By John Walker on August 22nd, 2011 at 2:43 pm.
I Am Alive has been kept hidden in Ubisoft’s cupboard for years. First announced in 2008, with this trailer, it’s been through a bit of a journey. The original developers, Darkworks, left the apparently almost complete project after a “mutual decision”, with duties taken to Ubisoft’s own Shanghai studio. Come 2009 screenshots were leaked, but little more was heard. The last time Ubi set a release date was for last year, and rumours of something happening by the end of this Summer have proven unfounded. And now a leak has happened again, this time a slightly unfinished trailer. Which you can see below.
The game has previously been slated for 360, PS3 and PC, although of course little official has been confirmed with a game Ubisoft have seemed to avoid promoting. In January 2010 Gamasutra reported that Ubisoft’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, said that in 2010 they were “totally re-engineering the product”, which involved putting it into the Splinter Cell engine. Then in February this year the same site revealed that the game was going to be a digital download released “later this year”. And that’s as far as we’ve got.
Now we have this apparently official but unreleased trailer:
So runny climby jumpy shooty then.
22/08/2011 at 14:46 Inigo says:
That’s a remarkably clean devastated city.
22/08/2011 at 16:24 godwin says:
Shanghai welcomes you (made in China); Says Chinese text at the end.
I like the setting, would be refreshing if it’s a survival game/sotry that doesn’t involve (undead/demented/mutated etc.) monsters (like The Road). But boy, that looks ugly.
22/08/2011 at 17:56 goodhegood says:
Low price, reliable quality, trust shopper’s paradise. Welcome to:
Online store:
http://tinyurl.com/3wvabn3
22/08/2011 at 14:51 Valvarexart says:
I get a Mirror’s Edge feeling for some reason…
22/08/2011 at 15:07 Nalano says:
Really? I’m getting strong Tomb Raider vibes, myself.
22/08/2011 at 15:24 Diziet Sma says:
Odd, my vibes were assassin’s creed.
22/08/2011 at 15:45 fluffy says:
For me it looks like Uncharted meets The Road. Gray sooty world with jumping and some action moments.
22/08/2011 at 15:52 Undermind_Mike says:
I can see where you’re coming from, there are some common elements…
Climbing around in a predominantly white world with red climbable highlights, and more tenuously “I am alive” vs. “I’m still alive” from the ME song.
22/08/2011 at 16:22 Magnetude says:
Looking very much like Uncharted in the Conviction engine to me. The first person threatening mechanic is a neat touch, haven’t seen that done outside of the MGS series. Disappointed that this is looking like a quite linear affair, but I suppose an open world survival game would probably work a lot less well than it does in my head.
22/08/2011 at 17:07 Blueblueblueblueblue says:
Am I the only one who thought of the most recent Alone In The Dark?
22/08/2011 at 17:07 povu says:
Delayed DRM vibes here.
22/08/2011 at 17:31 sidhellfire says:
Why bother another Prince of Persia?
22/08/2011 at 18:34 Gar says:
Hey, look… The Saboteur!
23/08/2011 at 01:39 JackShandy says:
No, this is definitely Desert Bus 2.
23/08/2011 at 12:10 Kittim says:
When I saw Ubisoft, all I got was a sinking feeling :(
22/08/2011 at 14:54 Paxeh says:
Ubisoft? After their last DRM fiasco with From Dust I cringe whenever I hear the name.
This company has lost all credibility. It’s too bad, I liked some of their earlier games, but this whole ‘DRM/lying about there being no draconic DRM’ thing is just going too far.
22/08/2011 at 15:02 Anthile says:
…which has nothing to do with the game at hand.
22/08/2011 at 15:18 Paxeh says:
Oh, it does. The game could be okay, but I don’t see this DRM issue going away any time soon.
Which gives cause for concern when it comes to future titles from said publisher.
22/08/2011 at 16:07 Calneon says:
@Anthile What? It has everything to do with the game at hand. It’s likely to be a bad console port, have draconian DRM, and be delayed a month after the console release if Ubisoft’s past decisions are anything to go by.
23/08/2011 at 02:16 Jhoosier says:
I would really like to believe that isn’t true, that this will be a lovingly crafted-for-PC game because I love survival games just like this.
But I’m cynical enough to take a wait-and-see posture. Not to mention, I never pay full price for games anymore. I wait until they’re on sale and fully patched up.
22/08/2011 at 14:58 kament says:
I get a Splinter Cell Conviction feeling from this.
22/08/2011 at 14:59 agentgray says:
Not believing a word that comes from Ubisoft about any product until I see it on shelves and wait a week or two to read about the backlash.
Integrity is big with some people.
22/08/2011 at 15:01 Bennus says:
Reminds me of a disaster game from Monolith announced for the Wii before the console’s release. That disappeared a disappearing.
Edit: Aha it was Monolith Soft, not Monolith Productions (of NOLF, FEAR fame). Also it didn’t disappear – Disaster: Day of Crisis
22/08/2011 at 15:02 diamondmx says:
Who cares, it’s Ubifail.
22/08/2011 at 15:06 HelderPinto says:
Horrible environment art, I’m stoked with how bad it looks!
22/08/2011 at 15:13 killerkerara says:
I expected this article to be about the Portal credits song. I am disappoint.
22/08/2011 at 15:14 Salt says:
Gosh, I love that guns here seem to be a mechanic beyond just shooting people. The group of guys-with-bats trying to look disarming when the guy pulls a gun is quite excellent.
The graphics are curious. I know it’s very unfashionable to care about them, but I secretly do. It honestly looks like it might be targeting the iPad or Playstation Vita.
Some parts of Ubisoft are doing terrible things with DRM and telling porkies, but others are working on some really rather interesting games.
22/08/2011 at 18:53 DigitalSignalX says:
The first trailer gave us the impression water might be a mechanic, in that it’s basically ultra rare and can be used to bait traps. I hope they keep it that way, and then also add a “hyper” metro 2033 style gun play.. conserve every bullet and use your guns as more of a threat then click to win.
22/08/2011 at 15:21 skinlo says:
Inb4 Ubifail comments.
Oh…
22/08/2011 at 15:27 Nalano says:
Too slow!
22/08/2011 at 15:21 Vagrant says:
So excited for the announcement of the release date for PC so we know when to expect a delay!
22/08/2011 at 15:36 MadTinkerer says:
Yeah, this is just going to happen with the comments section in every Ubisoft story from now on, isn’t it? Well done, Ubi. Well done.
And for the Ubisoft executives who are too lobotomized to understand, what I really mean is
STOP RUINING PERFECTLY GOOD GAMES. WE WANT THE GAMES. STOP RUINING THEM, GODDAMN YOU.
22/08/2011 at 15:41 somnolentsurfer says:
Quite frankly, unless it’s Beyond Good and Evil 2, I don’t care about anything they have to say. I guess everyone has a different “one exeption” though.
22/08/2011 at 15:49 skyturnedred says:
Problem is, when enough people start avoiding Ubisoft games and their sales drop, the first thing they will cancel is BG&E2.
22/08/2011 at 15:58 Prime says:
I’d happily sacrifice the unconfirmed, possibly in development BG&E2 if Ubisoft stopped trying to get away with shitting on their PC consumers every chance they get.
22/08/2011 at 16:12 LionsPhil says:
I don’t believe I have any exceptions.
22/08/2011 at 15:56 Iskariot says:
I would love to play this game. It could easily become a hit.
But the name Ubisoft makes me cringe now.
It has become synonymous for ‘evil’ and ‘untrustworthy’.
-
We (My friends and I) actually have started using their name that way now. We call someone a Ubisoft if he lies, and cheats and can not be trusted in general.
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Ubisoft (cringe) have a lot of good games going on, but they should change management.
The current assholes in power are increasingly alienating the gaming community.
22/08/2011 at 16:13 DustyGerkin says:
Given Ubisofts track record this will turn into a puppy feeding simulator where you have to feed the dog your own fingers before being allowed to play.
22/08/2011 at 16:17 nootron says:
Splinter Raider’s Mirror: Conviction: The DRMening
22/08/2011 at 16:25 ScottTFrazer says:
I guess they scrapped the Chicago setting? Bummer that was a big part of the draw for me.
22/08/2011 at 17:06 Shuck says:
I’m guessing the location change happened when the game went to the Shanghai studio. Which also makes me think that the “mutual decision” by the original devs and Ubi was more likely Ubi saying, “We’re not giving you any more money for the development of the game because we can finish it in China for a fifth of what we’re paying you” and the devs not having much choice in the matter. Sadly this seems to be the new model for game development – the more expensive Western devs do a “vertical slice” of gameplay and then the game actually gets done in China or Korea where they can pay developers a small fraction of the Western salaries.
22/08/2011 at 16:46 jonfitt says:
It looks pretty good. I think clambering over post apocalyptic ruined buildings has more of a ring of verite to it than Mirror’s Edge’s “gubbermint spies on email so we use post”.
22/08/2011 at 16:59 McDan says:
Was just thinking about this game on the bus (public transport, the horror), so it’s nice to see something of it. Genuinely interested.
22/08/2011 at 18:06 Matt says:
I hope the threats/wounding system mentioned in a former designer’s resume (and glimpsed briefly in the trailer) is still in the game… it sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than just shooting everything that moves.
22/08/2011 at 18:36 blind_boy_grunt says:
This looks like a very mediocre game I could love to death ( I fear im way behind with the graphics, because for me that looks pretty nice)
But i think all the time while playing I’d be waiting for a stadium sized tentacle monster to appear to destroy the city… again
22/08/2011 at 19:25 TheGameSquid says:
I believe Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood had an achievement called “I Am Alive”, so I was sort of expecting news about this in the near-ish future.
I don’t have any confidence in it whatsoever though. Like other said, it just looks like Conviction in a SLIGHTLY GREY-WHITE-ISH city of doom. Terrible art design too. The chances of the game having survival-based gameplay are slim to nil as well.
22/08/2011 at 19:38 Navagon says:
They probably only made that video to make the lie of them developing the game seem convincing. Not that it really matters if it’s in development or not. Clearly they’re more than able to utterly destroy even the most promising title.