I Am Alive

"And for now... I am alive."

I Am Alive is a video game developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft.

It takes place in the fictional American city of Haventon, one year after the Event, a worldwide cataclysmic event that wiped out most of the human civilization and left the world in ruins and barely habitable, with the ground now covered by a toxic cloud of dust and ash. The player controls a man who is struggling for survival in a desolated city as he tries to reunite with his long lost wife and daughter. I Am Alive focuses on facing the permanent insecurity of a now decaying and hazardous world, and humanity's darkest inclinations.

It's released on the Playstation Network and in Xbox Live Arcade worldwide.

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Tropes used in I Am Alive include:

• Action Survivor: The main character.
• After the End: The prospects look pretty bleak for recovery; unless the dust settles, plants are going to have a hard time growing, and without plants...
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Type 2 for many enemy survivors, to the point where forcing a surrender at gunpoint a game mechanic used in order to conserve ammunition.
• Annoying Arrows: Presumably thought by enemy survivors based on how the bow does not intimidate them, but averted. Just like the firearms, one arrow is enough to kill.
• Apocalypse How: Class 2.
• Apocalyptic Log: The main character creates one over the course of the game, and is implied to have been creating one from before the game.
• The Archer: With the Hunting Bow.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. Body armor can take a few bullets or arrows, and helmets protect from headshots.
• Attempted Rape: One of the survivor encounters in the Hotel involves shooting the perpetrator through a wall.
• Blade Lock: "Struggle" kills with the machete act as this. There is no dedicated "melee attack" button, too, so this is the only way to kill someone at close range when they're alerted to your presence.
  • Action Command: How this mechanic plays out.
• Combat Pragmatist: In the "Encounters" trailer, the main character strongly advises taking this stance on violent altercations. Use surprise to kill the first of the enemies in a group, identify any other gun-wielders and shoot them immediately, and use psychological pressure to get the rest of them to fold (usually by killing the "leader" of a group). If at all possible, intimidate them into backing up into a cliff or a fire that you can kick them off of/into. This may seem pretty dirty, but it's a dirty world, and if you let your guard down, these bastards will kill you.
• Crapsack World: Well, it is After the End.
• Darker and Edgier: see What Could Have Been below. Apparently, the second premise trailer of this title in 2011 (surviving in a post-apocalyptic era) have received a bit more positive reception from some viewers because this version is a more believable survival scenario.
• Deadly Gas: The dust in some lower areas of the city causes a stamina decrease just by being in it, though this can be lessened by wearing a gas mask, as the protagonist and some of the other survivors do.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Everything's heavily desaturated and just a tick away from being fully black and white.
• Development Hell: It was first announced at E3 2008, and since then has been delayed repeatedly, changed developers, been completely revamped, and missed a number of projected release dates. It has finally received an official release date of March 7, 2012 on XBLA.
• Disaster Scavengers: Along with being one himself, the main character will run into them. Not all of them will be friendly.
• Downer Ending: The ending scene shows a women who is apparently the main character's wife, crying. The scene pans out to show all of your main characters collected items on a table, implying he died. There is no word on how he died, but anything is likely, and Downloadable Content has not been announced to clarify.
  • The Hero Dies
• Driven to Suicide: The survivor who wants two "canned foods" in the subway hangs herself after you leave her regardless of what you do.
• Friendly Fireproof: Surprisingly averted. Enemies can and will accidentally kill their friends with gunfire if they get too bunched up. Hey, if that means less enemies to kill, that's a good thing, right?
• Good Samaritan: The main character is considered one by Mei's mother, Linda, for helping Mei.
• Handguns: The first weapon available.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Some of the more desperate scavengers have resorted to cannibalism in lieu of continuing to eat on the dwindling supply of canned goods.
  • You can find some "meat" in a couple of rare places in the game. It's the best possible healing item, filling up your health and stamina capacity...but it's not chicken, cow or dog... uh oh.
    • If you eat any, the end screen will take 5% off of your score. It outright calls the meat human meat.
• Instant Death Bullet: Horribly averted. It only takes one bullet to mortally wound someone, but they may not die right away, and they may instead be left writhing on the ground in agony. You have the option of performing a Mercy Kill on them with your machete, if you so choose.
• It Gets Easier: Implied; our protagonist says he never used a gun before The Event. During the start of the game, he doesn't bat an eye at kicking a machete-wielding man off a cliff.
• Machete Mayhem: One of the weapons you can use. Enemy scavengers are usually armed this way as well.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Women aren't all noncombatant victims, but the only armed and dangerous women you'll meet are of the "territorial lone survivor protecting their stash" type. All gangs are male.
• Mook Chivalry: Averted; if you're engaged in a machete Blade Lock with an enemy, his buddies will whack you from the sides and interrupt you. Therefore, engaging in melee should only be done as a last resort or on the last remaining enemy in a group.
• No FEMA Response: Subverted. The government tried to send military and relief efforts early on after the Event. But within one year, any semblance of civilization, let alone emergency aid, had long crumbled.
• Noodle Incident: "The Event," the cause of which is a total mystery. The only thing you know is that it caused terrible earthquakes and unleashed never-ending dust clouds.
• No Name Given: The main character.
• Oh Crap: Most machete-wielding enemies when you pull a gun on them. Also Linda when Mei goes missing temporarily in the final section.
• Pistol-Whipping: How the main character takes down surrendering enemies, with the pistol or shotgun.
  • Tap on the Head: Where he hits them. Though it is implied to be nonfatal (hence the need to make the enemy surrender first), there is no way to be sure.
• Puzzle Boss: Or "puzzle every enemy encounter," anyhow. You are regularly surrounded by three or four armed men, and you'll need to keep your wits about you to take them all out, especially if you only have one bullet left.
• Rape as Drama: Heavily implied to be what happens to women in the Hotel. One of the women there even refers to their position as "pets".
• Scavenger World
• Shoot Out the Lock: A couple of places are locked with a padlock you can shoot to open. However, bullets are very dear; you should be absolutely certain you need what's beyond. A couple of the victims can only be rescued this way, too.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Averted. The pistol, bow, and shotgun both are one-hit fatal woundings.
  • Short-Range Shotgun: Also averted. The range for the shotgun is realistic, though spread is, as ever, a problem.
• Slashed Throat: The stealth kill from behind with the machete.
• Sprint Meter: The white meter. It decreases as you run, climb/hang from your hands, or do anything else with more than average physical exertion, and depletes its maximum when empty, causing further exertion.
• Story Breadcrumbs: Aside from getting another Retry token, this is your reward for helping victims. They tell you a small bit of backstory about the city and what happened, and possibly where to find your wife and daughter.
• Thinking Out Loud: Our hero, which is exactly what really happens when people spend a lot of time alone, especially in survival situations. He's lucky he's not talking to a volleyball.
• Twenty Bear Asses: There are 20 victims in the game, and most of the time, they need you to bring them a specific healing item you may have picked up. One strange man asks for five hard-to-find items like meat and an inhaler, but at least he hands you a loaded shotgun as your reward.
• The Wiki Rule: Has one, but has 30+ articles, including from the pre-release, retail form of the game.
• Weapon for Intimidation: Aside from shooting people, this is the other use for your gun. Getting people to back off (and then kicking them off a cliff) is one common way.
• What Could Have Been: The original premise of this game involving trying to survive six days after an earthquake in Chicago. Apparently, the developing team didn't think this scenario to be a believable survival setting. The name of the protagonist is Adam Collins, an ordinary office employee who gets caught in the mess unlike the protagonist in the game's final release who had to travel by foot since the dust made air travel almost impossible.
• What Happened to Henry?: Henry's wheelchair is found near the end, but he is not seen again. The implication seems to be that the gang at the pier found and killed him.
• X Meets Y: The Road, video game style.
• You Bastard: Lone survivors are often territorial (and sometimes guarding a healing item), but not actually out for your blood unless you get too close. If you wind up killing them (either by accidentally pissing them off or on purpose) they may mutter some final accusation at you, like "Murderer!" before croaking. Even some surviving people in the vicinity of the kill may react with fear even if non hostile and also call you out on it.