Alien: Isolation. I want to like it, but...

[Schtoobs]

The game took me about 25 -30 hours to complete on hard. I didn't notice the backtracking too much as it made total sense to have to travel the same parts again whenever it occurred. Maybe I'm not very good at remembering locations or something.

I don't understand the claims of a poor save system or unfair AI... both were brilliant I thought and I rarely felt put out by having to do a bit again. At some points I was surprised by how many save stations there were.

The game really isn't hard unless you are impatient and try to sprint everywhere (sound is very important and isn't just for effect). LP's I've watched where the player dies repeatedly it's almost always because the player hasn't realised all the options they have or how the alien detects them. It is complete common sense but we aren't used to applying common sense in games for the most part. Hand holding and very strict logic and behaviours are what we are used to.

Changing the save system would break the immersion, I think it's pretty much spot on. I'm playing through again and it really is easy now. Bear in mind the game gets easier not just because of all the extra tools for distraction and self-defense you get, but because you become more familiar with the aliens behaviour and what all the different sounds mean (like getting in and out of ceiling vents).

You might have guessed I'm a big fan of this game. I'm glad so many people on here get the game and why the save system makes sense. It's frustrating that even when a game gets it so right some people still complain.

 

[Hithel]

"And I can confidently say roughly 20hrs of that day was spent replaying the same damn sections over and over and over and over and fucking over again."

OP has likely never played an old-school game. These days checkpoints and instasaves are what I consider to be ruining games.

 

[rbstewart7263]

I think somewhere within the mess that is Alien: Isolation, a great game lies waiting. Sadly, its being smothered to death by a poor save system, unfair AI, and a general lack of polish. To quote from Jurassic Park:

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should"

Creative Assembly set out to make the definitive Aliens game, and for lack of a better term, they succeeded. But I think a core part of the Alien creature/lore/world/whatever you want to call it, is that this alien is SOOOO much better at hunting you than you are at staying alive, that its utterly pointless. And MAYBE that shouldn't have been translated into a game.

As of writing, I am sitting bitterly on 24hrs of gameplay, according to Steam. One full day, and I'm on Mission 6. 6/WAY TOO MANY. And I can confidently say roughly 20hrs of that day was spent replaying the same damn sections over and over and over and over and fucking over again.

I'm not scared at any point in this Survival-Horror. I'm annoyed, frustrated and angry. The apparent cheating(I know its not cheating per-se, but I'm keeping this spoiler free) of the alien, watching it go around one corner and suddenly appear behind you...even if there is a legit Alien-verse reason for it, that's not making the game any less annoying. It feels like that the AI for the Alien was made so abominably difficult not to add challenge to the player(lets face it, standing down range at a firing range is challenging, but its not a good idea) but to pad out the game length itself. This may be whining, I grant that, but I spent money on this fucker, and I'm not getting my money's worth! Hell, I found Amnesia easier than this game, and Amnesia didn't have any weapons or a motion tracker or practically anywhere to hide!

To be anecdotal, I hid in a little box once in this game. First time ever, as previously I had hidden in lockers and under tables. First time in this little box at the end of a hallway. The alien had NOT spawned yet, but the motion tracker was telling me it was close.(.33m) I'm in the box, I watch the alien come down from a vent, it screeches and run directly at me, wrenches open the box and kills me. I had hidden BEFORE it appeared, and yet it still killed me, practically instantly. And it set me back a good 20mins of gameplay.
Now someone somewhere will defend this as noise or alerting the alien, blah blah blah. And I will counter with A) this was a section where other humans were around, making WAY more noise, and I could see them, meaning the Alien sure as shit could too And B) It didn't just sniff around, it fucking zeroed in on me in an instant! There was no holding breath thing, no watching it walk to and fro. It spawned and killed me. End of story, as if there is a line of code where the Alien finds and kills you every X steps/minutes, where X is a randomly generated number.

And I'm sorry, I know that its loyal to the Alien franchise and creature, but that doesn't mean its a good game, and certainly not one worth $45. For all the boasted stealth elements in this game, the Alien might as well be Slender-Man and just spawn right behind you when you pick up the macguffin. The game was actually scary when it was just the Working Joes and their lifeless glowing eyes and creepy 'You're not supposed to be here' lines. It was tense, it was exciting and there was a chance to get out of the danger. I remember waiting until the last possible moment to shoot a Working Joe in the neck. It staggered and muttered "Really?" and I laughed SO much.
But the Alien...its immune to bullets, and bombs and I don't have a flamer thrower AND its faster than you. When one sees me, I just reload. I don't even bother trying to fight it off or escape or anything. I just take the last 20mins of gameplay as a loss and try again for the billionth time today.

For me, the Alien completely ruins this otherwise scary Aliens game.

Not that it matters much, but I can't recommend this game.

What difficulty are you on? The alien can hear the motion trackers beep when your close and when your in the vents / boxes you have to lean back when its close.

Also this might just not be your genre or you may need more practice/familiarity with it to play it well no offense. Im sitting at 23 hours and im near the end of the game. some parts were difficult but ive got a pretty firm grasp on what I can and cant do.

Also whilst hiding ill watch and the alien will go up a vent and then come out of a vent further down to trick you. You gotta be smarter than that and be more patient.

 

[Scott Santos]

dude? im playing it on hard, probably died 100 times by now, im on mission 14 where u actually have more than 1 alien. do you wanna know why i'm loving it?? because its so realistic, if the aliens senses are strong, obviously he will hear you or feel u move around even if you move slow. the AI is amazing, its so hard but that makes it worth the 70 bucks you pay, not like games that u beat in 2 days even on hard difficulty. alien isolation is by far the best game i have ever played, even if i cant finish it on hard i still love it. i think the truth is that you just suck! i have seen guys beat it on hard mod on youtube so i guess its possible, just figure it out

 

[stroopwafel]

The gameplay in Alien Isolation flows incredibly well, but it's about evasion rather than confrontation. The way they recreated the atmosphere of the original movie is also phenomenal. I also don't understand the complaints though. First people complain everything nowadays is either a CoD clone or some other shooter, and then a rare gem like Alien comes along and it's not shooter-y enough(?)

It's a fantastic game but I always put difficulty on the lowest setting, and play it cautioulsy and deliberately. This game also has exceptional sound-design, from both the crumbling ship to the footsteps and hisses of the Alien itself. If you pay attention you can always fairly guess what direction the Alien is coming from, and then use the motion tracker just to be sure. This game emphasises 'situational awareness' at all times. Espescially b/c the movement of the Alien itself is very unpredictable. It adds a sense of tension that is unbelievably atmospheric. You truly feel ehmmm...'isolated'. What is even more awesome is using the Alien your advantage. Like when you encounter human enemies to fire your gun to lure the Alien, hide under a table and see them get ripped apart.

It took me a while for the game to 'click' with me, but having spent a considerable amount of time with it I can see how exceptionally well designed it is. A true love-letter to one of my favorite movies of all time.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I just completed this game on Hard today and I have to say I partly agree.

At it's best, the Alien stalking you is terrifying and efficient while you *just* manage to stay one step ahead: diving into a locker and holding your breath because you hear that distinctive stomping in the corridor right behind you, tossing a noise-maker into a corner and praying you can get past the perfect organism before it grows bored with the distraction, watching that blip on the motion-tracker get closer and closer....

At it's worst, the game is complete bullshit: avoiding the Alien via locker only for it to teleport bright into your face when you exhale, throwing a noise-maker only for it to bounce off a corner and land at your feet because Ripley throws like a fucking stereotypical girl, seeing your motion-tracker declare all threats to be 90m away and then getting murder-glomped because the Alien was actually within spitting distance the entire time....

The worst sections are the Medbay, Engineering and the final chunk of the game, but fortunately the rest of the level design makes up for it.

Useful tip: I found that always being on the move while crouched kept the Alien doing its vent routine for longer and that abusing the locker and desk hiding spots would just make it search the area more often and more thoroughly.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I just completed this game on Hard today and I have to say I partly agree.

At it's best, the Alien stalking you is terrifying and efficient while you *just* manage to stay one step ahead: diving into a locker and holding your breath because you hear that distinctive stomping in the corridor right behind you, tossing a noise-maker into a corner and praying you can get past the perfect organism before it grows bored with the distraction, watching that blip on the motion-tracker get closer and closer....

At it's worst, the game is complete bullshit: avoiding the Alien via locker only for it to teleport bright into your face when you exhale, throwing a noise-maker only for it to bounce off a corner and land at your feet because Ripley throws like a fucking stereotypical girl, seeing your motion-tracker declare all threats to be 90m away and then getting murder-glomped because the Alien was actually within spitting distance the entire time....

The worst sections are the Medbay, Engineering and the final chunk of the game, but fortunately the rest of the level design makes up for it.

Useful tip: I found that always being on the move while crouched kept the Alien doing its vent routine for longer and that abusing the locker and desk hiding spots would just make it search the area more often and more thoroughly.

With respect to your "at its best" and "at its worst" things...as I understand it there's a bit of an issue with difficulty and Alien leashing to the player making things feel wonky.

Basically I've seen a number of people saying that the lower the difficulty the more it feels like a proper Alien game because the Alien will roam around a lot more, making it more unpredictable. However this makes the game easier by reducing its overall ability to detect you which is unfortunate.

On the other hand on the harder difficulties the Alien gets leashed to you incredibly tightly as well as being smarter. Which means you can't move without it being right on you. Which yeah, makes the game more challenging, but also kinda makes it more frustrating because it feels less like cat and mouse and more like "you're being watched, put a foot wrong and your screwed".

I've read some people calling for a difficulty that matches an easier difficulty's leash radius with the harder difficulty's AI. Wouldn't be a bad idea.

Haven't finished it myself yet (in fact I've not had a lot of time to play) but on the whole I've been enjoying it and I'm just playing it on the medium difficulty. Parts are tricky, but not frustrating and it really feels quite oppressive because the Alien could be anywhere.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I just completed this game on Hard today and I have to say I partly agree.

At it's best, the Alien stalking you is terrifying and efficient while you *just* manage to stay one step ahead: diving into a locker and holding your breath because you hear that distinctive stomping in the corridor right behind you, tossing a noise-maker into a corner and praying you can get past the perfect organism before it grows bored with the distraction, watching that blip on the motion-tracker get closer and closer....

At it's worst, the game is complete bullshit: avoiding the Alien via locker only for it to teleport bright into your face when you exhale, throwing a noise-maker only for it to bounce off a corner and land at your feet because Ripley throws like a fucking stereotypical girl, seeing your motion-tracker declare all threats to be 90m away and then getting murder-glomped because the Alien was actually within spitting distance the entire time....

The worst sections are the Medbay, Engineering and the final chunk of the game, but fortunately the rest of the level design makes up for it.

Useful tip: I found that always being on the move while crouched kept the Alien doing its vent routine for longer and that abusing the locker and desk hiding spots would just make it search the area more often and more thoroughly.

With respect to your "at its best" and "at its worst" things...as I understand it there's a bit of an issue with difficulty and Alien leashing to the player making things feel wonky.

Basically I've seen a number of people saying that the lower the difficulty the more it feels like a proper Alien game because the Alien will roam around a lot more, making it more unpredictable. However this makes the game easier by reducing its overall ability to detect you which is unfortunate.

On the other hand on the harder difficulties the Alien gets leashed to you incredibly tightly as well as being smarter. Which means you can't move without it being right on you. Which yeah, makes the game more challenging, but also kinda makes it more frustrating because it feels less like cat and mouse and more like "you're being watched, put a foot wrong and your screwed".

I've read some people calling for a difficulty that matches an easier difficulty's leash radius with the harder difficulty's AI. Wouldn't be a bad idea.

Haven't finished it myself yet (in fact I've not had a lot of time to play) but on the whole I've been enjoying it and I'm just playing it on the medium difficulty. Parts are tricky, but not frustrating and it really feels quite oppressive because the Alien could be anywhere.

I was already aware that the Alien's AI was leashed to the player, I was just talented and handsome fortunate enough to get through the game on Hard without the Xenomorph being right up my arse at all times. It was only in the sections I mentioned in the original post where I felt that the Alien was unfairly omnipresent; especially in the Medbay where it's A) bad enough that your first major encounter with the Alien has it *constantly* hunting every nook and cranny for you, B) worse that the entire chapter area is made up of corridors long enough for the creature to see you under gurneys *but* not wide enough to facilitate quick escape or better hiding spots and C), you have no way of scaring the Alien off or protecting yourself.

 

[laggyteabag]

I got the game for Christmas, and I haven't played it since then. I got to the part with the Working Joes, and I just kinda came to the conclusion of "This is kinda boring. I want to run away from the Alien, not these. This isn't what I payed for.".

It is on my backlog. I will probably get around to it at some point, but as of right now, I really cannot be arsed.