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Ubisoft takes on Disaster Report, with comparisons to Armageddon, Titanic, Cloverfield, Jericho, and Lost.
Back when we first got word of I Am Alive, a new disaster game from Ubisoft, the popular gossip was that the title would feature Jade Raymond (of Assassin's Creed fame) as producer. Since then, Ubisoft hasn't provided much info aside from the debut trailer above, but we've finally got new details courtesy of the cover story from the latest issue of GamesTM. And as it turns out, Raymond isn't as involved with the title as the rumor mill led us to believe.
In the article, developer Darkworks (best known for last gen's so-so survival horror game Cold Fear) reveals that Jade Raymond isn't working on I Am Alive at all, and the team actually has no idea how that rumor got started. In Raymond's rumored place stands senior producer Alexis Goddard, who seems most enthusiastic about how the project draws on other sources:
"Disaster has been a recurring theme for entertainment since the beginning of time. We're not really reinventing that here. We're putting it together for the first time in a totally new package. Most of what we're doing will remind you of tidbits that you've seen or heard here and there -- Robert Neville in I Am Legend gradually starts to lose his humanity and sanity in the ruins of New York. In The Day After Tomorrow and War of the Worlds you see Western cities torn apart by unrelenting forces."
Later in the article, Goddard also brings up comparisons to Armageddon, Titanic, Cloverfield, Jericho, and Lost. But with such a wide variety of influences from other mediums, what is the actual gameplay like? Goddard describes it as being built "around the concept of social chaos." After a mysterious earthquake destroys Chicago, main character Adam Collins must find his girlfriend and seek out enough survivors to get the attention of a mysteriously quiet government task force.
Goddard believes that the actual moment-to-moment gameplay will be unlike anything we're used to, though, noting, "In I Am Alive, we're not only turning your everyday life upside down; we're also changing the very social values and rules that both everyday life and videogames rely on." Items, especially weapons and ammo, will be much scarcer than gamers are used to, even more so than in traditional survival horror titles such as Resident Evil. The real focus of the game will be obtaining items necessary to survival, such as the water bottle in the trailer. Water can be used for healing or (again, as seen in the trailer) distracting potential opponents to clear a safe path for Adam. And although guns will be rare, they do exist in the game:
"Confrontation is a way of dealing with violent groups, but will rarely be rewarded. We encourage the players to use tactics, diversion, and discretion. You've found a police shotgun, which is out of bullets -- rightfully so, since Chicago has long been a proponent of a ban on guns. How about some intimidation? After all, who knows the gun is empty but you? Just point it at looters and they'll remain at a distance as you progress toward your objective. However, you can only aim it at one person, so you have to watch for being flanked."
And if a first-person game -- in a genre that isn't traditionally first-person -- using weapons scarcely and in an abnormal way sounds a lot like Mirror's Edge to you, the comparison surely isn't lost on Ubisoft. Goddard defended the choice to go with first-person in the article:
"We wanted the player to really feel the power of Mother Nature, to feel the danger coming from the collapsing towers and devastating rifts, feel the chaos happening all around him. There's nothing like a first-person view to create that kind of emotion."
The excellent GamesTM story provides a lot more information than we previously had on this project, as well lots of pretty artwork, although it's too early to tell if any of it is in-game yet. Now that the first info has trickled out, hopefully Ubisoft will open the floodgates and start giving us a better idea of what we can expect from the wrecked city and desperate society in I Am Alive.
