Alien: Isolation

[JDR13]

Horror games cannot be long by nature. A few tense hours is good fun, but going at it for 10-20 hours the scariness either gets tiring or stops being scary.

Nah...10 hours can go by pretty fast. I agree that 20 is stretching it though.

 

[trais]

Isn't it kinda silly, the Engineers, whatever that race which created Xenomorphs are called, managed to gave them acid blood, made them super strong yet super stealthy, and on top of that tough enough to resist even vacuum of space no problemo, but couldn't fix a pretty obvious weakness of them being vulnerable/afraid of something as primitive as open flames?

 

[Beowulf]

Isn't it kinda silly, the Engineers, whatever that race which created Xenomorphs are called, managed to gave them acid blood, made them super strong yet super stealthy, and on top of that tough enough to resist even vacuum of space no problemo, but couldn't fix a pretty obvious weakness of them being vulnerable/afraid of something as primitive as open flames?

Only if you mix the one true good movie with later Scott's fanfiction.

 

[Wunderbar]

In the third movie Alien managed to survive in a vat of molten lead, so they are actually quite resistant to heat.

 

[Sodafish]

In the third movie Alien managed to survive in a vat of molten lead

The point at which the franchise truly jumped the shark.

 

[lightbane]

Isn't it kinda silly, the Engineers, whatever that race which created Xenomorphs are called, managed to gave them acid blood, made them super strong yet super stealthy, and on top of that tough enough to resist even vacuum of space no problemo, but couldn't fix a pretty obvious weakness of them being vulnerable/afraid of something as primitive as open flames?

If you can't give your bio-weapons a kill-switch, having an obvious weakness is a good way to keep them in check.

 

[trais]

If you can't give your bio-weapons a kill-switch, having an obvious weakness is a good way to keep them in check.

Not to a point where it's so obvious that would severely hamper their effectiveness as such weapon tho'.


Also, now that I'm thinking about it, didn't the flamethrower idea, which Nostromo's crew came up with and improvised because they didn't have access to anything better at hand, failed completely in the first Alien? It's been while since I've watched it, so I could be wrong tho'.

 

[Wunderbar]

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, didn't the flamethrower idea, which Nostromo's crew came up with and improvised because they didn't have access to anything better at hand, failed completely in the first Alien? It's been while since I've watched it, so I could be wrong tho'.

they didn't even get the chance to use it on alien. Both Dallas and Ripley only used it to illuminate empty shafts and corridors

 

[trais]

Also, in this scene from Aliens:


Ripley uses flamethrower only to fry eggs, but switches to rifle whenever she targets xenomorph drones. Even the one that was sneaking up behind her, which was pretty close range when she killed it (judging by the angles of where she was pointing her rifle). Like she knows fire ain't gonna do shit against adult forms.

 

[Zombra]

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, didn't the flamethrower idea, which Nostromo's crew came up with and improvised because they didn't have access to anything better at hand, failed completely in the first Alien? It's been while since I've watched it, so I could be wrong tho'.

they didn't even get the chance to use it on alien. Both Dallas and Ripley only used it to illuminate empty shafts and corridors

The laws of horror state that it would have worked if only a moment of human failing hadn't stopped them from taking their shot.

 

[J_C]

Also, in this scene from Aliens:


Ripley uses flamethrower only to fry eggs, but switches to rifle whenever she targets xenomorph drones. Even the one that was sneaking up behind her, which was pretty close range when she killed it (judging by the angles of where she was pointing her rifle). Like she knows fire ain't gonna do shit against adult forms.

I don't think she switches to rifle because she knows that fire is ineffective. The Alien was close to her, and could have lunged at her even if she fired the flamethrower. Using guns proved to be more effective earlier, so she used that.

 

[trais]

J_C Nah, the alien was already close, and yet she chose to spend time to switch to rifle to kill him, instead of just pulling the trigger on flamethrower, which she was firing immediately before.

So yeah, I'm quite sure that in the movies (Alien and Aliens, the only ones that are canon), Xenomorph's black carapace is totally fireproof.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Despite the initially mixed reviews from most mainstream mags, I had bought this right around release day, and never much regretted it. Germany's Gamestar/Gamepro even changed their score upon being made aware of players that apparently their (video) reviewer had missed a few cues and hints, lol. Atop of the glorious fanservice, this is one of the most impossible AAA projects of the 2010s -- and seeing a repeat looks more unlikely every new and more expensive to develop for generation of hardware.

Anybody seen the NoClip making of? Creative Assembly first tried to pitch the idea to Sega, who were strongly against it, and rather wanted to CA to do the game for the London Olympics. A team at CA then did the demo on their own risk/behalf and pitched all that to Sega again -- and now it all went through.

Yesterday was Alien day. That means the game is on sale again on Steam. Curiously, despite finishing the game at least twice since back then, I'd never played any of the DLC, except what came with the release Ripley Edition (Sole Survivor and Crew Expendable, man, love the Nostromo renditions in there). I think I'm going to pick up the Season Pass to get some more Alien.

Gotta agree that the Working Joes later on became the secret stars of the show though (taking like 6 straight headshots on hard to boot) -- their AI for sure has issues (simply go for the vents, Boo! Go for the vents!). But some of that is actually pretty damn scary, like when you go into a room with two exits, they'd actually try to encircle you. Admittedly it looks like I may have an undiagnozed case of Frankenstein complex being heavily triggered though. :D

 

[orcinator]

this is one of the most impossible AAA projects of the 2010s

Bro it's Outlast in space.

 

[Ezekiel]

Who has tried playing the PC version on a TV? The color banding in the TV color space (YCbCr) is horrid, and there seems to be no workaround. When I played it a couple of times in 2014 and 2015, I used an RGB monitor.

 

[Ezekiel]

Yes, Zombra, it looks like shit on a TV. My camera barely shows it, but you can see the banding on the wall to the right of the door and on the floor behind the door.

But playing it with a controller sucks anyway, I remembered a few minutes ago. It's a desk game.

 

[El Presidente]

I hate horror games yet I loved this game to death. I unironically believe this is proof this game, in fact, isn't a horror game. But it's hard to define what is it, perhaps something like "stealth thriller" nails it decently enough. The xeno is scary but in a different way than the usual horror stuff. He's scary the same way being face to face with a huge tiger in the middle of a forest would be scary. To me this is MUCH cooler than the typical hurpa durpa supernatural crap.

 

[Outlander]

The perfect organism.

 

[Zombra]

Labels are very important!

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

I hate horror games yet I loved this game to death. I unironically believe this is proof this game, in fact, isn't a horror game. But it's hard to define what is it, perhaps something like "stealth thriller" nails it decently enough. The xeno is scary but in a different way than the usual horror stuff. He's scary the same way being face to face with a huge tiger in the middle of a forest would be scary. To me this is MUCH cooler than the typical hurpa durpa supernatural crap.

I've played a lot of "stalker" horror games (stuff like Outlast 1 & 2, RE2 & RE3, White Day, Remothered, Amnesia, Silent Hill 2, etc) and the Xeno is by far the most intimidating and intense of all the stalker villains. You can't outrun it, you can't fight it off, and you know it's always lurking. If it spots you you're just dead. That's what sets this game apart from the others and makes it special. The cat and mouse gameplay is far more intense.

 

[orcinator]

I hate horror games yet I loved this game to death. I unironically believe this is proof this game, in fact, isn't a horror game. But it's hard to define what is it, perhaps something like "stealth thriller" nails it decently enough. The xeno is scary but in a different way than the usual horror stuff. He's scary the same way being face to face with a huge tiger in the middle of a forest would be scary. To me this is MUCH cooler than the typical hurpa durpa supernatural crap.

I've played a lot of "stalker" horror games (stuff like Outlast 1 & 2, RE2 & RE3, White Day, Remothered, Amnesia, Silent Hill 2, etc) and the Xeno is by far the most intimidating and intense of all the stalker villains. You can't outrun it, you can't fight it off, and you know it's always lurking. If it spots you you're just dead. That's what sets this game apart from the others and makes it special. The cat and mouse gameplay is far more intense.

Was your crouch button broken and did you forget to use the flamethrower?

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Flamethrower doesn't come into the picture until later fuck nutz. I'm talking early game. Once you get the flamethrower it just becomes another ordinary stalker monster.

 

[orcinator]

Flamethrower doesn't come into the picture until later fuck nutz. I'm talking early game. Once you get the flamethrower it just becomes another ordinary stalker monster.

I'm surprised you got the that point without crouching.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Flamethrower doesn't come into the picture until later fuck nutz. I'm talking early game. Once you get the flamethrower it just becomes another ordinary stalker monster.

I'm surprised you got the that point without crouching.

Where did I mention that I didn't crouch? Where did I mention anything about crouch? MFer are you retarded?

 

[orcinator]

Flamethrower doesn't come into the picture until later fuck nutz. I'm talking early game. Once you get the flamethrower it just becomes another ordinary stalker monster.

I'm surprised you got the that point without crouching.

Where did I mention that I didn't crouch? Where did I mention anything about crouch? MFer are you retarded?

Oh shit I'm sorry, I thought you did a nocrouch run, otherwise you could have noticed the game has nonworking LOS mechanics and even with them fixed boils down to a red light green light simulator.