Alien: Isolation

[Morgoth]

Would love to play this, but I ran into three advancement halting glitches in less than an hour.

Fuck.

I also ran into two story-arc glitches (event wouldn't trigger) that wouldn't allow me to finish a mission. Alas, the only way to fix this was to restart the entire mission.

 

[Steve]

Short bursts will stop it and slow it down for a second, then it will charge again.. If it runs towards you and you fire at the last moment, it will knock you down to the floor with some damage taken while the Alien takes off.

It only fucks off immediately if you have plenty of gas in the tank for a long fire stroke.

I noticed that if the Alien is close to a vent it will jump there immediately even after a short burst. The flamethrower is ridiculously good alien repellent and they give you way too much fuel for it.

Has anyone noticed if you have to attract the alien to your location or does it just teleport to you randomly? It seems to follow me everywhere I go and shows/hints his presence immediately.

 

[Psquit]

Short bursts will stop it and slow it down for a second, then it will charge again.. If it runs towards you and you fire at the last moment, it will knock you down to the floor with some damage taken while the Alien takes off.

It only fucks off immediately if you have plenty of gas in the tank for a long fire stroke.

I noticed that if the Alien is close to a vent it will jump there immediately even after a short burst. The flamethrower is ridiculously good alien repellent and they give you way too much fuel for it.

Has anyone noticed if you have to attract the alien to your location or does it just teleport to you randomly? It seems to follow me everywhere I go and shows/hints his presence immediately.

If you are playing on hard, the alien has better sences and reaction time.

The scanner beeping noises will attract the alien to your location.

Hiding won't save you. He will camp outside waiting for you and fuck you in the ass.


In hard the alien actually searchs for you. The bitch spend 5 minutes searching for me.

 

[Trash]

Ahaha, the fucking details on this game. Restarted it because I am too pussy for hard and lo and behold. When you start the game and crawl out of the hypersleep pod there is a camera ahead. Which keeps on following you around the room. While your character is in her undies. Meaning someone on the Torrens is enjoying looking at scantily clad Ripley. Constantly find stuff like that, love it.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I took some time last night to reflect on some of the non-gaming aspects of the game.

# In terms of sound effects, this game equals the Thief games in terms of quality and usage. I'm having trouble recalling other games that have done the same in the (roughly) 15 years that have passed between the two releases.

# Music is also top-notch, though it is a little gamey that the music changes to reflect the situation. Sometimes the music is the best indicator that trouble is coming.

# Voice acting is sorta in the middle. It's professional, but I haven't heard anything that stands out or helps identify a character. So far Marshall Waits stands out because he's the old tired guy.

# I've also found a Nostromo log where Ash is speaking about his new assignment, and it doesn't sound like Ian Holm at all.

# Audiolog Syndrome is sadly present. A.S. is when little bits of speech/text are written from the perspective of people whom are talking to themselves when they shouldn't, or sharing information that they really shouldn't. There's an e-mail somewhere that starts: "Can you hear me?!?" This is the ONLY downside of the writing that I've discovered so far.

# The continuous presence of the Alien is actually a detraction from the game. I can tell within seconds (by the vent-stomping sounds) whether the Alien will be a factor in that particular area or not. It gives players the feeling that the Alien has nothing better to do with its time than stalking a snarky engineer 24/7. While it is suspenseful to know that any overly loud activity will attract the Alien, it also shoehorns the player and limits options. Let's see how the rest of the game plays out before giving a final verdict on this.

# I re-read the exclusive Alien: Isolation comic.

Potential story spoiler within

The host for the alien is a woman named Foster, yet one story in the comic tells of the nightmarish dreams of a man who's lying facehuggered on a hospital bed. Is it possible that there are two Aliens, that the player dispatches one, then discovers to their horror that there's another one?

But the simple fact that I AM taking the time to reflect on these things should tell people that this is a good game. Or maybe it's just my fanboyism.

 

[shihonage]

# Audiolog Syndrome is sadly present. A.S. is when little bits of speech/text are written from the perspective of people whom are talking to themselves when they shouldn't, or sharing information that they really shouldn't. There's an e-mail somewhere that starts: "Can you hear me?!?"

Grandpa used to leave such messages ("Pick up the phone!") on my voicemail

 

[Don Peste]

Playfire (GreenManGaming) reward:

By completing Alien: Isolation you'll receive a 25% discount on the Season Pass.

 

[Cool name]

the theme of defenselessness pioneered by Penumbra and Amnesia

Clock Tower, Hellnight, Haunting Ground, White Day, JuOn, and a few others I am sure I forgot about want to have a word with you.

[edit]Siren. Because you can't go more defenseless than having to sneak through a dangerous area as a character both unarmed and blind who can only see through the eyes of the monsters trying to kill him, and through his dog.[/edit]

 

[SuicideBunny]

so, how does this compare to styx when you disregard the aliens fanboism and survival horror aspects?

 

[bonescraper]

so, how does this compare to styx when you disregard the aliens fanboism and survival horror aspects?

It's not a stealth game.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[Sodafish]

Just in the medical section. Fuck it's tense. I agree with Unkillable Cat that the locker hide mechanics are a bit random/borked, and the alien's AI is clearly unfairly weighted to patrol heavily wherever you happen to be. I'm playing on hard btw.

 

[Morgoth]

Once the Alien is in sight I was kinda calm. What made me always nervous was walking down long corridors with nothing to cower under in close vicinity.

 

[skacky]

I'm where Sodafish is and I'm shitting my pants in fear.

 

[Zewp]

I actually kind of like it, despite thinking I wouldn't. Very surprisingly, I don't find it that scary. Tense and suspenseful, yeah, but I never feel too scared to move on. And I'm a pussy for scary games. They rape me. I never finished Amnesia.

My main gripe with the alien is that it falls into a recognizable pattern way too quickly. In mission 6 just before I left I was cowering under a desk and sat there for about three minutes while it did the exact same patrol route over and over.

That said, I don't want to complain too much. For a AAA game it turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I've had some intense suspenseful situations and the alien is a little dipshit. Once while hiding under a gurney, it came stomping past, turned around and looked directly at me for about two seconds and then turned its back on me. Just as I thought I was safe and it was going to run off it turned around and stormed at me. It really feels like the alien toys with you sometimes. Another occasion I got spotted in a corridor, got up and ran into a dark room and stared into a corner because I didn't want to look at it killing me. It ran past and then stayed silent for a few moments and just as I started wondering if I was safe its tail burst through my chest.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I've just finished Mission Ten and I've enjoyed the "calm" moments there have been lately. I felt like using the chance to explore the station, but I don't have an Ion Fusion Cutter yet, so not every door is accessible.

I found another Nostromo log, this time it's Parker speaking, and that's definetely Yaphet Kotto voicing it. So good job on that one.

One thing I did notice while watching the PewDiePie (or whatever his name is) video is that the Alien in the first encounter in Medical uses the vents. It never did that in that first section with me, so I must have really pissed it off.

Remember what I said about that survivor that spoke without its lips moving? I think that applies to ALL OF THEM. En route to Gemini Labs there's another one huddled by a closet, he never moves his lips.

I met Ricardo later on, I couldn't see him move his lips either. Or Samuels once I caught up with him.

I have just been forced through a "security check" with somewhat foreseeable results, and I'm gonna call what happens next.

Possibly big-ass spoilers

Despite all my efforts, the Alien is now in the AI core, and I have to deal with the Alien AGAIN, this time unarmed.

Let's see if I'm right or wrong.

 

[Alienman]

Been trying to play the game, but the tension is too much for me. I can only hold my breath for so long. I even convinced my wife to watch some(I mean better going in two than alone, right?), but she fell asleep after ten minutes... leaving me alone... with the alien. In marriage no one can hear you scream.

 

[sexbad?]

Ahaha, the fucking details on this game. Restarted it because I am too pussy for hard and lo and behold. When you start the game and crawl out of the hypersleep pod there is a camera ahead. Which keeps on following you around the room. While your character is in her undies. Meaning someone on the Torrens is enjoying looking at scantily clad Ripley. Constantly find stuff like that, love it.

I think that's just because most cameras in the game are automated. Later on, when there is nobody to watch over you, cameras will still follow you around, presumably controlled by the station's central AI.

the theme of defenselessness pioneered by Penumbra and Amnesia

Clock Tower, Hellnight, Haunting Ground, White Day, JuOn, and a few others I am sure I forgot about want to have a word with you.

[edit]Siren. Because you can't go more defenseless than having to sneak through a dangerous area as a character both unarmed and blind who can only see through the eyes of the monsters trying to kill him, and through his dog.[/edit]

I don't play Asian crap.

 

[Higher Animal]

I don't play Asian crap.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I'm on mission 8 or 9. When do I start getting the Nostromo logs? I think I've missed a few computer terminals here and there, usually when there's the alien skulking around. Basically, if I see the alien, I leave the area as quickly as possible, goodies be damned. I don't fancy backtracking later on to get the stuff I've missed, especially if the alien is just going to follow me to those places.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Matt7895 There's a Nostromo log in a side room at one of the transit stations, just by the exit to Medical.

There's another one while en route to Samuels.

Well, if anyone peeked at my prediction for what was coming next... I was wrong. In fact, this is much worse than what I expected.

 

[Steve]

Just finished it with 15 hours clocked in on hard difficulty. Oh boy did the ending keep dragging down, it was almost comical as you think "This has to be it" and then NOOOPE. But apart from that, some AI hiccups and other minor annoyances it's was a really solid game. Really good graphics and aesthetics, lots of attention to detail and minor/not so minor nods at the source material. Great score and sound design as well. I didn't expect this at all from CA.

 

[Sranchammer]

15 hours

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Huge piece of fan service:

Spoiler

Actually going to LV-426 and exploring the Derelict was fantastic - its something I've always wanted to do in a video game. I was slightly surprised that they went for the "person looks inside the egg" thing again but humans are naturally curious I suppose. I actually thought they'd find some way of transporting the egg to the ship instead of repeating what happened to Kane.

I missed the Nostromo logs in the medical area, I'm now at Gemini Labs without picking up any Nostromo logs so I guess I'll have to backtrack later.

 

[skacky]

I've been playing for 13 hours and I'm only at the end of San Cristobal medical bay (I actually died in the fire because I couldn't find my way out!).