Finally, someone made a game for Kinect that doesn’t involve swinging a bat or punching into thin air.

Sega returns to survival horror with the release of Rise of Nightmares – a Kinect-controlled first-person perspective survival horror game from the makers of House of the Dead. Don’t cringe just yet. I know what you’re thinking and I agree. The last couple of HotD games, as well as the movies (yes, there’s more than one!), were horrible. So you can imagine my trepidation when our fearless leader asked me to review Rise of Nightmares.

I fired up my dormant Xbox 360 and loaded the disc. There’s a nice tutorial in the beginning disguised as an intro to the game. The graphics aren’t top notch, but they don’t look horrible. That led me to believe that if the designers didn’t invest in graphics then they had to invest in the gameplay, something that is often overlooked in modern games. Factoring in the Kinect means that these controls have to be spot-on.

Unfortunately, control-wise, the game can be a little clunky. It appears Sega went for a semi-natural body control set for this game. I did like that if I turned my torso left or right, my virtual perspective also moved in the same direction. However, it isn’t always easy to walk and turn at the same time. The walking mechanics were interesting – you literally step forward with one foot to walk forward. The further forward you step, the faster your character walks. Step backwards and you back up. This feels as close to natural movement as the Kinect can get, without walking in place, to simulate locomotion on the big screen.

It can also be awkward attempting to walk or run in a direction other than straight ahead. The arm