I figured i'd post a quick review here in case anyone cares, i don't do it often but I did enjoy it enough to do so, hopefully that's not frowned upon here.
Anyways, my opinion of kinect usage in this game changed a bit, but not for the bad so much, I'll explain later. This review is based primarily using a controller to play however.
The first thing to understand about this game, it's short. Real short, a person could easily run through this game in an hour if they were talented, this is where the point comes where you have to assess if the games values can suit you still. COE is not a game about beating it once and then putting it away forever. Doing so means you'll get one great experience that ends too soon. The longevity aspect is about meticulously mastering each level until you get gold star ranks, beating the game on hard mode, collecting all the collectables, unlockables, etc. In this case, anyone who likes COE a lot will continue to return over and over in order to beat their last score, up their percentages, and finally hit that gold star before putting a close on that chapter and heading to the next. If you have friends or competition, the scoring system would make for a great leaderboard attack as well. With that all out of the way, I'll go into the details.
First off, child of eden is a sequel to rez, anyone who has played rez will be somewhat comfortable here, but that comfort can convert to pain depending on your skill level pretty fast. Where as rez was a very relaxing, trippy game with amusing gameplay, child of eden deepens the gameplay significantly by upping the ante severely. Simply surviving the levels is challenging sometimes, this is done because unlike rez which only used a lock on laser, COE adds a secondary mode of fire in the form of a rapid fire laser. This laser comes into play on many levels, but only in that anything purple must be destroyed using it. This can be enemies, all bullets, or gates, etc. Learning to juggle and understand the patterns is a big part of getting through a level.
The gameplay is a lot better basically, it's more frantic, deep and engaging than rez and much more in line with a normal rail shooter, so if you felt rez was a bit too simple or slow, understand that is something COE does not suffer from. Aside from the gameplay being a lot tighter and fun, the game centers on absolutely stunningly beautiful levels, very surreal with tons of variety, great music, and is overall incredibly immersive. The beauty of it is that the more skilled you get, the better it flows, the more immersive it becomes. My only disappointment in this game vs rez is that the final level was much more underwhelming than what is found in rez, everything else is as good or superior.
With the basic gameplay out of the way, the scoring system is where the game really shines above other games (especially rez). Scoring isn't just done by how well you chain lock ons or enemies killed, but in fact how on rhythm you are with the music when you release the shots. It sounds confusing at first, but once you get it, it clicks so well and creates an even more engrossing experience, that often leads to frustration when you miss the score or percentage by a tad, but still. The combination of excellent mechanics, beautiful scenery, and incredibly addictive scoring system make for one of the best rail shooters out there, and one of the more challenging ones to boot.
The kinect experience is different, it's a comparable control mechanic to the control pad in that it's very accurate and responsive, it also makes the reticule a lot bigger so it has some advantages, anyone who is playing the game to simply win, will probably be on par with kinect as they are on a controller, on top of that, the kinect experience DOES feel more immersive if all you're doing is trying to experience the game, being near your tv and moving along with the game really is something to behold, unfortunately, once you get done with that and decide to score attack for high scores, at least for me, is when the kinect function becomes more or less useless. Maybe someone with better coordination could do it and time will determine that as the leaderboards are separate for both, but having to time the release of shots to the music for high scores didn't work anywhere near as well for me simply because a button press is faster than a movement forward with your hand.
Basically, kinect is really a great perk to have for this game, but unless you plan on running through it once and quitting forever, you'll spend the vast majority of your time using the controller.
Overall, this game is amazing, beautiful and addictive, very challenging but fairly so, and one of the most unique experiences this generation, but despite how much I will enjoy this package, it has to be said that even though you can score attack, play on hard, unlock stuff, etc, the core game is short and should be approached with that understanding. The only quality thing I can really detract this game for is that the videos are low quality, which isn't a fault of the dvd format because the entire game only uses 2 gigs of space, kind of silly to do that for a disc release.
8.5: If it were longer i'd say it could reach status of one of the best games this gen, but as it is, it's just one of the most unique experiences you could have with the 360 (or soon ps3) and is entirely worth a purchase if you either want to dust off your kinect or just go crazy from the start with a pad, as long as you're up for a fun, if short rail shooter with awesome visuals. This game should not be missed if you desire to experience something that might not ever happen again. Keep in mind that in my mind, even if this is among the better experiences this gen, i don't think it should get a free pass being so short, it's just that damn good.