Child of Eden takes place after the death of Lumi, the first human being born in outer space, with her only knowledge of Earth being the sights of its distant greens and blues from her home among the stars. And so Child of Eden begins.
A rhythm action game from the minds of renowned videogame designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team at Q Entertainment, Child of Eden is a marvelous, if psychedelic, looking game, that although is an arcade shooter at heart, offers a lot more than meets the eye.
Being a shooter with on the rails movement that was originally brought to Microsoft's Xbox Kinect, the controls take some getting used to. You move your particle target around using the analogue stick, and even though I've not played the Xbox version, I couldn't help but feel that the controller free Kinect would offer a much better control scheme. Child of Eden does support Sony's PlayStation Move, but it still doesn't quite capture the same feeling as that of Kinect. Of the two choices on PS3, I'd recommend the Dual Shock set up, as the Move Controller often makes it feel as though I am not pointing, but simply dragging the particle across the screen.
As stated, the game takes place after Lumi's death, with mankind working to recreate Lumi's existence inside stores of online intel, known as Eden. However, every time you're successful with a part of Project Lumi, a virus attacks the artificial girl and threatens mankind's efforts. And that's where you come in. Gameplay wise, whilst the game does offer a story, it's not strong enough to justify why you're speeding through colourful tunnels, or finding yourself attacked by swarms of viruses.
The music in the game is cleverly implemented into your shooting skills, with every virus taken out resulting in a different beat or tempo. With varying virus enemies, you're given the chance to use either your lock-on shot or a rapid-fire attack to purify the infected data and move on to face a boss battle filled with visual spectacle. The colours are mesmerising, and I urge people to try it in 3D; it's a brilliant experience.
Relatively simple, Child of Eden is also hugely repetitive. You are forced to replay archives in order to obtain stars to unlock the next archive, and as there aren't an awful lot of then, it gets bland very quickly.
I'm torn as to how I feel about Child of Eden. On one hand, it's a thunderous on-rails shooter, with a clever musical rhythm action scheme bundled with terrific colours. But, on the more critical hand, it's a bland, easily forgotten experience that frustrates more than it pleases, with tedious repetitive gameplay.
Overall
Child of Eden is always going to divide, with fans of the old Dreamcast gem Rez lapping it up, whilst the masses quickly grow tired of the colours and repetitive nature.
Child of Eden is rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) by the ESRB for Mild Fantasy Violence. This game can also be found on: Xbox 360.
Article first published as PlayStation 3 Review: Child of Eden on Blogcritics.
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