Alien: Isolation Reveal Preview

[Bindal]

Picking up an "Outlast in space" vibe from this - which makes me very excited...! Using Ripley's daughter (before she got married, apparently) seems a little unnecessary, but at least the devs aren't screaming "We're canon! This is a legitimate in-between-quel!" like the A:CM asshats

Probably because it might not be, unlike Colonial Marines, which IS.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

I don't want to play this game =[

I mean, I'll buy it and I want everyone else to buy it and I want the games industry to see everyone buying it and realize that games like this work so much better than "You are a war god, here is all the guns ever. now go Kill Kill Kill" games but I don't want to play it // This looks and feels as scary as the first Alien film

I don't want to be alone in the dark with a single alien hunting me

Also I did love the music playing, it felt and sounded like the original film which just makes it better

-M

 

[Adam Locking]

...Aliens really seemed to imply that Amanda lived a long, happy, boring life.

Of course Amanda lived a happy life, with no Alien encounters whatsoever. And Ash, he didn't really betray you on our orders did he, it was only an unfortunate malfunction. Now, let's all head over to LV-426 to eradicate these Aliens once and for all. No, we aren't going to try to bring one back, don't you trust me? Just because I'm from The Company, doesn't mean I'm not a nice guy...

 

[Commander Obvious]

Another Aliens game? What could go wrong?

 

[josemlopes]

A nice middle ground would be doable, very limited ammo, space station and all imagine you could find a pistol or shotgun and some ammo somewhere on a big station like that, heck a full armory would not be unusual, make your access to firearms and ammo force you to choose when and where to fight and when and where to avoid and run.

A middle ground that could work would be having the guns not kill the alien but scare him off or at least hurt him.

From the preview they say that the alien here is an AI and not a scripted event so if the player managed to hurt him it would mean that the AI would fall back for a while giving the player a way to fight back without feeling more powerfull then the alien itself.

 

[Flippincrazy]

No. Not again. Don't think I could take this being awful after the seven-year anti-climax that was 'Aliens: Colonial Marines'. Please be good...

Melodrama aside, I'm intrigued by the trailer and this preview. Lots of promising ideas seem to be being implemented, and I'll be watching for future gameplay videos of this.

Thanks for the preview!

 

[kael013]

This is the Alien game I've always wanted. Yeah, [i/]Aliens[/i] was an awesome movie and the marines were cool, but all the games based on them never really tickled my fancy (to me they all seemed like CoD with the [i/]Alien[/i] sticker slapped on). But this... [i/]this[/i] is what I'm talking about!

Possible gripe: I hope that the other tools (like the cutting one we saw) are used for more than one function (like cutting emergency panels open). What I mean is that when we hit a snag we are able to use all the tools we've collected so far and have multiple ways to solve the problem instead of just a singular, scripted answer.

 

[Brian Tams]

I really really really want this to succeed for multiple reasons.

1. I finally get a good Aliens game. Hurray!
2. This will apply a much needed healing solution to the gaping wound left by colonial marines. Hurray!
3. AAA publishers will no longer be able to say that true survival horror is dead. Hip, hip, hurray!

But I'm skeptical because, you know, Colonial Marines...

 

[LordMonty]

sounds like they've just gone and made a game that people want... now where is the bolt on multiplayer?

 

[Seracen]

I dunno. This looks cool. However, at this point, I am so used to having ample waves of aliens fall to my arsenal, it just seems odd to be running away from just ONE. Yes, I know, no weapons and all, it still feels odd to me.

As for Creative Assembly, they've generally created fun, pretty, and competent works, if not necessarily lasting memorable or groundbreaking. More power to them. However, I hope they stick to the low-profile mindset, rather than fooling themselves themselves into "making a blockbuster."

 

[major_chaos]

You know game devs, if I wanted to play amnesia twenty times I could just do that, you don't need to all jump up and make the exact same game.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

It sounds promising indeed. Glad that I'm not the only one who is a bit curious to see how one enemy throughout the entire game is going to work out, but it sounds like they have taken steps to make sure it doesn't get boring and easy to outsmart. I hope they manage to pull this off.

 

[cerebus23]

A nice middle ground would be doable, very limited ammo, space station and all imagine you could find a pistol or shotgun and some ammo somewhere on a big station like that, heck a full armory would not be unusual, make your access to firearms and ammo force you to choose when and where to fight and when and where to avoid and run.

A middle ground that could work would be having the guns not kill the alien but scare him off or at least hurt him.

From the preview they say that the alien here is an AI and not a scripted event so if the player managed to hurt him it would mean that the AI would fall back for a while giving the player a way to fight back without feeling more powerfull then the alien itself.

Depending on the type of station also a civilian station might be limited to buckshot and standard ammos, which would not do much to an alien, non letal plastic bullets on a station might be more common than lead ammo that can go through bulkheads and windows.

You can logically nerf any weapons available so you can use as a delay or scare tactic rather an i kill you thing, but would take good ai and well still waiting to see really good ai, but the way aliens move and stalk with really good ai you could arm the player and still kill the player with ease if the ai could stalk, wait in ambush, and just avoid your nasty little guns after a few encounters.

But i am sure many people will give their eye teeth to play amnesia with aliens, and alien fans that never played amnesia can get their aliens itch scratched less they utterly mess it up.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

A female protagnoist?
In a survival horror game?
Set in the Alien universe?
With only a single Xeno?
And an emphasis on running/hiding rather than fighting?

All packed inside a triple A title? Goodness me, can it possibly be true?

I find it depressingly indicative of the state of the entire industry when devs are actually excited about being the only ones to be making a survival horror game. They seem genuinely surprised that people want to play their game. Has this industry learned nothing from the indie scene and the multitude of horror let's players on YouTube? We need more of this stuff!

Also, I'm calling bullshit on the final scene of that video. If Ripley is sucked out an airlock into space she'd have been frozen dead in the few seconds of space we were shown before the video cut out. They better have a good explanation for that one.

 

[Skeleon]

This looks quite promising. I'm not ready to give it my trust yet, but I'll keep an eye on it.

EDIT:

Also, I'm calling bullshit on the final scene of that video. If Ripley is sucked out an airlock into space she'd have been frozen dead in the few seconds of space we were shown before the video cut out. They better have a good explanation for that one.

Considering another scene showed the player getting bitten in the head by the alien? I'd assume this was just another way to die. :-D
But I doubt freezing would be that quick, especially considering she's still surrounded by air as she's catapulted out.

 

[Stomperchomper]

Also, I'm calling bullshit on the final scene of that video. If Ripley is sucked out an airlock into space she'd have been frozen dead in the few seconds of space we were shown before the video cut out. They better have a good explanation for that one.

Not sure how true it is, but I remember hearing that you would actually have a hard time freezing to death in space, since it's a vacuum, and therefore there's nowhere for your body heat to actually go.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Also, I'm calling bullshit on the final scene of that video. If Ripley is sucked out an airlock into space she'd have been frozen dead in the few seconds of space we were shown before the video cut out. They better have a good explanation for that one.

Not sure how true it is, but I remember hearing that you would actually have a hard time freezing to death in space, since it's a vacuum, and therefore there's nowhere for your body heat to actually go.

That's an interesting point I had not considered. Curse you science fiction movies for inappropriately portraying exposure to the vacuum!

Research! Wikipedia seems to think that the decompression itself is more deadly, essentially sucking the oxygen from you and collapsing your lungs. Grisly.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Yeah it would be really easy to get excited over this. They seem to understand that this creature and property would better suit a horror game than it would a shooter.
It looks like they are on the right track.

Then again it?s looked like that before hasn?t it? And I don?t just mean with CM. It?s not like Gearbox were the only ones to completely botch up an Aliens game. Aside from AVP2 I can?t really think any other Alien game I would call good.

Sorry but until they give me a demo I?ll just roll my eyes and say shut up and earn my money guys.

 

[Right Hook]

My only gripe is that the main character is Ripley's daughter. Just, why? That's so dumb! Ripley didn't have some special genetics that made her better suited to fighting xenomorphs (At least in the first three...), and Aliens really seemed to imply that Amanda lived a long, happy, boring life.

I agree that it is sort of a stretch to except Ripley's daughter to end up dealing with this but it isn't like she's fighting the thing anyway, she's hiding, her mothers horrible legacy scarred her life, making the Alien universe (somehow) more tragic than it already is. As for the impression of a happy, boring life? Who did we hear this from? BURKE. Who does Burke work for? We are told that Amanda arrives on station with a team from Weyland Yutani. You really think they'd tell Ripley about this or that they'd tell the truth about anything?

AVP, the 1999 one, was scary to an extent.
You, alone, with your gun and simply not enough light. Aliens can come from any vent or spawn location, your ammo is limited, your light also is limited, you can not simply outsneak them (and how do you hide from a species that sees your IR signature anyway...). You HAVE to fight. That gets the heart pounding - the combination of setup, atmosphere and the ever present specter of YOU being inadequate at shooting aliens fast enough before they claw your heart out of your torso.


Its always scarier if you have the impression of being able to fight.

AVP 1999 is a sweet game, I think non-fighting horror can work but I completely agree that having a weapon doesn't kill the tension if it is done right. My first playthrough of Resident Evil 4 can attest to that, half a clip of ammo for a weak pistol, eight foreign dudes in robes slowly stalking towards me with pointy objects, only way through is to kill them all, I shudder at the memory.

 

[Agayek]

Also, I'm calling bullshit on the final scene of that video. If Ripley is sucked out an airlock into space she'd have been frozen dead in the few seconds of space we were shown before the video cut out. They better have a good explanation for that one.

Not in the slightest. It takes a very long time for things to cool in space, as there's no medium by which to transfer the heat, it can only be emitted by radiation. That's actually one of the major hurdles of space travel (and especially space warfare). The craft will keep building up heat the more energy is used inside it and without a very efficient way to handle that build up, it can easily reach levels that damage components or crew. In this case, that means, depending on her metabolism and state of exertion, she's more likely to overheat than freeze.

Being exposed to the vacuum of space does terrible things to the human body, such as causing your blood to boil (potentially going so far as bursting your eyes, if your blood pressure is high enough), and you will suffocate in short order, but you're not going to freeze to death.