Alien: Isolation

[Deleted member 7219]

Yeah I think it is fair to say Aliens: Colonial Marines has forever tainted the Alien franchise in terms of video games and I think Alien: Isolation suffered as a result. To be fair to both Sega and Creative Assembly, they both tried selling the game as being more like Alien, and less like Aliens, presumably to distance it from A:CM as much as possible, but it didn't work.

It is such a shame because I consider Alien: Isolation to be one of the greatest games I've ever played. It is utterly brilliant. It also ends on a cliffhanger, so not having a resolution to that feels like a massive kick in the balls.

 

[Tehdagah]

I think that horror games just don't have a big market anymore.

 

[Alienman]

I think that horror games just don't have a big market anymore.

If Pewdiepie decides to play it, it has... sorry to say

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Whiny faggot. I bet you pre-order popamole.

You'd lose that bet...just like how you do everything else in life.

 

[Higher Animal]

You'd lose that bet...just like how you do everything else in life.

Ouch, dat generic burn.

You've bitched about Alien: Isolation since its release. Cunnies like yourself are the reason why everything is shit.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I've read your posts around here, my "burn" is a statement of fact.

Now take your generic trolling back to GD.

 

[Higher Animal]

I've read your posts around here, my "burn" is a statement of fact.

Now take your generic trolling back to GD.

You're lucky to have somebody bored enough to put you in your place.

 

[barker_s]

Here's a mod fixing one of my biggest gripes with this game : http://www.moddb.com/mods/unpredictable-alien-mod/downloads/unpredictable-alien

It's supposed to remove the invisible leash that attracted the Alien to the general position of Ripley. Don't know how it affects the game exactly (I mean, I'm sure they had a good reason for implementing the leash in the first place), but I'll definitely give it a go next time I play A:I.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

There's another mod out there, "Life Savers", that tweaks a few other settings like the cattle prod having a chance to stun the Alien and the guns being able to drive it off...just not very effectively.

 

[Ebonsword]

The best parts of the game for me were the opening sections, and basically any section that was more about exploration / mystery than hiding from the alien. That was when the game was at its most atmospheric (like the best parts of the movies).

Everything about the visual and sound design is absolutely perfect. Made me really feel like I was in that universe.

If you don't like any of that then you really shouldn't keep playing.

I picked this up at a recent Steam sale...and I'm pretty sure I won't be playing too much more of it (I'm currently in the med bay).

For one thing, it has a pretty misleading title. In a game called "Alien: Isolation", I wasn't exactly expecting to come across at least a half-dozen different humans within my first hour of landing on the space station. Sure, most of them tried to kill me, but that really doesn't make it "isolated", now does it? It's like the difference between being stranded in the ghetto with gangs of minorities after you and being stranded alone in the woods with who-knows-what after you.


But I could have lived with that if the basic gameplay clicked with me. But it just doesn't. Is the rest of the game really just playing hide-and-seek with the alien, androids, and humans? Because I'm already bored of that. I just finished playing through Dead Space again, and one thing that game did quite well is periodically throwing new types of monsters at you. With A:I, though, it seems like I already may have seen pretty much all of the enemy types that the game has to offer?


Speaking of Dead Space, I think that game actually had better and creepier visual design than A:I (at least what I've seen of it). Not that A:I is an ugly or boring looking game--far from it. Maybe it was just all of the severed limbs and body bags laying around (or maybe the fact that you actually felt *alone*?), but DS constantly impressed me with it's environments, but A:I really hasn't.


Do any of the DLCs for A:I change things significantly, or are they pretty much more of the same?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I picked this up at a recent Steam sale...and I'm pretty sure I won't be playing too much more of it (I'm currently in the med bay).

For one thing, it has a pretty misleading title. In a game called "Alien: Isolation", I wasn't exactly expecting to come across at least a half-dozen different humans within my first hour of landing on the space station. Sure, most of them tried to kill me, but that really doesn't make it "isolated", now does it? It's like the difference between being stranded in the ghetto with gangs of minorities after you and being stranded alone in the woods with who-knows-what after you.


But I could have lived with that if the basic gameplay clicked with me. But it just doesn't. Is the rest of the game really just playing hide-and-seek with the alien, androids, and humans? Because I'm already bored of that. I just finished playing through Dead Space again, and one thing that game did quite well is periodically throwing new types of monsters at you. With A:I, though, it seems like I already may have seen pretty much all of the enemy types that the game has to offer?


Speaking of Dead Space, I think that game actually had better and creepier visual design than A:I (at least what I've seen of it). Not that A:I is an ugly or boring looking game--far from it. Maybe it was just all of the severed limbs and body bags laying around (or maybe the fact that you actually felt *alone*?), but DS constantly impressed me with it's environments, but A:I really hasn't.


Do any of the DLCs for A:I change things significantly, or are they pretty much more of the same?

I thought Alien Isolation was pretty well paced, so there are sections where things go quiet again and you do stuff other than hide from the alien.

There is an important plot development about half the way through which shakes up the core gameplay. I won't spoil it. Don't read the rest of this thread because you'll probably find out what it is.

I own the DLC but haven't completed any of them. The DLC lets you play a few sections from the Alien movie.

 

[Beastro]

That Unpredictable Alien mod is too unpredictable.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/unpredictable-alien-mod

Remember making sound to draw it into attack others? You can't reliably do that with the mod since you can make a huge racket and it won't come, or you can begin to try to and it'll be on your ass in a second.

I was messing around with 3 civvies I encountered and began banging around them without success until I did enough that I dropped my guard and died. Reloaded and threw noise makers around, nothing until I ran and too much and it then killed them before keeping in mind where I was and hunting me down last. One time I got lucky drawing it out to kill them, hide and had it go back into the ducts only for it to hunt me down again and come up from behind. I haven't had more chances to fiddle with it being alerted and trying to keep hidden and on the move, but it feels like the games over already once you do.

Now before you think I'm whining about not being able to use easy mode to kill others, which it was with the tether (you knew it was around and could always rely on it to kill others for you) I'm not. It's a massive improvement over the vanilla game, and actually had it kill me before I even knew it was around. I wandered a bit running in places before moving to the civvies, then without a sound to announce it beforehand, I had a tail through my chest. It was the only time playing this game that it actually didn't feel like a game where I knew the worlds limitations and could toy with them at my leisure without going over the invisible line that woke it up. The problem is it feels like it's replaced immediate, sensible consequences for a roulette wheel that breaks both the spirit of the Xenomorph being a mindless killing machine, and clearly shows the mechanics of the game working from the opposite extreme of the tether when it'll drop down next to a few people to focus on rushing me from across the room, the one already halfway into a locker instead of the low hanging fruit literally right next to it (before moving onto me since there's no way it wouldn't then ignore me).

I'll have to test it more, mainly with hostile humans, but in the end it's a trade off that completely ruins using the Xeno as a weapon and makes encounters more one dimensional, since without that to fall back on it makes more sense just to be completely silent all the time where drawing the Xeno out around hostile is more a death sentence than a mixed blessing (and thus miss the highlight of the game for me, drawing it then seeing people panic as it kills them while I hide grinning like an evil motherfucker).

 

[ortucis]

Heh this reminds me, I should probably load up this game again.

Had it installed since forever, still haven't progressed after first alien encounter in-game. Mostly cause I just find the whole game boring as shit, no idea why.

Enjoyed AvP 2's marine section way more than this. :\

 

[toro]

Heh this reminds me, I should probably load up this game again.

Had it installed since forever, still haven't progressed after first alien encounter in-game. Mostly cause I just find the whole game boring as shit, no idea why.

The same. The environments are good and the game idea should be interesting but I cannot summon the energy to play it.

 

[Psquit]

What kills the game for is that by the end, it tries to be a FPS with shitload of androids, annoying face huggers in the hive, bunch of aliens...

 

[Deleted member 7219]

What kills the game for is that by the end, it tries to be a FPS with shitload of androids, annoying face huggers in the hive, bunch of aliens...

Sorry but you are talking bollocks. Shoot an android, it will come over and physically beat the shit out of you. Shoot an alien, it will rape you to death. The game is an anti-FPS.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

What kills the game for is that by the end, it tries to be a FPS with shitload of androids, annoying face huggers in the hive, bunch of aliens...

Sorry but you are talking bollocks. Shoot an android, it will come over and physically beat the shit out of you. Shoot an alien, it will rape you to death. The game is an anti-FPS.

But he's right, at least for the reactor section, as well as the endgame. Your only option in dealing with facehuggers is to shoot them, the opening area of the reactor is designed in such a way that your best only option is to blast your way through the androids clogging up the bottleneck in the level. At least the return trip is easier than the way in.

Then later, once Chapter 16 is finished, the game de-evolves into a modern-day FPS. Corridor after corridor, forced encounters, no alternate options of dealing with things. It cripples the game.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I was sneaking all the way to the end. Of course you have to flame the facehuggers, but then the aliens come and you have to hide. I remember spending ages hiding in one of the final rooms because there two aliens roaming about.

It isn't right to say it is a modern day FPS. Having to shoot facehuggers makes it Call of Duty now? Whatever. You are misleading people. Calling it a modern day FPS makes people think you can gun down aliens.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It isn't right to say it is a modern day FPS. Having to shoot facehuggers makes it Call of Duty now? Whatever. You are misleading people. Calling it a modern day FPS makes people think you can gun down aliens.

Good point. Let me rephrase that: The game takes on unwanted aspects of modern-day FPS games - something it had managed to avoid up until those sections.

 

[Jick Magger]

I dunno, by the end I was so utterly sick of sneaking past the androids that I'd just murder the shit out of any one I came across with that bolt gun you get, which kills them with one shot to the head. The game practically throws ammo for it at you and it's not as though you have anything better to use it on.

 

[Silva]

I'll just let this here and walk away

For all great mechanics behind Alien: Isolation, it's SOMA that got imprinted in my mind after finishing it, besides being one of the best gaming experiences ever for me. (specially after using that trainer that make you undetectable for monsters, that is)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So I installed Alien: Isolation for the third time since I purchased it, thinking it might be fun to try out all those mods and tinkerings the game has available now. I start on Easy to get a measure of the Unpredictable Alien mod.

I had to restart the game twice because during the beginning the game wouldn't trigger Samuel's convo to Ripley at the start of the game.

When I get to the sequence where I need to override the security and have the first encounter with the Alien, the cutscene doesn't trigger until I'm halfway towards leaving the map - AGAIN. (Also happened on my 2nd playthrough of the game.)

Thinking this might be the mod acting up, I uninstall the mod and try again. Had to restart only once to get Samuels to talk to me this time, and the aforementioned cutscene also triggered only after I'd long left the room.

Continuing on without the mod, I make it as far as Chapter 3 before I'm hit by a game-halting bug where half the keys on my stop responding and I'm stuck in-game fiddling with a rewiring console.

Fuck.dat

Uninstall.exe

The first time I played the game, the only game-crippling bug I encountered was the locker bug where the game kills you without letting you know first. On subsequent playthroughs the bugs have only gotten worse. This game truly is a godawful mess.

If you go to the Alien Isolation forums you'll see that people aren't taking this crap anymore. The only patch ever released for the game was only for the PS4 to resolve an issue with cutscene playback (they may have released a similar patch for the X-Bone) and they had to withdraw it at one point because it broke the game. The PS3 had the EXACT same problem and they didn't even touch it.

The recent Thanksgiving sale on Steam had the game (with most DLC) for $12. I say that's STILL too high a price for this crap.

 

[Jasede]

That's a bit harsh, the art and sound design alone should command the price of purchase. Now of course there's no question such bugs shouldn't be in the finished product.

 

[sser]

This game's save system is fucking trash. One save has me on another level, then I sneak through it to get to the next level wherein the next save is clear across the stage? Fuck that shit.

Good sound effects and lighting, though.

 

[Excidium II]

I liked it. When it's been a while since you saved and you see that save station...