Child of Eden

A first-person shooter that mixes electronic music with hypnotic environments, Child Of Eden is a lot like Rez – the psychedelic shooter that became a cult classic on the PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast. The designer behind both, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, likens the gameplay to synaesthesia, the condition where the stimulation of one sense is experienced through another, such as being able to ‘hear’ the colour blue.
The premise is that you’re cleansing Eden – a futuristic, super-evolved version of the internet – of a virus, in order to protect the ethereal ‘Lumi’, a digital reincarnation of the first human to be born in space… in short: shoot stuff, save the virtual princess. The virus-infected ‘stuff’ amounts to exotic critters inspired by insects, plants and sea creatures.
Although the game can be played with a traditional controller (that is, with buttons), waving your hands in front of Kinect’s motion sensors will make you feel like you’re conducting a technicolour orchestra. Successful shots add notes and bleeps to the swelling music, while attacks delivered on the beat make for further musical flourishes and multiply your score. These score multipliers are key to the astronomical high scores you should be aiming for.
If you prefer plenty of content rather than replaying and mastering levels to beat high scores, then this game’s modest handful of hallucinatory stages might be something of a disappointment. Otherwise, Child Of Eden is an
awe-inspiring, sense-muddling success.