Hey guys welcome to my review of “Child of Eden”, if I sound excited to be reviewing this title, I am, because in a word, it is awesome. “Child of Eden” is a music game with a difference, for those gamers familiar with the likes of “Rez” you’re going to go one better here with “Child of Eden”. The game was created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, best known for the aforementioned music game “Rez”, and was developed by Q Entertainment and published by Ubisoft.
It’s hard to explain, so I’ve included a lovely trailer. Essentially “Child of Eden” is an on-rails shooter that utilizes music in a powerful way. Q? and Ubisoft have worked wonders here, though having said that, “Child of Eden” is not going to appeal to every gamer.
The real magic of “Child of Eden” lay in its immersion, if you can lose yourself within the beats and the colorful graphics, you’re in for something really special. As you’ll see on the boxart, “Child of Eden” also features the “Better With Kinect” label, meaning you can play a slightly enhanced version if you have a Kinect Sensor. Personally I wouldn’t bother, the standard game itself was enough to keep me entertained for many hours, but if you have Kinect it’s good to get up off your butt and use your hands as the controller.
So how does it work? As stated “Child of Eden” is an on rails shooter, you ‘fly’ through levels locking onto various things and shooting the enemies before you take damage, a simple enough premise. As mentioned, if you have Kinect, you can up the stakes somewhat by using your hands to sweep across the enemies as you fire with your other hand. Simple yet engaging.
Now for the downsides, well as I kind of tried to cover, if you’re not into these types of games, “Child of Eden” may well leave you bored. If however you can let yourself become immersed in the colors and music, you’re in for a real treat, both audibly and visually. Length of play may put some off paying full price, given it won’t take you too long to play through (I think it took me about 6 hours), but the replay value is pretty high. A somewhat odd story also isn’t fantastic, but you know what, who cares, “Child of Eden” is a feel good game that works with Kinect. I say at the very least this is a rental, though I don’t feel in anyway guilty for telling you to just go out and buy it, you won’t be sorry.
