Child of Eden

« Some players may be hung up by its brevity, but if its extension would have depreciated how breathtaking the rest of the game is, I don't think I'd have it any other way. »

« If Child of Eden suffers from one significant drawback it's the length of its campaign. For serious players looking to rush through, it's possible to finish all of the stages within a few short hours. Finishing stages does unlock new visual filters and opportunities to mess with samples in-game, but if you're looking for 8+ hours of genuinely fresh content you will be disappointed. »

« With a regular controller, Child of Eden is a finely-tuned, lovely shooter. With Kinect, it transforms from being something you play to something you become. It's impossible to see someone playing Child of Eden with Kinect and not want to try it yourself. And once you start, you'll keep coming back for more. »

« Easily one of the best games I've played this year, and while it's definitely early in the year to start calling out the GOTY, Child of Eden is certainly in the running. »

« Fortunately Child of Eden has arrived, and it's a game that completely absorbs you when you're playing it. A game which makes you laugh for no reason when playing it. A game which expresses pure joy at simply being a game. And it's brilliant. »

« Once again Tetsuya Mizuguchi has created an amazing game, just like he did with Rez those so many years ago. Child of Eden however is far superior thanks to the FULL HD graphics, a beautiful soundtrack and almost flawless Kinect controls that work perfectly with the gameplay. »

« All in all, Child of Eden is an amazing example of what the Kinect hardware can do when placed in the right hands. It's also a brilliant piece of entertainment that is just as enjoyable to watch as it is to play. If you own an Xbox 360, this is a game that needs to be in your collection. »

« It's worth mentioning that even though the game can (and should) be played with Kinect the option is there to play this title with the standard controller. In this mode it definitely feels like a follow up to Rez. But quite honestly after putting down the joystick and playing, it was extremely tough to go back to the 'old style' of control. »

« el mando vibra muchisimo, si te gustaria jugar un juego desafiante, pero a la vez divertido, este juego es para ti »

« Le digne successeur de REZ. Une ambiance très prenante, des musiques au top. J'ai tout simplement adoré. Le système de collectifs donne envie d'améliorer chacune de ses runs. »

« Child of Eden beautifully weds two of my favorite things in video game history: Rez and Kinect. This game is synesthesia, and it's probably the greatest Kinect game ever made. »

« child of eden is without a doubt. the best rail shooter for now. maybe it's not considered a rail shooter and more of a music game. but child of eden is stylish. and visually stunning. the game has breathtaking colors. sometimes developers imagination is up high. and that's were it is. child of eden is great on the ps3. but AWESOME on the xbox 360. it can be addicting. and fun. the visuals are so stunning and combined with the awesome music that make you feel down in tears. and cry i want more of this. and just feel happy and emotional with yourself, i give this game such a high score. due to the underrated moments of it. and the crazy results that are so much better than Call of duty and fps **** »

« For me, Child of Eden is the first step towards Star Trek-style holodecks. Since its debut, Kinect was never really utilised to its full potential. Sure, we had a plethora of exercise and sports games, and shoehorned-in embarrassments like holding onto an imaginary steering wheel as a method of control in Forza 4, but Child of Eden was different. It was the only game I played this generation which really considered what Kinect could bring to the table for traditional games and made use of its strengths in an abstract way. It was the most similar experience to using a control pad that motion controls managed. Gameplay was never compromised on account of the control scheme - it was a key consideration of its incorporation, not an afterthought. You had the precision aiming afforded by the ability to point your arm in the direction of the enemy, and at the same time all it took to unleash your fire was an outward flick of your fingers. It's difficult to convey in words, but using Kinect to play Child of Eden is really just an absolute ton of fun, and you feel totally in control as you conduct your way though its visual symphony. It's an experience unlike anything else I've sampled in videogaming. Having said that, the standard controller is catered for, but the difference in feel between the two control schemes almost makes it feel like a completely different game. The pad is certainly no less valid a choice, indeed for the average player it's probable that using a pad will lead to higher scores, but having tried both I can definitely say that it doesn't feel like the full experience without Kinect. Thinking back on it now, Rez was a game that I never really wanted a sequel to. It was, and remains, one of my all-time favourites, but I think I felt it was unlikely that Tetsuya Mizuguchi's team would ever be able to match it, let alone surpass it, so subconsciously I didn't desire that they even try. But back in the early 2000s I never imagined that something like Kinect, something with the capability to further the sensory experience immeasurably, would exist ten years later. And I think Mizuguchi held the same viewpoint as I did. He was waiting for an advancement in technology before revisiting the concept. Maybe Child of Eden was the game he always wanted Rez to be. When the news first broke of its existence at E3 2010, I was so excited at the possibilities. Luckily, it turned out that all my hopes would be fulfilled. Child of Eden is a masterpiece. Each of the stages are dazzling to look at, delightful to hear and wonderful to play through. The music, I feel, suits the game perfectly. The artistic direction is much more organic than Rez's Tron-like aesthetic, and Genki Rockets' less mechanical tunes complement the levels magnificently. The fact that the whole soundtrack was done by the same group gives the proceedings a sense of uniformity that Rez's disparate artists couldn't cultivate. The major gameplay addition over Rez is the ability to gain increased score multipliers by releasing your octo-lock at the moment of the beat, and this introduces a new dimension of complexity. If you can keep your shots in time with the beat you can build up to a maximum 8x multiplier, but miss one and you're back to square one and have to start building again. Ultimately, Child of Eden is a rail shooter videogame, but it is much more than the sum of its parts. Hopefully the inclusion of the updated Kinect as standard with every Xbox One will mean that developers will be more confident in exploring the possibilities of full-body motion control, knowing that their maximum possible audience is every owner of the console, and in future we might see some games that surpass this one's vision and creativity. Child of Eden gave me hope that we haven't reached an innovation dead-end in this increasingly corporate and risk-averse industry, and that's not a bad legacy to leave. »

« This game is so virtually stunning, it makes me want to cry. A big problem some people have with this game is that it's a tad short, and that might be true, but hey, you can always play the game over again on hard mode or do the never-ending archive, hope, that you unlock after you beat the Journey archive, the fifth one. Also, after you beat the journey archive, you're treated with an amazing ending that you'll have to experience to appreciate fully. However, I do agree it's a bit short, but I think it's amazing other than that small detail. »

« Game is pretty stunning and the sound is decent but I just found it boring it is repetitive and the gameplay gives noting to the story. Very short but that doesn't really bother me. I feel like the overall critic score is a representation of trending popular opinion more than genuine enjoyment, people enjoy it because they feel like they should, because it is trendy to like a game that is left of centre, that is not your typical game, the perception that it lends legitimacy to you as a gamer. I clearly don't feel this way. »

« The prequel to beloved cult classic Rez, Child of Eden had a lot to live up to. Does it? In many ways, yes, in a few (important) ways, no. The visuals 10/10. The graphics are stunning. Absolutely jaw-dropping visuals for the whole game, even games like El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron have a hard time competing. The music 4.5/10. This is one of my main complaints for the game. Aside from the bonus level that calls back to level 4 of Rez and the level Passion (using the song Maker by Genki Rockets, one of their best) the songs don't really sound different enough to stand out from each other. They're all minimalistic electronica with random Genki Rockets samples. It sounds orgasmic when you reach the first boss but there's just no variety. The original Rez had a variety of different music all from different artists. Add in the fact that Rez's creator and Child of Eden's director created the group and it starts to feel like he's on an ego trip. The story 3/10. I know it sounds dumb to judge Rez OR Child of Eden by their story, but what I'm judging here is the emotional impact. Rez's final level is truly an experience that every gamer should know. Can I really say the same for this game? Tetsuya Mizguchi's attempt to connect his music project The Genki Rockets to the canon of Rez just makes Child of Eden feel like a vanity project. Combine that with the ridiculous difficulty level and that seriously harms what emotional impact this game could have had. The gameplay 6.5/10. I will sound like a huge hypocrite for this, but the game is just too difficult, and not for good reasons either. Maybe the experience is better when played with Kinect (or they tone down the difficulty), but with a controller, even the normal difficulty is a difficult task. First off, the camera is disorienting. It moves with you to quite a degree (you can pretty much look entirely to your left and right, almost behind you) but between all the action and the camera autocentering itself (and boy is that awkward) it just doesn't work and often gets you hit. It's a rail shooter like Rez, but you can no longer use the lock-on laser to destroy bullets, only a purple machine gun. It sounds easy, but you have to be extremely precise with the purple gun (unlike the lock-on laser), and with all the movement and visuals and the worse camera, it's hard to tell where bullets are coming from at all let alone aim at them and hit them. And oh boy the bullets. The enemies on normal on the first level send out about as many bullets as the final bosses in Rez on the higher difficulties. Only they're harder to see and shoot down. You know where this is going. This makes the whole game a frustrating experience where you're fighting to barely stay alive. It's hard to enjoy the beautiful visuals and soundscapes when you're ALWAYS stressed out. This game is STRESSFUL. And the lock-on Perfect mechanic. If you chain full lock-ons (8 as in the original Rez) you're supposed to get a score multiplier. Only this seems to work only when it wants to. Sometimes you'll chain up to 8x, sometimes it'll just say 'good' 3 times and keep dropping. It never seemed consistent or predictable enough to make high score runs a viable option. And this game DESPERATELY wants to be a score attack game like its predecessor Rez, but it's not. The unpredictable scoring mechanic, the poor camera, and the constant fight to stay alive prevent this from being a game that's more about the experience like Rez was. Rez was easy, but if you WANTED to score attack you could challenge yourself. In this? The difficulty and randomness make score attacking impossible. Oh, and players of Rez know the frustration that is Rez boss battles, where you're fighting so hard to keep bullets off of you that you can barely attack the boss. That's made worse tenfold in this game. It sounds like I hate this game but I really don't. I would recommend this to anyone, at this point it's cheap and well worth the experience. I just think it has a lot of flaws and it wants to be things that it isn't. »