genre of video games. Can hands free controls mix with the suspense and action of a horror game and create an all new experience for gamers and horror fans? This is one game that has my interest and could potentially lead to an all new type of horror video game genre in the hands free arena.
The story behind Rise of Nightmares is that the protagonist, Josh, is going on a trip to save his marriage through Eastern Europe. As Josh and his wife are on a train it is hijacked by a group of horrific looking monster people and his wife is subsequently kidnapped by an evil scientist. This scientist likes to do evil experiments on people in his frightening castle and if you take too long you or your wife may end up as the newest experiments. Thus, begins the tale of survival to save the kidnapped wife before it’s too late. Not the most original story, but it gives a good reason for all of the struggles and gore that follow.
Rise of Nightmares is a mature title which in itself is a rarity for the Kinect that has mainly seen family friendly titles thus far in its life. It pits the player in a struggle to survive a single night going hand to hand against a host of undead and mad scientists that have captured your wife and are trying to capture or kill you. Players will have to use their whole body to manage this survival, and they will have a host of weapons to choose from to aid them in their quest to survive and save their kidnapped wife from the nightmare that has befallen upon them. Players will use their bare hands, chainsaws and knives to just name a few of the available weapons as the tools to rip their enemies apart limb by limb and discover the clues to the location for their wife and solving the mystery behind the nightmares that have come to life in this spine tingling tale.
Controls are said to be very simplistic and easy to learn. To move forward you will place a foot forward, and tilting your shoulders will turn the player in the corresponding direction. Arm movements will correspond to the type of weapon you wield as there are slicing and smashing weapons as well as weapons that can be thrown. These controls will really make a huge difference in how well this game will be received and enjoyed since it’s the first of its kind in the Kinect library of games.
With promises of creating a cinematic tale that will draw players into the horrifically eccentric story, Rise of Nightmares could potentially be one of the most thrilling horror games to date. If the cinematic scenes are as interesting as promised this could really go well with the interactive controls of the Kinect and draw players into this horrific tale.
There are a few questions a title like this brings to mind. The first is will a mature rating for a Kinect game in the survival horror genre be able to be fun for players? I won’t know the answer to this until I get to play the full game but the idea is very interesting and if done well it could be really fun. The second is will survival horror fans want to play a game like this on the Kinect? Initial response to this does indicate an interest, but if the actual gameplay is not what fans want I’m not sure if there will be many more games like this coming out for the Kinect. For any horror fan this is one game to keep an eye on and see how the final version plays when it is released on September 6, 2011.
Here's a look at the official trailer for Rise of Nightmares:
Written By: Paul Miller
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