Alien: Isolation

For right now, this game has me intrigued and having fun. Obvious issues with it, including die -> run and do something way faster the second time knowing all of the game's tricks (thus removing a lot of the horror) ...and player navigation remains too poor, but it's still such a great experience when all goes well. I wish this game got some extra time in the oven, cause it's on the verge of something spectacular IMO. One of the best parts of the game has to be when the entire world around you is shaking in unpredictable and genuinely scary ways as you walk around with that dim paranoia where you just know the game is in total control of when it decides to Alien-fuck you.

Hopefully that continues throughout the entire game and doesn't get annoying.

Quote from knj

I'm getting frustrated with it (as many said before) due to that - I will call that - random deaths. Srsly will try to play it some more and I'm really considering watching the rest on YT. I really love this game but I don't have time to replay that 15min part over and over and over again

Totally agree. The way they handled autosaves is going to really discourage a lot of people from finishing the game at all. Seems counterproductive...

I never found a part where the saves were too far apart. Just stop being rubbish ;p

I got stuck and couldn't figure out where to go because player navigation is so good. The Alien was near and it dropped down on my head so unexpectedly from a vent I literally screamed out AHHH FUCK!!! And flipped my keyboard.

Wow this game just wants to piss me off tonight, really. I've just gotten the stun baton, gone through the vent and dropped down into the corridor that explodes. The Alien has just become a frustration in this section, nothing else. It'll appear, so I hide in a locker, it comes into the room and does it's usual walking around thing but the problem is, I was already holding S to lean back from the vent in the locker to see the screen of my motion tracker better. So when the Alien comes up to the vent I get the "PRESS S TO LEAN BACK" message but I already am leaning back so I can't press RMB to hold my breath as it doesn't acknowledge the fact that I was already holding S to start with. So Mr. Alien rips the door off and skull fucks me anyway. I've died 3 times in this area now, 1 from genuinely getting caught out, 2 from getting confused and lost, 3 from the locker screwing me over. Getting fed up doing it over again and again. Have been enjoying myself up until this part

Dux's personal bitching thread now ok guys.

Don't worry, 4th time lucky!

Ya I also just hit my limit with it. Frustrating game, too many bad design decisions spoil what could genuinely be a great experience. The premise of making your life a living hell, it turns out, is just wayyyyyyyy too easy to deliver upon. Off to YouTube I go.

Damn.

edit: oh my God, on YouTube I was on part 2 of like a 30 part gameplay series. I was literally hoping I was almost finished with it.

It'll take a bit more than that to make me quit the game, every game has its issues Onwards to the next next coveted save station!

The game is so fucking long and so well made detail wise that its impossible for me to beat it. Ive played 4 hours or so, and each time in 30 minutes intervals because I get so tense and pussy out.

It feels like I'm pretty close to the end

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at the infested Reactor core

, but it keeps going on every time I think it's winding down, so at this point it's hard to say.

I think playing it in fairly short sessions (just under an hour or close to) is making for a much more enjoyable experience than what I'm hearing from others, however I really have very mixed feelings about this game as a whole. On one hand then it's got some of the most amazing and emergent horror moments I've ever seen in a game and the entire presentation is almost flawless, but like most stealth and horror games then their impact quickly fades when failure and repetition kick in, plus it feels severely padded for length.

By far the best part of the game so far has still been the Medical Facility encounter, but the bit leading up to that is on paper pretty cleverly paced, but in execution it is stretched absolutely thin, and while I'd say I have much more patience and give games more chance than anyone I know, then Isolation really tried my patience in it's first 3 hours. It is definitely is the right choice to push the moment when you're finally first introduced to the xenomorph, but it's just done to such an extent that when it finally happened it almost felt a bit anti-climatic for me, even if the encounter itself is pretty brilliantly executed.

Anyway, pretty much everything after that up until where I'm at has had a couple of terrific and memorable moments, but it most of it feels unnecessarily stretched for playtime, and I'd go as far as to say that removing 3/4 of all android/human encounters would make for a much better game IMO. Few of these have added anything but filler and frustration, and though I get that the story of Seegson as a failed android manufacturer is important to the overall story that they're trying to tell, then those encounters just always feel like the side dish. And I'm not saying remove everything that's a quiet moment with a narrative focus, it just feels like there's a bit too much fat on this and it would've served CA well if they'd been a lot more critical about what actually got into the game.

As for the trial and error nature of the stealth gameplay then that's the reason why I'm often playing in very short bursts, I had 2 evenings of playing the game for roughly 45 minutes each where I actually didn't progress to another save point at all, lols. I've felt pretty fucking dumb after attempting to sneak through an area and playing as it feels like it was intended, standing in the same locker for 5 minutes to wait for the right to move on, and then keep getting caught by the alien just towards the end after playing for 10-15 minutes, and then realizing that running through the same area is often the most effective way to progress.

Also, when it gives you a bunch of weapons it makes it feel much more comfortable and "enjoyable" for you playing the game, but in turn also makes it feel pretty dull. Pacing wise then it's nice to have that there to break the nonstop feeling of being nearly defenceless, but looking back now then it feels like most of the game has provided you with plenty of weapons, and it's probably at it's weakest when you play it like an action game. Maybe it's because I'm playing it on Normal, but after I got the flamethrower it just took out most of the tension in encounters with the alien and have kinda made it a bit awkward when it finally found me, with a few bursts scaring it off. I'm still playing it as a stealth game since it's a much better game that way, but it feels like a gaping hole in the design that there's so much flamethrower ammo that you can almost entirely hold back the alien.

Overall then I do like the game tho, I really appreciate that something like this with big budget exists and it's going to interesting to see how it plays out from now, but it's also a game where I'd love to have seen a much more tight and well considered take on it where there wasn't quite so much fat on it.

TL;DR: Game is way too long.

Quote from FMPONE

edit: oh my God, on YouTube I was on part 2 of like a 30 part gameplay series. I was literally hoping I was almost finished with it.

HA! This happened to me also, I was only on part 4 of that guys series after 12 hrs of playing. Once you watch how he plays the game tho... it almost looks playable / potentially enjoyable.

this is a hard game

Quote from Taylor Swift

this is a hard game

I got about halfway through it in one evening, on Hard, while drunk. Just sayin'. I barely even played the game during dev aswell. I think you guys need to man up.

I play with my roommates: One guy plays and the two others are hidden behide his back. And we change every 10 minutes.

Quote from marks

I got about halfway through it in one evening, on Hard, while drunk. Just sayin'. I barely even played the game during dev aswell. I think you guys need to man up.

No offence mate, but you have glasses. You can't see what's after you.

I gave it another chance tonight and I can say now that I'm done, it was very very fun while it was lasted but the game has just turned on its head and become too frustrating. I really really want to like this game and finish it but it keeps slapping me down to the point where I don't want to play anymore

Shall watch the rest of it on the facetubes.

Old joke is old.