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Alien: Isolation


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So I thought id pre-emptively start a thread on this game. I'm currently just waiting for it to install on my seX-box and once I've played it for a bit I'll provide my review :). Seeing as one of our esteemed admins worked on the game, i thought it would be a good discussion point.

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The game is pretty well done with the atmosphere, story and background, it pretty much brings you back to the old Alien movie. Mini-games and puzzles were a nice add to the survival horror part. The only drawback is the occasional bugs (mainly with doors, NPCs and triggers) which can effect your progress or screw you to the point you need to restart. There is also a difficulty/luck factor involved and sometimes the game gets a bit boring after trying the same (long) part again and again.

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Does have some epic plot twists though...

 

And an omniscient Alien (that alternates between supernatural detection and obliviousness to the frail human hiding under it's nose jaw thingy) with a super unreasoning hatred for the main character (that F++ker follows you EVERYWHERE, ignoring other enemies to get at you) even though you have done nothing to it...

 

Must have figured out that your related to the woman who murdered its sister/brother/thing by blowing it out an airlock.

 

 

Seriously, joking aside, the Alien HATES you in this game.

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And an omniscient Alien (that alternates between supernatural detection and obliviousness to the frail human hiding under it's nose jaw thingy) with a super unreasoning hatred for the main character (that F++ker follows you EVERYWHERE, ignoring other enemies to get at you) even though you have done nothing to it...

 

Must have figured out that your related to the woman who murdered its sister/brother/thing by blowing it out an airlock.

 

Seriously, joking aside, the Alien HATES you in this game.

 

Actually what I observed is that the Alien pretty much ignored you at the beginning, but as you progressed to hide and escape from it, it actually considers of you as "challenge prey", it knows you are the smart one thus focuses on you more over time which makes sense. What does not make sense is that later it seems like everyone is allied against you.

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One_Winged_Angel was part of the QA team for Alien:Isolation over at Creative Assembly.

me and OWA both think the game is really well put-together though i've yet to finish it... the guys at CA did a really good job of it and i had a chance to meet a bunch of the team a while ago at OWA's house-warming party.

albeit the game has a little slow in pace at the start, and IMO the Xenomorphs don't play enough presence earlier on in the game, however if you look at the original film it's a similar kind of deal. i just don't believe that pacing doesn't translate 100% well from big screen to in-game

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Seriously, this game is fucking scary. Please excuse my French but I've not been this scared since the arms break through the wall on resident evil 2.

 

I'm genuinely more scared of those beady eyed androids than the alien... For some reason they dredge up a feeling of severe terror... I seriously don't think I can keep playing.

 

Also, as a massive fan of retro computing, I absolutely love the 1970s looking computer terminals!

Edited by Shnappz
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For me, I think Outlast, Amnesia games or even the new Slender are more scarier (since you have no weapons/NPC friends at all, nothing seems to make sense and game-play is more focused on scarring you/building up tension rather than solving objectives/killing enemies).

I'd compare Alien to Death Space - both are very well done space horrors with good visuals and detail & of course excellent game-play and story, but don't scare you as much since they are too predictable (if you are used to it) and generally in space you are stuck with alien monsters mostly which are sometimes more fascinating than actually horrifying (actually in Alien I haven't seen anything that much horrifying).

I think if you are drooling/solving/killing/watching cut scenes too much in a horror game you don't get as scared as for example in a dark game where you don't have many distractions. :p

That of course doesn't mean less scary games are inferior, they are just less scary and more interesting/fun/relaxing.

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Glad you like the game guys! The truth behind the Alien is that once the game is bedded in, the Alien is not scripted. It has senses that pick up on noise in the level. So if you hit a wall with the maintenance jack, the Alien will likely come down from the vents and investigate what it was.

 

the other awesome thing about the Alien is that it learns by doing. So if you use the flamethrower on it for the first time (for example) it will remember for the next time you point the weapon towards it. It'll act a lot more wary and slowly stalk you unless you let your guard down. If you do, it will run full pelt at you like it usually does.

 

The game was made by a bunch of incredibly talented people and all of the different aspects tie together to create something that's really immersive. We won a BAFTA for the sound recently which really helped hit home the fact that the team had made something incredible!

 

Fun fact by the way, did you know that the game was originally intended to be third person?

 

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Since writing my last post I have to retract my statement about the alien not being too scary... It is :)

 

The tension the game creates (much of it through the sounds and atmosphere) is incredible. Best game I've played In a long time....

 

Re the alien having a level of real AI, I didn't know that but had an inkling the more I've encountered it.

 

Also I bought Aliens: Colonial marines at the same time and while it looks nice, it has absolutely zero fear-factor... I feel like I'm shooting dumb acid-bags rather than intelligent killing machines... Shame as it would be nice to have a shooter that rivalled the original avp which I really enjoyed.

Edit: I think 3rd person would've taken a lot away from the game as well...

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Actually Alien is scripted in some parts (mostly at the beginning where he ignores you), where in some parts he's released to follow you or just tease you or once again, ignore you.

 

Also I bought Aliens: Colonial marines at the same time and while it looks nice, it has absolutely zero fear-factor... I feel like I'm shooting dumb acid-bags rather than intelligent killing machines... Shame as it would be nice to have a shooter that rivalled the original avp which I really enjoyed.
Edit: I think 3rd person would've taken a lot away from the game as well...

 

Completely agree with this.


 

Fun fact by the way, did you know that the game was originally intended to be third person?

 

 

Ahh, they could have two modes available then! (there are two kinds of people)

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Also I bought Aliens: Colonial marines at the same time and while it looks nice, it has absolutely zero fear-factor... I feel like I'm shooting dumb acid-bags rather than intelligent killing machines... Shame as it would be nice to have a shooter that rivalled the original avp which I really enjoyed.

Edit: I think 3rd person would've taken a lot away from the game as well...

 

If memory serves me correctly the original concept for Aliens dot dot :D Colonial Marines was actually a lot more similar to Aliens Isolation than the end product we received (which was put together in a couple of months after GearBox realized what a mess they had created by not arsing themselves to put any effort in and handing it to a third party developer [which was multiplayer focused])

 

Originally the Aliens would have changed tactics to counter what the players were up to, using vents to bypass sentry turrets and sealed doors, disabling power to rooms the marines had fortified and working as a team to kill the marines (distraction, luring, flanking etc.)

 

They would also have retreated if faced with overwhelming odds and lurked further through the level waiting for the Marines to become more vulnerable (unless the Marines were too close to an important area such as a hive) pretty much like the Lurker in the version we got.

 

Also the Aliens were supposedly going to be a lot more dangerous than the Aliens in the end product, being capable of one hit killing Marine Players if they attacked from behind and others were not there to assist, or even pulling marines into vents or Pipes to instikill them as they walked past (which was why you had the motion tracker and flame thrower to find them and flush them out)

 

There was also a ton of cut content and stuff that was hastily slapped together, most of the later Sulaco levels were rammed together finished sections joined by corridors (such as that stupid bit with the massive glass windowed transit system)

 

It's sad to think what this game could have been if GB hadn't pulled most the dev team to work on Border Lands 2 and handed it over to Time Gate Studos who only had real experience making multiplayer games (such as the excellent Section 8 games)

 

OK rant over :dance:

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Ugg, another person that records stuff off their screen with a camera.

 

The Alien's AI is cool, although I have seen a few times where it literally walks right past me on its way to investigate a sound, maybe it was suppose to be a "dark" room and couldn't see me or something; however, AI can be an immensely complex thing, and its easy to see how sometimes priorities get in conflict and bots do things that the player finds to be less logical at the time. All in all its a very good game IMO.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We recently broke 1 Million sales for the game so we got some fancy plaques! I'll post a picture when I get mine!

 

Cheers for playing and I'm glad you liked it! :)

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