Child of Eden is a rail shooter game created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, developed by Q Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The game announcement opened Ubisoft's pre-E3 2010 press conference and was one of the first titles shown with support for Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral. The game serves as a spiritual successor to Mizuguchi's game Rez, and sees players shoot at various targets which produce melodic sounds upon destruction. It was developed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and is compatible with Kinect and PlayStation Move and standard controllers for both consoles. As was the case with Rez, Child of Eden is presented as an experiment on synesthesia, integrating sound, vision and touch in one seamless experience. The game features music from Genki Rockets. Child of Eden takes place during the creation of Project Lumi, whereas Rez dealt with its protection from a later attack.
Story
The story of Child of Eden is revealed through the game's introduction. It focuses on a girl named Lumi who was the first human to be born in space, on 11 September 2019 aboard the International Space Station. Throughout her life, Lumi dreamt of visiting Earth, conveying her feelings into song which she sent down to the people of the planet. When she died her body was preserved and her memories and data were recorded and archived. The story moves to humanity's advancement in space exploration, and the creation of a universal wide internet system called Eden. Eden is described as a fountain from which all knowledge flows, to those who have never set foot on Earth, containing all of human history and knowledge. By the 23rd century scientists attempt to use Lumi's preserved data to create a living persona with Eden itself, in an experiment called Project Lumi. As her recompiled persona emerges and awakens into Eden, she is attacked and trapped by an unknown computer virus. The objective of the player in Child of Eden is to save Project Lumi, which is near completion, from the virus attack. If finished, Eden would be purified, and Lumi would be saved.
Gameplay
Comparable to Rez, the game revolves around shooting various objects that come onto the screen, which produce musical effects upon their destruction. Players choose between using a lock-on function similar to Rez's gameplay, typically for "orange" targets, or a rapid-fire function generally used for "purple" targets. Using Kinect, players can aim using their hands and clap to change weapons, though traditional controllers can also be used. Like Rez HD, players can use additional controllers to provide external vibration and during the gameplay adjusts the music to the actions and movements of the players. The game features 5 levels, called Archives, each with a different visual theme. These are; Matrix, Evolution, Beauty, Passion, and Journey. Each Archive is replayable, changing each time depending on the player's performance and style of play in the previous run.
Reception
Pre-release
awarded the game 'Best Motion Sensor Game' and 'Best Rhythm Game' of E3 2010. The title also received nominations for 'Best New IP' and 'Best Music Game' from GameTrailers. Xbox World 360 magazine gave the game an 86 out of 100, quoting "Brilliant with or without a controller, Eden could last you a lifetime".
Post-release
Upon release Child of Eden was met with critical acclaim. Joystiq gave the title a perfect score. Stating that "Some players may be hung up by its brevity, but its extension would have depreciated how breathtaking the rest of the game is, I don't think I'd have it any other way." IGN gave the title an 8.5 out of 10 rating, stating that it is one of the best reasons to own a Kinect and that it's a game that just makes you feel happy while you play it. MetroGameCentral gave the game a score of 9 out of 10 and chose it as the sixth best game of 2011.
Sales
According to NPD Group during the game's debut month of June Child of Eden sold 34,000 units on the Xbox 360, ranking at number 83.
