Child of Eden – Review
Platform | Release Date
PS3 | June 14, 2011
X360 | June 14, 2011
Developed by Q Entertainment
Published by Ubisoft
The Pitch:
Project Lumi, a project to reproduce a human personality inside Eden, the archive of all human memories, has begun. As the project nears completion, the archive is invaded by an unknown virus. The Player’s mission is to purify the virus and restore hope and peace to Eden.
Child of Eden is the “synaesthesia shooter” that will send players diving back into a kaleidoscopic matrix of synchronized music and mind-blowing visuals that will usher forth yet another landmark game experience from the mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, its creator.
I was filled with anticipation when starting Child of Eden. Being a fan of Kinect compatibility, I had been waiting for this title to release. An on rail shooter, to me, seems to be direction Kinect games should go towards to reach the gaming crowd past small children and stay at home moms. Unfortunately, nothing about the Kinect controls drew me into the game. I instead played the majority of this game with my controller, but even without the gimmicky motion controls this game is a gem.
Eden is a visually stunning journey through a battle against cyber viruses, threatening to destroy the memories of Lumi, which were the first recorded from a human and stored on the internet now called “Eden”. The story line is confusing, and in my opinion, not essential. A player is only fed the story in an opening sequence, and the words, “Save Eden. Save Lumi”. After that, the story does not progress. You are left only with game play, with brief flashes of Lumi and her garden. Luckily the story is not what makes this game so immersive.
I started the game playing with the Kinect. After about 15 minutes of trying to position myself and everything in my game room just right, I was all but fed up with it. Though I play other Kinect games regularly without trouble, the Kinect camera could not seem to recognize my body for more than a few minutes without losing me and sending me back into normal controller mode, and this was just in the opening sequences and menu modes. When I finally got to the game itself, my Kinect seemed to have finally kicked the gremlins from its gears and was reading my movements. But even working correctly, it did not accurately read my body and the entire system of flicking, waving, switching arms, and throwing hands up in the air just seemed clunky. I was not left with a feeling of immersion, which is what I look for in motion control gaming.
It only took a couple of sessions for me to change to my controller, but once I did I truly started to enjoy Eden. Like its predecessor, Rez, the game is based on the rhythmic shooting of beautiful shapes, sending a player on a visual and audio journey through space. While playing each level I was pulled into this immersive experience of sights and sounds and found it hard to blink, not wanting to miss one of the beautiful creatures that inhabit Eden. The art and music of Child of Eden is a truly unique experience though the general gameplay and mechanics are not.
For those looking for a new game experience, this game is a virtual clone of Rez, differing only in the type of enemies you shoot and improved smoother graphics. Eden only took me 90 minutes to complete and I was left a little disappointed at the short play time. For the completionist there is plenty of replay value, as there is a plethora of unlockable creatures for your personal garden, but in my opinion, 90 minutes is not worth the $50 price tag, especially with the Kinect controls being virtually unusable.
Child of Eden is a beautiful journey of sight and sound, immersive and pleasing to the senses. The short play time left me craving more and disappointed with the full release game price. Unless you are a huge fan of Rez, I would suggest renting this one first, as it is worth a play through or two, but not worth $50. The Kinect capability was a huge selling point, but I was disappointed once again with the clunky controls and problems with body recognition that I had not experienced with other Kinect titles. The game itself had tons of potential that just fell short of this reviewer’s expectations.
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