Alien: Isolation

[Beowulf]

I suspected it while playing the game.

Yeah... ok.

Try it for yourself. And I'm not the only one. Plenty of players believed that the alien teleported around the level to shadow you until the developer revealed the director system.

Yeah, I got the same feeling while playing so I started looking in the web for other players experiences and found it similar - many people complained that Alien is bound by a leash to player location. It was quite easy to see in the game.
But I just accepted this fact as a somewhat contrived, but decent gameplay mechanic. There was also the unpredictable alien mod released very quickly, that supposedly somewhat alleviated that (never played it, though).

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

If it ended with you and the Alien getting blasted out into space it would be perfect. Instead they drug the game on forever having you do stupid shit. Half brilliant game, half boring painful jaggy turd that takes forever to push out.

 

[udm]

If it ended with you and the Alien getting blasted out into space it would be perfect. Instead they drug the game on forever having you do stupid shit. Half brilliant game, half boring painful jaggy turd that takes forever to push out.

I agree with you, but I also greatly enjoyed the sequence in the reactor core. Everything that came after just couldn't reach that same intensity, and as a result felt like filler for the sake of it. I was ready to throw up my hands after that level and yell "That was fucking awesome!" thinking it was the finale, but alas.

 

[Starwars]

I think there are still plenty of problems with the game, though pacing is definitely one of them.

- It's "Alien fanboy: the game" basically. While this results in some really enjoyable stuff, like the overall visuals and audio of the game (which are truly excellent), I think it suffers from how close it wanted to be to the Alien experience. So of course it finds a way to get you to run around the planetoid with ship, jockey and eggs. Of course you're gonna talk to the AI in the weird dome computer. Of course you're gonna get shitty cutscenes where it feels like the devs had the Alien audio commentary on repeat so they could get "what it's truly about".
I love Alien and am certainly happy that they wanted to stay faithful to it, but for this game I feel like they took it to a level to where there is basically nothing that you haven't seen before. And the game still tries to play it straight, like it's the first time we see these things, which... I guess it has to do given what it is, but it all just feels old and predictable.
If the Alien franchise hadn't been so saturated, maybe I could've appreciated it more but it's like... yes, it's the Alien, yes, it's the facehugger. We know.

- The Alien feels impressive for the first moments you play against it, but after you get killed for the umpteenth time, you just kinda view it as an annoying motherfucker who won't let you be. There is stress involved given the save system (which I do like), certainly. But the horror goes away really quickly and it all just ends up feeling frustrating instead.

- The story and the way it unfolds is boring as hell.

- Pacing is fucked.

The good parts of this game are really good, and with the foundation it has in terms of looks and feel, it could've been really amazing. I really wanted to like it but I feel it's mostly a slog to play through.

 

[Wesp5]

If the Alien franchise hadn't been so saturated, maybe I could've appreciated it more but it's like... yes, it's the Alien, yes, it's the facehugger. We know.

Exactly. And the recent movies weren't better! I mean how many times must we watch somebody put his head over an opening egg without thinking?

 

[JDR13]

I suspected it while playing the game.

Yeah... ok.

Try it for yourself. And I'm not the only one. Plenty of players believed that the alien teleported around the level to shadow you until the developer revealed the director system.

Yeah, I got the same feeling while playing so I started looking in the web for other players experiences and found it similar - many people complained that Alien is bound by a leash to player location. It was quite easy to see in the game.
But I just accepted this fact as a somewhat contrived, but decent gameplay mechanic. There was also the unpredictable alien mod released very quickly, that supposedly somewhat alleviated that (never played it, though).

Some kind of director AI is a necessity if you think about it. Otherwise, you could potentially go hours without crossing paths, and that wouldn't exactly make for a good gameplay experience.

 

[Multidirectional]

The alien is glued to your ass too much in vanilla though. I enjoyed it more with Unpredictable Alien AI mod.

 

[adddeed]

Yeah i used that mod too. Gives you more of a breather.
The game shouldve been shorter though, when theres so much tension with the alien stalking you it gets exhausting.

 

[Kainan]

I suspected it while playing the game.

Yeah... ok.

Try it for yourself. And I'm not the only one. Plenty of players believed that the alien teleported around the level to shadow you until the developer revealed the director system.

Yeah, I got the same feeling while playing so I started looking in the web for other players experiences and found it similar - many people complained that Alien is bound by a leash to player location. It was quite easy to see in the game.
But I just accepted this fact as a somewhat contrived, but decent gameplay mechanic. There was also the unpredictable alien mod released very quickly, that supposedly somewhat alleviated that (never played it, though).

Some kind of director AI is a necessity if you think about it. Otherwise, you could potentially go hours without crossing paths, and that wouldn't exactly make for a good gameplay experience.

I like that idea, the possibility of never even seeing the alien.

 

[True Ukrainian]

That defeats the purpose of a game featuring an alien and named Alien.

 

[Latelistener]

I really wanted to like it but I feel it's mostly a slog to play through.

One of the reasons why I think it's so amateurish when it comes to design. It's like people who made visuals, audio, assets and the whole technical part were veterans with 20 years of experience (which may be true), but the game designers were a bunch of juniors on probation.

A good game director would have recognized that the game is a slog to play and cut it where needed (although it wouldn't have come to that if they had proper game designers), but they continued with the production despite the fact that their enthusiasm clearly ended after 1/3 of the game. Seriously, almost 22 hours for "Main + Extras", it's insane: https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=16638

 

[Kainan]

That defeats the purpose of a game featuring an alien and named Alien.

The purpose is fear, and men fear the most what they cannot see.

Well i meant just the possibility would be cool, not for every playthrough to be like that.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Oh great, this thread is still going and shitlennials are still bitching about getting too much game for their money.

 

[orcinator]

Remember to download cheat engine and use slowhacks to get as much playtime as you can out of your games!

 

[JDR13]

The game doesn't become a slog until near the end, and by then most people will have gotten their money's worth.

 

[J_C]

I really wanted to like it but I feel it's mostly a slog to play through.

One of the reasons why I think it's so amateurish when it comes to design. It's like people who made visuals, audio, assets and the whole technical part were veterans with 20 years of experience (which may be true), but the game designers were a bunch of juniors on probation.

A good game director would have recognized that the game is a slog to play and cut it where needed (although it wouldn't have come to that if they had proper game designers), but they continued with the production despite the fact that their enthusiasm clearly ended after 1/3 of the game. Seriously, almost 22 hours for "Main + Extras", it's insane: https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=16638

Finally got to this game in my backlog.
I can just echo the comments which were written before me. I really wanted to like this game, and I liked it in the first 5 hours. The graphics, the Alien, the sounds are fantastic. But I am 6.8 hours in, and I'm really forcing myself to continue the game. I think I call it a day and finish it here. It's just unimaginative and boring. Yes, the Alien is lurking there, I hear it, but I am tired of sitting in the locker room every time the script sends him my way. And after the nth time, it is not scary, it is frustraing. Every time it kills me, I just roll my eyes and reload. And of course I can't save anytime I want, so I have to start from an earlier part.
And the objectives are always just go to point A, then from there go to point B, then point C, without any thought. I can't take this for 22 hours.

 

[Outlander]

Your mistake was playing without the Unpredictable Alien Mod.

 

[orcinator]

Your mistake was playing

 

[J_C]

Your mistake was playing without the Unpredictable Alien Mod.

Ok, I give it another shot using that mod.

 

[Machocruz]

After a while, dealing with the androids was more fun/interesting than the alien, who was just a nuisance most times.

 

[Morgoth]

I found playing with the Unpredictable Alien Mod made the game easier and the Alien less annoying. It's an Easy Mode cheat.

 

[Multidirectional]

Unpredictable AI + Hard difficulty is the way to go. I don't think it makes the game too easy, just less tedious. Having Alien be close to you all the time gets old very fast, I definitely preferred using the mod over vanilla.

 

[J_C]

Unpredictable AI + Hard difficulty is the way to go. I don't think it makes the game too easy, just less tedious. Having Alien be close to you all the time gets old very fast, I definitely preferred using the mod over vanilla.

I'm continuing the game with the mod and I enjoy a lot more. Unfortunately the difficulty is stuck on medium (unless you can change it midway), so the game is a bit easy, but I don't want to restart the game.

 

[T45 Paladin]

Did the game not sell well enough or something? I mean, it certainly seemed pretty popular. How come no one's planning a sequel or a prequel or a spiritual successor etc?

 

[mastroego]

"Videogame journalists" is the answer you're looking for.