I Am Alive
I Am Alive is a 2012 action-adventure survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft, it was released for Xbox 360 in March 2012, for PlayStation 3 in April, and for Windows in September.
The game takes place one year after "The Event", a cataclysmic disaster that has wiped out most of humanity and reduced cities to rubble. The unnamed protagonist returns to his home in the fictional city of Haventon looking for his wife and daughter. He later encounters a young girl looking for her lost mother, and the protagonist vows to help find her.
I Am Alive was initially in development by Darkworks from 2005 to 2009, and was conceived as a first-person game called Alive. It was postponed and re-announced multiple times over its seven-year development cycle. Ubisoft Shanghai restarted development from scratch until its completion in 2012, keeping only the original pitch and the gameplay designs, minus the combat. Inspired by films such as The Road and The Book of Eli, the developers wanted players to experience the emotions and moral quandaries of choosing who lives and who dies. The scope of the game was originally planned as a full retail release, but was eventually released as a digital-only title.
I Am Alive received mixed reviews. Praise was directed at its tone, graphics, combat, climbing mechanics, and the moral choices presented in the gameplay. Criticisms tended to focus on the combat and intimidation system as repetitive and undeveloped. The game topped the charts for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for several weeks after its release, and became one of the top-ten selling games of 2012 on both networks. Atari SA acquired the IP from Ubisoft in 2025. It was released on GOG.com and added to its Preservation Program on November 25, 2025.
Gameplay
I Am Alive is an action-adventure survival game, in which the player controls the unnamed protagonist from a third-person perspective, although the camera switches to first-person when aiming and shooting.The game features an emphasis on climbing, which is governed by a stamina meter, whereby physically demanding activities, such as jumping or running exert stamina and drain the meter. Once the protagonist's feet are off the ground, everything exerts stamina, even hanging motionless. Some actions exert more stamina than others - for example, jumping from one beam to another when climbing uses a lot more stamina than shimmying across a beam. The stamina meter refills automatically when the player is on solid ground, unless the protagonist is outside at ground level, where the dust in the air constantly depletes the stamina meter, and eventually the health meter. If the player runs out of stamina when climbing, they are allowed a few seconds for a final exertion to try to get to solid ground. However, such exertion results in a piece of the stamina meter itself disappearing. This loss can only be restored by using a specific item. To aid in climbing, the player can use pitons, which allow the protagonist to rest and recharge his stamina mid-climb. Each piton can only be used in a single location; once they are placed into a wall, they cannot be removed.
Hostile encounters are another prominent part of gameplay. When the protagonist is confronted by a group of hostiles, there are various strategies available, depending on how the group acts. He can surprise a single enemy with a machete quick kill, engage in melee combat with a single enemy at a time, draw his gun and attempt to intimidate the enemies into surrendering, or actually fire his gun, killing one enemy in the hopes the others will surrender. When an enemy has surrendered, the player has the option of either knocking them out or pushing them off a ledge or into a fire. The player must always keep a lookout for the group's leader, and attempt to kill him first, as this will often compel the others to surrender. On the other hand, killing a weaker group member will cause a group leader to immediately attack. If the protagonist aims his gun at enemies for too long without doing anything, they will become convinced he is bluffing and attack.
The player must collect resources and supplies scattered throughout the city, including items such as water, food, gas, medicine, and ammo. These items can be used to replenish the player's health and stamina, and often restore the maximum size of the stamina bar. Resources such as cigarettes and alcohol have a negative effect on the player's stats and are instead intended for use in side missions. As the player encounters non-hostile survivors, they will make requests for various items. When the player gives them the required item, the player will receive a single retry, and the survivor will fill some of the game's backstory.
The game saves automatically at checkpoints, but if the player dies during combat or climbing, they can use a retry, which allows them to return to the specific area where they died without having to go back to the previous checkpoint. Retries are scarce, however, and can only be obtained by finding them in the game world or by completing sidequests. If the player dies without any retires in their inventory, they are forced to return to the previous checkpoint, which is oftentimes right at the start of a level.
Plot
The game takes place a year after a catastrophic disaster known as "The Event" wiped out 90% of the human race. The cataclysm continues to make itself felt by way of aftershocks and the toxic dust that hangs permanently within the half-collapsed cities. In the weeks and months after The Event, resource shortages quickly became peoples' biggest problem, a situation that has only gotten worse as time has passed. As the game begins, society has broken down into small pockets of survivors, some of whom want only to protect what meagre resources they have, whereas others are out to get everything they can. No matter their agenda, however, everyone is on guard and on edge, and everyone is capable of violence.The game opens with an unnamed man arriving in his home city of Haventon, hoping to find his wife, Julie, and daughter, Mary, whom he last saw just before The Event. Recording updates via a video camera, which are being watched by an unidentified person at some point in the future, he explains it took him almost a year to walk back to Haventon from "out east". When he gets to his apartment, he finds a note written by Julie in which she explains that she and Mary left shortly after The Event, hoping to make it to one of the emergency camps. She also tells him that she forgives him for everything.
As he is leaving the apartment, he sees a small girl who he initially mistakes for Mary, before saving her from three hostile men. The girl, Mei, tells him that her mother went missing on a supply run and she gives him a walkie-talkie with which to speak to Henry, Mei's family friend. Upon arriving at Henry's apartment, Henry thanks the protagonist for protecting Mei and asks him to retrieve a radio transmitter. Henry himself is unable to get it as he is disabled.
Traversing the deadly dust clouds, the protagonist is able to retrieve the transmitter. Back in the apartment, Henry tells him that Mei's mother is in a local hotel, held against her will, and asks him to save her. Fighting his way through gang members who take women prisoner and force them to provide sexual gratification, he finds and rescues Mei's mother, Linda. On the way back to Henry's, she says that Henry used to oversee the dispatch and communications systems of the Haventon Fire Department, and will probably know the locations of all the emergency camps in the city.
At Henry's, Linda and Mei are reunited, and Linda is able to use the radio to pick up a broadcast from a ship en route to Haventon to collect survivors. However, it can't dock because of the heavy dust. Henry says they need to create a beacon to guide the boat in by using fireworks. The protagonist takes the fireworks to the roof of the tallest building in the city, where he successfully ignites them. However, upon returning to the apartment, he finds Henry, Linda, and Mei gone. Outside, he encounters Linda, who tells him that men came and took Mei. Henry pursued them, but he didn't return. The protagonist finds Henry's wheelchair and learns from an injured man that Henry was taken by the gang, who wanted to learn what he knew about the camps. Eventually, the protagonist finds Mei, and the beacon successfully guides the ship into the harbour.
Mei and Linda get aboard but the protagonist decides to stay, still hoping to find Julie and Mary, and maybe Henry. Mei and Linda bid him farewell and he records his last tape, vowing that he will find his family no matter what and apologizing to Julie, promising her that he will find a way to "make it up". It is then revealed that the person watching the tapes is a young woman. As the protagonist vows to find Julie and Mary, the woman begins to cry, and we see that all of the protagonist's gear is on a nearby table.
Development
Darkworks (2005–2009)
The game was first mentioned on September 3, 2006, in an article on how to get more women involved with playing video games in the International Herald Tribune. In the article, Ubisoft's Chief Executive, Yves Guillemot, stated, "next year, Ubisoft will publish a game called Alive that features characters who rely on their instincts and each other to endure after an earthquake." Nothing more was heard about the game until July 2008, when Gamekyo reported that Assassin's Creed producer and co-creator Jade Raymond was producing what was now called I Am Alive. According to the article, the game was a first-person "survival-adventure" set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago. Developed by Darkworks for PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360, it had originally gone into production in 2005 and was now scheduled for a second quarter 2009 release. When asked about Raymond's involvement, Ubisoft declined to comment.At E3 the following week, Ubisoft formally unveiled a CGI trailer showcasing the game's post-apocalyptic setting and introducing the protagonist, Adam Collins. Guillemot stated that the game "will appeal to anyone that enjoys a thrilling journey. It will offer a rich palette of emotions while challenging players to make life-changing decisions." In August, Ubisoft executive director, Alain Corre told MCV that there were hopes the game could launch a new franchise; "we hope it can be another strong franchise for our portfolio, alongside Prince of Persia or Rayman Rabbids. It's a new baby for us – and we have big hopes."
In January 2009, Ubisoft confirmed that Raymond was not working on the title in any capacity, with Alexis Goddard serving as senior producer. She explained that the game would feature violence only as a last resort, and "we wanted the player to really feel the power of Mother Nature, to feel the danger coming from the collapsing towers and devastating rifts, feel the chaos happening all around him. There's nothing like a first-person view to create that kind of emotion." The game was now slated for release in March of that year. However, the following day, Ubisoft published a release schedule for the remainder of the fiscal year that did not include I Am Alive. They attributed its absence to the fact that it "will require further development time and will now bolster the line-up for 2009-10."
In March, Ubisoft announced that Darkworks were no longer working on the game, due to the changes in the release schedule; "in order to respect the new launch date for this ambitious title, and Darkworks having other obligations, we have mutually decided to complete development of I Am Alive at Ubisoft Shanghai, as the two studios have collaborated on aspects of the title over the past year. The team at Darkworks has respected its contractual obligations on the project and will be a part of the success of the game when it launches."