Alien: Isolation

[Curious_Tongue]

 

[praetor]

I don't believe this. I've been sitting in that closet for 15 minutes with the motion tracker watching the Alien move.

It seems the Alien teleports around. One moment it was right outside the room, then suddenly it's running down a hallway that takes it far right of my position and then behind me before seemingly disappearing.

I used the chance and advanced, and suddenly it was coming right for me. I managed to crawl into a vent and now it's circling the vent, teleporting at certain intervals.

I'm 80% certain that the Alien teleports, either to cut corners or bring itself into "pursuit range", i.e. remove all barrier between it and me, like locked doors and such.

Yeah, the Alien doesn't seem to care much about doors either.

I still don't know if it can get me if I'm in a vent or a closet/cupboard.

typical CA. when you can't proper AI and pathfinding, teleport the AI near the player just outside the LoS (also happens in the last 3-4 TW games on the campaign map. troops spawn out of thin air for the AI under the FoW)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Yeah, I'm having trouble with the Alien because of this. Just when I think it's fucked off long enough for me to sneak anywhere, it immediately comes running at 200 mph towards my position.

I know it can get me in wall vents, but I'm not sure if it can get me in floor vents. You know, the ones where you actually have to Use the hatch before entering, unlike the sphincter-like holes that spread their anuses for whomever comes near them.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The human AI seems several shades of retarded, though. There's a place where 5 humans are actively patrolling and looking for me, I ran up to one of them and beat him to death, another human runs up, shoots me once then puts down his gun and starts walking away. Instead of running away like I intended, I turned back and bashed his skull in as well. Then I ran off with 2 of them in pursuit where I lost them in a vent. They stood outside looking stupid, I waited until they were both facing away before emerging from the vent and did them both in. Last one went down without incident, not even bothering to check where his mates went.

Just like in the movies, most of the non-Ripley humans are exceptionally retarded. Some notable examples:

A genuine Alien experience!

There's one in every movie. There are also intelligent people to be found. Bishop, Hicks, Clemens and Dillon in Alien 3 (they both die but not through stupidity).

So far in Isolation I haven't really found anyone else,

Spoiler

the first guy dies but again, not through his own stupidity (although maybe he shouldn't have been speaking so loudly

and the whole Isolation thing is kicking in so I'm not getting to know any other characters.

The problem with the human AI that Unkillable Cat mentions, I haven't experienced so far. The humans see me if I am right in front of them and if I run away, they come in my direction (instead of some other games where if you go out of a certain radius, they start going the opposite way, completely lost).

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Attempt #6 at getting past the Alien: Throw a noisemaker in one direction, wait and see as Alien starts running towards it.

Sneak away from there as quickly as possible towards the door I have to open with a keycode.

Guess which possible target the Alien goes after?

On a brighter note... Alien can't get me while I'm "in sequence" for typing a keycode.

Attempt #7 is going much better - I've gotten past the keycode door and am hopping between closets, as the Alien comes stomping towards my position the MOMENT I set foot outside of one. I knew the Alien was supposed to have "heightened senses", but this is ridiculous.

EDIT: There goes Attempt #7. The Alien CAN get you in closets. You get a split-second QTE to "hold breath" but if you fail that you're done for.

Also, you must first "find" a keycode before you can use it to open a door. Clearly they did this to counter the meta-gaming of knowing the same keycode from a prior playthrough, but in this day and age it shouldn't be that hard to come up with a random code generator, would it now?

 

[Morgoth]

Locker-Dweller: The Game.

Been playing this straight for 5+ hours now, and loving every bit so far.... until the majestic Stalker showed up that just wouldn't give me a fucking break. It's beautiful to watch, but at the same time the entire dynamic of the earlier hours has been drastically changed.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Yeah, the worst part is that as you move through the level IT MOVES WITH YOU. It seems impossible to just "lose it" in a certain part of the level and move on.

 

[Morgoth]

Let's hope muh Valium isn't running out as fast as my noise makers, because I still intend to finish this game to the bitter end.

 

[bonescraper]

Attempt #6 at getting past the Alien: Throw a noisemaker in one direction, wait and see as Alien starts running towards it.

Sneak away from there as quickly as possible towards the door I have to open with a keycode.

Guess which possible target the Alien goes after?

On a brighter note... Alien can't get me while I'm "in sequence" for typing a keycode.

Attempt #7 is going much better - I've gotten past the keycode door and am hopping between closets, as the Alien comes stomping towards my position the MOMENT I set foot outside of one. I knew the Alien was supposed to have "heightened senses", but this is ridiculous.

EDIT: There goes Attempt #7. The Alien CAN get you in closets. You get a split-second QTE to "hold breath" but if you fail that you're done for.

Also, you must first "find" a keycode before you can use it to open a door. Clearly they did this to counter the meta-gaming of knowing the same keycode from a prior playthrough, but in this day and age it shouldn't be that hard to come up with a random code generator, would it now?

7 attempts? You kinda suck at this game. I got past the keycode doors on my first try, but then i got skullfucked when i hid in the closet in the first room on to the left. He just trolled me for a few seconds, and then just fucking opened the closet and killed me D: I'm playing on hard, obviously.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

OK!

I'm done for today. Fucking cheating AI Alien bastard.

Here's the deal for other players coming upon this same scene: Once your reach medical you'll be asked to find Dr. Morley's keycode and keycard. Dr. Morley's keycode is on his computer in his office. I suggest you take careful notice of your surroundings before you read the files on the computer, because once you learn the keycode, the Alien encounter is triggered and waits for you to walk back towards a certain spot. Hint: It's conveniently placed where it's IMPOSSIBLE to avoid it. Find that spot and maka a note of it.

Now, once the Alien does appear, you have a few seconds to act. Running back towards the office and the safety of the locker there is an idea, but then you're deep in a dead end, so I don't recommend that one. There's a floor vent right underneath where the Alien appears, it's the quickest place to go to and the safest place I've found to hide from it. A third option is to RUN LIKE HELL down the passage to the left, either straight into the small cupboard there (where the Alien doesn't seem to be able to find you the first time round) or continue running towards the door that requires a keycode. Punch in that keycode, go through then hit the "Manual Override" button, that locks the door... temporarily. I'd say that gives you about 30 seconds or so.

Your next objective is straight down the hallway that has now appeared. At the end of it is a whiteboard that you must look at for a few seconds to trigger the next objective, which is finding Dr. Morley himself and his keycard. And that's as far as I've gotten, because there's a locker nearby and even if I run straight for it afterwards, the Alien ALWAYS knows to go check there, and only by doing the "hold breath" QTE successfully can you survive. At least, that's what I thought was the case. I do it once, Alien walks away, leaves room, even disappears off the motion sensor. I stand there in the locker for 5 minutes, waiting for any further blips on the sensor. Nothing. Not a god damn thing. Alien seems to have returned to "beyond" the keycode door. I finally exit the locker, take a few steps to face the keycode door and lift the sensor to scout ahead.

Guess what's coming right towards me at 200 miles per hour.

I barely manage to get back into the locker before it reaches the room I'm in, and the Alien stomps around for a while before turning its attention AGAIN to the locker. I lean back and hold my breath. Alien stops sniffing and walks away out of sight. I mean it, at best it's on the other side of the room.

I let go of the right mouse button to release my breath. Locker door is ripped off by Alien and I'm dead.

Yes, it INSTANTLY teleported TO THE LOCKER the MOMENT I let go of the right mouse button.

Good job, CA. Good job. *golfclap*

The goal of a good survival game is to have a chance of getting out of a situation as long as you're not totally stupid. It being an uphill battle is considered part of the deal. But this is bullshit.

 

[bonescraper]

Are you even using stealth ffs? I just watch him, and when he's far from me, i slowly move away. When i hear him getting closer i hide again. Under desks, tables etc. And it works mighty fine. I got raped because i used the motion scanner when he was like one meter away. I guess he heard the beeping.

 

[Malpercio]

The human AI seems several shades of retarded, though. There's a place where 5 humans are actively patrolling and looking for me, I ran up to one of them and beat him to death, another human runs up, shoots me once then puts down his gun and starts walking away. Instead of running away like I intended, I turned back and bashed his skull in as well. Then I ran off with 2 of them in pursuit where I lost them in a vent. They stood outside looking stupid, I waited until they were both facing away before emerging from the vent and did them both in. Last one went down without incident, not even bothering to check where his mates went.

Ahah, I noticed that too. Was about to turn off the game, so while it was saving I ran into some dudes, as I was standing in their face one of them went "Is there anyone there?"

Although it is funny to see them getting killed by the alien if the start to shoot you. Was found by 3 dudes in the hospital and they started to shoot me (through the glass...), was about to run away, but then I realized what was going to happen, eh.

Did a pretty good chuck anyway. Story is non-existant and game is mostly go to point A to B while you play around with the Alien. Quest compass on the map tells you everything and you can't backtrack and get lost. Puzzles are either "press A" or "align the figures". Haven't found a use for items except flare and medikits.

Overall I'd rate it meh/10, I guess fans of the movies will like this.

Are you even using stealth ffs? I just watch him, and when he's far from me, i slowly move away. When i hear him getting closer i hide again. Under desks, tables etc. And it works mighty fine. I got raped because i used the motion scanner when he was like one meter away. I guess he heard the beeping.

Yeah, same experience. I'm not surprised modern game journalist found this hard, stealth games require patience and you just can't go rambo.

 

[shihonage]

Unkillable Cat This was foreseeable. This isn't a survival or stealth game, but trial-and-error consoletard adventure with rigid scripting. It's far easier to code something like this, than intelligently design levels and AI around a somewhat innovative concept.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Yeah, even I made that call earlier in the thread, but I had no idea it would be this bad.

And bonescraper can try and act as 1337 as he wants, I'm only making two points:

# The Alien knows instantly the moment I set foot outside of a hiding spot. Even through 3 closed doors and 100 feet of space.

# The Alien teleports where it needs to be.

This is not "fair" by any definition of the word.

 

[Jick Magger]

Stealth, especially when the game punishes you with what amounts to instant game overs if you're caught, does not work if the enemies patterns or routines are unpredictable. If there is nothing there to memorize or plan, or no rhyme or reason as to how easily the Alien can detect you, then any failure can't really be put on the shoulders of the player because the game inherently stops them from actually learning from their mistakes or getting better at it. From the sounds of it, this game's challenge essentially boils down to doing everything in your power to distract or glitch out the alien and hoping to god that this time around the AI's in a sane mood and actually feels like playing fair.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Just because the player is unable to plan or memorize suddenly doesn't remove their responsibility to get better. If I were to agree with your logic then any PvP game would boil down to people blaming othe... oh.

Stealth games in general are centered around planning and memorization, which means you have a responsibility to get better at both in order to progress. You can't really apply the same logic to PvP as it is inherently unpredictable as a human opponent doesn't move in the same choreographed routine that an AI does. You can plan, but you have to be just as good as making shit up on the fly. A rough analogy to your situation would be playing a PvP match versus someone playing equally to you (i.e. not camping, exploiting glitches, etc), and a match versus someone who has wallhacks/autoaim enabled.

 

[bonescraper]

Wat.

I'm just saying i had a completely different experience than you. I don't see why would he need to teleport, the area isn't big enough to warrant such cheap mechanics. Especialy, when he can walk really fast if he wants to. Also, i sneaked past him when he was searching the middle room just in front of the doors with the keylock. He didn't notice me when i crawled out form under the bed, what sorcery is this?

Maybe i just need to die 7 times?



EDIT:

# The Alien knows instantly the moment I set foot outside of a hiding spot. Even through 3 closed doors and 100 feet of space.

# The Alien teleports where it needs to be.

This is not "fair" by any definition of the word.

That's just so unfuckingtrue.

Second try, i got out of cover, the Alien went in the opposite direction, completely unaware. Explain that.

I haven't seen him teleporting, so i can't confirm or deny that.

 

[Drakron]

Well one thing I seen to notice on the videos I watched is that loading seems to reset the area and that includes the Alien, in one I seen the player saving and going to the elevator just to be noticed and killed as on reload the Alien was nowhere near and he escaped.

 

[sexbad?]

I've played about an hour so far and only encountered the alien in a cutscene. It's some alright buildup, but I'm more afraid that I might not be afraid of the alien...

 

[Jaesun]

How are the PC controls?

 

[Mefi]

Not overly retarded to play on the PC. Mouse to turn, keys to move. Clearly designed for consoles with the Fisher Price sized buttons on screen at times, but there's worse been done. LMB+RMB then press 'A'. Yeah, alright, I'd rather just press one key and save the faffing about but I've not checked keymapping yet.


Put a couple of hours in tonight and think they nailed the vibe of the original film. Very atmospheric build-up. Whether there's more beyond that, not so sure yet. (Do agree with the critcisim that it could use being a bit dirtier but meh.) One of those where you can see a really cool idea becoming a bit tedious without a bit more depth to gameplay. Open-minded and enjoying it so far though.

 

[sexbad?]

Jesus Christ, this game is fucking impossible. The game's idea of a first enemy encounter is a room full of people with guns, who can kill you in two hits, followed by an alien who always knows where you are and kills you instantly. I had hoped that the criticism this game was getting was just because people were trying to play it with a gamepad, but it's totally unfair.

I'll probably bump the difficulty down to medium and try again tomorrow. "Hard" (the recommended setting) is nothing but an adventure in trial and error and dumb luck.

 

[shihonage]

This arguing about alien's behavior reminds me of Black&White's release and the influx of gaming forum threads in which people were trying to convince each other that the monkey was actually doing rational things.

 

[Drakron]

...the monkey was actually doing rational things.

Well you ARE posting ...

 

[Talby]

Posting on the RPG Codex is rational?

 

[Morgoth]

It's definitely an unfair game, yet I admire CA for committing to such detailed fan service. Better playing something "broken" but memorable than disgraceful shit like A:CM. Definitely a worthwhile purchase despite spending exuberant time in closets and boxes.