Alien: Isolation

[wooders1978]

I continued on afyer my earlier rant and ended up rather enjoying the game - however, as others have eluded to in this thread, by jingo is it rolling on... Game feels like it should have ended ages ago and is just repetitive - there hasn't been an (interesting) original scenario for some time now in the game - fuck knows if I am near the end, i seem to have vanquished the alien about 5 times now, but here I am, hiding in fucking lockers

[Replies From View]

Redlettermedia have likened the game to assembling IKEA furniture.  And they call it an "opening doors simulator".

[Kelvin]

Redlettermedia have likened the game to assembling IKEA furniture.  And they call it an "opening doors simulator".

Reminds me of a review describing the latest Hitman game as "Doorman: Absolution", since most of your missions consist of little more than reaching an escape route.

[Bored of Canada]

Reminds me of the review they done for Inception where they called it InceptCREDITS.

Because the film felt like it, when you think about it, ended with credits.

Same with Lawrence of Credits and the Dustin Seymour Hoffman Academy Award winning gender exploration 'Credits'. Hahaha

[Noodle Lizard]

I preferred The Evil Within.

Blaaah all scary monsters look at the scary big monsters WHATEVS.

I'm gonna grab this Alien when it comes down in price a bit, seems to be broadly up my alley.  I definitely take the concerns about it being overlong seriously - I even found the much shorter Far Cry 3 to go on and on a bit.

[wooders1978]

It definitely does - I haven't bothered finishing it as I got bored towards the end

[Thursday]

Blaaah all scary monsters look at the scary big monsters WHATEVS.

Well actually mainly zombie-like things rather than monsters. There's a couple of bosses that are monsters I suppose.

Anyway yes, Alien has a smarter, subtler atmosphere but it isn't anywhere near as much fun to play and it's story isn't actually interesting.

[Noodle Lizard]

It definitely does - I haven't bothered finishing it as I got bored towards the end

Far Cry 3?  Yeah, it's er ... especially once you get to the second island, it just repeats itself until you're only playing under the impression that "it must be over soon, might as well plough through".  And the ending itself is very unsatisfying (whichever option you choose).

Well actually mainly zombie-like things rather than monsters.

Blah zombie WHATEVS.

[Noodle Lizard]

Fuck off this game is bastard hard!

[Noodle Lizard]

I'm only four or five hours in and the stress is fucking killing me.  I could do with a nice hot sandwich and a bubble bath.

[Lt Plonker]

I finished this tonight.

Man, it's an exhausting game to play but what a thrill ride! Played only at night with the headphones on, I'd finish every session on the edge of the sofa, throwing myself back and letting out a huge sigh of relief. I've never played a game that properly got me in the gut like that. I had to take every other evening off just to recover.

My own thoughts from a few weeks ago copy & pasted:

It definitely has a weirdly inverted learning curve. The first encounter with aggressive humans was a real handbrake moment and the first proper Alien encounter around the mental asylum was oppressive in its length and scope. I switched the game down from HARD to NORMAL after escaping the hospital and it's like coming up for air, in a way. The game pulls the Alien back a bit on normal, giving you a bit more time to nose about and in one section, it didn't appear at all, but you could hear it scuttling around the vents. And finally harnessing the power of FIRE, you get little split-second chances against the beast and ways of protecting myself when hacking at terminals.

Having said all that, the atmosphere is still wonderfully oppressive and the ferocity of the violence and deaths remains unshakeably visceral. Being punched to the ground by a Working Joe is properly brutal - I've never felt so genuinely beaten up in a game. I still wince and turn my head away when the Alien has me pinned and goes to lunge. I disagree with the Red Letter Media people in that respect - the beast has enormous presence and it isn't, for me anyway, a case of "Oh, look, it's that Alien from the films." I love it, fear it and respect it.

But only on normal mode. On hard it's a right sensitive cunt.

The game doesn't teach you anything - you really have to learn the little nuances of the tracker and the behaviour of the beast yourself. It took me ages to realise that you can't be held prisoner by the tracker too much, you really have to get out and react/hide only when you hear that THUD of the Alien leaving the vents.

It's certainly padded out but I never felt completely hard done by having to switch every fucking generator on or powering up every fucking conduit and rerouting every fucking power cable. Even the controls for these basic actions matched up with their on-screen counterpart - heavy and blunt and satisfying to pull-off.

Multiple deaths aside, there were two proper "Oh do fuck off!" moments for me, moments where the game mechanics descended into parody. That bit where you're

Spoiler alert

escaping the Sevestapol and you've got to back and forth through an 'S' shaped corridor because powering up the escape door blows a generator

[close]

and the part where

Spoiler alert

you're yanked out of the airlock right at the end and forced to crawl back to the Torrens through the alien nest.

[close]

That was rubbing it in somewhat.

When it comes together, it's fucking brilliant. I had a genuinely thrilling moment last week trying to escape from the hospital section. I'd made several escape attempts after setting off the shutdown procedure, always being caught out by the throbbing cock of a beast. Finally, I just completely lost my temper with the Alien and lobbed a pipe bomb at its stupid grinning mug, scaring it off into the vent. Blasted down the corridor, wooshing through the operating theatre and quickly ducked under some beds just in time to watch it skulk around - pacing back and forth - looking for me. Took a chance and shot some gas canisters. The pansy caught fire and minced off down the corridor leaving me with an opening - one last, desperate grab for freedom. I absolutely beasted it down the corridors, weaving in and out of the beds and tables, its footsteps beating against the metal floor, getting louder and faster. Made one final lunge for the exit just as I heard it begin to screech and threw myself through the door into a cut-scene that matched up PERFECTLY!

I'm not sure if I liked the ending story-wise, I'm still thinking about it.

Spoiler alert

I guess after all Ripley goes through I was sort of hoping for a nice bit of closure, fly off away from the sunset and let her get some rest. Dunno if felt rewarded enough with an open end.

[close]

In conclusion, it was a genuinely thrilling,  if I may such a ponce for a second, experience. I liked it.

4 Ridley Scotts out of 5.

[Thursday]

Re the ending

Spoiler alert

I hadn't realized this at the time, but in Alien canon she lives to quite an old age, there's a mention of her in Aliens, but I was genuinely confused by that ending, I honestly wasn't quite sure whether the suggestion was she was going to be just drifting off in space forever, or whether she was close enough to be pulled in by the ship.

[close]

[Pinball]

Years ago I bought an Alien3 The Gun and put it in the garage. An enormous machine, but lovely game, complete with pulse rifles with feedback:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZeDCcbzMos

A classic shooting game with a LOT of alien mayhem. Gameplay here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GYipbKf_5Q

If I may say so, it was fucking brilliant, even though it filled the garage. Sometimes I play it on MAME and quietly weep.

[glitch]

Fucking Hell Pinball, I'd kill for something like that. Why on Earth did you get rid of it? And if you don't mind me asking - how much for?

[Bhazor]

I agree with Red Letter Media that it was too nostalgic for its own good. When I saw the alien I didn't have the intended pants endangering reaction but instead a heart warming tingle, like "Awwwww, I remember him". Likewise theres no fear of the unknown because it relies so much on the old iconography and scares.

I did like the shitty CRT monitor retro futurism though and getting to fanny about through the film sets.

If nothing else it's proof Creative Assembly are more than one trick ponies.

[Moribunderast]

Have finally got around to playing this and it is very good. As others have mentioned, the atmosphere is spot-on and it can be quite frightening at times. That being said, I'm not a huge fan of the save system. I get that old survival horror idea of there being more fear and more at stake if your death means you lose progress and items but as somebody who doesn't want to spend hours backtracking over things I've already done (only to be killed again and have to repeat the process) it actually kills the immersion somewhat and gamifies everything. You end up just rushing through to get to the next part as opposed to playing the game as it's meant to be played and as is most enjoyable. When I play a 40 minute chunk and die just as I'm about to finish the mission, it just guarantees that I won't return to the game for a week or so as it's dull to redo bits and there's no real tension in it.

That complaint aside, it is quite terrific when it gets going. I'm still early enough into the game that it's not outstaying it's welcome but I'm certainly prepared for that to happen given the comments in this thread and elsewhere. I'm glad this seems to have done reasonably well and received decent reviews as I'd love more horror games like this that don't revolve around zombies or slendermen. It does follow the Amnesia/Outcast mold but does enough to differentiate itself, especially with the unpredictability of the Alien.

[The Boston Crab]

After slagging this off, I must say that the atmosphere is superb, it really does bring back the vibe and I must also admit that playing it on headphones at night is as immersive as almost anything I've played. Shitting pants.

That said, I don't think there's much game to it at all, it's more of an anxiety simulator. There's virtually no skill to it, just hide and get away pretty much. I'm no great fan of stealth gaming in general but I enjoy it if it involves enabling you to pull off something audacious or well planned, like in Dishonoured or MGS, perhaps,but that's not the case here.

Would love an Aliens edition of this. Same vibe with stealth action plus MINIGUN.

[Paaaaul]

I bought this a couple of months ago, and was immediately drawn in by the amazing atmosphere it creates. But the gameplay is DREADFUL. I felt like I was playing a 90s adventure game where you just go round pressing all the buttons indiscriminately hoping that a door opens to push the game forwards.
Somehow my game save got corrupted, and I know I will never play it again because I've no wish to put myself through those first few hours again.
I'm now playing through Dark Souls 2 for the fifth time instead.

[The Boston Crab]

That's almost like a pastiche of my posting history in the Tech forum. I agree that the whole 'you need such and such unlocking device to proceed' is pure bell whiff. It's almost a tribute to Metroidvania, minus the gameplay, sense of fun and power fantasy stuff. Bell whiff.

[St_Eddie]

I really love this game.  It's easily my favourite game of last year.  My only real criticism would be the ending, which is a horrible piece of obvious sequel bait.  Aside from that; the visuals, gameplay and sound design are all exemplary.  Special mention has to go to the glorious art direction and design (gotta love that retro 70's sci-fi aesthetic[nb]I really wish that Prometheus had taken the same retro route with it's in-universe tech - especially seeming as it's a prequel to Alien.  A decent script would have also been a plus.[/nb]).

I also really liked the way that the gameplay felt like a throwback to the 90's; a time when developers didn't feel the need to insult their audience's intelligence by dumbing everything down and holding the player's hand the entire time.  I hope we get a sequel - there are rumours that Creative Assembly is already working on one but I don't know how likely that really is, what with SEGA losing the rights to the franchise soon.

I could wax lyrical about how much I love Alien: Isolation all day but instead, I'll just post this link to my 'interpretive review' and let the language of the soul do the talking...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACMUyoh9qII

I'm glad this seems to have done reasonably well and received decent reviews.

Whilst the game did receive general praise from critics, apparently SEGA is displeased with the sale figures...

Despite the majority believing that Alien: Isolation was a success with its 2.11 million sales, SEGA has stated that the company is disappointed in the amount of units the game shifted.

With developers The Creative Assembly previously saying that they were brainstorming a sequel, SEGA's warped view on the figures Alien: Isolation needed to achieve in order to be deemed a success may stand to impede an Alien: Isolation 2 ever being created.

With Alien: Isolation being the last Alien game which SEGA held the rights to, the publisher coming out and saying that it pulled in "weak" numbers may mean that FOX will decide to not give them another shut at publishing another game based upon the movie license, and instead look to shop the rights to another company.

[The Boston Crab]

They should do the next one based on Aliens, fucking miniguns and flamethrowers and pulse rifles. Just the pulse rifle noise is enough to blow my cock right off and out the window and flying down a grid.

[St_Eddie]

They should do the next one based on Aliens, fucking miniguns and flamethrowers and pulse rifles. Just the pulse rifle noise is enough to blow my cock right off and out the window and flying down a grid.

You mean like pretty much every other Alien game ever made?  The last thing the series needs is yet another game that's one step shy of vigorously sucking James Cameron off and licking up every last drop of his semen, like a dehydrated cat that's found the cream.

I applaud Alien: Isolation for taking the series back to its roots in horror.  Horror isn't about feeling like an ultimate badass, it's about disempowerment.  Even Cameron understood this when he had the marines being all macho and cavalier in attitude, only for them to fall to pieces once they actually came face to face with the enemy.  Sadly, the games based on Cameron's film all completely failed to pick up on the Vietnam analogy contained within.

Still, if you want to blow up Giger's Lovecraftian star beast, like ducks at the funfair's shooting range, then there's already approximately 2 billion games in existence that will let you do just that.

[The Boston Crab]

Yeah, like every other game ever made with the licence but with Isolation production values.

The worst part of any Zelda game is the shitty one-hit-repeat stealth section half an hour into Wind Waker. Alien Isolation manages to draw that experience out to a twenty hour game.

I actually couldn't give a fuck whether they make another or not, I appreciate the game for what it is - a very competent simulator of having no fun, with superb production values.

[Thursday]

I think they should turn the same amount of attention to detail and love into another franchise. I know that Jurassic Park: Isolation was suggested. Do something like that, but maybe not another stealth game.

[The Boston Crab]

That's actually a brilliant idea, the tech is finally there to do Jurassic Park justice. Also, including pulse rifles.

[Noodle Lizard]

A Jurassic Park game in a similar vein would be great actually https://youtu.be/utzAedXS7uo?t=12s

Make an open-world game in a Jurassic Park gone tits-up, with virtually no weapons of any use, no way of fighting the dinosaurs and constantly being hunted.  In the rain.  Lovely thought, that.

[The Boston Crab]

Well up for that, sounds amazing. Toss in a couple of pulse rifles and you've got yourself a Kickstarter.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Pulse rifle? You mean an actual pea shooter?

[Thursday]

No Jurassic Park game would be complete without the bit in the 2nd film where the girl swings on the bars and kicks the dinosaur.

[St_Eddie]

No Jurassic Park game would be complete without the bit in the 2nd film where the girl swings on the bars and kicks the dinosaur.

Just like how no mention of The Lost World would be complete without referencing the bit where the girl swings on the bars and kicks the dinosaur.

Swings and raptor-bouts