Child of Eden

[Silvergun X]

Got this through today thanks to Shopto and their lovely early delivery.

Very nice to be greeted with a little vocal of Heavenly Star on the main menu. You can't really have Genki Rockets without having that song can you.

First thing that I noticed - Kinect latency is AMAZING. They've really, really done an excellent job of squeezing an awesome response time out of the device, so there's really not as much reticule lag as you may think.

Not an awful lot to say - It's Rez with a scoring hook, which is my idea of digital crack as I thought that was the one thing Rez was missing. It's exactly the same structure with that aside, so you know very well what to expect. 5 levels to start off with, several different parts, though they're wonderfully seamless this time around so it's one big layer instead of several little ones.

You're graded on 1* to 5*, with a special golden star if you can get a 5* rating with 100% shoot down rate. Stars unlock different extras and levels.

When playing with Kinect, your right hand acts as a lock-on and your left hand acts as a rapid fire. To use your lock-on shot, just give your hand a little jolt forwards and it'll spray the lasers out. It's extremely fun to use and very, very accurate. I've had absolutely no misfires yet.

Anything purple requires you to use your rapid fire, whereas everything else can be taken on with your lock-on shot.

The scoring hook is rhythm based. If you get 8 lock-ons, your targeting reticule goes fully blue. Fire your lasers off in time with the beat and you score a perfect octoshot, putting your score multiplier up by 1, up to a maximum of 8x. Keep pulling off perfect octoshots throughout the level in perfect time with the music and your score will skyrocket.

The music isn't too bad. A lot softer than the pumping soundtrack of Rez, but it's still well worth a listen.

I've managed 9th place on XBL on the first level, and 7th place on XBL for the second level. It's excellent fun, and it's Rez for score attackers. Get at it!!!11

[EvilBoris]

One of the reviews I read commented that the "smart bomb" that you can use is pretty crappy when using Kinect, as the camera freaks out. You experienced this?

[Silvergun X]

I've experienced it a couple of times, but the smart bomb still wipes everything out regardless of camera location, so it's effectiveness isn't compromised. The camera will move up when you use it because of the hand gestures, but it's definitely not game breaking or anywhere close.

[Kaosu]

Even though I've not played Rez for over two years now, I jumped in thinking that I'd be pretty rusty. Apparently, not so. Having that keen sense of rhythm makes getting chain combos a breeze. Ended up getting over 900k on my second attempt. I can see getting everything is going to take a lot of commitment though, which is good enough for me since I can't see myself moving away from this game anytime soon.

Fantastic game. Mizuguchi is a master of his craft.

[averybluemonkey]

Not an awful lot to say - It's Rez with a scoring hook, which is my idea of digital crack as I thought that was the one thing Rez was missing.

My copy should be coming tomorrow but Rez was all about the scoring hook, it's a score attack game.

[Silvergun X]

I don't remember Rez having one.

[averybluemonkey]

To be fair it was relatively basic, it was a combo multiplier for each enemy you latch onto with the up to 8 lock on shot that then applies to each kill. The trick though was that the levels were setup so that usually to get the full 8 lock on you have to get your timing pretty spot on as you have to mix multiple waves into a single lock on release and once they're off screen you lose the points for them so have to be very fast. Kill on guy too early and you've blown your shot at getting the full 8 lock on, take too long and you lose the points entirely. The same thing with the leveling up cubes, these have to be used to up your lock on count to max out the last few enemies of each section. And the same thing on the doors in Area 5.

[kingmobster]

Yup, I usually play Rez with the scores visible switch on. Timing the lock-ons to get full 8x multiplier can be really tricky on some levels.

[Silvergun X]

Regarding the Journey level.

->Open Spoiler<-

I kinda had the feeling the music would be Heavenly Star.

I've just finished the main 5 levels. They actually get surprisingly tough, MUCH more so than Rez got.

The final level has me put on 2nd place on the XBL Leaderboards... So so so so so close to #1, and I screwed up my perfect chain plenty of times.

Going for that #1 spot tomorrow.

[Kaosu]

Just a quick question for The Journey.

->Open Spoiler<-

Is it possible to avoid being hit by the red flare shots on the final section? I've anticipated the timing to when they're shot, but even if I rotate around their line of movement, it still doesn't seem to be doing much on taking them all out.

[nonny]

I've experienced it a couple of times, but the smart bomb still wipes everything out regardless of camera location, so it's effectiveness isn't compromised. The camera will move up when you use it because of the hand gestures, but it's definitely not game breaking or anywhere close.

I think they should have let you customise and select a gesture for this. I was thinking how cool it would be to do a Ryu Hadoken fireball move to initiate the smart bomb instead of raising both hands... imagine how awesome that would be. Just imagine... !

[Silvergun X]

Just a quick question for The Journey.

->Open Spoiler<-

Is it possible to avoid being hit by the red flare shots on the final section? I've anticipated the timing to when they're shot, but even if I rotate around their line of movement, it still doesn't seem to be doing much on taking them all out.

->Open Spoiler<-

I struggled there too.

On that boss, you're supposed to take out the enemies in the middle very quickly to prevent it from firing those bullets in a giant circle, as when they appear the only way you're going to be getting around it is by using Euphoria.

My tip for this boss is save all your Euphoria for this section. On the first phase of the boss (the one with all the little enemies) It's easy, as you can just keep taking them all out, then take the middle out.

On the next phase (those giant red box snake things), use your euphoria to instantly take all the enemies out so the boss can take damage, then spam it to high hell with lock-on lasers. If you do it fast enough, you can do this in 2 euphoria and you'll never have to face off against those bastard lasers/bullets!!

[TheForce]

Really hope my copy will be waiting for me at the door when I get home from work today !!

Good first impressions Silvergun ! This sounds exactly as I hoped the game would be.

[elaniel]

Picked up a copy of this today. It's a (sorta) sequel to Rez isn't it? Never really played Rez so looking forward to trying this out. See how I go with Kinect as I seem to not have enough space for other Kinect games at the moment. Had a bit extra Gamestation credit so thought, why not.

[jimtendo]

Rock Band: Genki Rockets ftw

I tried not to view any (if at all) previews for this, so to not familiarise myself with the beats, but I had a feeling he would move towards Genki Rockets stuff, given his involvement with the project. Nice stuff regardless.

Nice to hear a remix of

->Open Spoiler<-

Breeze

on Stage #3