Longtime video game publisher Sega makes history by releasing the first M-rated game for the Xbox360 Kinect sensor. Rise of Nightmares is a sordid tale involving mechanical zombies, gore, alcoholism, and the requisite mad scientist thrown in.
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 List Price: $49.95 Sale Price: $44.00 
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Married couple Josh and Kate travel across Europe in an effort to rekindle their marriage. Josh, it seems, is a recovering alcoholic who promised Kate he’d stay off the flask. Unfortunately, Josh gets caught with some liquor on him during a train ride, prompting Kate to storm away just as she was going to reveal some important news to him. As Josh chases the fuming Kate in order to make amends, the train gets derailed, numerous passengers get murdered by a strange masked man, Kate gets kidnapped, and Josh and the remaining survivors make their way towards a looming castle in search of refuge. What they find there are zombies, torture devices, a mad scientist, and a variety of weapons to hack and slash their way to freedom.
Players wondering what it’s like to star in a B-horror movie can get the full experience in the Kinect Rise of Nightmares game. The game’s chilling visuals are topnotch. Blood-splattered walls, dank dungeons, and getting strapped to a torture device facing impending death are common all throughout this Kinect release.
As Josh, players must navigate their way towards the various locales – from country graveyard to castle courtyard – and sidestep or fight whatever comes their way. The ultimate goal is to rescue Kate who has fallen into the hands of the evil scientist Viktor. At Viktor’s disposal are a wide variety of reanimated corpses. Players familiar with Sega’s other zombie series House of the Dead will find plenty of similarities with the monsters on both games. The Rise of Nightmares Kinect game adds something to the mix by combining zombies with mechanical devices, something Viktor is keenly experimenting on.
Fighting the corpses involve picking up various weapons scattered throughout the areas. Players move their arms and legs accordingly to suit the weapon they currently have. For example, wielding a hatchet requires hand movements typical of how one would use that tool in real life. For the most part, the motion sensing is above average. The weapons are all responsive to the player’s movements, and rarely will the gamer experience trouble with the attack mechanics.
With the sheer amount of usable weapons littered all throughout, players will have fun fighting Victor’s hordes of zombies. The game also adds regular boss battles to take some of the monotony out. These battles require more complicated movements which will have to be performed through onscreen prompts.
Rise of Nightmares fails as a horror game because of its incredibly predictable storyline and cheesy voice acting. Although the game visuals give off a creepy and chilling atmosphere, the story never accomplishes to set a high level of suspense. A large cast of supporting characters are also given, but most of them are killed of pretty quickly, often in clichéd manners that would make any horror veteran roll his eyes (getting trapped and crushed by closing walls? seen it before Sega).
Another major problem of the game is repetitiveness. Playing the first time might be exciting, but as the monsters arrive wave after wave, most of the value that comes from killing them drains right out. The game does provide lots of gruesome gore, but most of the zombies are your regular, uninspired, lumbering corpses.
Finally, directional walking leaves a lot to be desired. Players need plenty of patience to be able to maneuver Josh out of deadly pits and wall spikes because the sensors for walking aren’t as fine-tuned as they should be. The game provides an auto-walk function, but this falls short of solving the problem.
Rise of Nightmares requires the Xbox 360 Kinect motion sensor to play. It is for single player only and is not suitable for minors.
Sega had the right idea when they released Rise of Nightmares. After all, who wouldn’t want to enjoy hardcore horror action of fighting zombies on the Kinect? Unfortunately, the bad acting and poor storyline never manages to frighten anyone who has seen their fair share of scary movies. Coupled with the poor directional mechanics and repetitious gameplay, Rise of Nightmares doesn’t live up to its full potential. The cool weaponry and awesome visuals don’t succeed in saving the game, and it eventually comes up as an average release on the Kinect.
