Where did I put that gamepad?
Despite its unquestionable sensory charms, however, Child of Eden does have its frustrations. When the action really hots up and the screen becomes busy with peculiar enemies attacking you from every angle, you can struggle to keep up. The slight over-sensitivity of the gesture controls means there are times when it becomes difficult to lock onto enemies, or target specific entities quickly enough – having to repeat some actions more than once to get the desired effect. Though you could blame this on inadequate lighting, or not enough clear space where I play Kinect, the sensor has performed better in other Kinect-enabled games in the same environment, so it’s a little disappointing that it lacks the consistency throughout the game; sometimes perfoming impeccably, but occsionally becoming a battle between you and Kinect to make the cursor move to where you want it to.Nonetheless, Child Of Eden can also be played with a game pad, which is exactly how I played the latter stages of the game. I’ve been gaming with a pad for years and still prefer to sit on my arse than stand up, so it’s no real surprise to me that I found Child Of Eden a more enjoyable game with the pad, mainly because I was able to get more accuracy and therefore a better score - maybe it's a generational thing and I'm just not down with getting a sweat on while gaming.
That being said, Child Of Eden does need to be played with Kinect to get the full effect – it’s definitely a game you’ll want to tell others about and see other people experiencing and when it works well it's a totaly absorbing ride. If you’re a fan of this particularly sub-genre of shooter too, and enjoyed the visceral gameplay and electronic sounds and melodies of Rez – or you quite simply get no pleasure from gaming while standing up and waving your arms around like Mr Miyagi’s apprentice – then there’s still plenty of fun to be had outside of Kinect. As it stands, despite a few frustrations, Child Of Eden is the Kinect game most likely to get me off my chair, even if I do look like demented hippie swaying along to the multi-sensory joys of blowing up shapes. Incidentally, if you do take mind-altering drugs, you definitely need this game in your life.
