Alien not scary (spoilers maybe)

[Damicles]

Don't worry you'll get more tense as the game goes on after all rummaging around a room and the door on the other side of the room suddenly opens up and its standing there not seeing you yet and you hear it hiss before ducking down to hide behind a sofa or table as you hear it move in to the room before going next door to kill some poor sod and then coming back while you hidden is really creepy. Just wait until you get down to engineering core you won't want to play that level trust me its too creepy.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Well first off... watch the Alien movies.... no shut u- watch them...

And second, the horror of the game stems from the Alien never being there, so the game is far more tense than it is scary. Even if you don't find it scary does it succeed at being suspenseful? YOU BET YOUR ASS IT DOES. The way they spawn the Alien in is simply brilliant, the way you're never safe when you save is brilliant, and just the atmosphere during any of your actions and results you make in that game is brilliant. Best part is, the game only keeps getting better in it's presentation and i'm in love with it so far. Overall, really capturing the spirit of the original film...

No seriously, watch the films please...

 

[go-10]

you haven't seen the movies... DUDE WTF! Alien is awesome movie, go watch it RIGHT NOW!
kids these days no respect I tell ya, why back in my day we said please and thank you or else had to get on our knees over rice for an hour... get off my lawn!

my only gripe is the Xenomorph spawning system, sometimes I'm hiding in an air vent and he spawns behind me and bam dead. He didn't even look for me or anything he literally got lucky and spawned in my hiding spot which sucks but I'm sure they can fix it with a patch

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

The thing is, the Alien was never supposed to be scary itself. Heck, they basically get neutered in the James Cameron sequel. What WAS scary was the implication that, frankly, the human race is expendable. They find a stash of eggs on a crashed alien space craft at a time where human thought they were alone in the universe. There are mysterious pyramids built in honor of the creature, giing it an almost cult like background. Then the characters are stuck on a giant floating haunted house with no way to escape. No one is coming to help them. They're alone in the infinite black. And then, even if they survive, or kill the Alien, there's still an alien ship filled with hundreds of the buggers. Presumably there are more elsewhere. To make matters worse, even the humans can't be trusted. There are all these shady organizations that seem to know more than the audience or the crew, leading to a sense of paranoia. The monster wasn't scary, the ideas behind it were.

Except the Alien was supposed to be scary on its' own and, by all standards of the time, it really was back in 1979. It was a monster unlike everything else at the time. It was vaguely human in shape but still alien enough that the similarity wasn't readily apparent. It contained several sexual traits from both genders and was essentially a perfect predator that lived up to its' name, not to mention its' several distinct life stages (face hugger, chest burster, drone) kept the audience guessing as to how it would evolve. The Alien set the precedent for all later monster movies and because of its' scariness it became iconic. That's why it isn't very scary today, because it is a pop culture icon and even people who haven't seen the movies knows what an Alien looks like and what it does.

The film became scary not only because of the monster but because it also featured a dystopian future with a cast of space truckers that worked for a company that was ready to risk their lives in a heartbeat if it meant getting their hands on some more potential profit. The film took the zeitgeist of the late 70's and put it into the sci-fi genre, which up to that point had mostly been idealistic scenarios of Utopian futures or clear cut Good vs Evil-style scenarios. Alien instead showed a bleak future for mankind where space was just another place where big companies could exploit people.

I have no idea if the game captures any of this, but the sequels did not. They just turned the creature into a space velociraptor, which misses the point entirely. That's why James camerons film is not scary at all, despite having hundreds of the creatures.

Also because James Cameron's Aliens was not meant to be scary. It was a very intentional genre shift because Cameron felt that he could not properly emulate the horror that Scott had created in Alien. Cameron instead opted for the action-thriller angle with an overt Vietnam war tone and a theme about motherhood because it took the series in a new direction and made the sequel its' own movie instead of just "that pale copy". That's also why Aliens is consistently listed as one of the best action movies of all times, because it understands to exploit the scariness of its' source material while daring to take it in a new direction.

As for the game, it really nails the dread of encountering the Alien. You are afraid of it because it is the absolute apex predator and the best you can hope for is to temporarily distract it or outsmart it, not defeat it. It also likes to show up when you least expect it.

 

[Fox12]

The thing is, the Alien was never supposed to be scary itself. Heck, they basically get neutered in the James Cameron sequel. What WAS scary was the implication that, frankly, the human race is expendable. They find a stash of eggs on a crashed alien space craft at a time where human thought they were alone in the universe. There are mysterious pyramids built in honor of the creature, giing it an almost cult like background. Then the characters are stuck on a giant floating haunted house with no way to escape. No one is coming to help them. They're alone in the infinite black. And then, even if they survive, or kill the Alien, there's still an alien ship filled with hundreds of the buggers. Presumably there are more elsewhere. To make matters worse, even the humans can't be trusted. There are all these shady organizations that seem to know more than the audience or the crew, leading to a sense of paranoia. The monster wasn't scary, the ideas behind it were.

Except the Alien was supposed to be scary on its' own and, by all standards of the time, it really was back in 1979. It was a monster unlike everything else at the time. It was vaguely human in shape but still alien enough that the similarity wasn't readily apparent. It contained several sexual traits from both genders and was essentially a perfect predator that lived up to its' name, not to mention its' several distinct life stages (face hugger, chest burster, drone) kept the audience guessing as to how it would evolve. The Alien set the precedent for all later monster movies and because of its' scariness it became iconic. That's why it isn't very scary today, because it is a pop culture icon and even people who haven't seen the movies knows what an Alien looks like and what it does.

The film became scary not only because of the monster but because it also featured a dystopian future with a cast of space truckers that worked for a company that was ready to risk their lives in a heartbeat if it meant getting their hands on some more potential profit. The film took the zeitgeist of the late 70's and put it into the sci-fi genre, which up to that point had mostly been idealistic scenarios of Utopian futures or clear cut Good vs Evil-style scenarios. Alien instead showed a bleak future for mankind where space was just another place where big companies could exploit people.

I have no idea if the game captures any of this, but the sequels did not. They just turned the creature into a space velociraptor, which misses the point entirely. That's why James camerons film is not scary at all, despite having hundreds of the creatures.

Also because James Cameron's Aliens was not meant to be scary. It was a very intentional genre shift because Cameron felt that he could not properly emulate the horror that Scott had created in Alien. Cameron instead opted for the action-thriller angle with an overt Vietnam war tone and a theme about motherhood because it took the series in a new direction and made the sequel its' own movie instead of just "that pale copy". That's also why Aliens is consistently listed as one of the best action movies of all times, because it understands to exploit the scariness of its' source material while daring to take it in a new direction.

As for the game, it really nails the dread of encountering the Alien. You are afraid of it because it is the absolute apex predator and the best you can hope for is to temporarily distract it or outsmart it, not defeat it. It also likes to show up when you least expect it.

I probably should have worded that better. It's not that the original creature wasn't scary, it's that later creators didn't understand WHY it was scary. As we both mentioned, the sexual design gave it a disturbing subcontiois undertone, and the atmosphere reinforced that. Later directors seemed to think that the creature was scary just because it was dangerous, but in truth that was only a small aspect of the creatures design. The subtlety was lost.

As for Cameron, I think he made a fun movie but a bad sequel. While I liked the film quite a lot, it definitely removed a lot of the subtlety and atmosphere of the original, and frankly removed the more interesting psychological aspects of the original. It also removed the idea of the aliens as a threat. As a result, though I liked the movie, and thought it was a successful genre shift, I found it inferior to the original in almost every way.

I am glad to hear good things about the game, though. I was excited about it. Out of curiosity, do you think it holds up through the whole play through? There have been a few mixed reviews on the matter. Also, how long would you say the campaign was?

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

As for Cameron, I think he made a fun movie but a bad sequel. While I liked the film quite a lot, it definitely removed a lot of the subtlety and atmosphere of the original, and frankly removed the more interesting psychological aspects of the original. It also removed the idea of the aliens as a threat. As a result, though I liked the movie, and thought it was a successful genre shift, I found it inferior to the original in almost every way.

That's fair enough. I like Alien and Aliens for very different reasons, but I think both are good additions to the series and I have to disagree somewhat with the notion that Aliens removed the threat from the Alien. It is a movie where the best soldiers humanity can bring in aren't up to the task of taking out an Alien colony and even when they start playing smart the best thing the Marines can hope for is to cut losses and run, not win.

I am glad to hear good things about the game, though. I was excited about it. Out of curiosity, do you think it holds up through the whole play through? There have been a few mixed reviews on the matter. Also, how long would you say the campaign was?

I can't say yet, my hope was to be (almost) through by now, but real life go in the way. What I can say is that I can see some parts of the experience becoming frustrating due to how punishingly difficult the game is. As an example, I was in a section in which I had to traverse several rooms and corridors to get a thing in the middle of the map and then escape out the other end. After getting the macguffin and crawling my way towards the switch that would let me open the sealed doors that blocked my progress I had not seen the Alien for a good 10 minutes, though I kept hearing it moving around in the vents. By the switch I also see a save station, so I decide to head to that first. Halfway from the vent I came out of I start hearing the sound of something dripping. Then the Alien pounced on me from above and I had to redo the entire crawl to get the MacGuffin and get to the switch. As this was the first time I lost that much progress it was a cool experience to remind me of how deadly the Alien is and that I must be on my toes at all times. Should it happen again several times during my playthrough... Yeah, then I imagine it will get pretty damn tedious. And that's before any problems with pacing or dragging the game out.

 

[Lupine]

I watched Alien when I was relatively young, and let me tell you that Isolation encapsulates everything that terrified me as a child.

It's not the alien that scares me, it's the alien not being there that scares me, it's the always looking over my shoulder, it's the noises, the tricks your mind plays on you, the feeling of utter helplessness.

Then the alien is there, and it's an immediate threat, you can't run, because it can hear you and it's quicker, so you have to move ridiculously slow, so slow that you're terrified you won't make it across a goddamn corridor in time.

This. OH GOD! I'm glad that someone else knows my pain.

I saw Alien as a small child and I was never afraid of the dark, I was afraid of what might be there with the sense of dread building in your gut because of your own paranoia. I can say that I grew out of that, but even now Alien brings back that sense of childhood dread and this game seems to capture that perfectly. I'm actually still a little hesitant to play it honestly, but I'm going to and from watching others play, I'm expecting to have my childhood show up and laugh at me with a sharp and grizzly smile.

 

[brtt150]

Seeing the Alien isn't all too scary because you I know where it is and what its doing. When I think the Alien is gone and I rush out to finish my objectives that's when the fear kicks in.

 

[TrevHead]

As other have said you really need to watch the first 2 movies atleast, even if it's just to get a idea where this game and similar games like Dead Space are coming from. But even then, in the original Horror movie the Alien isn't THAT scary as it was just a dude in a rubber suit, It was the film's awesome cinematography (only showing parts of the creature for 4/5ths of the movie) and atmospheric pacing that made the creature scary.

 

[sXeth]

While I wasn't expecting it to hold up to the original viewing of Alien (because that proverbial wad is blown because you already know all about Aliens, even if you haven't specifically watched them), I found the game too cluttered to really do the xenomorph much justice. From the over-exposition of the guy at the start who immediately lets off that some non-human killing machine is running around, to the whole sidelines with human/android baddies. You're overcluttered with details and extra characters, and the xenomorph itself suffers for lack of attention.

That and lockers. Lockers in horror games are getting to be the proverbial chest high wall of third-person action/shooter games. You walk into an area, see them laid about, and immediately know something is going to go down. Which damages the unknown factor and has a diminishing effect on the atmosphere of dread.

 

[Denamic]

Seeing the Alien isn't all too scary because you I know where it is and what its doing. When I think the Alien is gone and I rush out to finish my objectives that's when the fear kicks in.

You know it's a motion sensor, right? Just because it doesn't show up on it doesn't mean it's not there.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Ok first off never seen the movies.

Stop right there. Stop playing Alien: Isolation or whatever it is you're playing, and IMMEDIATELY WATCH ALIEN AND ALIEN 2.

Hello Jims shadow account.

I never found the alien scary in the movie but i expect to jump a bit with this game. As long as its "tense" thats what the movies did for me.

 

[Ishal]

Eh, atmosphere is the only real appealing thing in that game. I played it, beat it, and ultimately returned my purchase.

I never was terrified of the original Alien movie. I can't really say why, I guess . The set of the movie was cool enough, if a bit dirty and low tech. But I guess that's the aesthetic they were going for, so fair enough. The alien to me was just kinda dumb as a kid. It's head is curved like a banana and it's got that dumb small mouth inside it's larger mouth.

Like I said, the best thing about the game is the atmosphere. If that is the thing that really got you in the films, then yeah, I guess I can see this game succeeding there. But that's really the only place it does imo. The whole thing is just a chore to get through. The alien will never let up, and it's always forcing you to hide in the lockers and impede your progress. It stopped being scary after the 16th time. There were too many androids padding out the experience and at least two of them bugged out on me where I couldn't hit them, but they could grab me.

It also just dragged on... and on... and on... kinda like movies themselves. Makes sense I suppose. And that ending?

Spoiler

quick time cinematic garbage

I just found it to be an unremarkable game with frustrating as hell gameplay, and after beating it myself and watching at least 7 or 8 streamers go through the same thing on Twitch, I know it wasn't just me. But honestly, if I understood the magic behind what made Alien so good to so many people, I'd probably appreciate it a lot more. I'm sure there were tons of little things in there that add to the experience.