Rise of Nightmares deserves some credit for trying to be different. Unlike most other Kinect titles, Sega's horror title eschews the device's on-rails standard, instead putting you in control of your character as you work your way through its monster-filled corridors.

The Kinect hasn't offered much in the way of a hardcore, Mature-rated, motion-controlled experience, as of yet. However, Sega's new first-person horror game, Rise of Nightmares, aims to give Kinect owners another reason to get up off their couch other than to pet tigers or dance along to Britney...

Chopping zombies to bits; The auto-walk feature; Unexpected plot twists

Awkward control scheme; Lack of enemy variety; Too much hack; not enough horror

Just like how the Wii's first batch of Mature games (No More Heroes, Madworld) appeared only after the system proved successful, Kinect's infancy has been squeaky-clean. The hardware's first Mature-rated offering, Rise of Nightmares, has a few good ideas about how to mix horror and hands-free...

+ The open world and combat controls are better than those in any current Kinect game..

- ...but that's a very low standard; and they're still very problematic; - Even with the addition of new elements throughout the game; combat's still super-repetitive; ?

Awkward motion controls and shallow combat make Rise of Nightmares a frighteningly unremarkable adventure in zombie killing.

Good variety of weapons; Creepy atmosphere

Motion controls are limiting and awkward; Shallow; easy combat

Total Immersion - When the Kinect first launched, Microsoft wanted gamers to feel as they were in the game. They wanted to show that players can have that same feel of immersion as they would have if they were using a physical controller.

Cheese before bedtime.

Rise Of Nightmares is available to purchase from Play.com . At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

Kinect has confused the gaming cosmos. Rise of Nightmares certainly isn't a good game - but just about passes for a good Kinect game.

Dialogue is good for a laugh; we guess; Hacking and slashing is satisfying; A commendable first attempt at a Kinect action game

Navigation falls short; Incredibly basic game design; Horrendous dialogue; The smallest tasks become events

This is the type of game I have been waiting for since I bought my Kinect XBox last year. Awesome detailed graphics! It takes work to kill the zombies (slashing, stabbing, punching,etc)- much more fun than just pushing buttons on a controller.

If nothing else, Rise of Nightmares helps reiterate that the Kinect just isn't the platform for hardcore action games. That's not to say that the game is a complete waste, and for those gamers hungry for something different, this is definitely it.

Interesting use of Kinect; Some creepy atmosphere; Combat can be goofy fun

Really clunky controls; Looks and acts very last-gen; Horror with the lights on seems wrong