Expectations for Alien Isolation

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Sadly, I'm not excited for the game. It's not a style of game I really care about. However, I did watch a video from a Youtuber that relates to this and did find it interesting. And it may give the OP and others in this thread a bit of confidence.

I'm in the same boaty, I thought it was going to be set somewhere else to be canon or at least another Marines attempt but it's basically an Amnesia type game and I did play Amnesia for a few hours but got bored quickly and wasn't exactly scared to hell by it.

I guess in the end I'll have to wait another 7 or so years until we get another marines type game or at least one where we have actual combat instead of running and hiding most of the time.

 

[RJ 17]

And the Alien itself just isn't scary anymore, and has never even been scary in a videogame.

I think that's one of the reasons that this game is being made in the first place. It all reaches back to the original movie - which the studio developers have said they're specifically trying to emulate - and how it was the only actual horror movie out of the bunch. The rest of them were all more actiony. Similarly, every game that's ever featured the Xenomorphs has been actiony, either side-scrolling beat'em-ups or FPS's. According to the developers they're wanting to capture the scariness from the first movie. As such they set out to make Outlast...but with a Xenomorph instead of a big ugly dude. Will it be effective? I think it's got a shot, considering the current popularity of all these "You can't fight back, you can only run and hide!" games these days.

OT:

Yes, yes, we all know that A:CM was a crap game and it's left a nasty taste in everyone's mouth. But the only way to get that nasty taste out of your mouth is to wash it out with something that tastes better. And you'll never know if something tastes better unless you give it a try. As such, I'm looking forward to Isolation, in the hopes that it redeems the Aliens name...and that it washes the taste of swamp-ass out of my mouth that was left there by A:CM.

 

[Iwata]

I'm pretty excited for it. The game so far looks fantastic, the people that I follow who've played it have loved it, and I can't wait to pick up my copy next week.

 

[Malbourne]

I haven't played any other Alien games, nor do I think it likely that I'll play this one. But given the current pedigree for the franchise, I really, really don't want this game to be bad. Average, fine. If it's got the atmosphere and lore, it can pass like Amnesia's sequel did. It's unlikely that it'll reach the bar set by Colonial Marines, though. From what I hear, it may actually hearken back to the actual, well...isolation that permeated the movies.

 

[Alfador_VII]

I have extremely low expectations because it's published by Sega who helped screw up Colonial Marines, and developed by Creative Assembly who screwed up Rome 2.

But the final nail in the coffin for me was the stupid pre-order crap. They lock away all of the content involving Ripley (the real one) and the other Alien Movie characters as a pre-order bonus, and worse, most of it is Gamestop exclusive.

So if the game turns out to be amazing, I'll wait for the GOTY/Collector's Edition with all the content in it to get to the Steam Sale

 

[Daft Ada]

I played it a few times at EGX last weekend and it scared the hell out of me, I found it really atmospheric. As good as it was, I probably won't pick it up because I'm a wuss when it comes to horror games, and I know I'll never get through it without a large supply of spare undies at my side.

 

[hermes]

I expect this game to be scary, and have a good atmosphere, but the whole point of hiding and running from a xenomorph will run thin long before the end.

 

[Catfood220]

Well here is a review from Metro Gamecentral page. They are usually pretty spot on with their reviews (in fact they are the only site I trust, having followed them from their humble Teletext pages. English people will know what that is)

http://metro.co.uk/2014/10/03/alien-isolation-review-not-another-bug-hunt-4891377/

Sounds like its ok but pretty repetitive. I think I'll pick it up when it gets a little cheaper. I have enough to be playing, I don't need anything else on the pile.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

It seems Rock, Paper, Shotgun loved it [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/10/03/alien-isolation-review-pc/#more-238657]. I think it will be interesting to give it a go next week.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

So... as an update to my previous post, I caved and bought it. I bought it entirely because of Jim Sterling's review of it here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/reviews/12346-Alien-Isolation-Review]. I've been watching and reading his stuff for a while, and it's clear that the guy loves the Alien franchise. With how much he tore Aliens: Colonial Marines a new one, I figured that his impression of Alien: Isolation would be trustworthy.

And yeah... so far, it's actually pretty great. I'm not very far in it (had to go to work), but they've got the style and atmosphere of the first movie pretty much perfect. I'm actually finding that the game reminds me a lot of System Shock 2, and that's also a definite plus for me. So barring any extremely huge bullshit later in the game, I'm cautiously willing to say that it might be the best thing that's happened with this universe in video game form.

 

[teqrevisited]

I fell victim to CM, but I couldnt resist. So far I've not even seen the alien and I'm loving the atmosphere. The aesthetics and sound design are both spot on. I just hope I have enough spare pairs of boxers to finish the game. I'm awful at not getting scared by atmospheric games. Amnesia: The Dark Descent made me paranoid for a week.

 

[Carnagath]

I bought it and it crashes every 5 minutes. Before that, I bought Shadow of Mordor and it crashes every 90 minutes. And before that, I bought the Metro Redux collection and it crashes randomly. What the fuck is going on with games these days? Anyone else have problems with it?

PC: i7 4790K, 16g ram @2400, Gigabyte OC 780 Ti, Sandisk Extreme Pro 480 gb, Win 8.1 Pro. Everything is updated, using latest Nvidia drivers 344.11. And no, my memory does not have any errors, and I'm not crashing due to overheating, I played Dead Rising 3 with no problems which keeps my GPU at 100% load...

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Ive read the reviews but seems to me is one of those games you don't really play more than once or twice --- for that I can def wait way later on.

Will put it on a " to do " list.

 

[small]

Ive read the reviews but seems to me is one of those games you don't really play more than once or twice --- for that I can def wait way later on.

Will put it on a " to do " list.

i would normally say yes. just once or twice at most but ive found out the hard way the alien isnt scripted so that prick can show up at any point hunting you mostly or other people. heck i was stuck in a small dead end room with next to no cover, the alien was outside looking around. then i noticed other survivors making a run for it. that thing about i dont have to be faster than the alien just faster than you.. definitely worked out, it chased after the slowest guy and i got away.. totally unscripted

along with the time i walked through a door way and discovered i it crawling out of a ceiling vent right in front of me.. that was painful

my expectation was something similar to alien in feel

what i got was something very alien in feel, right down to retro futuristic touches like green screen monitors
to me the bar has now been set and its the best game based on the franchise released. i even forgive CA for the pile of steaming crap that was the release of rome 2

 

[RJ 17]

Well I've played it for about a hour and the game is so awesome at building up the atmosphere and tension. The part at the end of the second mission when your waiting for the transport had me at the edge of my seat, even though nothing happened my heart was going in time with the music, it was really cool. However I've gotten slightly stuck at the beginning of the next mission

Sounds like what I just went through. That transport is paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaainfully slow in getting there, the entire time I'm just huddled in a dark corner chanting "hurryuphurryuphurryuphurryup HURRY THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!"

Spoiler: As for the part you're stuck on...

Maybe you've already gotten past it by now, but in case you haven't, yeah, you have to try and sneak your way past them. I managed to sneak my way to those desks towards the door the woman shoots at you from. From there I just made a break for it: up the stairs and around the corner. Took a couple bullets in the back but once you get through a door upstairs they give up pursuit...too afraid to follow you down the next set of stairs.

 

[Luca72]

This is quite possibly the single most immersive game I've ever played. It's the sort of game that deserves the divisive reputation it already has though. It reminds me of Mirrors Edge a bit - it's an imperfect game but it does a few things incredibly well, and those things that it does well aren't even available in any other game out there.

The stealth feels awkward because I've gotten used to games with complex "cone-of-vision" minimaps, or with "get out of trouble" moves like Dishonoreds' blink. Instead, you have to use sound cues from the environment and watch what enemies are doing. And the alien itself lives up to the hype. It's one of the hardest video game opponents I've ever encountered. I just finished my second encounter with it (on hard mode) and it took me close to AN HOUR to get through that part. That was nearly an hour of solid tension, of a few deaths deserved and a few that felt cheap. The alien is very unpredictable and extremely fast, but once you test out the environment for hiding spots you'll be able to avoid it 90% of the time with some care. But there is really no twitch gameplay to this. It feels more like the later stages of Xcom, where you never make a move out of position because one wrong move can end the fight.

This game basically doesn't throw you a single bone, and expects you to figure out novel approaches to solving it. It almost defies conventional reviews for modern games because it isn't built like a modern game - it isn't trying to help you win. It's the old school game mentality - it's going to do everything it can to stop you from seeing the end, so it feels that much sweeter when you get there. I can give it the same kind of recommendation I'd give the Alien film - it's a masterpiece, but you might not like it.

 

[Iwata]

I've bought it. Played it. Met my (ridiculously high) expectations and then some.